Return to Walters World
Getting to Know Your Keyboard
There are several different types of keyboards. The layout of the keys varies
depending upon the type of keyboard connected to your computer. There are
even ergonomic keyboards which are designed to fit the shape of your hands.
There are several special keys which will improve your efficiency
as you key and edit your word processing documents:
-
The [alt] key can be used for keyboard commands. [alt] + another key or
[alt] + an underlined letter will invoke the keyboard commands rather
than using
a mouse.
-
The curser movement keys are the [up, down, left, and right
arrows] found on your keyboard. These keys move the curser up or down a
line and left
and
right a character at a time.
-
Note: The control [ctrl] key used along with the arrow keys
will move the cursor a word at a time in some programs.
-
When you have text that fills more than one screen, the
[page up] and [page down] keys change what is displayed on the screen.
-
The [home] key moves the cursor immediately to the beginning
of a line. See what happens when you strike the [ctrl] and the [home] keys
at the same time.
-
The [end] key moves the cursor immediately to the end of
a line. What do you think will happen when you strike the [ctrl] and the
[end] keys at the same
time?
-
The [caps lock] key is a toggle key which means that you
tap the key once to turn on the caps lock, and when you tap the key again,
caps lock is turned
off. The toggle means that the key acts like an on/off switch. When
caps lock is turned on, there is a light that comes on the keyboard to
remind
you. Caps lock allows you to type in all capital letters.
-
The [num lock] key is also a toggle. It also has a light.
The num lock enables you to use the number keypad.
-
The [shift] key is used to change the letters from lowercase
to uppercase and enables you to type some of the symbols. You use the shift
key along with
the letter keys.
-
The [spacebar] moves the cursor ahead one space at a time
and inserts a blank space. The spacebar is a repeating key which means
it will keep adding spaces
if you keep it depressed.
-
The [tab] key moves the cursor ahead one-half inch at a
time in the default setting, or you can set the tab settings to meet your
needs. Tabs are displayed
on the ruler.
-
The [delete] and [backspace] keys remove text, but in different
ways. The backspace key removes the text to the left of the cursor. The
delete key removes the
text above or to the right of the cursor.
-
The [insert] key is another toggle key. By default you
are in insert mode, which means that the text will be inserted at the point
where your cursor
is located on the page. You can move the cursor and insert text wherever
you want in an existing document. When you strike the insert key, you
change to overwrite or typeover mode. Most word processing programs will
notify
you of this change in the status line. In overwrite mode, you will
type over the top of the existing text. As you move your cursor and then
key in new
text, the old text will disappear.