QOTW: Which keyboard keys do you never use?

[nar53]

OK I've got the Mac US Logitech KB. second row down, First key on extreme left, two symbols. I've never used em. I reckon I've used all the others.

[thewelshbrummie]

Key to the left of 1, `/¬/¦
Square brackets []
Scroll Lock

Pretty sure I use everything else. I use alt gr for accents, especially é or combining with 4 to get €.

The context key to the right of alt gr also get used when I'm using an Amiga Emulator. Back when I had Amiga hardware you used Left ctrl and the 2 Amiga keys (represented by an A, one each either side of the space bar) reset the system. The Amiga keys are mapped onto the left Windows key and context key on the emulator, so it gets a bit of use.

[will19565]

None

[Scryder]

PrtScn (Print Screen), ScrLk (Scroll Lock) and the Macro record and play buttons. Incidentally, I never understood a reason to EVER use Scroll Lock.

Also never use the Right hand side Shift, Ctrl, Alt and Right Click Menu button (Just discovered this existed!). Probably because the mouse is occupying this hand! Nor do I use the Windows key (except by accident, although that key is usually locked).

That was interesting to find out. So I still use most of the keys!

[pumpkin]

I don't use "Scroll Lock", "Pause/Break", "Alt Gr", the "Context" key or the "Num Lock" key.

[Corky34]

Has to be scroll lock, in fact I'm not even sure what it does. I've never seen a scroll on my computer let alone one that comes with its own lock.

[big_hairy_rob]

any of the media ones or programmable ones I also don't tend to use scroll lock, num lock or caps lock (deliberately), oh or pause break (any more)...

[ik9000]

Has to be scroll lock, in fact I'm not even sure what it does. I've never seen a scroll on my computer let alone one that comes with its own lock.

go in excel and toggle it. It's the easiest example i can think of.

[ik9000]

I don't use "Scroll Lock", "Pause/Break", "Alt Gr", the "Context" key or the "Num Lock" key.

holy crap how do you people get by? Is it just becuase i learned way back when keyboard nav was all there was?

[Scryder]

holy crap how do you people get by? Is it just becuase i learned way back when keyboard nav was all there was?

I suppose. What does Alt Gr stand for anyways? I mean, I can google it, but does anyone know? I sure don't...

To be fair, there was a time where I needed to do keyboard nav, when my mouse started acting up... and took me a while to get it replaced.
I think this is like autocorrect. People are forgetting to learn to spell words, because you can autocorrect it, or on PC, an error shows and you can right-click and correct. I know I'm guilty of that sometimes with some words.

[deepblue08]

scroll lock and pause

[Core2Extreme]

My keyboard has some keyboard-specific shortcut keys that I mostly never use. It's the Natural 4000, and while I'll use the media keys, there's a bunch of application-starting keys to the left of them I never use.

I also never *intentionally* use the F Lock key that disables the F keys, because I would never want to disable the F keys, which I use pretty often, between games and programming.

I'm not sure I've ever used the = () backspace buttons above the NumPad, either. I mainly use the NumPad as a directional pad for some games. I used to always want a num pad, but have since admitted that I could survive without one, especially if I could plug a dedicated one in for the few cases where I will use it.

Scroll Lock is one I very rarely use. There's a few cases in programs like Excel where it's kind of nice, but I usually forget that it's an option. I will use Pause in games where it functions as a pause button (logically enough). The key that looks like a menu and brings up a context menu I never use, as I never really learned what it did.

My keyboard doesn't have an AltGr button, but that's another one where I never really understood what it did that a regular Alt didn't do. Maybe something for IME input?

[Core2Extreme]

I find it interesting that a lot of users mentioned the `/¬ key. I live across the pond, where the secondary symbol is ~, which is also used as the "approximately" sign, so you can write e.g. I got ~7 hours of sleep last night. It's not a top-tier key, but I'd expect most U.S. users to use the ~, if not necessarily the `, which I've never used outside of programming. I'm not sure what ¬ is intended to be used for, other than smilies.

[Scryder]

I find it interesting that a lot of users mentioned the `/¬ key. I live across the pond, where the secondary symbol is ~, which is also used as the "approximately" sign, so you can write e.g. I got ~7 hours of sleep last night. It's not a top-tier key, but I'd expect most U.S. users to use the ~, if not necessarily the `, which I've never used outside of programming. I'm not sure what ¬ is intended to be used for, other than smilies.

Funny thing about the ~key. I used to struggle in games like Doom II in the past trying to find it, to use console commands. As in the US it's the first key before '1'. I still have memories of trying to figure out where the tilde key is! It didn't help that for a while I had a laptop bought in the US, on which I obliviously put the keyboard regional settings to UK! In hindsight, that was a bit silly.

[Spank]

The context menu button to the right of the Alt Gr key (does same as right clicking mouse).

I was looking at my KB and had no idea what it did so I pressed it for the first time, also pressed the Alt Gr, but that didn't do anything.


I think a better question would have been "do you have the number pad on your KB and if so do you use it?"

[Output]

I think a better question would have been "do you have the number pad on your KB and if so do you use it?"

I think the question still works - there are far more potentially unused keys than just the numpad for some people - the numpad is probably just the one that is most often available as an option to do without when buying a keyboard these days.

And for the record, I do use the numpad a lot and wouldn't want a keyboard without one. Same with the media keys mine also has.