# cAPS LOCK. sTUPID DAMMIT
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 27, 2004, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771 "2004-08-27T10:56:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2004, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/1 "2004-08-27T10:56:08Z")
Why does caps lock reverse what the shift key does? lIKE THIS? nO ONE EVER WANTS TO FORMAT TEXT LIKE THIS. sO WHO THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA?
BTW back when I used a dumb terminal I remember that behaved sensibly, like a typewriter would. If you’ve got caps locks on shift (on letters) doesn’t do anything.
Is this just another howler from the Ministry of Crap Design? Or is there a sensible reason for this behaviour? Is it just PC keyboards?
Putting this in IMHO. Not really serious enough question to go in GQ.
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2004, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/2 "2004-08-27T11:01:14Z")
I remember when that behaviour first started to be used (IIRC my first experience of it was on the BBC Master. It’s very useful in some programming situations.
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### Author:  [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2004, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/3 "2004-08-27T11:03:04Z")
I agree it’s annoying. But I think it makes sense for the key to EXIST, since sometimes you want a convenient way of typing in captials in a program that can’t do that for you, and not straining your finger. If you’re saying it should be a lot smaller and hidden key, I agree.
As to reversing the shift, I’m not sure. It does take practice to not hit shift when typing in all caps, but on the other hand I’m sure there are people typing in serial numbers which are MOSTLY caps, or something, who use it like that.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2004, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/4 "2004-08-27T12:33:10Z")
I would think the answer is obvious: it allows you to type a lower case letter when you’re in all caps without turning the caps lock on and off. One less keystroke, and you’re making it simultaneously with typing the letter.
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### Author:  [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2004, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/5 "2004-08-27T13:16:00Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> . . .obvious: it allows you to type a lower case letter when you’re in all caps without turning the caps lock on and off. . .
But under what circumstances would you ever be doing that? Normally you’re typing mostly lower case with the odd upper\*\*\*\*\*. When would you need the complimentary behaviour of mostly upper with the odd lower?
And somewhere sometime I have used an editor that detected that you’d just typed a sentence with caps-lock in the wrong position and automagically fixed it. Maybe it’s a Word option?
_ **UNLESS OF COURSE YOU ARE NIGERIAN** _\*
\*\*\*\*\*\*OR A COBOL PROGRAMMER.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2004, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/6 "2004-08-27T14:24:06Z")
ACTUALLY, IT DOESN’T DO THAT ON A MAC. HOLDING DOWN THE SHIFT KEY WITH CAPS LOCK ON DOESN’T TURN IT INTO LOWER CASE.
(Apologies for shouting)
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2004, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/7 "2004-08-27T14:57:07Z")
WELL, WHEN YOU ARE WRITING TRIVIA GAMES FOR CHAT ROOMS, YOU WRITE IN ALL CAPS TO BE SEEN BETTER.
WHEN YOU WRITE GAMES ABOUT SCIENCE, SOMETIMES YOU WANT TO WRITE QUESTIONS ABOUT pH OR ELEMENTS SUCH AS Na AND Cl. IT IS USEFUL IN THOSE SITUATIONS.
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### Author:  [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2004, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/8 "2004-08-27T15:47:14Z")
> [@AHunter3](#):
>
> ACTUALLY, IT DOESN’T DO THAT ON A MAC. HOLDING DOWN THE SHIFT KEY WITH CAPS LOCK ON DOESN’T TURN IT INTO LOWER CASE.
>
> (Apologies for shouting)
I KEEP WANTING TO SAY “I’M SORRY, WHAT?”
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2004, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/9 "2004-08-27T16:08:02Z")
DUDE!
Can it. My ears hurt.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2004, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/10 "2004-08-27T16:36:11Z")
If it really bothers you, there are a lot of programs available that will fix this for you.
They either disable this key entirely, or change so that it only does Caps-Lock when you hit it twice, or hit it while holding down Alt or Cntrl, etc. – something that you wouldn’t do accidentally.
Most of these programs are either free or quite cheap. Search online and you’ll find a lot of them. Then you’ll never be bothered by this again.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2004, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/11 "2004-08-27T20:06:55Z")
I think you’re missing the OP’s point.
It isn’t that having a Caps Lock key is stupid, but rather that it’s stupid that the Shift Key dOES tHIS when you’ve got the Caps Lock key down instead of behaving like a typewriter which would IGNORE THE SHIFT KEY and type in all caps with or without the shift key.
— ahUNTER3
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2004, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/12 "2004-08-27T21:21:21Z")
> [@Small Clanger](#):
>
> But under what circumstances would you ever be doing that? Normally you’re typing mostly lower case with the odd upper\*\*\*\*\*. When would you need the complimentary behaviour of mostly upper with the odd lower?
I’ve being doing it loads recently - entering a whole load of upper-case shelfmark references into Excel, with occassional explanatory words.
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### Author:  [@Arch\_Trout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arch_Trout)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/13 "2004-08-27T22:13:56Z")
> [@AHunter3](#):
>
> ACTUALLY, IT DOESN’T DO THAT ON A MAC. HOLDING DOWN THE SHIFT KEY WITH CAPS LOCK ON DOESN’T TURN IT INTO LOWER CASE.
>
> (Apologies for shouting)
I learn something new about my Mac every day (only switched a month ago).
Regarding the OP, very annoying.
I program and our company standards has all code in upper case.
Really annoying when you’ve been coding all day only to answer an email and find line after line of:
wITH REGARDS TO LAST TELEPHONE CALL.
i FOUND OUT…
etc etc etc
aaaargh
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### Author:  [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2004, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/14 "2004-08-28T00:58:15Z")
You are aware that in MS Word, if you sTART tYPING lIKE tHIS, then Word will detect that you are unaware your Caps Lock is on, correct your text, and turn your caps lock off, right?
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### Author:  [@LiquidCougar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiquidCougar)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/15 "2004-08-28T01:05:31Z")
As far as I know, Word will not turn off your caps lock, but it will correct the document.
Check this out: [http://anticapslock.com/](http://anticapslock.com/)
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/16 "2004-08-28T02:20:11Z")
Slightly off-topic, but: how to disable the ‘insert’ key in Word: [http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article08-105](http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article08-105)
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### Author:  [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/17 "2004-08-29T20:32:26Z")
Thanks, **GorillaMan**. The INSERT key is probably the most annoying of the still-functioning anachronisms on the keyboard.
I mistakenly hit it about 10% of the time I want to hit DELETE, and then it forks everything up until I realize what’s happened.
And I don’t know anyone who actually _uses_ overstrike mode anymore… it’s a refugee from the days of dumb ASCII terminals.
(And also, my Word will turn off my Caps Lock on my keyboard… don’t know why yours doesn’t work, **LiquidCougar**.)
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/18 "2004-08-29T22:49:50Z")
My solution to inadvertent CAPLSOK ON OH DAMMIT is to use the Accesibility Options in Windows Control Panel. Open that, check the ToggleKeys box and you’re in business.
Every time you bump the capslock key the PC beeps at you. It’s sort of mild aversion therapy and pretty soon operant conditioning takes over and you don’t make that mistake nearly as often.
That feature’s in WinNT and later. I’m not sure if it’s included in Win 95/98/ME.
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### Author:  [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2004, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/19 "2004-08-30T03:29:18Z")
It’s handy if your name is McMahon or McDonald or McGregor.
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### Author:  [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2004, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caps-lock-stupid-dammit/261771/20 "2004-08-30T06:44:16Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> My solution to inadvertent CAPLSOK ON OH DAMMIT is to use the Accesibility Options in Windows Control Panel. Open that, check the ToggleKeys box and you’re in business.
My solution was a pair of plyers.
I have a habit of pulling out the keys I never use.