Talk:Shift key

HOW TO DO IT
DELETE THE ARTICLE ON CAPS LOCK, BECAUSE ONLY REAL MEN HOLD THE SHIFTKEY DOWN.

Strange suggestion
Why would you do the last suggestion, use your right hand for the left shift key and left hand for 'A'. This effectively is crossing your hands! Zoney 09:07, 19 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Darn, got it round the wrong way. Will fix. Dysprosia 09:09, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

Two hands or one hand
When shifting, it is proper, according to what I learned a long time ago, to hold down the shift key with one hand while typing a character with the other. However, this article says that some people are taught to use the left shift regardless of what side. Which makes more sense?? 66.32.242.104 02:43, 26 May 2004 (UTC)
 * I've successfully learned to use left shift only on purpose, in response to a repetetive stress injury. My right hand has been overworked for years with the mouse, enter, backspace, arrows, numberpad, ... and around half the shifts.  Having switched mouse and shift usage to 90%+ lefthand, I would recommend teaching this as the standard method!  I expect that using two hands for shift commands will be reliably faster, if that is what one seeks. 198.176.219.123 09:25, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

Both Shift Keys
I think the bit about both shift keys is not standard. On my keyboard for example, I couldn't type the key Z. My friend couldn't get B but could get others. I am going to modify the text to reflect this anomaly. Epachamo 21:02, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

What decided which keys are pressed with both keys??
I tried this with my computer and got ADEFGHIJKLOPQRSTUWY. What does it depend on?? (Lower row doesn't appear) Georgia guy 01:14, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
 * See the bottom of the page on the item called MASKING. Some applications also mask. - PGSONIC 20:19, 28 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Oddly enough, on my keyboard, there is a similar effect when I hold down shift an caplocks. I don't get w,s or x. Epachamo 01:43, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

I get ABDEFGHIJKLNOPQRSUW. Shape: QWERtyUIOP ASDFGHJKL zxcvBNm PiotrGrochowski000 (talk) 17:33, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

Shift + Caps Lock
On which computers / operating systems is it true that holding down shift when caps lock is down reverts to lower case? Contrary to the article, I don't think it's all. 91.105.59.164 22:12, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Highlight
Shouln't the article mention that you can highlight by pressing the shift key and the arrow key in which direction you want to highlight. INGLEHOOD! 21:27, 27 July 2007 (UTC) Agreed. That is my second-most common use of the key. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.21.243.41 (talk) 06:42, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

F13 and F14
It said holding down shift+F1 makes you press F13 and shift+F2 makes you type F14. I want to know what it does. Did anyone press it? If so tell me what happens.

Information about shift hold
Is there any information regarding the existence or not of a possibility to use the shift button without the hassle of holding it before typing other keys?

512upload (talk) 20:28, 28 February 2009 (UTC)


 * see StickyKeys Jndrline (talk) 04:35, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

Shift Lock key on Commodore computers
I'm not too sure about the PET but the shift lock key is not scanned on the C-64 and C-128.

The main article could be improved by noting how the apparent need to hold the shift key down while simultaneously holding another key down, is actually an artifact from the olden days when millions of keyboards were built without scannable shift lock keys. There are still a lot of people who find it maddening to brush against a caps lock, more or less inadvertently, and find themselves in a randomly shifted state. This is generally the result of excessive overscanning, where the state of the Shifts Lock key cannot be determined in any practical manner except by watching for it to light up, or be displayed on the monitor. 216.99.198.43 (talk) 20:23, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Caps Lock bug on PC keyboards?
I have heard that many PC keyboards have viruses in them, transmitted through accidental contact with the PC caps lock key. Is there any truth to this? Just typing along, the letters are mysteriously capitalized until you realize the caps lock key got touched. Then you have to toggle it back to its normal state, back up and start typing over again. Where can I get a PC keyboard that treats the caps lock key as a true physical lock, like a typewriter Shift-Lock, and not a software scanned toggle? 216.99.198.43 (talk) 20:23, 15 August 2009 (UTC)


 * How big is the typical keyboard controller inside a detachable keyboard?  In terms of bytes, I mean.   Is there a way of examining the memory in the controller to see if illicit or improper code is in the keyboard, waiting to be downloaded into the main PC?   That would be similar to a virus.   There are a lot of manufacturers who provide "keyboard drivers" with their keyboards.   I'm naturally suspicious of what kind of code is inside the keyboard driver.   Maybe there really are a lot of viruses that work in combination with the caps lock bug mentioned above.   216.99.198.160 (talk) 21:05, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Two shift keys
Something should be say about using one hand or both hands when typing shift + letter. From the comments in this page, there was something but not anymore.

Also, are there platforms where left shift behaves differently than right shift? They are distinguished in some APIs but does the interface distinguish them? Is the combination left shift + right shift used for something? --Error (talk) 11:56, 16 April 2020 (UTC)