Few computer user or laptop, which at least once examined the keyboard of his device, did not notice the button there num Lock.. It can also be called Num LK. More experienced users probably know what this button is needed, but not all beginners.

Button Num Lock.

What makes the Num Lock button?

The answer to this question is correctly started to give from consideration of the parts of the computer keyboard (the division of key groups).

Groups of buttons on the keyboard

The standard keyboard of the computer or laptop consists of the following keys:

• Alphanumeric;
• Service keys;
• Utility keys for editing;
• Special (service);
• Functional;
• Cursor control keys;
• Numeric keypad;
• Auxiliary.

In the context of this article, we are interested in the digital keyboard. This is the right side of the keyboard on which the keys with numbers are located.

So, the Num Lock button (NUM LK) and activates (turns on) the same digital keyboard. If the NUM Lock button is not enabled, what the corresponding light indicator should indicate (there is often no laptops), then the digital keyboard will operate in the cursor keys mode.

NUM LOCK indicator on laptop

NUM LOCK indicator on computer keyboard

There are keyboards, especially on laptops in which this very numeric keypad not. But with this button Num Lock is still present.

Numeric keypad right on alphanumeric keys

IN this case The numeric keypad is right in the alphanumeric buttons group. Also activated by pressing Num Lock. If it is pressed, the numbers are printed, if not pressed, then the letters.

Surely, many users noticed on their keyboard the "NUM LOCK" key, when you click on which the LED indicator usually lights up. The functionality of this key for many remains a mystery, it is rare enough, and the history of this button on the keyboards of computers remains at all for the majority of seven seals. In this article, I will try to fix a little situation and tell you what is Num Lock on the keyboard, I will describe the history of its appearance, as well as the features of the functional.

What is Num Lock

So, to understand that this is Num Lock, it is necessary to decide on the translation of word data. Num Lock (full "Numeric Lock") translated from English digital blocking" (or " fixing numbers"). When it is pressed, the numeric keypad on the right is activated (numbers from 0 to 9), when the NUM LOCK mode is not activated, then the cursor control system is running (including the HOME, PGUP, END, PGDN keys).

Accordingly, when the Num Lok mode is enabled, the specified on the right of the key allow you to carry out a set of numbers (something reminding the calculator), if off - the cursor works and other key control keys (allowing you to apply various schemes navigation).

Also using this button allows you to enter characters missing on the keyboard using their codes. If you are interested, in the article earlier I talked about the purpose of the key.

At the same time, we can learn about the status of the NUM Lok mode, we can learn in the glow of the corresponding indicator, mounted in the specified key (active mode - is lit, inactive - off). In this case, in the laptops, this indicator is often located separately from the key itself.

NUM LOCK HISTORY HISTORY

The story that this is Num Lock would not be full without a story about the appearance of this button on the keyboard of our computers. The history of this key takes its beginning from the distant 1984, when IBM introduced its 84-key keyboard for the second generation of IBM PC / AT computers. Since computers then cost significant money, the IBM policy was aimed at ways to reduce their components. One of the methods of implementing such a policy and has become a refusal of the separate cursor keys on the keyboard of computers. Now the same keys had two modes - digital and cursory, and switching between them was carried out using our Num Lock key.

Today, most of the keyboards have separate cursor and numeric keys, while the NUM LOB key still continues to be used (especially in laptops, netbooks, etc.). At the same time, the NUM LOCK mode is activated using the Fn key, and often the user does not know how to turn it off back (while using the NUM LOC key when the computer starts can be carried out via BIOS).

In the Slave Keyboards (for example, Apple production), this key is generally absent, and replaced with the Clear Key key.

NUM LOCK keys value

A story about what Num Lock would be not full without an accurate description of the keys when turned on and off mode. So:

NUM LOX is turned on: NUM LOW is turned off:

Conclusion

Thus, we figured out what Num Lock means, for which this key is used and how to use it. In most cases, the use of this button today is quite sporadically, and is the echo of its use in the 84-key IBM PC keypad (Model F). Nevertheless, work with Num Lock can be relevant when working on some service programs, in working with texts and so on.

On the notebook Samsung, hp, asus, like everyone else, usually the top right is function key Num Lock.

What is the NUM LOCK key for? What does it mean? What does it serve? If you say briefly, in one word, then this is the inclusion of a numeric keypad for a more comfortable digit dialing and input of characters using codes.

Only not everything is so simple. Not all portable PCs (laptops) have a digital block, and the keys itself may have a slightly different name.

For example, Num Lk below and ins. Also pay attention to the indicators (light).

Almost all models as soon as you run this mode one starts glowing, as if to say that the device is ready to work.

On many laptops in the BIOS there is a setting, the inclusion of which will run Num Lock when starting the computer.

How to start Num Lock mode

On laptops and netbooks Num Lock are included with the Fn + Num Lock key with a combination of keys. uSB keyboards will not work).

If the keyboard is shortened, then the digital block is missing, but it is modeled with the keys with right side (b, o, l, d, g, sh, sh, 7, 8, 9).

Therefore, if the numbers appear on your laptop on your laptop instead of letters, this is not a malfunction, but a sure sign that you accidentally turned on the digital keyboard.

Also keep the form that instead of Fn, it can sometimes be needed to heal another button or without a combination (see the instructions if there is, if not, you can download digital).

Another moment. And what if the FN button does not function? There is an exit. You can

On the other hand, sometimes there is still a Scroll Lock key, which is the residue from the original IBM PC keyboard.

It serves to change the behavior of the cursor control. Currently, only a few programs use this parameter.

Some of them use Scroll Lock as a button to start specific features and functions. Successes.