PowerLista and modem script guru Ross Barkman developed an alternative keyboard layout that effectively disables that ever-annoying CAPS LOCk key. The layout works with Mac OS 9 currently and can be found by scrolling to the bottom of Ross’s Web site.
Now does anyone know of such a hack for Mac OS X?
US Keyboard layout with Caps Lock disabled (2kB): U.S. – No CapsLock – If you’re a PowerBook user, you’ll know how easy it is to tap the Caps Lock key accidentally and look up TO FIND YOU’VE BEEN SHOUTING FOR HALF OF THE SENTENCE. This keyboard layout disables the Caps Lock key so that it is irrelevant – the green LED will come on, but it will have no effect. This goes a bit further than some of the standard keyboard hacks, which often forget to disable option-CapsLock (annoying if you use accented characters, etc.). BE WARNED – this only disables the effect of Caps Lock, it doesn’t disable the key itself. Some software still checks the Caps Lock setting when looking for hotkey combinations – e.g. Norton FileSaver, where key combinations (like Opt-Cmd) can bypass or activate certain functions. If Caps Lock is set, that makes a different combination (like CapsLock-Opt-Cmd) which will have either no effect or a different effect. Took me ages to figure out why FileSaver was ignoring me some of the time…
