Other Important Keys

Looking at the entire keyboard, two keys modify the effect of others. To use them, hold either down and then tap the key whose function you want to modify. These are:

• Ctrl: The Control key is often used to produce codes many programs recognize as valid commands.
• Alt: The Alternate key is also used by many programs to issue commands, or make typing easier through macros (strings of keystrokes assigned to a single keypress).

Three keystroke combinations help you in time of trouble:

• Pause: Often causes data scrolling past to pause until another key is pressed. (Control-NumLock also does this.)
• Ctrl-Break: Will often cause a program to stop execution completely.
• Ctrl-Alt-Del: These three, pressed together (hold Ctrl & Alt then press Del) cause a system restart -like turning power on. [Note: In Windows this will bring up the current task list with the option to restart.]

Some other keys of interest include:

• Shift: The shift keys change lower case letters to capitals. This key is also used to access characters above the numbers and other special characters.
• CapsLock: The CapsLock key is a toggle that causes all letters (only) to be upper case. If CapsLock is on, the shift key can be used to change any single letter back to lower case.
• Esc: Used for various purposes. In DOS, Escape deletes the current line. In other programs it might be used to stop activities or signal the program to be alert for special commands to follow.
• Enter: The Carriage Return or Enter key tells the computer you are done typing the current entry. It also moves the cursor down a line and over to the left edge of the screen.
• Tab: The Tab key often performs like a typewriter. Tabs are normally set each eight spaces. Control-Tab sometimes moves the cursor to the next word on a line and Control-Shift-Tab (Reverse Tab) finds the previous word. (Note: This is far from a standard!)
• BS: The Backspace key moves the cursor one space left, deleting the character to the left and also dragging the rest of the line left to fill in.

The final special key discussed allows you to capture screen images on your printer:

• PrtSc: When pressed, the PrtSc (print screen) key causes text on the screen to be dumped to the printer.

If you press Control-PrtSc, everything that appears on the screen will be echoed to your printer until you press that key combination again.

Note: If the screen contains some special characters (like Control-Z) or graphics you may not be able to print that screen.

In Windows, pressing Alt-PrtSc will place the currently active window into the Clipboard for pasting into other programs.

Keyboard Endnotes

This tutorial has dealt with the special keys found on most IBM-style computers.

The keys might be slightly different (for example, on the IBM-PC Jr the function keys are two-stroke keys) or their locations may change, but the basic functions discussed should be available with any PC or "clone."

The keys not discussed function like a typewriter. They have lower and upper case characters as indicated on each keycap. Unlike a typewriter, however, the CapsLock key does not affect the number keys on the top row of the keyboard.

Watch out that you don't confuse the Virgule (/) and Backslash (\), the Apostrophe (') and Grave Accent (`), or the capital "Oh" (O) and Zero (0). (In most computer applications, the zero has a slash through it.)

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