Computers in our current era of technology and development have become one of the most used objects. This is due to their great variety of functions and the large amount of information that we can obtain from them through the internet. And like any technological device, the computer has several parts that make it up, such as the mouse, speakers, screen, CPU, and finally what could be considered fundamental in our current era of communication. The keyboard is what we will be talking about in this Article.
The keyboard could be called the part that we actively need the most. Not only for our computer but for any other device that has one. Through it, we can enter all the words and information that we want to share or store on our computers. People who write large files or documents often know some of the keyboard functions that they use so much. It can be really useful.
Most know how important the keyboard is in our lives. However, few really know the parts that compose it and the functions of the keyboard. This is why each of these functions will be used will be explained below.
Function block
The function block is the one at the top of the keyboard. It is divided into 12 keys, each of which is named from the Esc key and F1 to the F12 key. The functions of these 12 keys are not usually used since they are only necessary in some special cases that the system requires us to press some. Most people do not usually think much about these keys.
However, depending on the application or program you are using, these can have different uses, for example:
If you are one of those who use Word a lot, you will be able to realize that if you press F1 when you are using it, it will open the Word help window, if you press F4 it will replicate the action you have done previously, that is if you write a word or paragraph and then Pressing F4 will duplicate what you typed if you press F5 it will open the ‘Find and Replace’ window.
They can also use the key combination using Ctrl´Alt´ and `Shift´ together with the function block keys to discover more functions.
Alphanumeric Block
The alphanumeric keyboard is divided between the ten decimal digits (From 1 to 0), all the letters of the alphabet, and each one of the punctuation and accentuation signs that exist in our vocabulary, also including the space bar, enter, Shift, Ctrl and Alt.
The functions of the alphanumeric keyboard are: mainly it allows us to use each of the letters of the alphabet, numbers, and punctuation and accentuation marks to be able to write and communicate in our respective language, whatever we want to either store on our computer or share with the others so that among the keyboard blocks the alphanumeric can be considered the most important.
In addition, this block also has several keys that have several functions we can perform through either a combination of keys or by themselves, such as the enter key, shift, alt, ctrl, space bar, insert, back, cursors, caps lock, Alt Gr, and control. Each of them has one or more different functions that will allow us to perform different actions. For example, if we combine Alt Gr with 2, the @ will be created.
Command block
The command keys of the keyboard can be considered the special keys unlike the majority of the keys that can only do a single function. Most of the keys of the command block can do more than one specific function depending on the program you are using.
The command keys are Shift, Ctrl, Enter, Caps Lock, Tab, and Esc. Among these keys, the Ctrl key has the greatest functions since it can be combined with many of the other keys. Some of the combinations that can be made with this key are:
- Ctrl + C: this combination allows us to copy any text on the computer
- Ctrl + V: this combination allows us to paste any information that we have previously copied.
- Ctrl + S: this combination allows us to save any file as a document that we are making.
- Ctrl + P: this combination shows us the print preview of any document that we are making.
Numeric block
This block has 17 keys in which we can find the numbers and signs that will allow us to perform different arithmetic operations. In addition, there is a special key called `Num Lock´. This key allows us to activate or deactivate the numeric block of the keyboard. If we want to use the block number or make it stop working we must press that key. We can know if it is active or not thanks to a small light that is usually above the same block, if it is on it means that the block is active, otherwise, we must press it to activate it.
Edit Block
The keyboard editing block has 13 keys that are distributed between the number block and the alphanumeric block; these keys especially allow us to use the cursor movement function, add resources and adjust the different characters.
Well, as you can see, the keyboard has many more functions than we think. It is more complicated than it seems. Learning these functions or memorizing at least some of them will allow us to use our keyboard in a more skillful and faster way. In turn, this allows us to speed up some parts of the writing work that we are doing. This is very useful, especially for people who usually carry out a lot of documents and files on their computer or for people who are just starting out in this type of task.
