Ok, this is going to sound pretty feeble, but I’m serious. Is there any way to disable the “caps lock” key on a mac (or any computer keyboard for that matter). I would like it to be reversible, so no epoxy or that sort of physical thing. Is there any control panel or “preferences” sort of setting possible for this? (I type quickly but imprecisely and do not touch type and often hit the caps lock instead of ‘a’ or shift and do not notice for lines at a time and get very annoyed, and I use the caps lock intentionally very infrequently).
Any ideas?
Brother (or Sister), I could have written this question. Many times a day I bang my head in frustration as I reTYPE AFTER A CAPS LOCK MIS-HIT (oops). I’m anxiously awaiting replies to your question.
PS MS word has a feature that reverses capitalization
Try using one of those little jelly containers you find in restaurants or fast-food places. Just affix it with tape to the keyboard so that it sits over the caps-lock key.
the answer is: NO
Pry the key off, its pretty easy. Then you can put something under it to keep it from being able to be pressed [wad of paper or something, stuffed in back of key, etc, put keyback on]. Our library did that with their ESC key.
YOU CAN MODIFY (whoops, sorry) You can modify the resource fork using Res-Edit. You can download Res-Edit from Apple’s web-site. For safety’s sake you will want to work on a copy, so just duplicate the system suitcase in the system folder and drag it to the desktop.
- Open res-edit.
- Open the copy of the system suitcase.
- Find the KCHR resource and double click it.
- Highlight the your keyboard layout (US I’m assuming)
- Press command+d (the little apple key and the letter d at the same time) to duplicate it.
- Highlight the new copy and press command + i, or “get info” add “no caps lock” to it’s name, and close the window.
- Press the CAPS LOCK key and find your new layout, double click it.
- Table two should be highlighted, change it to Table 0, click “Yes, I know what I’m doing,” when warned.
- Close all the windows, saving changes as you are prompted.
- Start up from your install disk and swap the original system suitcase with your fancy frankenstein system suitcase, changing the names in the proccess.
- Restart from the hard-drive, open the control panel “keyboard” and chose “US no caps lock.”
Pretty fancy, huh? I just tried it for v8.6, works fine. Let me know if you have trouble or if your hesitant to muck about with the resource fork.
martin
A PC-using friend of mine (the poor wretch) did this to disable the “flying windows” keys on his keyboard. Just thought I’d point that out to fill my cross-platform charity quota for the month.
Back to the OP, have you thought about putting something (sandpaper, a thumbtack) on top of the key to warn your pinkie that it was the caps lock? Just a thought. I like the Resedit idea though.
Mentor and Liar,
Yikes! Res-edit. That, in conjunction with your handle, makes me fearful (my God, it’s a trap!). I will try it after I finish term papers next week, as I fear catastrophic results. Playing with res-edit, for me, is the computer equivilant of cleaning out gun barrels, pulling green-chain, or sharpening a deli meat-slicer. Or trying to get a stuck paring knife out of the sink garbage disposal. You get the picture. Semi-irrational fear.
Good idea, though. That’s the sort of thing I was looking for. I was hoping it would be simpler, though.
Actually…there is a much simpler solution. There is a piece of shareware called “CapsOff”
(check versiontracker.com) that will do exactly what you want without ResEdit hacks
Dave
Beagledave! Yay! Glorious and it works.
I’m also glad that other people perceive this as a problem-- I thought I was nuts. The whole caps lock issue has been an ongoing personal drama. I can finally sleep again.
Thanks, everyone.