PC Hardware A Beginner’s Guide

(^446) PC Hardware: A Beginner’s Guide
Locking keys, which are theCAPS LOCK,NUM LOCK, andSCROLL LOCKkeys, also toggle
between two actions or values, but unlike theSHIFT,CTRL, andALTkeys, they remain
toggled when released. These keys are like the on/off button on a monitor. When the but-
ton is pressed, the monitor is powered on and stays on until the button is pressed again
to reverse its state. When theCAPS LOCKkey is pressed, it has the same effect as pressing
theSHIFTkey permanently. The alphabetic characters only are shifted to uppercase as
their default values. In fact, if you use theSHIFTkey after theCAPS LOCKis pressed, the
shifted value will be a lowercase character. TheNUM LOCKkey toggles the number pad on
and off alternating to a cursor control pad. TheSCROLL LOCKkey enables and disables
software scrolling control of the display.
Key Repeats
Many new keyboards and operating systems allow you to repeat a key virtually forever
by merely holding it down. The rate of the repeating key is controlled through the
Windows Control Panel’s Keyboard icon, which opens the Keyboard Properties window
shown in Figure 18-4.
Figure 18-4. The Keyboard Properties window is used to control the repeat of repeating keys