|
What in the flippin' elephant is the Scroll Lock button for on my keyboard?! That little blister cost me a couple hours of work!
All of a sudden last week the arrow keys and command keys stopped functioning properly in Excel. I couldn't navigate anywhere properly. I was pulling my hair out for days, spending a half-hour here and there scouring the web to figure out what the problem was. I thought it was an Excel keyboard setting that I had inadvertantly modified. NOPE. Turns out it was the stupid little "Scroll Lock" button which had gotten stuck in the Locked position (with a corresponding tiny little light far, far away from it on the corner of my Microsoft keyboard. Thanks MS!)
What gives? Why in the world are all the keyboards in the world wasting valuable real-estate on a vestigial remnant of an ancient operating system? In the US alone there are over 300M keyboards. If each one dedicates 1 square centimeter for this relic of absurdity, that equates to a total of over 7 acres of squandered space -- that's over $15000 in wasted real estate costs (in average land prices)! I say let's all just pop these little buggers off and sell them all to Dubai to create a floating island.
Have any of you ever intentionally used this little plastic cretin? (I mean -- since the dark ages)
modified 5-Nov-15 15:29pm.
|
|
|
|
|
I've never used it in Windows, but in DOS I used it with Microfocus Cobol to pause code listings.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
|
|
|
|
|
He did mention the dark ages 
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
|
|
|
|
|
Back in the good 'ol days of DOS, absolutely. We used "PrtSc" for printing a screen dump to the printer (now we use it in Windows to create a screenshot).
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music."
-- Marcus Brigstocke, British Comedian
|
|
|
|
|
I wasn't talking about PrtScn. I use that all the time too. I'm talking about the button that is usually right next door: "ScrLk"
|
|
|
|
|
Probably, to support legacy applications.
You'd be really annoyed if you couldn't use software you rely on because your new computer didn't have an "Alt Gr" key so you couldn't enter the accented characters it needed. 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
|
|
|
|
|
I've never had a keyboard with that key on it. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
|
|
|
|
|
The Scroll Lock button is very commonly used with KVM switches to toggle between PCs.
|
|
|
|
|
That's because it's never used for anything else!
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
|
|
|
|
|
I intentionally used in my Image Viewer Utility[^] application. I used it to lock the scroll bars when the arrow keys are pressed so the mouse pointer moves around the screen rather than the image moving under the mouse pointer.
It still has it's uses, but if it was not there I am sure I would have found another key to use for that functionality.
Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
|
|
|
|
|
Look at it this way, it's the perfect key to use to show an Easter egg. I mean come on, what would your keyboard be without it?
Use it, you know you want to.[^]
Jeremy Falcon
|
|
|
|
|
Why not map[^] the key to something more useful?
|
|
|
|
|
I had forgotten about my KVM which uses that horrible excuse for a key.
kdmote wrote: vestigial remnant
You left off "redundant".
I spend most of my day in a DOS box, but I rarely use that key because Ctrl-S / Ctrl-Q still work just fine and are close together on the left-hand side of the keyboard.
|
|
|
|
|
kdmote wrote: Have any of you ever intentionally used this little plastic cretin?
Absolutely! I love to turn it on for my coworkers when they leave their computer unlocked and then watch them waste hours of time trying to navigate around Excel and try to troubleshoot the problem. When they finally ask me for help I tell them it must be a virus. Great fun!
-NP
Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.
|
|
|
|
|
I for sure see no real use for that key in modern times.
I've never used it (on Windows), and for sure never will.
On my laptop, it's on the same key as INS (you would need to press Fn to get it - so yeah, some manufactures have gotten the idea  )
Best,
John
-- LogWizard Meet the Log Viewer that makes monitoring log files a joy!
|
|
|
|
|
Yes, I do when I want to browse though documents without moving the character blinker (I forgot its proper name, sorry, not my native language). Maybe it's beacue I use the PC from the Dark Times...
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
"When you have eliminated the JavaScript, whatever remains must be an empty page." -- Mike Hankey
|
|
|
|
|
Scroll Lock is massively useful.
I have a utility (written by a CP member, not me) that sits in the background and toggles Scroll Lock on and off periodically.
It does a dandy job of defeating the screen saver lock policy set by the IT gestapo.
Software Zen: delete this;
|
|
|
|
|
Can you tell me how to get a copy of this utility. I could really use it. Thanks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I had the same thing happen. Suddenly things don't work right. Aaaaargh.
It's a lesson you don't forget. You have my sympathies.
 
|
|
|
|
|
I had a similar issue with that stupid little key. It wasn't Excel, but rather Synergy[^]. When scroll lock is on, the cursor is locked to the current screen. I lost a fair bit of time on that little gem. The upside is that I [probably] won't forget.
|
|
|
|
|
I use it with my IOGEAR KVM switch. Bang on the Scroll Lock twice, and it switches between the two computers connected to it.
Psychosis at 10
Film at 11
Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
|
|
|
|
|
There is some consolation in more modern laptops going without Scroll Lock. The key will die eventually.
I still find XON-XOFF useful. Say I've got a massive Visual Studio compile going in a dos box and there's some interesting error messages early on. I can't just move the scroll bar to go back and see because the compile is spewing more and keeps taking me back to the bottom of the stream. Typing ^S (XOFF) stops the incoming text and I can browse around to see what happened. Satisfied, ^Q (XON) resumes the flood. Works on Linux, too.
Dang! My '58 Renault Dauphine has another flat tire.
|
|
|
|
|
And what about the '7' key? Who here has actually used that?
|
|
|
|
|
Doug.McFarlane wrote: And what about the '7' key? Who here has actually used that?
I am assuming that you used the '7' key in order to write the question. And before you ask ... no I did not use it as well; I copy/pasted it  Of course, I can also get it from Charmap viz: 7. But you cannot get it using Alt-037 because that includes itself in its definition.
Re: ScrLk - like most posters here, I still use Ctrl-S / Ctrl-Q (XON / XOFF) rather than ScrLk because it works on many environments.
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
