Overwriting [Insert key]

Overwriting? Do you mean your cursor disappears? Maybe you're hitting the Tab button.

You might be bumping the insert key-- it's on the top right of most keyboards, and will either say Insert or an abbreviation such as INS. It's often used to toggle that setting.

Just as an addition, if you don't have the NumLock on, some keyboards also have an alternative "Insert" Key on the number pad. I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally turned on Insert by forgetting about NumLock.

Yes, Insert is the probem. The Insert key is the only key that is more useless and annoying than the Caps Lock key. Except I do have one use for it, but that's because I'm a die-hard Fractal Explorer user.

Matera the Mad said:

Yes, Insert is the probem. The Insert key is the only key that is more useless and annoying than the Caps Lock key. Except I do have one use for it, but that's because I'm a die-hard Fractal Explorer user.

Click to expand...

I would put scroll lock with that also - complete waste of keyboard real-estate

I have a similar problem.
Sometimes I hit something on the left side of the keyboard. Then, when I try to type in, it will type over the next letter. The only way I can get around it is to close the file and start over.

*glances at keyboard*

*is glad I have none of these useless keys*

well, I have caps lock...

What does scroll lock even do? I've been using computers for about two decades now and I've never managed to figure it out :/

There's nothing on the left side of a standard keyboard that would cause that problem. If you have a keyboard with expanded special function keys (usually a different color than the letter keys) on the left of the letter keys, one of them may be programmed to toggle the Insert/Overwrite function. Otherwise, you've toggled the Insert/Overwrite key into the "Overwrite" mode. just press the Insert key again to toggle it back.

pangalactic said:

What does scroll lock even do? I've been using computers for about two decades now and I've never managed to figure it out :/

Click to expand...

There are a very few programs that use Scroll Lock. Agent/Free Agent newsreader (for Usenet newsgroups, if you don't know what that is, don't worry about it) uses it. Normally, when you push up-arrow or down-arrow, the cursor moves to the next line up or down. With scroll-lock on (at least in Free Agent), the cursor line and all the text move up as one, just like clicking on the up-arrow or down-arrow of the scrollbar. The cursor stays on the same line of text, but everything has moved up or down. To get back to regular cursor up-and-down movement you press Scroll Lock again (it toggles, just like Caps Lock, Num Lock and Insert).

This was an original feature of the IBM PC and its original keyboard (which was the first to have the "scroll lock" key), and this was well before fancy screens and "scrollbars" were available on personal computers, but not many programs used the scroll-lock feature even back then. Many programs were converted as-is from CP/M, and people were happy with them even on the newfangled IBM equipment.

And now I know what scroll lock does. Thanks

Today I saw a laptop with the extended keyboard that desktops often use, complete with numeric keypad, etc. If one makes extensive use of the keypad, I suppose it makes sense, but for everyone else it just struck me as a terribly unsightly way to annoy me with an off-center QWERTY keyboard.

If you want to completely disable a key, I recommend KeyTweak. Ever since I got my new laptop I've been locked in an epic battle with Num Lock, which gives me strings of numbers when I wanted to use the number pad to navigate. You download the program, click on the offending key, hit disable and you're golden. (You can do cleverer things with it as well, but I'm dumb.) So you could switch off Insert permanently so that when you hit it it doesn't start overwriting your text.

kuwisdelu said:

Today I saw a laptop with the extended keyboard that desktops often use, complete with numeric keypad, etc. If one makes extensive use of the keypad, I suppose it makes sense, but for everyone else it just struck me as a terribly unsightly way to annoy me with an off-center QWERTY keyboard.

Click to expand...

I have one of these. Full keyboard, plus a number pad on the right that I use to navigate, plus a top row above the number pad, plus another column to the right of the number pad. I wish they'd streamlined.

I should add that I'm not a computer expert and installing software from an unknown source is dangerous and programs which mess with the registry of your computer are even more so. But that said, I'm very pleased with it.

I doubt that Tucows lists any malware; anyway, "installing software from an unknown source" is less dangerous than simply surfing the Web and visiting lots of popular sites these days, what with all the sly hacks and evil redirects. I've taken the time to learn what sources are reliable, and I do some Googlish research before installing anything I'm not sure of. That's why I'm the Queen of Free

Keytweak PDF manual is available here: http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/ -- RTFM and have fun.

Google's new Chrome laptop does away with Caps Lock entirely and replaces it with a button that invokes Google search - about time too.

kuwisdelu said:

Today I saw a laptop with the extended keyboard that desktops often use, complete with numeric keypad, etc. If one makes extensive use of the keypad, I suppose it makes sense, but for everyone else it just struck me as a terribly unsightly way to annoy me with an off-center QWERTY keyboard.

Click to expand...

Gaming laptop. My beast has this.

Tirjasdyn said:

Gaming laptop. My beast has this.

Click to expand...

I guess I don't game enough. A regular keyboard + touchpad has been fine for everything I've played.

kuwisdelu said:

I guess I don't game enough. A regular keyboard + touchpad has been fine for everything I've played.

Click to expand...

I always thought a keyboard with numeric keypad was the regular version.

Jamesaritchie said:

I always thought a keyboard with numeric keypad was the regular version.

Click to expand...

It used to be but I've seen separate keyboards without a number pad sold for a while now.

There are still games out there that don't use a mouse (or touch pad). Some times I can map those to my game pad but not always. That's when that touch pad comes in handy.

Also when I have to type in number data. My typing skills for the numeric pad are pretty high. I forget what the scale is for the moment but there is a separate typing scale just for the number pad. It's much faster than using the number row.