I don't use Excel very often and I need my F1 key for other tools, but I've had capslock removed for years.
That's brilliant - I never thought of that.
Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)
81–90 of 219 posts
Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)
#82There are dozens of us. It's massively disrupting to the state of flow to miss a key by one, and suddenly another window pops up, but there's no text inside. It takes several seconds for the window to compose itself, and several more to close. I do keep the F1 key somewhere safe, to put back onto the keyboard, for the next keyboard user.
ahhh, can't you just map it to something else? (nothing?)
If IT has your computer locked down, it's way easier to just pry the thing off.
Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)
#83OMG! This is genius!, how have i never thought of this before! I bet the people removing caps lock, scroll lock, insert etc are doing it because of the "cleaning ladies"! Not because they accidentally hit the keys. But because in most offices, keyboards are swiped clean daily by cleaning crews and when you arrive each morning you find an assortment of those keys toggled on or off. (I have even locked my Windows accou…
What country are you operating out of? I've never heard of cleaning people doing this in offices in the US.
Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)
#84It suffices to use KeyTweak for Windows, not physically modify the keyboard. For example, I used it to disable the Back/Forward buttons on my ThinkPad.
Yeah mangling the keyboard should be a last option , I'm guessing they're not aware that all the keys can be remapped.
Maybe they lack the permissions for installing applications. Intercepting keyboard is not exactly a human right :-)
Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)
#85Windows help and Windows troubeshooter are among the two most useless things in the OS (and lately it's Cortana). It far easier and more relevant to just do a Google search than waste time with these things. Same goes for answers.microsoft.com, whenever i see that link on top og Google results I'm pretty sure I'll just waste 10 minutes of my life and then search for the same thing on Stackexchange and pray to god som…
Don't know if you noticed, but a few years ago a ton on the on-box help content in Windows got replaced with fwlinks. I'm pretty sure it was because they realized they were spending a ton of money on shipping and localizing content that people would just ignore in favor of search results. Open notepad and look at Help->View Help for an example.
Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)
#86I don't use Excel very often and I need my F1 key for other tools, but I've had capslock removed for years.
I use a Model M and remap capslock to super/windows button. I'm so used to it I remap it on laptops as well. Have never come across an instance to actually use all caps.
Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)
#87OMG! This is genius!, how have i never thought of this before! I bet the people removing caps lock, scroll lock, insert etc are doing it because of the "cleaning ladies"! Not because they accidentally hit the keys. But because in most offices, keyboards are swiped clean daily by cleaning crews and when you arrive each morning you find an assortment of those keys toggled on or off. (I have even locked my Windows accou…
I lock my keyboard away when I leave... I'll sleep better knowing nobody made it off with my 200$ mechanical clacker. As a side bonus I don't get mystery things locked when I arrive the next morning.
Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)
#88I was thinking about that the other day. I recently re-watched that Joel Spolsky video "You suck at Excel".
F2 for cell edit makes it super easy to hit F1...which brings up help...which you can't just hit escape to dismiss.
I'm actually a better than average typist, but yeah...that happens to me more than I like.
Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)
#89There's a financial modeling in Excel competition held each year that awards a golden keyboard without an F1 key to the winner.
That's awesome.
Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)
#90There are dozens of us. It's massively disrupting to the state of flow to miss a key by one, and suddenly another window pops up, but there's no text inside. It takes several seconds for the window to compose itself, and several more to close. I do keep the F1 key somewhere safe, to put back onto the keyboard, for the next keyboard user.
ahhh, can't you just map it to something else? (nothing?)
What's the downside of not being able to hit F1? Taking the keycap off is simple and effective.