Is it possible to hate a key more than Insert? And if so, which and why?
I rather like [INSERT] um … not to fond of [ANY] though.
I can never find it.
I love my Logitech wireless keyboard. It does not have the <INS> key in the usual spot next to <ENTER> where it’s all too easy to toggle accidentally; instead, it has a larger <DELETE> key. The <INS> key is on the 0 on the number keypad, where you have to toggle it out of NumLock mode in order to use it. Nice.
At my last job the only key I hated more than that was F1. Let me explain why:
I spend most of my day in Excel, and F1 is the Excel help key. Well, something about our system setup caused a HUGE delay in between hitting F1 and the help menu popping up so you could type in your help.
Ordinarily big whoop, but F1 is conveniently located next to F2. And F2 in Excel is the key you press when you want to edit a cell. I constantly use F2 to edit formulas and shit. So I’d get a case of Fat Fingers and accidentally graze (or outright hit) the F1 key instead of F2, and I’d have to wait for it to quit churning and pop up the help dialog box so I could minimize it and hit F2 like I originally intended. GRARH.
Thankfully at this job, the help box pops up quickly and is easily dismissed. I am no longer irrationally angry at F1.
I use the insert key, it’s handy when I want to overwrite something that I’ve already written without bothering to delete it first.
I’m more annoyed by the windows key.
It hasn’t been much of an issue with this laptop keyboard, but on my old computer, the insert key was only annoying in Word, so I simply changed the mapping for it. I believe for one semester I had it type the lower-case sigma, and for a while it was lambda. Whatever symbol I needed the most often while writing lab reports!
I think it gave the same character in Outlook, too, so I never had “insert” problems in emails either, as far as I remember.
Does anyone ever use insert, anyway? Seems easier to delete what you want and then start typing than to have it automatically typing over what you’ve written.
That is insert, the mode (almost) nobody uses is overwrite. Was overwrite at some point the standard? Seems like a holdover from typewriters or stand-alone word processors.
In the 3D program Maya, the [Insert] key is used to toggle between manipulating an object and manipulating the object’s control axis.
For word processing and other writing intended for humans, it is pretty much useless.
However, for editing data records that are meant to be read by a computer, it is helpful. Older data formats will specify something like “The first 20 characters of a line are the first name, the 21st character is the middle initial, the 22nd through 41st characters are the last name”, and so on. Then, when changing the value in one of the fields, you want to type over what is already there without inserting any new characters, lest you disrupt the alignment of the other fields.
This is really only the case for programs written more than 20 years ago - more modern data formats are not so picky. But, the key is still around.
Wait, are you saying that there’s a difference between insert and overwrite? I was using them interchangeably because pressing the “Insert” key causes the letters “OVR” to come up on Word (and it overwrites).
The insert key toggles between the two modes. I think because insert mode is actually useful, some programs (MS Word) show no indication that’s the mode being used.
It’s useful when interfacing with machines via command line, especially when you can arrow-up to recall a previously entered command and then do an insert to change just one or two characters in the new command.
One of the guys I work with will pry off the caps lock, the windows key and one other that I forget.
Khadaji, I actually did that with the F1 key because of the issue I spoke of above. I think there might have been one single time in the six years I had that job that I truly needed to hit F1.
The effing window key. The one on Windows keyboards that has a little Microsoft logo on it, and when you press it, the Start menu pops up.
So when I go to press Ctrl or the spacebar or something else down in that area, but I slip and hit the window key instead, the Start menu helpfully pops up, and some high percentage of the time, I don’t notice right away and lose a bunch of typing, or worse yet, inadvertently start some random program and have to wait for it to load. GAAAAH.
MS Word used to show a little indicator at the bottom of the application when you switched to overwrite. That is no longer present (nor does the Insert key switch) in Office 2007. I know it was there way back in Office 95 and probably stayed all the way until Office 2003.
Ah yes, those who don’t know about the power of the windows key. I too, was once like you, before I discovered such shortcuts as windows+E popping up my explorer window, windows+L locking my computer (which is really only helpful at work), and many, many, other such… uh… uses…
Ok, so it’s really only useful for the shortcut to explorer, but I do find myself using that now, especially if I just need to grab something from My Computer and don’t want to minimize all my porn, uh, I mean internet browsers looking at porn… all my other windows first.
I used to hate it, and when I was a big Doomer back in the day (but not big enough to use the mouse) the fire key was control, and sometimes I’d hit the windows key, booting me from the game. So I pried it out of it’s socket. Never annoyed me again.
I may just go do that with my insert key. Having it on the numpad is certainly enough for the amount of times I use it.
The Numlock key is the only key that actively impairs the functionality of your keyboard, so it gets my vote for worst key.
On many ThinkPad keyboards, the “ThinkPad” key is right next to the three volume control keys (volume down, volume up, and mute, respectively). I used to hit the ThinkPad button a lot when I was going for the “volume down” key, and it pops up a ThinkPad-specific help and support program that slows the whole system down, with animations, menus flying everywhere, etc. It’s ludicrous. I only ever actually want that program about twice per reformat, because it’s the easiest way to get to the settings for the laptop itself, which I always tweak a fair bit. The rest of the time, it was just an irritation until I somehow burned the neural pathway into my permanent memory to look at the buttons carefully before pressing one. Now, it’s mostly an afterthought, wasted space.
It’s pretty irritating on my ThinkPad keyboard. There is no number pad, so NumLock (excuse me–“NumLk”) just toggles between 7890UIOPJKL;M,./ being “normal” or switching into a makeshift number pad. Makes numpad use impossible in most games, and incredibly irritating when you’re writing; you’ll turn NumLock on so you can put in an accented character, then forget you had it on and write something like “The q45c2 br6wn f6x 140*ed…” before you realize what happened.
I became a hero in my office when I learned how to make a macro that disabled the Insert key.
And you can too:
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article08-105
Should you ever want to use Overwrite Mode, it can be activated from the bottom of the window in MS Word.