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Time to Banish CAPS LOCK

Our keyboards need that tweak and a few others

By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 4, 2012 6:37 AM CST

(Newser) – The computer keyboard may be an essential tool of daily life, but everybody is driven nuts by at least one aspect of it, writes Matthew J.X. Malady at Slate. He offers some suggested tweaks:

  • Remove the CAPS LOCK key: It is practically useless to the average typer, and "nearly everything that results from depressing this key is annoying."
  • Add an em-dash key: Writers use em-dashes all the time, yet modern keyboards require a complex finger combo to type them.
  • Add an @ key with .com as its shift option: It makes sense in a world of websites and Twitter.
Read the full column with other suggestions—like putting ? and ! on the same key— here.

Keyboards need to catch up with modern typing.
Keyboards need to catch up with modern typing.   (Shutterstock)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 9 comments
Riffran
Feb 4, 2012 10:47 PM CST
I'm still waiting on a sarcasm font :-(
SPHeroid
Feb 4, 2012 9:17 PM CST
Gee Matthew J.X. Malady don't use it... How about we rid ourselves of "Scroll Lock".....
Apply-Topically
Feb 4, 2012 4:21 PM CST
Try typing a capital letter with one hand... How is typing dash twice a complex operation? To Mr. Malady... How about 'No'?
 

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