I mean really. We already suffer through the agony of QWERTY on a daily basis, and everyone knows that QWERTY was developed specifically for typewriters, so that the hammers wouldn’t jam so often. Right? Hammer-jam is not longer a menace, thanks to modern computers and their 3 remaining moving parts. Caps lock as well is a dated holdover. Remember SHIFT lock? This used to be much more handy when headings and titles were typed in all caps. Language and communication have evolved a bit since however, and now typing in all caps is tantamount to shouting. The use of caps lock is so vile to some that now we have the “Caps Lock Theory” which developed over internet discussion forums and bulletin boards which states “that there is an inverse relationship between a person’s use of the caps lock and their knowledge of a particular subject.” [wikipedia] There is even an international effort to bribe keyboard and computer manufacturers to remove the key from their products!
Well why wait around for the big companies to catch up to your already superior evolutionary state? You can do something useful with that dead key which just gets accidentally pressed and really only helps to totally confuse you when you try to log in somewhere and don’t realize that caps lock is on.
Read on and you will see:Step 1: Open your System Preferences and click on Keyboard & Mouse.
Step 2: In the keyboard tab, click on Modifier Keys… in the bottom-left (see below).
Step 3: In the Modifier Keys window click on the pulldown menu next to Caps Lock (see below).
Step 4: Choose a new modifier action for the caps lock key (i recommend setting it to Contol, read on to find out why). Press OK and you are done!
I replaced my caps lock key with control years ago and i’ve never looked back. Here are cool things that i use my caps lock/control key for:
- caps lock + D : True delete key, not just backspace.
- caps lock + tab : in Firefox this will cycle through all the open tabs. Extra handy too because the two keys are adjacent.
- caps lock + [1-4] : quick workspace selection using the Spaces window manager.
THIS is what you stay up in the middle of the night thinking about?!
If this is what you stay up thinking about, then you ought NEVER get sleep. This is an AWESOME idea! Done already! Too bad it doesn't stay 'down' once it is changed. Thank you Apple for giving us the ability to change our modifier keys!
I have to say that is inspired, in a geeky sort of way.