Since today is a Friday , I ’m extend to cocker in some frivolous commentary about my new keyboard . OK , so it ’s not really new ; it ’s just “ new modified . ” Take a look at my keyboard , pictured below .
Now , some might draw this keyboard as “ busted ” ; I call it “ improved . ”
You see , one of my pet peeve about information processing system keyboards has long been the location of the Help key fruit . It ’s a key that is seldom used , yet it ’s positioned directly beside one of the most oftentimes - used key , Delete . So unless you ’re an exceedingly precise typer , you now and again impinge on the assistance key accidentally . I , by my own admission , am not an precise typer . I hit this key far too often .
Sure , there are a bit infrequently - used tonality located next to frequently - used 1 . The difference with Help is that dissimilar , say , the tilde key , which simply type a fictional character that can quickly be deleted , pressing the avail key launch the current software ’s assistant system — which proceeds to take over your system as it launches . Apple ’s Help arrangement is bad enough , with its glacially dull loading , but at least you could take leave it when it ’s finished via a quick Command+Q.
The real offenders are applications such as Microsoft Office : Once Office ’s help organization launches , there ’s no way to send away it via the keyboard ; you have to manually pussyfoot over to the teeny - weeny close push button . In either case , if you ’re typecast along at full steam , seek to keep up with a stream of literary cognisance , accidentally bid Help bestow your transcription to a screeching check .
( Back in Mac OS 9 , there was a handy utility called Helpless that simply deactivated the supporter key . Sadly — for me , at least — there ’s no OS tenner equivalent weight . I could practice a keyboard macro / shortcut utility such as Script Software’siKeyto assign , well , nothingto the Help key — so that it does n’t do anything when I press it — but installing software toremovekeyboard functionality seems a snatch backward . )
So earlier this week , after yet another burst of inadvertent - help - system - launching thwarting , I decide to take drastic measures . I just pried off the Help winder itself . yank it out like a loose tooth begging to be pulled . I have n’t strike the Help key since , and one of my big petty computer annoyances has been solved . Permanently . If I need to use Help , I just access it from the menu bar .
really , on my Tactile Pro keyboard , there ’s still a recess push that I can press ; I just ca n’t attain it incidentally .
This solution may not look great , since my keyboard now has a piddling hole where the Help key used to be , but it works . And I take on that I got a little bit of perverse atonement when I pulled that key out , knowing it would never have the joy of disrupt my oeuvre again .
My actual beef is with the whizz who many years ago decide to put such a “ destructive - to - workflow ” button next to one of the most ofttimes used tonality on the keyboard . But at least now I think about that someone only when contemplate theories of hardware figure , rather than several time each day when my body of work is interrupt .
