(^444) PC Hardware: A Beginner’s Guide
Alphabetic Keys
These keys make u pthe main area of the keyboard, as illustrated in Figure 18-3, and are
the keys used for most keyboard input by the user. This group of keys includes:
Alphabetic keys The English language alphabet characters of A through Z.
These keys default to a lowercase character and produce an uppercase letter
through either theSHIFTkey or theCAPS LOCKkey.
Punctuation and special characters This group of keys is embedded in the
alphabetic keyboard. These keys are located on the left-edge of the alphabetic
keyboard and include this group of punctuation and special characters:\
(backslash),|(vertical bar),/(forward slash),? (question mark),. (period/dot),
(greater than), , (comma), < (less than), ; (semi-colon), : (colon), ’ (single
quote/apostrophe), ” (double-quote), [ (open/left bracket), { (open/left
brace), ] (close/right bracket), } (close/right bracket). Most of these keys
have lowercase characters and uppercase characters that are accessed through
theSHIFTkey.
Action keys The keys in this group can be divided into two subgroups: the
character selection keys and the command action keys. The character selection
keys include theSHIFTkeys, theCAPS LOCKkey, and theBACKSPACEkey. The
command action keys are theCTRLkey, theESCkey, and theALTkey.
Enter key This may be the most used key on the keyboard; it is certainly the
largest. TheENTERkey performs a variety of functions from ending the line or
entry in application software to serving as a weapon trigger in a shooting
game. In word processors, theENTERkey simulates the action of the carriage
return button on an electric typewriter.
Figure 18-2. The major key groupings on a keyboard
LEDs
Alphabetic keys
Function keys
Cursor
keys
Number
pad