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A Staff Report from the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
= What's the "Scroll Lock" key on my computer for? = October 7, 2003 Dear Straight Dope: Why does my computer keyboard have this "Scroll Lock" key that seems to serve no purpose whatsoever? In 15 years I don't remember ever pushing that button. I'm almost scared to touch it - Insanegrey, Lawrence, KS Although your mother told you that there are many things to avoid touching (like downed electric lines, scorpions, and the "naughty place"), don't be afraid to touch the Scroll Lock key. Nothing bad will happen - in fact, probably nothing at all will happen. Once upon a time, however, something did. The Scroll Lock key has appeared on the keyboards of IBM personal computers since the original 83-key PC/XT and the 84-key AT layouts, and remains on the 101-key and greater "enhanced" keyboards currently in use. The Scroll Lock key wasn't on the original Macintosh keyboards but appears on the Mac's "enhanced" keyboard. The main intent of the Scroll Lock key was to allow scrolling of screen text up, down and presumably sideways using the arrow keys in the days before large displays and graphical scroll bars. You can see where this might have been handy in the DOS era, when screen output typically was limited to 80 characters wide by 25 rows deep. For some types of programs, spreadsheets being the obvious example, it's still handy now. In Microsoft Excel, Scroll Lock allows you to scroll a spreadsheet with the arrow keys without moving the active cell pointer from the currently highlighted cell. In Quattro Pro, another spreadsheet program, Scroll Lock works in a similar manner, although in contrast to Excel it's not possible to scroll the active cell pointer completely off the screen. Other programs use Scroll Lock for special functions. It's said (although I haven't personally verified this) that the Linux operating system as well as some early mainframe and minicomputer terminals employed Scroll Lock to stop text from scrolling on your screen in command-line sessions - pausing the scrolling, in effect. The ancient DOS adventure game "Rogue" (one of my all-time favorites) used Scroll Lock to scroll your character's movement through the ASCII dungeons on the display. I'm told some computers in the late 1980s used the Scroll Lock key to halt the scrolling of the boot-up messages that appeared when you started the computer. This last use may be apocryphal, as I could find no examples of computers that displayed this behavior. The point is, Scroll Lock sometimes does something besides make that little light light up.
What else can I help you with?
Where is the scroll lock button on acer aspire 5741?
On this system the scroll lock is on the function key that is F12
How to Turn off scroll lock?
hit scroll lock and again and it will go off push the scroll lock key on the upper right of your key board
How do you unlock belkin keyboard scroll lock key?
To unlock the Scroll Lock key on a Belkin keyboard, you can typically press the "Scroll Lock" key directly, which may be labeled as "ScrLk." If your keyboard doesn't have a dedicated Scroll Lock key, you can try using the "Fn" key in combination with another key, such as "C" or "K," depending on your keyboard model. Additionally, you can check if your computer has a virtual keyboard feature that can toggle Scroll Lock.
What is the purpose of the scroll lock?
The scroll lock key was originally used to toggle the arrow keys between scrolling a document and moving the cursor. However, it is rarely used in modern applications and its function varies depending on the software being used.
Where is the scroll lock key on Acer e machines?
On an Acer aspire laptop, the scroll lock is on the F12 key. In blue letters it says Scr Lk, whihc , means scroll lock.
How do you get scroll lock off when on f12 key?
To turn off Scroll Lock when using a keyboard with an F12 key, you can usually press the "Scroll Lock" key directly if it exists on your keyboard. If your keyboard doesn’t have a dedicated Scroll Lock key, you can try pressing "Fn" + "C" or "Fn" + "K," depending on your keyboard's layout. Alternatively, you can check the On-Screen Keyboard in Windows by searching for it in the Start menu, where you can toggle Scroll Lock off.
Where is the scroll lock on dell laptop?
The scroll lock key is located usually on the keyboard, mainly somewhere on the top or lower right.Original Answer: (from wikipedia)The Scroll Lock key was meant to lock all scrolling techniques, and is a remnant from the original IBM PC keyboard, though it is not used by most modern-day software. In the original design, Scroll Lock was intended to modify the behavior of the arrow keys. When the Scroll Lock mode was on, the arrow keys would scroll the contents of a text window instead of moving the cursor. In this usage, Scroll Lock is a toggling lock key like Num Lock or Caps Lock, which have a state that persists after the key is released.
How do you unlock scroll lock on fujitsu laptop?
the scroll lock button on my fujitsu laptop is to hold the function button, and press the Number Lock button
What is the function of enter key?
Scroll
How to turn on scroll lock on a toshiba amd laptop?
The scroll lock on a Toshiba laptop computer can be found in the upper right-hand corner of the keyboard. Depress the scroll lock key to turn it on.
Deactivate Fn key and fujitsu notebook?
scroll lock + fn key
The num lock button is not off after pressing num lock key?
press and hold the Fn key and press the Scroll key (num lock key) on my gateway laptop!!
