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The question is in the title.

I just upgraded an office from older keyboards which were starting to fail from overuse.

The new K235 units have a nice feel and am hearing no complaints about the decision to go with this less-expensive model.

But I am getting some grumbling from some people that the new ones do not have a caps lock light.

(They don't appreciate my telling them that I merely removed that keycap from mine).

Almost every day I hear about someone who was touch-typing only to discover they had bumped the caps lock key and then had to go back and retype what they had just finished.

So is there a way I can help these hard workers?

SDsolar
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    [Moved comments to chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/55001/discussion-on-question-by-sdsolar-upgraded-office-to-logitech-k235-kbd-mice-how) – Journeyman Geek Mar 08 '17 at 13:23

5 Answers5

54

Software

You can have them install Keyboard LEDs system tray icon, which will display the status of their caps/num/scroll lock keys.

Hardware

You can shop for another keyboard, or get a dedicated caps lock light (seems like a waste of cabling / desk space to me though, plus it's an additional purchase that might be more expensive than replacing your keyboards.)

User Training

Tell users to quit looking at the keys and learn how to touch type! Touch typing is so much better in so many ways. It's faster, more comfortable, and you can see the results of your input instantly, instead of typing several sentences or paragraphs and THEN looking. If you're touch typing, you rarely even notice the little caps lock light, because your hand/fingers tends to cover it up.

If while touch typing you make a mistake and activate caps lock by accident, you'll notice it right away because you're looking at every character you produce as you produce them, and might type maybe a couple characters in caps before you realize it, delete, and re-type... much, much less re-work than if you were typing by looking at the keys!

Time Travel

Before buying a bunch of keyboards for an office and rolling them out, buy a small number of them and get a focus group of users to test them out, make sure they have the features and ergonomics desired. Hopefully any major complaints like this would be worked out during the testing.

allquixotic
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    YES! Just the sound alone is enough to do the trick. Thank you! – SDsolar Mar 06 '17 at 22:18
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    @SDsolar I wonder if you meant to accept or comment on Service Manager's answer since this answer doesn't mention anything about a sound. – Cave Johnson Mar 07 '17 at 06:43
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    Clearly you haven't installed this software. Yes, it puts a flag on the screen, but more importantly it beeps when you touch that key. For people looking at documents and not at their screens, that sound is perfect. Then when they glance up they can see why it beeped. It is an awesome program. Much better than a caps lock light on the keyboard because they're not looking there, either. These are real workers. – SDsolar Mar 07 '17 at 08:18
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    "Tell users to learn to touch type" Learning is a time-consuming process and will slow them down at first on top of the time spent doing typing exercises. The OP probably doesn't have the authority to require this in company time, *they certainly don't have the authority to tell people to learn a new skill on their own time*. – Chris H Mar 07 '17 at 09:25
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    Nitpick: "you rarely even notice the little caps lock light, because your hand/fingers tends to cover it up". Except on laptops and similar compact designs, where they're sometimes built into the key cap, the lock lights on all the keyboards I've ever used are at the top right above the number pad. Unless you're typing upside down, there's no chance of those being covered up while typing. In fact, that's probably why they put them there. – IMSoP Mar 07 '17 at 09:34
  • @IMSoP I tend not to notice them in the top right corner when typing text. Old keyboards with them in the keys were nicer, or even above the F-keys. My old wireless logitech had them in the receiver which put me in the same position as the OP's users. – Chris H Mar 07 '17 at 10:02
  • @SDsolar if you are concerned about security per your comment on CCTO's answer below, surely you realize that broadly installing software downloaded from keyboard-leds.com (a site not even serving HTTPS) is a greater security risk than a malicious insider providing their own keyboard? – mfsiega Mar 07 '17 at 19:52
  • Re touch-typing, that only works well when you're inputting plain text. For programming &c, many important keys (like {}) tend to be in different places on different keyboards. – jamesqf Mar 07 '17 at 19:59
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    My comment about the caps lock light was indeed based on experience with "compact" keyboards. It's been a long time since I've used a full-sized keyboard with LEDs in the top-right. I kinda forgot that was a thing :P – allquixotic Mar 08 '17 at 01:54
  • @jamesqf Different keyboard *layouts* is a separate issue from different keyboard *models*. All full-sized UK PC keyboards will have keys like `{}` in exactly the same place. If you're often using a laptop, or a Mac, or switching between keyboards with different national layouts, then yes, this is a problem for touch-typing. But outside of US and UK, that goes well beyond punctuation - French keyboards have a top row starting "AZERTY", and German ones "QWERTZ", for instance. (And yes, I typed this comment without looking down at my keyboard once.) – IMSoP Mar 08 '17 at 13:15
  • Hah, I can do you one better, I typed this without looking at either of my 2 screens at all! (yep, given a choice between looking at my keyboard or my screen, I would rather look at the keyboard, strange I know but comes from years of typing peek and poke lists on a C64) – GMasucci Mar 08 '17 at 16:18
52

Assuming that your co-workers are using Windows 7, 8/8.1, or 10, you can enable a notification for when Caps lock (as well as Num and Scroll locks) are pressed. To do this:

  1. Open up Control Panel.

  2. Go to Ease of Access Center.

  3. Make the keyboard easier to use.

  4. Check the "Turn on Toggle Keys" check box.

  5. Click "Apply", then "OK".

After that, they will hear a tone when those buttons are pressed.

Caturday Saint
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8
  1. Add your own CapsLock indicator. Install AutoHotkey, it's a general keyboard automation program, could be greatly useful for automatically expanding short forms of words, adding keyboard shortcuts to programs, etc.

Then edit the config and add something like :

$CapsLock::
SoundBeep, 440,500       
SoundBeep, 440,500 
SoundBeep, 440,500        
SoundBeep, 349,350        
SoundBeep, 523,150        
SoundBeep, 440,500        
SoundBeep, 349,350        
SoundBeep, 523,150        
SoundBeep, 440,1000 
SoundBeep, 659,500        
SoundBeep, 659,500        
SoundBeep, 659,500        
SoundBeep, 698,350        
SoundBeep, 523,150        
SoundBeep, 415,500        
SoundBeep, 349,350        
SoundBeep, 523,150        
SoundBeep, 440,1000
Send {CapsLock}
return

Now every time they press capslock, they get a rousing StarWars Imperial March audio to let them know.

Should that ever get tiresome, you could replace it with any helpful thing the people wanted - launch a program, run a script, play a sound file, blink the screen, shake a window around, change a colour somewhere, anything from the AutoHotkey command list or any program or script it can launch or any Win32api function it can call.

  1. Almost every day I hear about someone who was touch-typing only to discover they had bumped the caps lock key and then had to go back and retype what they had just finished.

Seriously though, this is a sign of miserably, depressingly weak tools or lack of IT training / exploration. Any text editor worth its salt can swap the case of selected text.

The worst it should be is a copy/paste to a good editor and back again, not a retyping. (And that copy-paste, change-case, copy-paste could be automated with AutoHotkey).

Community
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TessellatingHeckler
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4

You could disable Caps Lock, or convert it to be a shift key using a registry entry.

KeyTweak will do it with a GUI, but its help file details the registry key you'd need to edit, which could make roll out faster.

Sir Adelaide
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    That would be *evil*. Part numnbers often have to be typed in all uppercase; even some forms require large amounts of uppercase. Some touch typists are/were taught to use CapsLock,,CapsLock instead of Shift+ for ergonomic reasons – Chris H Mar 07 '17 at 10:05
  • Well, if you work for Google, better not use this answer then. I've found it useful on my own pc though. – Sir Adelaide Mar 07 '17 at 10:20
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    This is a workaround, not a solution. Certainly not a solution for _everyone_. If people wanted to disable their Caps Lock, they would have done so already and installing new keyboards would have had no effect. – Mr Lister Mar 07 '17 at 11:55
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    @SirAdelaide I've got a chromebook, and on the rare occasions when it's running chromeos rather than debian it's quite irritating to have to remember to press Alt+Search for CapsLock, instead of just Search (which is where CapsLock should be) – Chris H Mar 07 '17 at 12:24
  • I strongly favor this solution. It is one of the first things I do on a new Windows computer, after installing virtuawin, putting the task manager in the autostart folder and moving the task bar to the side in order to gain vertical space. The use cases for caps lock are extremely rare in my (software developing and casual computer use) experience. Of course some people dealing with lots of upper case labels may disagree; yes, they should keep the caps lock. THE OCCASIONAL NEED TO TYPE AN UPPERCASE SENTENCE CAN BE SERVED BY HOLDING THE SHIFT KEY. I assure you. – Peter - Reinstate Monica Mar 07 '17 at 13:55
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    Disabling caps lock is massive overkill for this problem. I use caps lock every single day many times a day as a software developer. I'm not interested in having to hold the shift key down and you shouldn't force that on your staff simply to save a few $ on keyboards. I can also second the comment by @ChrisH, I found it quite irritating to use a chromebook specifically because of this issue. – Michael McGriff Mar 07 '17 at 16:14
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    @Peter: Have you ever had to type lots of postal codes? It's bloody murder without a caps lock key. For those who don't know, postal codes (at least here in Canada) are in the format A0A 0A0. Holding Shift doesn't quite cut it, because that shifts the number row too. –  Mar 07 '17 at 16:25
  • @FighterJet similar in the UK: AB12 3CD would be typical here. – Chris H Mar 07 '17 at 16:42
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    @FighterJet The pitiable individuals who type "lots of postal codes" (in 2017? Really?) strictly fall in the "they should keep the caps lock" category. – Peter - Reinstate Monica Mar 07 '17 at 17:04
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    @Peter: What do you mean, in 2017? I have to type my postal code every time I type in my address, whether that's because I'm ordering something, I'm updating my driver's licence, or any other reason. A sizable portion of the western world uses postal codes in its addresses, so the "pitiable individuals" is not an insignificant number. –  Mar 07 '17 at 19:58
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    Ok, so an updated answer could be: "move all your staff to a country that doesn't need capital letters in post codes, THEN disable caps lock"? Australia has 4 numbers. 1234. Could be nice weather? – Sir Adelaide Mar 08 '17 at 06:15
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    I like the software in the accepted answer. While interesting, this one sounds a lot like actual work. And if I disabled ANYTHING then I might end up with a mutiny on my hands. Right now I am Santa Claus, and that's how I would prefer it to stay. – SDsolar Mar 08 '17 at 06:30
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    @FighterJet Typing the *occasional* postal code with the shift key shouldn't be a problem. Yes, *lots* of them would be cumbersome; my "2017" remark indicated my hope that repetitive data-inserting work would be automated these days (e.g. with Word or banking software accessing customer data bases, or with the browser pre-filling input fields). And I was not being sarcastic: If such input is frequently enough necessary, one should by all means keep the caps lock key. I also acknowledge that these customizations are a matter of taste and ability (I hit the caps lock key often inadvertently). – Peter - Reinstate Monica Mar 08 '17 at 13:30
  • I would not say my fingers are fat, but my left pinky has a caps-lock fetish at random (or maybe a tab avoidance issue) that makes me wonder if it isn't actually 3cm thick: usually when it will interrupt the flow of coding most. – GMasucci Mar 08 '17 at 16:29
0

It's been sort of talked around but not really stated: Teach your users. I don't mean teach them to type better, but how to painlessly fix capsing mistakes.

Do some research and figure out, for each program your users type large amounts of text into, the best way to reverse the caps effect. And by best here I mean maximise some combination of

  • Ease of learning
  • Ease of explaining
  • Ease of performing
  • Ease of remembering

for your particular audience. Then make some kind of cheat-sheet or other document and distribute it.

If any of the programs involved are particularly cantankerous, consider if making some kind of macro, script, or utility can be done quickly enough to be worthwile and distributed in a maintainable way.

If nothing else, a self-contained program that reverses the case of the contents of the clipboard when run could be compiled from maybe a dozen lines in AutoHotKey; it would lose formatting, though, if your users are formatting while typing head-down.

Weaver
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