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Post by The Doctor on Aug 11, 2018 16:32:18 GMT
What is the purpose of number lock on a computer? I understand caps lock but what is the other for?
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 11, 2018 16:43:36 GMT
If you have a number pad, with the NumLock off the keys act as cursors. With num lock on the keys act as numbers.
If you don't have a number pad then putting the numlock on enables certain letters, usually to the right of the keyboard, to act as a number pad and produce numbers.
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 11, 2018 16:47:40 GMT
If you have a number pad, with the NumLock off the keys act as cursors. With num lock on the keys act as numbers. My goodness!!! So they do!!! Witchcraft!!! -Ralph |
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Post by legios on Aug 11, 2018 16:48:41 GMT
Full-size keyboards often have a number pad to the left of the letters (as well as the numerals on the row above said letters). What they didn't always have was cursor keys separate from other keys (and Home, page-up, page-down etc keys). So these functions were historically placed on the number pad.
The Number Lock key was used to select whether the number pad keys worked as cursor keys, or as number keys. So, with the Number Lock off, the 8 on the number pad might be the "cursor up" key, and the 2 the cursor down. With the Number Lock on, those same keys will instead produce a number 8 and 2 respectively.
Effectively it is the same as the Caps Lock key - it toggles the keys it controls between two different modes.
In practice most full-size keyboards, and for that matter laptop/netbook keyboards these days have separate cursor keys, and most people don't use the number pad very much (people dealing extensively with finance being the exception in my experience) so it tends to go unnoticed. Still works like that though, give it a try next time you are at a PC with a full-size keyboard.
Karl
(Aaaannnd, beaten to the punch by Phil!)
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 11, 2018 18:20:04 GMT
Well now I know. The laptop often boots up with a 'Number Lock' button lit up and I had assumed it was some strange redundant feature!
-Ralph
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Post by blueshift on Aug 11, 2018 18:25:35 GMT
Well now I know. The laptop often boots up with a 'Number Lock' button lit up and I had assumed it was some strange redundant feature! -Ralph I'm saddened that everyone told Ralph the truth and not that the number lock button should never be pressed under any circumstances. For shame |
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 11, 2018 21:05:32 GMT
That's because we're not all wind up merchants like you.
Where's yer shift gone? Are you now shiftless and therefore naked?
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Post by blueshift on Aug 11, 2018 21:42:14 GMT
And you shall be pin
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 11, 2018 22:06:55 GMT
I will not be wigless!
An outrageous suggestion.
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Aug 11, 2018 22:19:49 GMT
When using a keyboard I keep my number lock in the ON position. Vary rarely type numbers using that long inefficient line of them at the top of the letters. Far faster on the number pad.
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 11, 2018 23:02:37 GMT
I have never used number pads because when I press the numbers they do not appear on screen!
-Ralp
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Post by legios on Aug 11, 2018 23:14:03 GMT
Which is, of course, because Num Lock is off by default...
I am faster not using the number pad, I actually find it much easier to use the row. But this is partly because I am self-taught as a typist, on a manual typewriter rather than a word-processor or computer initially. I _can_ use the number pad, but I am slower and less accurate with it, because I have no automaticity with it and have to look for each digit before I hit the key.
Karl.
(For the record I am roughly a five finger typist and hilariously slow compared to my mother - trained as a proper typist in the 1970s so about four times as fast and eight times as accurate as I will ever be.)
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 12, 2018 5:27:09 GMT
My, rather specialised, PC kb doesn't have a separate number pad - the number pad is on the letter keys.
My laptop does and I rarely use it.
The church standard kb gets a lot of use out of it's number pad as I use it to jump about during songs a lot.
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Aug 14, 2018 8:01:11 GMT
I am now having visions of someone pushing Phil's buttons making him jump about at church!!
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Post by legios on Aug 14, 2018 19:04:11 GMT
I think it is probably quantum jump, or possibly mycellieul. Press the button and >WOOOOOSH< appear somewhere else.
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 14, 2018 19:06:21 GMT
I am now having visions of someone pushing Phil's buttons making him jump about at church!! I would pay good money to be able to do this. -Ralph |
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