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Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

businessinsider.com

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Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#111

Post by raldi »

emodendroket wrote: post #64
jasonkester wrote: post #60

Back in my Engineer days, where I'd spend much of my time writing technical reports, I'd always remove the Insert key from my keyboard. It's sitting there in that block of six keys that you use all the time when editing text (home, end, page up/down, delete), and it's a little timebomb. You would invariably hit it by accident at some point and change your editor into "overwrite all my stuff" mode. It would usually ta…

I can't think of one time I've ever intentionally used the overwrite functionality either.

You've never made ASCII art?

Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#112

Post by grecy »

eggoa wrote: post #82
grecy wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Huh, I had no idea Windows has no easy way to remap keys.

Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#113

Post by IanDrake »

ahakki wrote: post #100
IanDrake wrote: post #76

New product idea: a physical key guard. A small plastic cage that slips over a key and doesn't allow it to be pushed by accident, but still allows it to be pushed with extra force. Kinda like the safety on a glock.

What safety on a Glock? I was of the impression that they had no external safety features.

A Glock safety doesn't prevent you from pulling the trigger, but it requires you to pull it correctly which can reduce (but not eliminates) accidents.

I believe earlier versions had an initial heavy trigger that lightened once it was past the "safety" point.

I don't know first hand, this was just from a passing discussion with a police officer.

Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#114

Post by zeveb »

jenkstom wrote: post #61

Business Insider has annoying anti-adblocker popups. Is there some way to block websites that do this? I tried living without adblocker for a while, but I started getting some very not safe for work ads from dhgate all over the place. Just because I buy electronics doesn't mean I want ads for lingerie...

It's displaying fine with NoScript.

Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#115

Post by zeveb »

jasonkester wrote: post #60

Back in my Engineer days, where I'd spend much of my time writing technical reports, I'd always remove the Insert key from my keyboard. It's sitting there in that block of six keys that you use all the time when editing text (home, end, page up/down, delete), and it's a little timebomb. You would invariably hit it by accident at some point and change your editor into "overwrite all my stuff" mode. It would usually ta…

Agreed — overwrite mode is something I basically never want and am always unhappily surprised to find it's switched on.

That's one of the things I like about using C-a, C-e, M-v & C-v, C-d instead of home, end, pgup, pgdn & Del — much less likely to accidentally hit the wrong key. And my hands don't have to fly so far from my keyboard!

Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#117

Post by philipov »

ashark wrote: post #98
philipov wrote: post #80

I don't use Excel very often and I need my F1 key for other tools, but I've had capslock removed for years.

Why? It makes a great "ctrl".

I use my pinky to press shift and tab already. I press ctrl with the side of my hand. This way I can press both ctrl and shift at the same time, which is important for RTS and FPS games. Maybe I should map it to backspace like was suggested by WorldMaker.

Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#118

Post by ashark »

philipov wrote: post #117
ashark wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? It makes a great "ctrl".

I use my pinky to press shift and tab already. I press ctrl with the side of my hand. This way I can press both ctrl and shift at the same time, which is important for RTS and FPS games. Maybe I should map it to backspace like was suggested by WorldMaker.

Huh, must be keyboard size/shape differences but palm-pressing "fn" on my keyboard (where "ctrl" would be on a normal keyboard) while hitting "shift" with my pinkie is impossible without mashing other keys around them, and is really uncomfortable. End up pressing "shift" with the side of my first knuckle, that finger's so contorted. I use pinkie + ring when I hit two modifiers on that side, though that does mean I take a finger off "WASD", for gaming purposes.

It'd be easier to train myself to hit shift+caps (as a ctrl) with just my pinkie than to do the palm + pinkie method, I think. Again, probably a hardware difference.

Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#119

Post by katastic »

sp332 wrote: post #52
superasn wrote: post #18

Windows 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…

Office has a zillion features buried in various menus and panels. The help feature has been pretty reliable when I need to find something that I know is in there.

Surely you're kidding right?

I have never once found an answer in an F1 help in a Microsoft product. And I've been using Windows since 3.0.

On a somewhat related note: Before wiki's, google, and stackoverflow became the norm, I used to love downloading CHM (compiled help files) references for HTML 3.x, Javascript, C/C++, and more.

Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#120

Post by randylahey »

emodendroket wrote: post #64
jasonkester wrote: post #60

Back in my Engineer days, where I'd spend much of my time writing technical reports, I'd always remove the Insert key from my keyboard. It's sitting there in that block of six keys that you use all the time when editing text (home, end, page up/down, delete), and it's a little timebomb. You would invariably hit it by accident at some point and change your editor into "overwrite all my stuff" mode. It would usually ta…

I can't think of one time I've ever intentionally used the overwrite functionality either.

Really? I use it frequently while programming in Vim. Definitely one of my top ten operations.
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