Why is Shift preferred over Caps Lock?

[Waist of Thyme]

It seems like most people prefer using Shift over Caps Lock. I don't know if I know anyone other than me that uses Caps Lock. 

I always thought Caps Lock seemed more convenient because with Shift you have to be holding two keys at once. With Caps Lock you only have to press one key at a time, so it's less physical exertion than having to be pressing two. It also seems like it takes less time for Caps Lock than it does for Shift, at least for me. But I've memorized the position of Caps Lock on my keyboard while for Shift I have to look and sometimes I get the Control key by mistake even when I am looking for it. 

 

As a disclaimer, this isn't intended in a hostile way to people that use Shift. Everyone has their own personal preferences, I'm just genuinely wondering if I'm missing something if there are this many people that prefer Shift to Caps Lock. If you ask 10 different people what their favorite color or food or song is, you could get 10 different answers. But if it's about Shift or Caps Lock, you might get 10 or a majority of Shifts. Is it just a more natural position to most people? Does handedness influence it? Is Shift what's taught in school computer classes? Is it more convenient for programming? Or something else? 

[Glyn]

This is a personal thing for me.  I am 44 and been using a computer for decades now.  I will use <SHIFT> & <LETTER> if I am typing just one capital letter.  However, if I have more than a couple of capitals, then I will use Caps Lock.

 

I guess this is a habit I picked up even from before I was at college.

[mercaesan]

Because if you use Caps Lock, you have to press the key twice, once to turn it on and once to turn it off. Shift stops applying when you take your finger off the key. But I never considered that Caps Lock could be easier for some people, if you prefer pressing the key twice over holding it down!

[Elsin]

3 minutes ago, mercaesan said:

Because if you use Caps Lock, you have to press the key twice, once to turn it on and once to turn it off. Shift stops applying when you take your finger off the key. But I never considered that Caps Lock could be easier for some people, if you prefer pressing the key twice over holding it down!

Yeah this is exactly why I use shift as well. Even in some instances where I'm typing more than one capital letter in a string I'll just hold down shift while I do it; using only my right hand little finger to hold down shift isn't too great a hinderance for me to type.

[teetojen]

I usually use shift when I only have one letter I need to capitalize. If I have more than 2 in a row, then I'll usually use cap lock.

[Guest]

Depends on my level of Lazy

[SpaceDustbin]

For me caps lock is only useful if you have to type 3+ letters in caps, otherwise shift is faster - and it's also what I'm used to, I guess. 

 

Back when I learned typing, shift was pretty much the only well-known option, as some typing courses around that time still used typewriters, but only a few used laptops or PCs. 

[michaeld]

Generally, though not always, capital letters occur singly, surrounded by lowercase. As others have said, this requires 3 keystrokes for only one letter, if one is to use caps lock, which doesn't seem efficient.

 

In fact I always use shift, no matter how many capitals I'm writing in a row. I've been doing this for 30 years, starting back on the BBC micro when in fact keywords had to be all-caps so there was more reason for using caps lock than there is now. So I'm completely used to using shift and would never use caps lock. So much so that on my current and last few laptops, I've even disabled the caps lock key, or more precisely I use it as the hotkey for my clipboard history program.

[Waist of Thyme]

29 minutes ago, mercaesan said:

Because if you use Caps Lock, you have to press the key twice, once to turn it on and once to turn it off. Shift stops applying when you take your finger off the key. But I never considered that Caps Lock could be easier for some people, if you prefer pressing the key twice over holding it down!

 

9 minutes ago, michaeld said:

Generally, though not always, capital letters occur singly, surrounded by lowercase. As others have said, this requires 3 keystrokes for only one letter, if one is to use caps lock, which doesn't seem efficient.

 

In fact I always use shift, no matter how many capitals I'm writing in a row. I've been doing this for 30 years, starting back on the BBC micro when in fact keywords had to be all-caps so there was more reason for using caps lock than there is now. So I'm completely used to using shift and would never use caps lock. So much so that on my current and last few laptops, I've even disabled the caps lock key, or more precisely I use it as the hotkey for my clipboard history program.

That's a good point about pressing Caps Lock twice vs Shift once, and I hadn't looked at it from that perspective. For me, pressing Caps Lock twice is still faster and easier than holding down Shift and another key once, but the posts here are shedding light on the situation. 

[Homer]

56 minutes ago, Waist of Thyme said:

With Caps Lock you only have to press one key at a time, so it's less physical exertion than having to be pressing two.

With Capslock, you end up pressing three keys instead of just one (and a half). I'm with @Glyn here.

[_Neon_]

I tend to forget that caps lock exists except when I accidently hit it, so I've fostered a simmering resentment for it.

[Still]

Some people think Caps Lock is obsolete these days, although after almost five years of posting in CAPS LOCK CLUB I would be very sad to see it go.

 

But did you know that some old home computers like the Commodore 64 had a Shift Lock key instead of Caps Lock? It's the same thing, except when it's enabled, numeric keys will give you special characters like you were holding down Shift. Exciting stuff!

 

[Ennis]

As a German Native Speaker I use much more Capital Letters than English speaking People do because in German every single Noun is capitalised. The Reason I use Shift is probably because that's how I was taught to do it. I don't mind holding down two Keys at once.

Who knows, if I had been taught to use Caps Lock instead I might prefer it. It doesn't really matter in my Opinion.

 

54 minutes ago, Neon Green Packing Peanut said:

I tend to forget that caps lock exists except when I accidently hit it, so I've fostered a simmering resentment for it.

I can relate to that. I only ever use Caps Lock by Mistake.

[Steel13]

I was never taught to type, so when I taught myself, I learned to use Caps lock instead of shift. People always tell me it is less efficient, but I type faster than most people, so I think it can work just fine. I like that I don't have to switch to a different kind of motion (holding down a key) when I am typing and find the Shift key a bit cumbersome. However, I do think it has to do with how you learned to type.

[michaeld]

2 hours ago, Still said:

Some people think Caps Lock is obsolete these days, although after almost five years of posting in CAPS LOCK CLUB I would be very sad to see it go.

 

But did you know that some old home computers like the Commodore 64 had a Shift Lock key instead of Caps Lock? It's the same thing, except when it's enabled, numeric keys will give you special characters like you were holding down Shift. Exciting stuff!

Yep the BBC micro had that too! Much like caps lock, I never used it though.

 

I also remember in some applications, you could use the shift key in delayed fashion. If you pressed shift by itself, then the shift lock key would flash until you pressed the next key, which had shift applied (but only to that key). That was presumably useful for people who find it difficult to press two keys at once. I'm not sure if this effect has been reproduced on a more modern computer.

[FJO8]

12 hours ago, Ennis said:

I only ever use Caps Lock by Mistake.

either that or when I type my username 😅

[ElloryJaye]

15 hours ago, michaeld said:

Yep the BBC micro had that too! Much like caps lock, I never used it though.

 

I also remember in some applications, you could use the shift key in delayed fashion. If you pressed shift by itself, then the shift lock key would flash until you pressed the next key, which had shift applied (but only to that key). That was presumably useful for people who find it difficult to press two keys at once. I'm not sure if this effect has been reproduced on a more modern computer.

Most modern OSs have accessibility settings that will allow you to press a modifier key (Shift, CTRL, ALT . . .) and then the key you want to apply it to, rather than having to hold the modifier down.  I believe they give an on-screen indication as well.

 

Caps lock is not even nearly the most useless key on a typical modern PC keyboard.  Pause/break and scroll lock are even more useless (I have my scroll lock mapped as a modifier for typing accented characters, for the rare occasions when I want to say something in French).  Having learned to type on a typewriter, it's rare that I have any use for caps lock either, but at least it actually does something that sort of makes sense.

 

[korik]

Someone at my work uses caps lock, then doesn't turn it off. So the people coming behind them trying to log in don't know the cap lock is on and fail to enter their password correctly. It's highly obnoxious.

[J. van Deijck]

I don't know, but on my keyboard it's called Shift Lock 😮

[timewarp]

On 1/12/2021 at 7:30 PM, Waist of Thyme said:

With Caps Lock you only have to press one key at a time, so it's less physical exertion than having to be pressing two.

[Waist of Thyme]

45 minutes ago, timewarp said:

Is that a piano?

[bare_trees]

As a librarian, I'm not fond of it because 9 times out of 10, when I'm assisting someone I notice that they hit that key and then promptly forget about it.  This is worse when they're typing sensitive information like a password and the characters can't be shown.  They type their entire password in all-caps multiple times, get locked out of their accounts, and wonder why.  It just seems difficult to keep up with if you're not comfortable using a computer in general.

[Blaiddmelyn]

Because if I'm in a rush, I often forget I switched the caps lock on and then find I've written half of a contract entirely in capital letters. Apparently, clients don't like it when their contract reads like it's shouting at them.

[DarkStormyKnight]

CAPSLOCKIANS LOVE THE CAPS LOCK

[Glyn]

On 1/17/2021 at 12:07 AM, DarkStormyKnight said:

CAPSLOCKIANS LOVE THE CAPS LOCK

You make it sound like the Capslockians are a species from Star Trek!

[Ldlelee]

The Chromebook I used to have didn't have a Caps Lock, so I got accustomed to using Shift. 🤷‍♀️

[Janus the Fox]

I've used Caps Lock for long strings of text, it's easier to lock than to just keep holding Shift for me.