
Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012) - raldi
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-one-key-that-infuriates-bankers-so-much-theyll-pop-it-out-of-their-keyboards-2012-5
======
myrandomcomment
Okay for those that do not get it.

1\. It’s a bank. 2\. Banks lock down their computers. 3\. So you cannot
install other software to fix this in software. 4\. You do not have access to
the system low enough to rename / remove the winhelp.exe crap. 5\. No 3rd
party hardware is allowed in the bank. So no bringing your own keyboard.

All the time we get into this threads on HN where the techie goes well you
could just...bla bla bla. In the real would of corporate IT everything you say
is a non-starter.

~~~
mfoy_
The greater point is that if you put something really useful next to something
really annoying it will exacerbate the issue.

F1 should not be so bad, and it should not be so close to F2. Even just
leaving alone how _bad_ , and utterly useless, the help dialogues in Windows
are it's just terrible UX design.

It would be like having a "eject engine block" button next to the "start car"
button. One day you're going to hit it instead of the one you meant...
Annoying / dangerous UI controls should be kept out of the way of the more
common features.

~~~
zem
one thing that boggles me about the firefox dev team is their continuing
refusal to add a "disable ctrl-Q" setting. it's right next to ctrl-W and in my
firefox using days i accidentally hit it a ton of times.

~~~
pritambaral
You might like one of the add-ons that disable Ctrl-Q.

~~~
Supersonic112
There used to be one such Firefox addon that even made it into the Debian
(Wheezy/Jessie) repositories. Unfortunately it was written for the old plugin
system and never updated and is now designated as blocking the new Firefox
multiprocessing, so I already started looking into Firefox addon programming
just to replace it. Somehow I never thought about looking for newer
alternatives in the official addon store, where several modern ones seem to
exist already, so I'd like to thank you a lot for your suggestion.

------
superasn
Windows help and Windows troubeshooter are among the two most useless things
in the OS (and lately it's Cortana). It far easier and more relevant to just
do a Google search than waste time with these things. Same goes for
answers.microsoft.com, whenever i see that link on top og Google results I'm
pretty sure I'll just waste 10 minutes of my life and then search for the same
thing on Stackexchange and pray to god someone has answered there in the
succinct SO way. God knows how much resources and man hours Microsoft puts
into making these things.

~~~
IshKebab
I remember Visual C++ 6 where F1 would instantly go to and offline reference
to the current symbol, similar to Qt Creator now. It was great.

Of course now it searches done Windows live forum or something and is 100%
useless.

~~~
revelation
I haven't dared pressing F1 for a long time now but I remember Visual Studio
versions where pressing F1 would completely stop your computer because it
starts up the "Help Server", lots of 7200 spinning rust churn, more churn, an
Electron-style app opens..

~~~
int_19h
That would be VS 2010 and later. Before that, it had an actual working offline
help system (which took, IIRC, more than half of those CDs that came in the
box). And that help was actually pretty good.

------
jtraffic
In my view, there are many insights like this to be had by _physically_
studying product users a bit more. The startup community has built a strong
habit of studying users _before_ a new solution is adopted, but not as much
after.

The insights designers get from just watching someone use a product are always
delightful. The idea is basically ethnography for design.
([https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-
encyc...](https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-
of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/ethnography))

'Desire lines' in parks are one example. Desire lines are the paths in the
grass that get worn down because people use them even though the designer
didn't plan for it.

~~~
WorldMaker
Keep in mind there's evolutionary momentum at work here, too. The standard
uses of F1 and F2 especially that are at play in the discussion here date back
to some of the earliest PC tools. Volkswriter supposedly used F1 for help as
far back as 1982, and it was standardized in the 1987 IBM Common User Access
guidelines (which also standardized things like F5 for Refresh before web
browsers burnt that shortcut in all our brains):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Common_User_Access](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Common_User_Access)

So it is very hard to trade-off the momentum of a three decades old standard
just to delight particular subsets of power users.

Not to mention the other side of it: why was help so slow and aggravating?
Were there ways to make it non-modal and faster. Unsurprisingly, that's been
the focus where Office has tried to make an impact, trying to speed up Help
and make it less obnoxious over the years, rather than change up a three
decade old keyboard shortcut.

~~~
mfoy_
They _could_ have acknowledged that F1 is "help" and really slow / annoying,
so putting a much useful function onto F2 was probably a bad idea. They could
have put what F2 did onto a different shortcut.

For instance, they could make F2 something that was infrequently useful and
unintrusive, then made F3 do what F2 did. So if you mispress, you don't do the
even worse F1 thing.

~~~
Stratoscope
One thing to keep in mind is that some of these shortcut keys predated the
modern AT-style keyboard with the function keys across the top. They were
introduced way back in the day of the original PC keyboard with function keys
in two columns at the left. F1 and F2 were side by side at the top of these
columns, and they were _very_ easy to distinguish from each other and hit
reliably. F2 was just about the easiest function key for a touch typist to
hit.

[http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/83key.jpg](http://www.vintage-
computer.com/images/83key.jpg)

[http://www.vintage-computer.com/ibm_pc.shtml](http://www.vintage-
computer.com/ibm_pc.shtml)

------
jasonkester
Back in my Engineer days, where I'd spend much of my time writing technical
reports, I'd always remove the Insert key from my keyboard.

It's sitting there in that block of six keys that you use all the time when
editing text (home, end, page up/down, delete), and it's a little timebomb.
You would invariably hit it by accident at some point and change your editor
into "overwrite all my stuff" mode.

It would usually take a minute or two of ruining your document before you
realized what was happening and spent the next several minutes repairing the
damage.

I would go years at a time without ever hitting that key on purpose, so I just
kept it in a drawer, in case it ever needed using.

Now, as a developer, there's an Insert in tons of useful keyboard combos, so
it needs to stay there. And laptops have ruined that old useful six-key block
so it's a lot rarer to hit it by accident.

But it had no business being there. Fifteen years later, I'm still not a
friend of that key.

~~~
emodendroket
I can't think of one time I've ever intentionally used the overwrite
functionality either.

~~~
randylahey
Really? I use it frequently while programming in Vim. Definitely one of my top
ten operations.

~~~
emodendroket
Uh, yeah, why would you? You can easily delete a word at a time and then type
in what you wanted instead.

~~~
dunham
cw is shorter than dwi?

~~~
emodendroket
Well, like anyone with their head screwed on straight, I use emacs and don't
know all the vim shortcuts.

~~~
dunham
Heh, as you can see from the other comments, I don't know all the vi commands
either. Just a few essentials. I'd assumed from the comment you were a vi
person and probably knew more vi than me.

I don't use vi for coding, just quick file edits on the console. I was xemacs
for a very long time in college and thereafter - to the point of writing elisp
to manipulate xml files, but eventually my Java day job pushed me towards a
full IDE. Java is kinda unbearable without it.

I still occasionally turn to emacs for a few things I can't get elsewhere
(editing binaries, large files, and doing search and replace in a narrowed
buffer), but it's no longer my primary editor or mail reader. I may pick it up
again for clojure coding, though.

~~~
emodendroket
Yeah, I'm a full IDE guy too but if I'm editing something that where that
wouldn't make sense it's back to emacs with me. IntelliJ also supports emacs
bindings. :)

------
meri_dian
There's a financial modeling in Excel competition held each year that awards a
golden keyboard without an F1 key to the winner.

~~~
oxguy3
I guess there's a niche for everything: [https://www.modeloff.com/modeloff-
golden-keyboard/](https://www.modeloff.com/modeloff-golden-keyboard/)

(slightly larger photo of the golden keyboard:
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CULeDw8XIAAo0-U.png](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CULeDw8XIAAo0-U.png)
)

------
jabot
This should really be solved in software...

However, I remember trying to map capslock to control on windows a few years
back. It involved becoming an administrator and entering an opaque hexadecimal
key into the registry.

Simply popping off the key is probably easier.

Oh, on linux it boils down to "setxkbmap -option ctrl:nocaps", which doesn't
require root...

~~~
slezyr
Or even better solution: programmable keyboards. It's sad that just few
keyboards have opensource firmware and allow to remap keys.

One of them Ergodox EZ ~$350 [https://ergodox-ez.com/](https://ergodox-
ez.com/)

~~~
jabot
I have an atreus keyboard, and I have changed the layout :-)

However, 350$ seems like a lot of money for a problem that should _really_ be
solvable at no cost in software...

~~~
slezyr
The biggest problem with software (on OS side) is than you can't use your
custom layout in BIOS, LiveCDs or when you need to type password if your
hardware is encrypted.

Another problem is games. I use dvorak and all games use qwerty bindings so
you need either to remap keys for each game or start game with QWERTY layout.
If you forgot to start it with qwerty you need to restart the game, which is
was really frustrating for me. It's even more problematical with online games
like League of legends and etc.

I see no problem for this feature to be present on even cheapest keyboards. I
picked ergodox just for an examle.

~~~
jabot
Fair point.

In the context of the article we're talking about a highly specialized office
environment, where bios/live boot environments etc. do not happen often.
There, a software solution is useful and cheap.

In the more general case, and for those people that do not mind carrying their
own keyboard everywhere, you are right. Especially since a keyboard that
expensive probably lasts for a long enough time...

------
stephengillie
There are dozens of us. It's massively disrupting to the state of flow to miss
a key by one, and suddenly another window pops up, but there's no text inside.
It takes several seconds for the window to compose itself, and several more to
close.

I do keep the F1 key somewhere safe, to put back onto the keyboard, for the
next keyboard user.

~~~
grecy
ahhh, can't you just map it to something else? (nothing?)

~~~
if_by_whisky
Excel users don't think that way, I guess. Remapping keys requires a registry
update on Windows, which many of my windows-at-work friends don't get access
to. Even if they did, they might not trust themselves to make registry
updates. Popping the key off is easy, secure, and effective.

~~~
infogulch
A 2-line autohotkey script would be enough to disable the F1 key in just
Excel. You can even compile it down to a single copyable binary.

~~~
camtarn
But your users are all trained not to run random scripts or binaries, right?
...right? ;)

------
edw
This may be 90% cargo culting, 10% reality. One of my former co-workers
desperately wanted to be _perceived_ as an Excel ninja, and had heard that
people who had achieved guru-level Excel mastery would remove their F1 keys,
and so one day pried off her F1 key. Meanwhile the person in our office who
probably could have written Minecraft in Excel and then built an Excel
simulator in Excel Minecraft had a keyboard with a conspicuously intact F1
key.

Same thing happens in programming circles. I am not exempt: All my MacBook
keyboards get their caps lock keys remapped to control, in honor of my Apple
II childhood and SunOS pizza box college heritage.

~~~
ctrl-j
> All my MacBook keyboards get their caps lock keys remapped to control

You must be an emacs heathen.

Caps lock gets remapped to ESC.

~~~
grayrest
> Caps lock gets remapped to ESC

15 year vimmer here. Caps -> Ctrl and use C-[ for going to normal mode.

~~~
keeganpoppen
i also remap caps -> ctrl, but have bindings for `fj` & `jf` in insert mode to
exit back to normal mode, on the theory that you basically never have to type
either of those letter combos (it has come up maybe twice in the five years
i've had it set up). and even if you do have to type one of those letter
combos, all you have to do is wait for ~half second between keystrokes and it
works fine.

~~~
eridius
Same, but I use `jk`, which only requires one hand.

~~~
dogecoinbase
A similar binding once nearly drove me insane trying to copy/paste an api key.

~~~
eridius
Vim should disable all mappings during a paste. And if it's not, you should be
able to hit F8 (or `:set paste`) to toggle paste mode.

~~~
dogecoinbase
Ideally, yes. I don't recall all the details -- I typically run fairly
lightweight in terms of vim customizations as I'm often multiple SSH sessions
deep, sometimes on systems with vi but no vim (they exist!), so automatic
pastetoggle is usually off the table regardless.

------
rubenbe
I would guess that PCs in banks are quite locked down, maybe even making it
impossible to remap keys.

But everyone can pop some keys from his/her keyboard. Plus it's a much easier
(and fun) office mod than messing around in the settings of all your
applications ;)

~~~
mstade
Correct – even for developers in DMZ networks have a hard time getting to
install things they need to work. Many organizations have convoluted processes
for requesting admin access to your machine. Even if you _do_ get access it
doesn't mean you necessarily can even download things, most have firewalls
that block binaries from anything but "trusted" sources (basically white
listed domains, so yeah – "trust".) In a few cases, monitoring on machines
have raised red flags and I've had to explain after the fact _why_ I've
installed or run a particular piece of software, and in some cases got a
proverbial wrist slap and things/access reset.

It's all for good reasons I'm sure, but some processes and rules are so opaque
and convoluted and arbitrary, plucking keys off a keyboard is _much_ easier.

Source: I've worked as a developer in mostly top tier banks since 2011.

------
hateful
F2 is also rename on a host of Windows applications, including Windows
Explorer.

I've popped it off more than once but couldn't get used to not hitting F3
instead of F2.

What I ended up doing was to rename Windows Help (winhlp32.exe at the time) to
something else then copy and rename cmd.exe (or command.com, depending on how
far back) to "winhlp32.exe". Now when I pressed F1 it would open a command
window, much more useful and less intrusive if hit accidentally.

------
glaberficken
OMG! This is genius!, how have i never thought of this before!

I bet the people removing caps lock, scroll lock, insert etc are doing it
because of the "cleaning ladies"! Not because they accidentally hit the keys.

But because in most offices, keyboards are swiped clean daily by cleaning
crews and when you arrive each morning you find an assortment of those keys
toggled on or off.

(I have even locked my Windows account on occasion due to not noticing a
combination of Caps Lock / Num Lock toggled on/off in the morning)

~~~
RankingMember
What country are you operating out of? I've never heard of cleaning people
doing this in offices in the US.

~~~
jsjohnst
Every Silicon Valley, NYC, and Denver office I’ve worked in had cleaning crews
who dusted desks / keyboards at least weekly, if not more often.

Source: I’ve been in the office working when they came through.

~~~
RankingMember
Weird, guess they don't care about us developers in the mid-atlantic region.

------
Grue3
Firefox on Linux has a similar issue. A very common shortcut Ctrl-W is right
next to Ctrl-Q, which completely closes the application, and there's no built-
in way to turn it off! Which makes the software completely unusable unless you
install a separate plugin that disables Ctrl-Q shortcut. It's really amazing
that Mozilla doesn't think this is a bug.

~~~
WorldMaker
For a similar solution to the one in the article here for your problem: Some
"gamer keyboards" have an extra bump on W (similar to but often distinct from
the home row bumps for J and F) for the importance of WASD to games. You could
invest in one of those or emulate it with a bit of tape or something.

------
g09980
Not too different from me accidentally triggering so many undesired things
with the MacBook Pro TouchBar. I previously had no idea how many interfaces
respond to the Esc key, now I do.

------
Animats
The real problem is slow help popup. Everybody wants to do help in a browser
now, so pressing F1 probably means a slow browser launch. (Not sure about
this; I use LibreOffice only.)

Just fix Excel so that a second press of F1 makes the help screen go away,
even if the browser is still launching.

~~~
marvy
This is 99% of the way to a correct solution. But I think it would be better
if pressing Escape would dismiss the help screen, rather than another press of
F1, so that the few people who intent to use help don't accidentally dismiss
it.

But nitpicks aside, this is the correct solution, because it captures the core
insight: the user should never fear pressing the wrong key. The ultimate irony
in violating this rule is when you've conditioned your users that the most
dangerous thing they can do is ask for help.

------
zokier
When I was younger and played games, popping out the windows key was typical.
At best triggering windows menu meant lost round, but more typically a crashed
game or even crashed Windows.

Even today I'm wary of task switching from a game, as it still doesn't seem to
be entirely robust

~~~
keksicus
I haven't hosed a windows session yet, and maybe just one game was crashy
ever, while task switching for the last two decades. I ran Windows Server
though typically.

~~~
mikejmoffitt
I remember this not-so-fondly. This wouldn't be a problem for a game that is
composited alongside the desktop in a "Windowed" mode, but for a full-screen
application it is an "exclusive" application. The Source engine handles this
context switch absolutely terribly. Task-switching out of Team Fortress 2 is a
stuttery mess, where for around ten seconds it'll just loop the tiny audio
buffer it last filled on top of a black screen before anything is usable
again.

------
teekert
In all their wisdom Asus put the power button next to the delete button on my
BX410 [0]. Too bad I can't pop that button. Setting it to do nothing is the
first thing I do after installing Linux (which I do regularly).

[0]
[https://dlcdnimgs.asus.com/websites/global/products/APfLG1Rk...](https://dlcdnimgs.asus.com/websites/global/products/APfLG1Rkk3fpEkfx/V1/images/main/img-
keyboard.png)

~~~
shoo
i remember a similar issue for desktop computers from ~15 years ago, and a
keyboard with a helpful shutdown button. i think it was located a bit to the
right of F12. from memory windows just started shutting down and there wasn't
a way to interrupt it. pretty funny. not something you'd hit often, but
possible to hammer accidentally if playing a full screen game that used a
bunch of F1-F12 keys.

after hitting this a few times while playing games i levered all of those
extra helpful keys out.

~~~
teekert
Yes but I don't use Windows on said machine :)

Edit: oops meant @netsharc

------
nayuki
It suffices to use KeyTweak for Windows, not physically modify the keyboard.
For example, I used it to disable the Back/Forward buttons on my ThinkPad.

~~~
qorrect
Yeah mangling the keyboard should be a last option , I'm guessing they're not
aware that all the keys can be remapped.

~~~
narag
Maybe they lack the permissions for installing applications. Intercepting
keyboard is not exactly a human right :-)

------
ptero
Why would not they remap F1 to something else, say another F2 if they so like
it? The functionality has been at both Linux and Windows for a very long time.

~~~
bru
Because popping the key is by far the simplest solution, especially if you
won't miss it in any of your usual workflows.

AFAIK remapping it will need Autohotkey or similar, and banks & funds aren't
the environment the more welcoming to arbitrary binaries, even if free
software.

------
atesti
I wish I could remove "F1" from Chrome: I'm in the middle of a lot of tabs,
reading them after each other and accidentially pressing F1 instead of ESC and
a new useless help tab obens on the far right.

Luckily if I close it immediately without navigating, Chrome is clever enough
to return me to the last tab

~~~
blockoperation
If you're able to build Chromium yourself, here's a trivial patch which does
just that (only tested on Linux):

[https://gist.github.com/blockoperation/5ec91d666e670e39584d2...](https://gist.github.com/blockoperation/5ec91d666e670e39584d2ed84efad049)

------
jenkstom
Business Insider has annoying anti-adblocker popups. Is there some way to
block websites that do this?

I tried living without adblocker for a while, but I started getting some very
not safe for work ads from dhgate all over the place. Just because I buy
electronics doesn't mean I want ads for lingerie...

~~~
oxguy3
I have a little stylesheet installed on my browser that I use for fixing
random annoyances on various websites, and my favorite feature in it is adding
"text-decoration: line-through" to links that point to certain sites such as
Business Insider. That way, I still have the option to visit the site, but I
get a strong visual indicator to avoid it.

My stylesheet is here; you can install it with the Stylish browser extension:
[https://gist.github.com/oxguy3/3338da5c38348c2a6e72](https://gist.github.com/oxguy3/3338da5c38348c2a6e72)

------
frenchman_in_ny
I work in the field - years ago I had someone create a small program called
"TurnOffF1" that runs silently in the background. It captures any F1 keypush
in Excel only & blocks the Help popup.

Wish I had the source code for the program.

~~~
digi_owl
Autohotkey perhaps?

------
dingo_bat
At least this is one problem new MacBook users won't have!

~~~
jerrre
for me it's ⌘+W vs ⌘+Q in Firefox: the first closes the current tab, the
second the whole browser which takes some time to restart. Solved it now with
an add-on

~~~
dredmorbius
All the worse if you're used to readline / emacs keybindings, where ^W is
"delete word".

Editing a Web form and suddenly having the entire tab disappear is less than
gruntling.

~~~
kps
There are dozens of us! Firefox at least lets you set the shortcut key to Meta
instead of Control.

------
takk309
Maybe it is my poor skills with a key board or the design of my keyboard but I
hit F12 on accident more often than F1. I hate F1 with a passion but F12,
which does a save as, is useful.

I have never understood the hatred for caps lock. I use it all the time,
probably press it 12 to 20 times a day. I also write a lot of reports with a
pile of long acronyms that have to be all caps.

------
PascLeRasc
This Planet Money episode is a must-listen for Excel fans:
[http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/02/25/389027988/episo...](http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/02/25/389027988/episode-606-spreadsheets)

------
philipov
I don't use Excel very often and I need my F1 key for other tools, but I've
had capslock removed for years.

~~~
ashark
Why? It makes a great "ctrl".

~~~
philipov
I use my pinky to press shift and tab already. I press ctrl with the side of
my hand. This way I can press both ctrl and shift at the same time, which is
important for RTS and FPS games. Maybe I should map it to backspace like was
suggested by WorldMaker.

~~~
ashark
Huh, must be keyboard size/shape differences but palm-pressing "fn" on my
keyboard (where "ctrl" would be on a normal keyboard) while hitting "shift"
with my pinkie is impossible without mashing other keys around them, and is
really uncomfortable. End up pressing "shift" with the side of my first
knuckle, that finger's so contorted. I use pinkie + ring when I hit two
modifiers on that side, though that does mean I take a finger off "WASD", for
gaming purposes.

It'd be easier to train myself to hit shift+caps (as a ctrl) with just my
pinkie than to do the palm + pinkie method, I think. Again, probably a
hardware difference.

------
wruza
Why not just stick a piece of folded paper or a toothpick at the top left
corner to prevent F1 from being pressed?

------
youdontknowtho
I was thinking about that the other day. I recently re-watched that Joel
Spolsky video "You suck at Excel".

F2 for cell edit makes it super easy to hit F1...which brings up help...which
you can't just hit escape to dismiss.

I'm actually a better than average typist, but yeah...that happens to me more
than I like.

------
Nzen
tl;dr F1 is generally _help_ . Excel's help is apparently slow to load and
close. Hence, the interviewees removed the key to avoid pressing it, when they
meant to press F2.

It's disappointing but unsurprising they didn't just have windows
(autohotkey?) map it to F2.

~~~
mywacaday
Article says its a banking environment, nobody outside of desktop support will
have admin access to their PC/Laptop. That includes developers/application
support/server admins/DBAs etc. If you want an application installed that's
not on an approved list request will likely go to IT security for review(Don't
hold your breath). portableapps.com made life somewhat bearable.

PS No Dropbox/Google Drive/Onedrive, No personal webmail and a heavily
restricted proxy for all browsing.

~~~
vog
_> Article says its a banking environment, nobody outside of desktop support
will have admin access to their PC/Laptop_

But then it should be even simpler: Have the desktop support team (or whoever
manages all those PC/Laptops) solve it centrally, once and for all, for every
computer in the company.

------
jmgao
This is also common among progamers, for similar reasons:
[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/glSiSoAounY/maxresdefault.jpg](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/glSiSoAounY/maxresdefault.jpg)

------
StringyBob
As a programmer without bios access to my work PC I removed the caps-lock key
from my desktop keyboard.

Now I use a MacBook Pro I've remapped it to be escape - which is doubly useful
as escape doesn't exist as a physical key!

------
hammock
Also, don't ever accidentally create a circular reference...same thing.

------
piokuc
I removed capslock from my keyboard whilst in a previous job cause I never
needed it and, worse, kept hitting it instead of tab accidentally. Not using
Excell, just coding on a Linux workstation.

------
shangxiao
Huh! I've been considering remapping F1 in vim for a while, I might actually
go ahead and use it for something quite common (I've already taken up F2-12
for other handy tasks).

------
IanDrake
New product idea: a physical key guard.

A small plastic cage that slips over a key and doesn't allow it to be pushed
by accident, but still allows it to be pushed with extra force.

Kinda like the safety on a glock.

~~~
ahakki
What safety on a Glock? I was of the impression that they had no external
safety features.

~~~
IanDrake
A Glock safety doesn't prevent you from pulling the trigger, but it requires
you to pull it correctly which can reduce (but not eliminates) accidents.

I believe earlier versions had an initial heavy trigger that lightened once it
was past the "safety" point.

I don't know first hand, this was just from a passing discussion with a police
officer.

------
frankosaurus
I typically use my ring finger to locate the left edge of F1 and press F2 with
my middle finger.

I have similar "by feel" approaches for F3 and F4.

------
ccarter84
Definitely been there, haven't done it to the laptop yet because for some
reason that seemed more tacky than on my full keyboard

------
dmitriid
I call such things "this is what happens when developers and designers do not
use their own products"

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c3534l
I'm surprised they don't tear out numlock, the bane of anyone who uses a
10-key.

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bash-j
My HP work laptop has the home key next to a smaller backspace. Very
frustrating.

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pX0r
Press F1 for Hell

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hxta98596
Whoa, I briefly worked on a project related to this, over in Redmond, like 20
years ago (ya I'm an oldie). So weird to see this being talked about in 2017,
based on an article from 2012!?!

My background is in banking, here is some additional info on the F1 key thing
in case anyone is interested in this random odd topic:

The article is not exactly wrong but it's misleading (more on that later). Yes
the F1 key opens the Excel Help Window. Removing the F1 key is NOT a common
practice among bankers.

The origin, or one of the origins, of removing the F1 key as seen in this
article, comes from how banks used to train their new interns and first year
employees to use Excel. The first few weeks on the job at a Wall St bank were
spent in a little training course and the training course was allowed to have
a bit more "fun" than the real more professional side of the job soon to come
for these rookies.

It was important to teach new banking analysts to be very efficient in Excel,
this meant requiring them to memorize how to use the features of Excel without
needing to look it up in the Help Menu AND training them to use keyboard
shortcuts not the mouse, as keyboard shortcuts are faster. What this led to
was some Wall St banks in their training class would have a little fun in
training and tell new analysts/students to unplug the mouse from the computer
(so you have to learn the keyboard shortcuts) and tell them to remove the F1
key (so they can't just look up how to do something that they should have
memorized).

Of course, these training aid tactics of silliness were only relevant for the
first few weeks on the job. As new analysts would very soon start learning all
about macros and VBA in the second half of the training course. The F1 key can
easily and quickly be disabled in a number of ways in the VBA editor of Excel
[1] and the idea that a bunch of bankers are removing the F1 key from the
keyboard so they don't accidentally press it while reaching for F2 as this
article describes is frankly ridiculous. Everyone uses macros and if F1 is
disabled it is coded not physically removed, more than likely the help menu
has been remapped to a multi-key shortcut just in case.

To those comments who say this is banking and the computers are locked down to
the point you cannot install other software or make changes to current
software, this is partly true but this does not extend to blocking employees
from macros and VBA in Excel. Using and writing Excel macros is crucial to the
job and it is expected to be utilized. I have never seen a bank where access
to macros and VBA is blocked.

Now, it is possible to go to a bank and see someone has removed their F1 key
from their keyboard. But it is not a common practice. IF you do see an F1 key
removed it usually is because either: (1) the person removed the F1 key during
training and then lost it or just never replaced it. (2) They are a brand new
employee still in training (though less likely because training has changed in
recent years and fun is not allowed anymore). (3) They were told incorrectly
by a frat buddy or other "wall street bro" that removing the F1 is cool and
sign of being an Excel ninja wizard. Reason 3 is sadly the most likely reason
and if you read the article you will see they only spoke to and interviewed
banking _analysts_ , i.e. brand new rookie employees, not real investment
bankers who have been on the job more than a few months and are out of the
analyst phase.

If I saw an F1 key removed at a bank keyboard I would judge that person a
little as it would not reflect very well on an experienced banking employee -
unless that person was on one of the tech teams in which case they can do what
they want and many have their own keyboards (which are loud guys) and I
wouldn't question their computer knowledge skills. The main reason not to
permanently remove the F1 key after training is because other important
finance software (like Bloomberg) needs the F1 key for other functions (in
fact the bloomberg terminal official keyboard moved the help key to its own
different button and its on a different row from the F1-F12 keys).

Also, having worked at Microsoft very briefly I think I can say Microsoft is
aware of the issue of the F1 key Help Menu bothering some users where it is
located and how slow the Help Menu can be. Back in 90s they used to talk to
their customers and power users all the time and it's likely they still do
today, in addition the telemetry they snatch from everyone these days. They
know, they aren't changing it.

Lastly, while this was a mild case of an outdated and misleading article with
a clickbait headline, business insider is usually much worse and I would just
like to recommend that business insider be considered a fake news site and
spam and blocked from Hacker News. Just a suggestion. Thank you.

