Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!


Click here to return to the 'Swap Control and Caps Lock on the 2005 Powerbooks' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Swap Control and Caps Lock on the 2005 Powerbooks
Authored by: BobHarris on May 02, '05 09:00:19PM

Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) has a new feature in

System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Keyboard Tab -> Modifier Keys...

That allows you to change the 4 modifier keys "Capslock", "Control", "Opton", and "Command" to behave like any of the other modifier keys.

So if you want to swap Capslock for Control, you change Capslock to be Control, and you change Control to be Capslock (of just make Capslock be Control, and let Control stay Control; who needs a Capslock key anyway :-)

Or swap Command and Option on a PC keyboard so that "Alt" next to the space bar was now Command and the "Windows" key in the Option position is now Option.

However, I still see a need for uControl and DoubleCommand as they allow me to do things like make the 'enter' key a 'fn' (function) key on my iBook, and it has other features.

But this is a step forward for Mac OS X.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Swap Control and Caps Lock on the 2005 Powerbooks
Authored by: afn on May 03, '05 05:17:47PM

I just found out about "modifier keys" options, and I'm super happy about it-- I'm perfectly fine with ctrl either in the 'correct' place (next to the A) or in the 'standard' place (lower-left corner), but I absolutely can't stand the Powerbook layout which has Fn in the corner and makes Ctrl impossible to find :-)

That said, there seems to be a bug in this feature: the caps lock light is still toggled when I hit the caps lock key, regardless of what it's mapped to. Even worse, if I map another key -- say, the ctrl key -- to Caps Lock, it DOES toggle caps lock, but doesn't turn the light on.

Can it really be that the caps lock light is hardware-controlled?! Or is this just a stupid bug in the keyboard driver? Anyone know of any workaround? Anyone else have this problem? I've got a brand spanking new 12" Powerbook...



[ Reply to This | # ]
Swap Control and Caps Lock on the 2005 Powerbooks
Authored by: driftwolf on Aug 23, '05 03:54:15PM

A step forward would have been to remove the little used
caps lock key from where they've got it and swap it with
much-used control key. Putting the swap in the control
is a software workaround for poorly designed hardware.

I've talked to many people (dozens? maybe hundreds?)
who use keyboards for everything from programming to
secretarial work to multi-language translations,
and EVERYONE thinks that putting the caps-lock key in
the most accessible location while putting the control
key down and away is the most stupid thing they've
seen. All in the name of making left and right sides of
the keyboard "look nice and balanced". What a stupid
reason. Nobody I've talked to uses the caps lock key
that often, why the hell put it where it can be easily used?

Sigh. Oh well, at least Tiger gives us a slightly
workable alternative. Now to get a sharpie and
re-label my keyboard...

cheers,
Marc



[ Reply to This | # ]