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”.

      • SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        23
        ·
        11 months ago

        Editing a line and pressing home to jump to the start of it is incredibly useful.

        More so when dealing with anything that was wrapped

        • rubicon@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          11 months ago

          I have my left mouse wheel click set to home, and right mouse wheel click to end. That way I can decide if I want to be at the start of the line or the end.

    • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      11 months ago

      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.

      • OmidMnz@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        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.

  • Dandroid@dandroid.app
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    101
    ·
    11 months ago

    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.

  • Dudwithacake@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    36
    ·
    11 months ago

    For those learning how good Home is, wait until you try CTRL + Home. Start of the file.

    Also see: CTRL + End

  • ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    38
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    11 months ago

    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

    • sushibowl@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      11 months ago

      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.

    • Taleya@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      11 months ago

      Not even just windows - i’ve used it a lot on windows systems - but yeah, this rather carries the scent of a skills issue

            • Albbi@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              11 months ago

              Oh that’s interesting. You thought it was a back key? That’s very interesting to me as I’ve been using computers since before a ‘back button’ on browsers was a thing.

              • krotti@sh.itjust.worksOP
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                11 months ago

                I actually thought it was like a reset button, like when using a browser, pressing home would put you into your home page. If the name was start, like end, I may have tried to actually use it for text editing.

                And those who don’t want to translate it, “Home” is “Mold” in Finnish, a running joke that the button is never used lol.

      • computergeek125@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        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)

  • crispy_kilt@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    11 months ago

    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.

      • dan@upvote.au
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        ·
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        Scroll lock is useful for Excel. It makes the arrow keys scroll the spreadsheet without changing the currently selected cell. This was actually the original use case for the scroll lock key.

      • ggppjj@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        11 months ago

        It’s useful for UltraVNC to pass through key combos like alt-tab without triggering them on the local PC.

  • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    11 months ago

    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?

    • mrunicornman@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      11 months ago

      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.

    • Heavybell@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      11 months ago

      I built myself a foot pedal that presses F14. It’s super useful as a global hotkey 'cause nothing else uses it. :P

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        11 months ago

        This is good. I’ve been looking for a way to assign a foot pedal as a global mute toggle. This might be a good first step. I like it.

        Thanks for the idea.

        • Heavybell@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          11 months ago

          I bought an existing foot pedal off aliexpress. It came with a little dangling wire, supposedly meant to be hooked up to a piece of industrial equipment. Opened it up, removed the existing wire, soldered a wire to a suitable arduino dev board and hot glued it inside. If you want I can dig up the exact parts I used and even the code. But I also suspect maybe you want to figure it out yourself?

          • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            11 months ago

            Some bits I can certainly figure out. The Arduino code is the part I’ll be very bad at; so if you can get that without too much trouble, I would appreciate it.

            I’m sure I’ll use a different pedal than what you did, since I don’t know if the supply availability will be the same, but honestly, it’s just a fancy switch designed to be used by a foot, so I’m sure it’s nothing difficult.

            If it’s too difficult to find the code, no worries, I’m sure there’s plenty of examples around the internet of similar types of code for different purposes (like a shortcut keyboard or something). I’m certain that we’re not the first and certainly not the last to want something similar in function.

            • Heavybell@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              11 months ago

              Here’s the code I wrote:

              #include "Keyboard.h"
              
              const char FUNCTION_F14 = 0xF1;
              int down = 0;
              
              void setup() {
                // make pin 2 an input and turn on the
                // pullup resistor so it goes high unless
                // connected to ground:
                pinMode(2, INPUT_PULLUP);
                // initialize control over the keyboard:
                Keyboard.begin();
              }
              
              void loop() {
                int nowDown = digitalRead(2) == LOW;
              
                if (down != nowDown) {
                  down = nowDown;
              
                  if (down) {
                    Keyboard.press(FUNCTION_F14);
                  } else {
                    Keyboard.release(FUNCTION_F14);
                  }
                }
              }
              

              Note that the #include was meant to use angle brackets, but Lemmy ate them. If this doesn’t work, change it back to angle brackets around the Keyboard.h instead of quotes.

              Also, the parts I used:

              I wired it up like in the photo, and just laid it on a bed of hot glue so the USB port sticks out the hole. I had intended to get a mini USB extension cable inside the pedal, but the one I ordered turned up defective, and this worked out just fine.

              • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                11 months ago

                Excellent. Thanks for digging this up.

                I’m just wondering what you used to bind F14 to do something on your PC? Some companion application?

                • Heavybell@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  11 months ago

                  I just noticed lemmy didn’t like the #include statement because it uses angle brackets. I tried to update it but it doesn’t look right, so I’m going to change it to quotes which should work the same, I believe. I’m not a C expert, I usually code in C#.

    • leftzero@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      11 months ago

      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.

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        11 months ago

        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.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      11 months ago

      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.

    • BaumGeist@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      11 months ago

      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.

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        11 months ago

        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.

  • meteokr@community.adiquaints.moe
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    11 months ago

    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.

    • KrapKake@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      11 months ago

      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!

      • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        11 months ago

        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.

  • Sylvartas@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    11 months ago

    “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

      • Sylvartas@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        11 months ago

        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

  • saigot@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    11 months ago

    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

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    11 months ago

    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.