The Keyboard

Chapter 5

The Keyboard

The number of keys on your keyboard depends on which country/region’s keyboard layout your computer is configured with. Keyboards for numerous languages are available.

There are five types of keys: typewriter keys, function keys, soft keys, Windows® special keys, and cursor control keys.

Typewriter keys

The typewriter keys produce the upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and special symbols that appear on the screen.

There are some differences, however, between using a typewriter and using a computer keyboard:

Letters and numbers produced in computer text vary in width. Spaces, which are created by a "space character," may also vary depending on line justification and other factors.

The lowercase l (el) and the number 1 (one) are not interchangeable on computers as they are on a typewriter.

The uppercase O (oh) and the 0 (zero) are not interchangeable.

The Caps Lock function key locks only the alphabetic characters in uppercase while the shift lock on a typewriter places all keys in the shifted position.

The Shift keys, the Tab key, and the BackSpace key perform the same function as their typewriter counterparts but also have special computer functions.

User’s Manual

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