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In computing, a keyboard shortcut (also hotkey/hot key or key binding) [1] is a software-based assignment of an action to one or more keys on a computer keyboard. Most operating systems and applications come with a default set of keyboard shortcuts , some of which may be modified by the user in the settings .
This did not work for characters not in the Windows Code Page (such as box-drawing characters). The new Alt+0### combination (which prefixes a zero to each Alt code), produces characters from the newer "Windows code pages." [a] For example, Alt+ 0 1 6 3 yields the character £ (symbol for the pound sterling) which is at 163 in CP1252. [2] [b]
The keyboard sends the key code to the keyboard driver running in the main computer; if the main computer is operating, it commands the light to turn on. All the other indicator lights work in a similar way. The keyboard driver also tracks the Shift, alt and control state of the keyboard.
Some non-English language keyboards have special keys to produce accented modifications of the standard Latin-letter keys. In fact, the standard British keyboard layout includes an accent key on the top-left corner to produce àèìòù, although this is a two step procedure, with the user pressing the accent key, releasing, then pressing the letter key.
A keyboard matrix circuit is a design used in most electronic musical keyboards and computer keyboards in which the key switches are connected by a grid of wires, similar to a diode matrix. For example, 16 wires arranged in 8 rows and 8 columns can connect 64 keys—sufficient for a full five octaves of range (61 notes).
The main reason for this arrangement is that the arrow keys are not ergonomic to use with a right-handed mouse. During the early days of gaming, this was not a problem as the mouse was not used; the arrow keys controlled both movement ↑ ↓ as well as looking around ← →, with strafing done using modifier keys (usually Alt + ← →).
Mouse keys is a feature of some graphical user interfaces that uses the keyboard (especially numeric keypad) as a pointing device (usually replacing a mouse). Its roots lie in the earliest days of visual editors when line and column navigation was controlled with arrow keys .
An access key allows a computer user to immediately jump to a specific part of a web page via the keyboard. On Wikipedia, access keys allow you to do a lot more—protect a page, show page history, publish your changes, show preview text, and so on.