Computer Classes at The Library East Brunswick Public Library
Computer Keyboards
Figure 1 - Typical PC Keyboard
Computer keyboards have more keys than a typical typewriter keyboard.
Enter Key Tab Key When typing text, pressing Enter moves the As on a typewriter, this key moves to the next cursor to the beginning of the next line. If you tab stop, across the page in Word or from cell are running a program that requests to cell in Excel. When you are filling in a form, information, you must press Enter after typing however, it moves the cursor to the next entry the information, to send the information to the in the form to be filled in. To go back press program. the Shift and the Tab keys simultaneously. (The TAB key on the Please Note - Unlike using a typewriter, you keyboard above is not labeled. It has two do NOT need to hit the Enter key at the end arrows – one facing left, and one facing right.) of every line. The text will automatically wrap to the next line. Arrow keys, Page Up, Page Down,
Home, and End Backspace Key These keys allow you to move the cursor This key deletes the character located to the around the screen without deleting text that left of the cursor. The cursor is the line or box you have already typed. where your text will appear as you type.
Function Keys Delete Key F1 to F12 are located at the top of the This key deletes the character located to the keyboard. Pressing F1 displays the Help function right of the cursor. for most computer programs. They may change depending upon the program you are in. Insert Key • F10 will activate the Menu Bar and you Pressing this key once causes new text that is can use the arrow keys to go from item entered to overwrite the existing text to the to item. right of the cursor. Pressing it again causes text • F11 in Internet Explorer will open to full
to be inserted at the current cursor position. screen mode. Pressing it again will
1 toggle you back to the normal view.
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PC Literacy I Fall 2008
Computer Classes at The Library East Brunswick Public Library
Numeric keypad These are the keys at the far right of the screen that are positioned like the keys on an adding machine. You must have the Num Lock Key pressed to turn these keys “on” and use them to enter numbers and mathematical functions.
Ctrl and Alt keys Pressing and holding one of these keys make the other keys on the keyboard act differently from the way they normally act. For example, holding down Ctrl while pressing A (CTRL/A) highlights all of the text in a document.
Esc key This key, which is located in the upper left side of the keyboard, is used in most programs to quit whatever you are currently doing.
Shift key Holding the Shift down while typing a letter capitalizes the letter; holding shift while typing a number types the special character that appears above the number.
Caps Lock key Pressing this key causes all letters to be capitalized, but does not cause the special characters above numbers to be used.
Toggle keys These keys switch ON a certain function when pressed once, when pressed again that function is turned off. Examples include the Insert, the Caps Lock, and the Num Lock keys.
Combining Keys You can press the Function keys with the CTRL or the SHIFT or the ALT keys for more shortcuts in many programs. To find the list for each program, go to Help in your menu and type “function keys.” You may also combine the ALT key with the
TAB key to move between open programs on
your computer. 2
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PC Literacy I Fall 2008