Inadvertently Typing With the Caps Lock On
Proactive and reactive solutions
Picture this. I’m in the hot seat on the TV quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and a correct answer to this question will guarantee me a prize of £50,000. The question is:
On a standard QWERTY keyboard, which letter sits between S and F?
A: C
B: D
C: B
D: L
I’ve been typing for decades, and I know that the key is D, so straight away I bark out “B, final answer!”
The host says, “You say C; the letter B sits between S and F. I’m sorry, the answer is B, because the letter D sits between S and F.”
I protest that I meant answer B not the letter B, but to no avail. My cheque is torn asunder and I am escorted from the studio by security.
I mention this to demonstrate that I know my way around a QWERTY keyboard like Bart knows his way around Springfield. I first bashed the keys of a manual typewriter many years ago when I ran a punk music fanzine, and I progressed to my current level of producing a steady stream of text on a modern computer. Yet even after all these years, nay decades of use, I still can’t touch-type.
I can rattle off a decent words-per-minute speed for my purposes, but I have to watch my fingers, not the screen. This can cause irritations, like if I’m inadvertently typing with the Caps Lock on, I might not notice until I next glance at the monitor — by which time I could have typed half a paragraph. So, for all you finger-watching typists out there, who suffer Caps Lock catastrophes, here are two ways to deal with the problem.
If you have typed a lengthy piece with the Caps Lock on, there is no need to delete and retype. Simply highlight all of the capitalised text, hold down the Shift key and toggle F3. This will give you three options: 1) ALL CAPITALS, 2) Initial Caps (all words start with a capital letter), and 3) all lower case. If you switch your all-capitals text to lower case, you might have to reinstate a few capital letters, but it is better than retyping the whole piece. For example, HARRISON FORD WAS BORN IN CHICAGO, becomes harrison ford was born in chicago, after toggling, which becomes Harrison Ford was born in Chicago, after editing.
But if all that sounds like a major hassle, fear not, for there is a simple trick you can perform that will allow you to nip all-capitals typing in the bud; create an audio alert every time the Caps Lock key is pressed (and the Numbers Lock or Scroll Lock). Here’s how to do it in Windows 10.
Press the Windows key and select Settings from the left side (in the shape of a cog).
Click on Ease of Access
Select Keyboard, and scroll down to Use Toggle Keys
Switch on Play a sound whenever you press Caps Lock, Num Lock or Scroll Lock
Be sure to leave the Allow the shortcut key to start Toggle Keys box checked
And that’s it. You will now hear a beep through your speakers or headphones every time you press the Caps Lock key, so you’ll be alerted before you type. If you initiate this audio alert, and try it out, you’ll find that toggling the Caps Lock off and on produces a two-tone beep that sounds like a game of Pong (for those old enough to remember that game).
But what’s the deal with checking the Allow the shortcut key to start Toggle Keys box?
Quite simply, if you want to disable the audio alert for some reason, this can be easily achieved without going back into the Settings screen. Simply hold down the Num Lock key for five seconds, and you will hear a different beep that indicates the audio alert has been disabled. To switch the alert back on, simply hold down the Num Lock key again until you hear a beep. At this point a pane will appear asking if you want to turn the Toggle Keys on. Click Yes, and the beep will be reinstated.
So there you go, two solutions, one pro-active and one re-active to the problem of typing with the Caps Lock key on. To finish this article, I shall leave the Caps Lock on, as I relate my response to seeing my fifty grand cheque being torn up.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
