# the CAPSLOCK key should be banished from the keyboard? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 28, 2007, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842 "2007-03-28T15:28:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/41 "2007-03-31T13:03:11Z")
Another group that uses the caps lock key are handicapped people who can only press one key at a time. The caps lock allows them to capitalize their words. Overall, I personally find the caps lock annoying (especially if I’m suing my brother’s computer where I’m always hitting it by mistake). But “annoying” is about as far as I go on this issue. I’ve never understood the mindset that seems to rank typing in ALL CAPS as a crime one step below genocide. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/42 "2007-03-31T13:48:44Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] Another group that uses the caps lock key are handicapped people who can only press one key at a time. The caps lock allows them to capitalize their words. Overall, I personally find the caps lock annoying (especially if I’m suing my brother’s computer where I’m always hitting it by mistake). But “annoying” is about as far as I go on this issue. I’ve never understood the mindset that seems to rank typing in ALL CAPS as a crime one step below genocide. [/QUOTE] Yeh some people go ballistic about it, and it’s all because some idiot decided that all capitals needed to mean you were shouting on a text bulletin board. I hate all caps for one reason that wouldn’t be a reason, if some software offered options. The text to speech reading softwaer almost always reads all capital letters individualy instead of as words. I can’t put together letters in why head into words as I hear them. I have to preprocess some text in macro to make the all caps words into usable words. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/43 "2007-03-31T14:01:52Z")
I’ve been using computers since I was three or so and am now a programmer and have never particularly felt the need for a capslock. Holding down shift with my pinky doesn’t appreciably slow down what I’m typing. I’ll just note though that Japanese keyboards have two really nice points (and one really stupid one.) The two good ones are that @ is on the key just to the right of the P, and you have to hit Shift-Caps to turn on capslocking. The stupid part of the keyboards is that ’ is shift-7, which is about the hardest combination to hit (though Japanese doesn’t use that character, so it’s just a hastle for English speakers.) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/44 "2007-03-31T15:27:24Z")
I’d like to state for the record after rereading my previous post, that while I may have been annoyed while using my brother’s computer, I have never actually filed a lawsuit against it. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/45 "2007-03-31T17:29:50Z")
[QUOTE=Asimovian] Seconded. I’m a touch-typist going at about 100 wpm, and hitting the Caps Lock is about as natural as any other readily-reachable key on the keyboard. I’m on and off it frequently throughout the day. But I’ll agree with everyone else who thinks that people who yell in IM or email should be drawn and quartered. (OK, no one else suggested that specific solution, but you were all thinking it.) [/QUOTE] Thirded. I use capslock almost every day on the headings for various legal documents. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/46 "2007-03-31T17:54:48Z")
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord] The text to speech reading softwaer almost always reads all capital letters individualy instead of as words. I can’t put together letters in why head into words as I hear them. I have to preprocess some text in macro to make the all caps words into usable words. [/QUOTE] I strongly recommend [ReadPlease](http://www.readplease.com/). Even the free version is the smartest TTS app I’ve ever used, I’m often impressed at how clever it is at parsing written conventions and “translating” them into spoken conventions. It gives all-caps text a slightly different “weight,” hardly noticible in a uniform block of text, but enough to distinguish it a little bit if it’s a header or caps for emphasis. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/47 "2007-03-31T18:16:32Z")
[QUOTE=medstar] What if someone has poor eyesight and needs the allcaps so they can see what they’ve written before they post their reply? [/QUOTE] There are plenty of accessibility tools to improve the visibility of text on screen. And anyway, text in all-caps is less readable than text in sentence caps. ---
**Author:** ![Gentle\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gentle\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gentle_Robot)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/48 "2007-03-31T20:26:04Z")
Leave it in. The geniuses at microsoft decided to get rid of the insert key and now they’ve boondoggled the rest of that panel so that nothing’s where it used to be. Don’t get me started on bloody F-Lock ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/49 "2007-03-31T20:40:17Z")
[QUOTE=Larry Mudd] I strongly recommend [ReadPlease](http://www.readplease.com/). Even the free version is the smartest TTS app I’ve ever used, I’m often impressed at how clever it is at parsing written conventions and “translating” them into spoken conventions. It gives all-caps text a slightly different “weight,” hardly noticible in a uniform block of text, but enough to distinguish it a little bit if it’s a header or caps for emphasis. [/QUOTE] I’ll look into it. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/50 "2007-03-31T20:43:33Z")
[QUOTE=Merkwurdigliebe] but when, really was the last time you hit the button on purpose? [/QUOTE] YOU MEAN FOR NON\_SMART\_ASSED REASONS? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/51 "2007-03-31T22:09:46Z")
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord] Yeh some people go ballistic about it, and it’s all because some idiot decided that all capitals needed to mean you were shouting on a text bulletin board. [/QUOTE] Actually, using all caps to represent emphasis long precedes the use of computers; it’s a small and fairly logical step from there to perceiving an entire sentence or paragraph of text, particularly those written as part of a dialog or conversation (as message board and chatroom posts are), as shouting or yelling. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/52 "2007-03-31T23:58:48Z")
[QUOTE=Lama Pacos] What I want is a key that caps and un-caps selected text. Now **that** would be genuinely useful. [/QUOTE] If you’re using Word you can add a button that does this. Right click anywhere in the toolbar area, choose Customize then the “Commands” tab. Under Categories choose “Format”, then look for the “All caps” button on the right side and drag it where you want on the toolbar. You will now have a button to click just like Bold or Underline. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/53 "2007-04-01T00:43:00Z")
[QUOTE=Gentle Robot] The geniuses at microsoft decided to get rid of the insert key and now they’ve boondoggled the rest of that panel so that nothing’s where it used to be. [/QUOTE] And since when is anybody required to buy a keyboard from Microsoft? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/54 "2007-04-01T02:41:45Z")
::shrug:: On the rare occasions when I accidentally trigger the Caps Lock key, I do a quick ⌘-A, ⌘-C, paste into BBEdit, switch case, copy again, and paste over the ALL CAPS selected text in the original app. ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/55 "2007-04-01T04:35:14Z")
I find CAPS LOCK incredibly useful, as I have some family members who are a little less computer savvy than they might be, and get spam or hoax emails all the time about virus threats, etc. All I had to tell them is that if they ever get a scary email that has a sentence in ALL CAPS, they can consider it a hoax, and send it straight to the bin. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/56 "2007-04-01T15:27:52Z")
All caps being linked with shouting. I’m not exactly sure why this is the case, but if you were to write a letter in all caps, about 20 years ago, what do you think the reaction would be? I’m talking about typing here. But regardless, the reason it gets such a bad rap, is that content that is written entirely in allcaps is usually very bad. Anytime you read something in Allcaps then you just come in with a prejudice. ---
**Author:** ![VenusProbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e495f1/32.png) [@VenusProbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VenusProbe)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/57 "2007-04-01T16:07:45Z")
I have no use for the **Caps Lock** key. I’m always bumping it when I type and I have to look at the keyboard to type so I don’t notice it right away. I found a nifty utility called [Key Tweak](http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/) that let me remap the Caps Lock to the left Shift key. It also lets you remap some of the useless keys across the top of some keyboards to something more useful. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/58 "2007-04-01T19:03:44Z")
I can remember designing all caps on computer programs when writing the text handling routines, because small letters weren’t readable on the screen. Yes you had to desighn a font for your progam input output routines at one time. It was such a pain in the ass to have to write a routine for every basic thing you wanted a computer to do, It was great when Microsoft let hardware manufactures know they should provide basic drivers for equipment that was to run with their OS. Sofware programers didn’t have to write code for every peice of hardware out there, to support their aplication. ---
**Author:** ![olmrfu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e68b1a/32.png) [@olmrfu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/olmrfu)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842/59 "2007-04-01T21:37:43Z")
Just remove the Caps lock key! It pops off, and if you ever again hit it by mistake it you will instantly feel it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-capslock-key-should-be-banished-from-the-keyboard/397842.md?page=2)