Caps-lock delay problem - any new progress?

zugvogel · Dec 12, 2010

I recently bought a Macbook air after having had my old macbook for ~4 years. One new feature of macs I've noticed is that there is a delay on the caps-lock, in order for it to not be accidentally pressed.

Unfortunately, for as long as I've been using computers, my method of typing has been to use caps-lock instead of shift, and this is causing havoc for me. I've seen other posts about this, some of them a few years old now, but no-one seems to know how to turn this feature off.

Have there been any new developments recently in learning how to turn this annoying feature off? I've purchased an external non-apple keyboard which helps for 2/3 of the time, but for the other 1/3 I'm using the laptop whilst travelling and have no choice but to use the laptop's keyboard...

colourfastt · Dec 12, 2010

zugvogel said:
I recently bought a Macbook air after having had my old macbook for ~4 years. One new feature of macs I've noticed is that there is a delay on the caps-lock, in order for it to not be accidentally pressed.

Unfortunately, for as long as I've been using computers, my method of typing has been to use caps-lock instead of shift, and this is causing havoc for me. I've seen other posts about this, some of them a few years old now, but no-one seems to know how to turn this feature off.

Have there been any new developments recently in learning how to turn this annoying feature off? I've purchased an external non-apple keyboard which helps for 2/3 of the time, but for the other 1/3 I'm using the laptop whilst travelling and have no choice but to use the laptop's keyboard...

Learn to type properly?

fswmacguy · Dec 12, 2010

There is a big thread about it here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1169783, the last post was in 2008, unfortunately.

I am inclined to believe this is a hardware feature and can't be turned off in the software. Your best bet is to remap the caps lock key to something else (like the Control key), which won't impose a delay.

KnightWRX · Dec 12, 2010

CAPSLOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR AWESOME!!!11one!!

No, seriously, just change your habits. It's quicker to simply hold down shift when wanting to capitalize letters anyhow. What is your pinky going to do otherwise ?

JSAYER · Dec 12, 2010

Yeah, you're just going to have to change your habit. I did!!

eba · Dec 12, 2010

I'va elweys typad "E" for "A". Whan era thay gonne fix thet?

zugvogel · Dec 12, 2010

fswmacguy said:
There is a big thread about it here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1169783, the last post was in 2008, unfortunately.

I am inclined to believe this is a hardware feature and can't be turned off in the software. Your best bet is to remap the caps lock key to something else (like the Control key), which won't impose a delay.

KnightWRX said:
CAPSLOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR AWESOME!!!11one!!

No, seriously, just change your habits. It's quicker to simply hold down shift when wanting to capitalize letters anyhow. What is your pinky going to do otherwise ?

JSAYER said:
Yeah, you're just going to have to change your habit. I did!!

Thanks for your comments. Having typed like this for my whole life (and getting 50-55wpm), it's difficult to change (holding down two keys at once in mid-flow seems quite un-natural). If you've managed to change though, it seems it's not impossible. Hopefully it won't take me too long to change then (or rather, I suspect I might eventually get into the habit of pushing the caps-lock slightly longer instead...).

colourfastt said:
Learn to type properly?

Thanks...

eba said:
I'va elweys typad "E" for "A". Whan era thay gonne fix thet?

haha

teski · Dec 12, 2010

I don't see this delay. I just hit the caps lock on my MBA 13 about 10 times and there is no delay turning on or off. The light goes on or off as fast as I push it.

KnightWRX · Dec 12, 2010

teski said:
I don't see this delay. I just hit the caps lock on my MBA 13 about 10 times and there is no delay turning on or off. The light goes on or off as fast as I push it.

Congratulations, you just admitted at being a slow typist!

The delay is real, just push faster. However, I always used shift, so it never bothered me, except for that one time I thought it was broken.

teski · Dec 12, 2010

KnightWRX said:
Congratulations, you just admitted at being a slow typist!

The delay is real, just push faster. However, I always used shift, so it never bothered me, except for that one time I thought it was broken.

Uh no. I'm not a slow typist and I just sat here pushing the button repeatedly and the light is going on an off as fast as I'm pushing it. What kind of a delay are you guys talking about? I use the shift key mostly myself as well so even if there was a delay, it wouldn't affect me.

KnightWRX · Dec 13, 2010

teski said:
Uh no. I'm not a slow typist and I just sat here pushing the button repeatedly and the light is going on an off as fast as I'm pushing it.

That's the point, you're a slow typist. You're not pushing it fast enough. At the speed I normally push the keys, the light doesn't come on. I need to push it a bit slower.

ChristianVirtual · Dec 13, 2010

I run complete the opposite way: I even switched the CapsLock key off and remove any function from it. Thanks to Mac OS there is an easy setting for that.

I was too often pressing this CapsLock and as I (as proposed form other too) suggest the usage of the Shift-Key instead I don't miss the CapsLock at all.

zugvogel · Dec 13, 2010

Must be possible...

I was re-reading the thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1169783&start=30&tstart=0) and it says that Apple released a "firmware update" to allow the caps-lock key to lose its delay when, for example, caps-lock and control are switched - so does this mean that it can, somehow, be fixed by a software update (ie, it's not built into the hardware)?

teski said:
I just sat here pushing the button repeatedly and the light is going on an off as fast as I'm pushing it. What kind of a delay are you guys talking about?

Maybe you're lucky enough to have a keyboard which is "defective" and works without the caps-lock delay?...

astrorider · Dec 13, 2010

zugvogel said:
I was re-reading the thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1169783&start=30&tstart=0) and it says that Apple released a "firmware update" to allow the caps-lock key to lose its delay when, for example, caps-lock and control are switched - so does this mean that it can, somehow, be fixed by a software update (ie, it's not built into the hardware)?

Maybe you're lucky enough to have a keyboard which is "defective" and works without the caps-lock delay?...

I remap Control to Caps lock (I don't use caps lock), and yes it behaves like a regular key after doing so. The caps lock light no longer shines.

Search

Search

Caps-lock delay problem - any new progress?

zugvogel

macrumors newbie

colourfastt

macrumors 65816

fswmacguy

macrumors 6502

KnightWRX

macrumors Pentium

JSAYER

macrumors member

eba

macrumors regular

zugvogel

macrumors newbie

teski

macrumors regular

KnightWRX

macrumors Pentium

teski

macrumors regular

KnightWRX

macrumors Pentium

ChristianVirtual

macrumors 601

zugvogel

macrumors newbie

astrorider

macrumors 6502a

Our Staff