Like so many Apple products, its new aluminum keyboard is endowed with artistic pizzazz as well as mundane functionality. The recessed keys on the new Apple keyboard sit atop a flat aluminum plate, in contrast to the raised plastic beds used by other manufacturers.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/27/is-this-the-new-imac-keyboard/
By redesigning the keyboard in this manner, I speculate that Apple may be trying to help computer users who suffer from acute arm strain and carpal tunnel syndrome. That’s all well and good. For unknown reasons, Apple neglected to attach a NumLock label to any of its keys. This caused a temporary problem for one of my clients who regularly runs QuickBooks for Windows on her Mac laptop using Virtual PC. She found that pressing each of the number keys on the keypad failed to generate a numeric character on the screen when she ran QuickBooks. In contrast, the numeric keypad worked as expected when she operated a Mac application like Excel. She figured the problem occurs in Virtual PC because the keyboard doesn’t have a NumLock key.
I attached her keyboard to my laptop and started up Virtual PC. I was able to replicate her keyboard response (or lack thereof) using Notepad. During my tests, I accidentally pressed the Clear key that sits above the 7 key. I then clicked a few keys on the numeric keypad. Voila! Numeric characters began to appear on screen. I had found the phantom NumLock key.
The Apple Keyboard retails for $49. A wireless version sells for $79.
Can you help meÇ Some of the keys on my keyboard give different characters than the one;s they are supposed to, like the question mark – comes out as Ç, when I try for a semi-colon I get an ñ – HEEELLLPPPP¡
By: Holly Cruz on August 30, 2009
at 4:52 pm
Holly, it sounds like the default keyboard layout has been accidentally changed to something other than U.S. or English. Here is a tip from the Apple Help menu titled “About keyboard layouts.”
To use a keyboard layout different from the keyboard you have:
1. Open System Preferences and click International.
2. Click Input Menu.
3. Select the checkbox next to the keyboard layout you want to use.
4. Select the “Show input menu in menu bar” checkbox.
5. Click the Input Menu icon (international symbol) in the upper-right corner of the menu bar.
6. Choose the desired keyboard layout from the menu and start typing.
Another resource to review is the Apple Help menu item titled “About keyboard viewer.”
By: admin on August 30, 2009
at 9:16 pm
Thank you for this, the only part I found difficult was I was helping my friend voer the phone and I couldn’t see her keyboard. So she was looking for the function key above the “7″ on the keyboard part and not the 7 on the keypad. Suddenly it dawned on her because it is the “clear key” and well lableled. In hind site how silly – of course you would look for the num lock key on the keypad and in the very same position as it has been for the last 25 years…. Thanks again.
By: Robert Cox on September 7, 2009
at 4:59 pm