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Introduction to Keyboard
The computer keyboard has lots of extra keys as well as letters and numbers. These keys will help you to use your computer and keyboard.
Move down this page to find out more about all these different keys.
Essential Keys
Space Bar. Press this to insert a space between words.
Enter Key This large key to the right of the letters is also sometimes called the Return Key. If you are keying in text you can press it once and the text cursor will move down to the next line. Press it twice to create a line space between paragraphs.
Backspace Key. This key deletes the last letter to the left of the cursor. You can use it to correct any mistakes as you type.
Delete Key. This key deletes the first letter to the right of the cursor.
Caps Lock. This is used for keying in capital letters. There's a light on the top of the keyboard to show whether the Caps Lock is on. It has often a letter A below it. Holding down the Shift Key at the same time as a letter key will also turn it into a capital letter.
NB Caps Lock does not give you the upper number key symbols. For these you need to use the Shift Key.
Shift Key. Hold this down to type capital letters and the symbols on the upper part of a key, e.g. the ! above 1.There is a Shift key on both sides of the keyboard.
Arrow Keys These move your text cursor around the screen. They can also move the page up or down, and left or right if it is wider than the screen.
Useful keys
Windows Key. This up the Start Menu and can also be used in combination with other keys for shortcuts.
Scroll keys. These are used to move the text cursor around words you are keying in or a web page you are viewing:
"        Home takes the text cursor to the top of the page you are keying into or viewing
"        End takesthe text cursor to the bottom of the page you are keying in or viewing
"        Page Up moves the text cursor up the screen
"        Page Down moves the text cursor down the screen
Ctrl (Control) Keys. These are used for keyboard shortcuts, e.g. holding down Ctrl and pressing A (Ctrl-A) will select everything on a page. But take care! It's easy to press Ctrl by mistake for Shift - and then unexpected things may happen. If you think that you may have used a Ctrl key by accident, try using Ctrl-Z. This is the undo button, and will often get you back to where you were. There is a Ctrl key on both sides of the keyboard.
Alt Key. This is used in similar ways to Ctrl. If you have several windows open on your computer, you can press Alt and Tab together to switch between them.
Tab Key. This moves the text cursor to the next box in a table or a form.
Esc (Escape) Key. This clears any text that you have typed in a text box online.
Menu Key. This brings up a menu of commands, like clicking the right mouse button.

Number Key Pad. As well as the number row, the Number Key Pad also lets you type numbers. The Number Lock button must be pressed for this to work; there will be a light above it to show that it's on. There is also an Enter key in the Number Keys which works just like the one on the main keyboard.

 
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