Obscure button tier list
If you have "Help" instead of "Ins", replace it with Overgod-tier. Keep pressing it, it will come.
OC, feel free to share.
EDIT; Home is now G-od tier. I didn't know it would go to the beginning of a line, I always used macros "lol".
Home is God-tier, just as useful as End when editing stuff.
Insanely useful editing CLI
Had to look for a new laptop for my wife. One of the requirements was a Home and an End key because both were missing on her old laptop for some inane reason. Not available with Fn, just nothing. Before that we wouldn't even have thought of checking for that.
You can add those as win+, or any other combination you like, using KMonad or Kanata, plus a lot of other shenanigans. But I guess having them natively is a lot easier for everyone involved.
Apple didn’t think so on the iPhone
You don't use Home? Home and End are my two most used keys on this list. IDEs move your cursor to the beginning of the line but after the indents. It's God -tier.
PgUp and PgDn are also extremely useful when scrolling through logs
I second this! You're not really a programmer until you know how to use home button.
I don't usually gatekeep, except to OP.
but modal editors :/
Home / End to navigate
Shift home/end to select text
add CTRL to navigate the whole doc / page
add shift again to select whole page
I use them constantly, but I'm flipping between excel (/sheets), web, CLI, GUI most days
Seriously this was my first thought.
I actually remap PgDn/PgUp to Home/End on my poorly-designed keyboard that lacks those
I really miss home and end on my laptop keyboard. (Hate needing to use the Fn+Home key each time.)
Home is pretty useful actually, just like end. Ins can go fuck itself
I used ins all the time before I moved to 65% keyboard. All of those times were accidental when hitting backspace
ins for vim. quickly changing between replace and insert mode
Ctrl+Insert and Shift+Insert ist like Ctrl-C Ctrl-V, but it works in terminals too. Very useful.
Yup I use insert for this all the time.
You never use the home button? Do you also not use the terminal?
Yeah, how is "end" in god tier and "home" in replace tier? They're 2 sides of the same coin
Never go back
I use vi
For those learning how good Home is, wait until you try CTRL + Home. Start of the file.
Also see: CTRL + End
Exactly. I feel that people shaming all these extra buttons must have been raised in the era of smartphones. They are all so useful. Well, except Insert. I still don't get the point.
Or they vim bindings wherever possible, then those keys are a bit redundant and harder to reach
Smells like windows if End is God Tier but Home isn't. On the command line being without either would kill my speed something fierce
Ctrl-a and Ctrl-e are much faster to type than home/end and do the same thing (assuming a standard readline-enabled command line).
All the keys in the cluster above the arrow keys are really too hard to reach to be of real practical use, IMO. Actually that includes arrow keys as well. Just too far from home row.
Is this a joke I'm too set -o vi to understand?
Not even just windows - i've used it a lot on windows systems - but yeah, this rather carries the scent of a skills issue
On SSH that button is a killer, even works in vim. For home I never found any use.
I've only had issues with embedded serial consoles and things where you have to swap ctrl-h/? for backspace. But usually it's solvable with key mapping.
Also you mention vi/m but insert is red? That's the toggle switch between insert and replace mode (i vs shift-R)
How long have you been programming?
They are all useful, except for maybe Pause. Ctrl+Insert and Shift+Insert ist like Ctrl-C Ctrl-V, but it works in terminals too. Home goes to the beginning of the line. Shift+Home marks the line from current position until the beginning.
They are all useful, except for maybe Pause.
And Scroll Lock?
I use all of these keys except scroll lock. Mainly because there aren't any software vendors that support the function anymore, and nobody has had the innovation to use it for anything new.
I use insert regularly, delete all the time. Home and end, pretty much daily.... Print screen sometimes (though I usually use a screen snippet tool instead), and pause is used in some keyboard shortcuts in Windows that are very helpful.
Idk why we're picking on insert and pause when F12 is right there. Seriously, does anyone use any F keys beyond F5? If you do, is your scope then limited to F1/F2/F5? Maybe add alt+F4?
All the F keys do stuff. But in my experience, 90+ % of the time nobody knows what those things are. One of my personal favorites is F2 which is generally used as a shortcut to "rename". It's very helpful. Honorable mention to F5 for all the reasons you would expect.
Meanwhile, there's people like OP throwing shade at our good friend "home".... What are you saying OP? Are you to good for your home?
F9-F12 are useful when you're debugging code in Visual Studio.
I sometimes use F6 to jump to my browser's address bar.
Can't imagine any uses for F7 or F8 though. And all the times I've opened a help screen with F1 have been on accident.
My main gripe with function keys on laptops is they're tiny and easy to mix up, especially since they have large brightness, volume, etc. icons on them while the function key number is a tiny label that's barely visible.
F12 opens dev tools in most browsers, so I use that one all the time.
Good one. I forget about this one unless I need it, which isn't very often...
I'm pretty certain Excel supports scroll lock. It lets you scroll the sheet with the arrow keys instead of moving from cell to cell (also last time I tried you could go to the ribbon menu with the slash key, like in the good ol' Lotus 123 days). Wouldn't be surprised if it also works in other spreadsheet programs.
These are good tips. I wish I know this when I was in college. I may have been able to get more than the over 100% I got in the excel unit.
Blender uses F11 to view render, F12 to render, and F9 to adjust last operation. Shift+F1 through F12 switches through different editors.
And yes of course noone knows that, there's not a single person in the world who knows all Blender shortcuts. More importantly though most F keys are unassigned which means you can bind something to it without unbinding something you never heard about.
IT here. I use the F keys any time I have to change bios or bootloader settings, which is about once a month. Worst part is that no manufacturer uses the same F keys for getting into the bios/boot settings, and no bootloader either, windows and Dell change theirs over time. One Generation it's F6 to get into the bios, the next it's F8, and then a generation later it's Del. Sometimes it's F2 and F10 or F11 and F12; and almost never F3, F4, F7.
On a more positive note, Autodesk uses the F keys as hotkeys to toggle settings quickly, which is nice when I put on my drafter hat. I imagine a lot of technical software has figured this out.
I remember using F2 quite often when I was younger, but I can't remember why. I think it might have been New Game in a lot of the Windows built-in games?
That all being said... I get that these keys were originally intended for software to assign to whatever software-specific functions, as a kind of "Function keys," but we've evolved since then, and I much prefer the laptop scheme of having an extra key on the bottom row that modifies all other keys as a kind of "Function key" instead of 12 that don't do anything specific. Of the uses listed above, BIOSes/bootloaders don't have to use F keys instead of regular ones--except possibly standards requiring the other keys to always output specific characters even when the software can't use it, but if that's the case I'd love to see the devs all agree upon which keys open bios settings and which accesses the boot order menu.
I'm also IT, hello brother.
I use the F keys all the time. I would argue that they were, and still are, function keys. They're a built in set of hotkeys to functions. F1 was, and often still is, the hotkey for help. Most people simply default to the menu, about, help or whatever. Using their mouse instead of the keyboard. I find most help dialogs in Windows applications to be fairly useless. They're often populated with incomplete and/or out of date information.
F2 in operating systems is most often used for rename, in my experience. F4, specifically alt+F4 is close, F5 for refresh, F6 varies; the one I know is for the address bar in Chrome. Also in Chrome, F7 is caret browsing, and F12 for developer tools or diagnostics. The keys are not universal and change from app to app, as they should.
IMO F-keys are unsung heros of advanced users, where the majority don't even know what they are there for.
I will agree and commiserate about bios being some selection of F2/F6/F8/F11/F12/delete. Often on a system I have not used in a while, I'll just bang every one of those keys in an effort to get to some menu that will allow me to enter the BIOS/UEFI. It often works, other times I'm just staring at the screen until it tells me what to press, or frantically googling it while the system is shutting down, trying to find the right key before it gets to the BIOS loading screen.
Good luck out there brother.
I use pgup/pgdn every day. Especially with terminal multiplexers, as I am unaware of how to view the scrollback buffer of long outputs faster than a quick couple of pgup's.
"pause/break" I can understand if you don't write compiled code I guess (if you don't know, Ctrl+break usually stops compilation, very handy when you reread your code while compiling and realized you fucked something up), but "home" is remove-tier ??? It's one of the most useful keys for editing text my dude
Ctrl+break doesn't do anything on my machine. Ctrl+c stops a process.
I always have it setup to stop compilation. Picked that up from using visual studio for many years. I admit it's been a while since I last compiled something from a terminal
Space Engineers players are fuming
These buttons are my livelihood
They are my bane lol
You can take my ins from my cold dead hands!
I remember at one point when I was younger and newer to computers I was typing a document for school and being driven nuts by the damn insert key. Like I had zero clue as to why everything I was typing was just being overwritten every time I needed to go back and change something. I still think the insert key is absolutey evil!
I had a similar experience, but after I eventually figured it out, I grew to appreciate the insert key. Mostly because there were a few times when someone else was getting frustrated with the same problem and I was able to help them. It made me feel powerful; I had suffered, but I now possessed the knowledge to save others from the same fate.
What do you use it for
Two things
I'll take home over pgup/down any day.
Also Menu key is pretty obscure, I consider it a yellow, since it's useful when you don't have a mouse, but there are other shortcuts that can do it (shift+f10)
Pause is useless but only because escape steals all it's usecases in apps.The only tool I know that uses it prominently is Windbg
what, no SysRq?
boo!
Raising elephants is so utterly boring.
Ins is so much more deserving of an indicator light than scroll lock - I almost never want Ins engaged in it's normal meaning... I'd rather just delete word and retype the whole thing.
Pressing ScrLk twice and then the number of the port switches to this port on the KVM switch in the office. Very specific use case, but still.
Pause ... I have no idea. If I remember correctly you can, well, pause terminal output with it, but I never tried.
The rest of the keys I use regularly.
On a serious note, the PC keyboard seriously needs a revamp. Scroll Lock? What does that even do nowadays?
I usually bind some toggled macros to it (e.g autoclicker). The lil' light really comes in handy for this use case. I also used it as my "mute" shortcut in various VOIP softwares for a while for the same reason
Fucks up what I expect the arrow keys to do in Excel is what.
At least move the CAPS LOCK key. There’s no good justification for why it should be on the home row.
I generally remap to swap caps lock with left control. Having control on the home row makes Ctrl shortcuts way less of a contortion act.
Useful in general but especially so on laptop keyboards.
Switches Excel to scroll the sheet with the arrow keys instead of moving from cell to cell.
Scroll Lock? What does that even do nowadays?
In Excel it pans the whole worksheet with the arrow keys instead of shifting the active cell.
Same thing in Word, you can move around in the document without shifting your cursor position.
It also does the same kind of thing in most editors where there is an "active editing position" vs a "view of the page".
on debian based system PrntScr actually prints stuff you're looking at in a terminal, if a printer is configured. learned that the hard way, accidentally printing hundreds of pages of html source
Insert is extremely useful in any editing situation. Right after Find and Replace.
Except in VS Code -.-
tbh I've been saved by VS Code ignoring a fat fingering of the Insert key by mistake far more times than I've actually wanted it to work as intended.
My work laptop has pg up and pg down as a secondary on the up and down arrows. It's such a threat to be able to move up and down a page with just pressing fn and the arrow keys
This comment just gave me ptsd due to a shitty keyboard I had growing up, they decided to put the sleep button (is that even still a thing? 👴) right next to the delete key I hit that thing on accident so many times :(
I have a power key on my Logitech keyboard. (K800 or something?) As far as I could find out, I could not turn it off, but you can change the action. Like sleep, shutdown, and restart or something.. very.. interesting feature?
Woah buddy, no need to be so threatening to these innocent web pages
Autocorrect screwed me on that one haha
If you don't need it just use it as keybind for something else.
I love to bind push to talk on my beloved ScrLk as it is not interfering with any other shortcut!
Most tier lists use a tabular format, often horizontal. This one looks like a table organized vertically. Except it's neither and instead uses color, but isn't R/G colorblindness the most common form? Anyway, I'm saying that I found it confusing.
Then again, you posted infinitely more to Lemmy today than I did (at zero:-P), so there is no need at all to listen to my whining if you aren't interested in such feedback on presentation style:-D.
I'm severely deutan, even then red and green are a clear difference. Yellow is a bit harder to see, but still visible. Should not be an issue unless you are suffering from dichromatism.
I never used to use Home and End until I put them on a layer right next to my home row. Now I can't live without them. Position really makes a difference!
Where's the 'PtrSc' key? On Peter's keyboard presumably.
PrtSc, so it's on Pirate's Screen.
I saw the picture before reading the edit and was trying to imagine what OP was doing that made the end key significantly more useful than the home key, like not going backwards on principle or something.
I use all of these except ScrollLock.
What about the CapsLock key? Windows menu key?
Caps lock is great for rebinding to Ctrl
I also use it for Esc which is really convenient for Vim
I work in an architecture firm, and whenever we put text on the plans, it's always in ALL CAPS. It's a niche use-case, but Caps Lock has saved my pinkie finger from getting sore holding down shift for hours a day
Yeah that's a common one. If you're into mechanical keyboards, there are a lot of keycap sets that offer an alternative Control key for the CapsLock position.
Personally I rebind it to Super (Winkey). I have a couple of keyboards without Windows keys, so I can still have a Super key and don't miss out on some handy shortcuts.
Capslock is great for writing SQL.
I write a ton of SQL. I never use my CapsLock key.
SQL doesn't need to be upper case, in fact I loathe upper case SQL.
And the Pause key too!?
HOW DO YOU YELL WITHOUT CAPSLOCK?
Don't take my pause key from me that's the best key! I just want pausable games to bind with that key again like they used to, guys it's right there by name and everything. Just started playing rollercoaster tycoon 2 again and, after the mandatory drowning of the first person I saw, I was delighted to find the pause key pauses the game. Even better is if I need to take a break from something pause/break is inclusive of it all. I can walk away from what I'm up to for minute and don't have to worry that the machine is going to feel abandoned because it's right there on the key just taking a break little buddy I'll be back.
Okay I'll bite..: How are PgUp and PgDown yellow, when Menu is missing from the list?
Right? Same with Home, I use that all the time.
Hey! Don't remove the context menu key, I use that! The alternatives are 1. using the mouse (no!) and 2. Alt+F10 which is awkward.
Huh.. Do you also move the cursor with your keyboard? And if so, don't you have an RMB key? If you don't use a mouse, do you use a GUI that isn't suited for keyboard navigation?
Where's the Copilot key?
Ctrl+ pgup/ pgdn.
Moving tabs in Vscode or browsers.
God Tier on thinkpad keyboard.
No one's gonna throw shade at the ≣ key? Aka the Menu Key?
It's next to useless. It's almost always used to open the right-click menu, which is specifically for GUIs and based on the mouse position... so why not just right-click? What silly person is using their mouse except to bring up the context menu?
I'd say the same about the Super Key (❖) Aka The Windows Key, but I got i3wm on my laptop and I am loving having a GUI without needing to use my mortal enemy: the Trackpad. Plus it's a minor time-save above moving windows/clicking menus with the mouse; still doesn't apply to Menu when your finger's already hovering over the RMB.
Super/Windows key isn't useless... It gives you another modifier key. Since apps don't really use it, you can use it for global shortcuts without the risk of collisions with shortcut keys that individual apps support like you would with Ctrl, Alt and Shift.
I have to disagree with the Windows key being useless. Win+Shift+S for selective screen grab to clipboard. Win+E to open a new Explorer window. Win+D to show the desktop. They were my go-tos. Now I'm forced to use Mac I use the Win key all the time too, Win+C, Win+V....
I use it to open the spell checker options while I'm typing. It's annoying to have to switch from keyboard to mouse. My current laptop doesn't have the key and I even added another short key.
The super key, again, is useful so you don't have to switch between keyboard and mouse when searching for an app. It is also the modifier for all GUI shortcuts.
I use the menu key in my terminal emulator to paste from the clipboard. Just Menu -> P. There's probably a shortcut, but this works.
Very nice! Jsyk, you can also use Shift + Ctrl + V for the one handed paste (likewise Shift + Ctrl + C to copy), or Shift + Insert (and Ctrl + Insert to copy) works too. If you're on Windows, right clicking in CMD/Powershell pastes, Enter copies anything highlighted, and Ctrl + V work as usual... Ctrl + C copies too, except when a command/script is actively running, in which case it sends the halt signal, so use it at your own risk.
I usually stick to the Ctrl + Shift shortcuts, but it messes me up when I'm trying to copy from firefox into my terminal and I accidentally bring up the devtools instead
It's so useless that Microsoft recently announced it's going to replace it with a button for their stupid AI bullshit Copilot
According to the ancient list of standard keyboard shortcuts (generally made famous by Microsoft, but used elsewhere before and after), the context menu was Shift+F10 anyway. Plain F10 being the main menu. A context menu key wasn't really needed.
Even the Windows key had the alternative binding Ctrl+Esc for those people who had old keyboards. That's why Ctrl+Shift+Esc called up Task Manager. Related meanings and all that. Arguably though, the Windows key being associated with the space-cadet keyboard's Super functionality was a stroke of genius on the part of Linux adopters. It's also why Alt is often called "Meta".
I'm surprised the context menu key hasn't been called and used as "Hyper", but then there is only one on a modern PC keyboard. There's two of all the others.
(Given the precedent, Alt+F10 ought to be the window manager's "title bar" menu, but the Alt+F# shortcuts are a separate, older, family. Most aren't implemented by default these days, but the famous don't press it without thinking Alt+F4 to close the window is part of it. Alt+Space is what's used instead for the aforementioned menu.)
What about the Any key?
Titan tier. I press it every time a program tells me to.
Sure, but I ordered a Tab ages ago and it still hasn't arrived.
I use Win+Pause as a shortcut to bring up the system menu in Windows. I've used it so much over the years, it takes me a minute to figure out how to find that menu when I'm using a keyboard that doesn't have a Windows key.
I also use Home and End about equally. Quick way to scroll back and forth across text or files/folders.
I was about to say home being useful cause it helps to get to the beginning of the page but its already mentioned in the description of the post 😂😂😂
I must be in the minority. I haven’t used any of these keys in over a decade. Probably more like 15 years at this point. Command + something can replace almost all of these, so why waste an extra key on it.
Really you just need a command key, get rid of the rest. Hold it down for different lengths of time to indicate which key input you want.
You still use keys?
There's a comedy sketch from about twenty years ago where that happens but I can't find it at the mo.
You joke, but my caps lock on my laptop keyboard is mapped to command and if I double tap it and hold it’s my hyper key. On my crkbd keyboard if I hold a it’s option and semicolon is control. I have quite a lot of keys like this. It’s very efficient.
What about Menu?
Good Tier, underused.
Don't you dare come for my Pause key! That's the one I've remapped to launch the screen lock!
Personally I'd put home in green and del in yellow, I've got home and end mapped to the left and right of my up arrow key (for some reason Lenovo decided in their infinite wisdom to put pgup and pgdn there) and it makes it far faster to get around text editors
Fellow deutans, fuck you
Gosh thanks. I was wondering why there are only two colors in this chart.