What do the buttons left & right of the up arrow do?

[Wombat Pete]

Look like they should be pg-up & pg-down, but they aren't.
In a text doc, they appear to do nothing.
Is there an obvious place I should know to go to to find this information?
Thanks in advance!

[mbarker]

Hmmm, how did I never notice those before??

It seems that they will move Forward and Back in a web browser.....not sure what else they might do.....

[Colonel O'Neill]

They're Browser Back and Forward keys.
Work as they're advertised in Explorer and browser windows.

Useful for rebinding; I have Right Ctrl + Back/Forward bound to switch between multiple desktops with Dexpot.

[Wombat Pete]

They're Browser Back and Forward keys.
Work as they're advertised in Explorer and browser windows.

Useful for rebinding; I have Right Ctrl + Back/Forward bound to switch between multiple desktops with Dexpot.

Thanks again, Colonel.
Useful for rebinding, indeed! What an odd way to waste space in an otherwise brilliantly designed keyboard layout.

[nikki605]

I use them a lot to page back or forward in my web browser. For me it's faster than moving the cursor all the way to the upper left corner of the browser window for the back & forward arrow buttons.

[Wombat Pete]

I use them a lot to page back or forward in my web browser. For me it's faster than moving the cursor all the way to the upper left corner of the browser window for the back & forward arrow buttons.

Nikki, why wouldn't you just use cntl or alt (depending on the comp) and the right & left arrows?

[Neil]

What an odd way to waste space in an otherwise brilliantly designed keyboard layout.

Yeah...I dunno...While I almost never use the keys, they seem to me to be a use for otherwise empty space. Before ThinkPads started having these page forward/back keys, there was nothing in that space. Just blank....so something is better than nothing...right?

[nikki605]

Nikki, why wouldn't you just use cntl or alt (depending on the comp) and the right & left arrows?

A single key press is faster/easier than a simultaneous combo key press Alt+← or Alt+→. At least it is for me. I've just gotten used to them being there. I can quickly move just my right hand from either the TouchPad or the TrackPoint to that area of the keyboard.

[lparsons]

They're Browser Back and Forward keys.
Work as they're advertised in Explorer and browser windows.

I can vouch that in Linux - at least Kubuntu 10.10 - they work correctly on their own, moving backwards and forwards through browser history without any need to setup or configure anything.

If I was yearning to do so, I could of course reconfigure them for something else, but this works well for me.

[rumbero]

If I was yearning to do so, I could of course reconfigure them for something else, but this works well for me.

Since i found this to be superfluous functionality, i remapped it to PgUp/PgDn instead. This saves me from reaching up to the upper left corner of the keyboard for whole page scrolling in any program. Here is how:

Code: Select all

$ cat $HOME/.xmodmap
! note: the exclamation mark in front of a line marks it as a comment.
! uncomment the wanted entry according to your personal preference:
!
! mapping PgUp/PgDn to XF86Back/XF86Forward:
keycode 166 = Prior
keycode 167 = Next
!
! making XF86Back/XF86Forward duplicates of Left/Right keys:
!keycode 166 = Left
!keycode 167 = Right

This can be sourced during login by putting these lines into your $HOME/.bash_profile file:

Code: Select all

#
# define some custom keys
#
if [ -f $HOME/.xmodmap ] && [ "$DISPLAY" != "" ] ; then
    /usr/bin/xmodmap $HOME/.xmodmap
fi

Works as expected at least for me.

[rkawakami]

Some people complain about those keys because in some cases, if they press them by accident, making the browser page forward or backward, they lose whatever information that's been typed in.

[SchlageR]

Please excuse my question, but is it possible to replace the browser key function in order to Cycle back and forth through programs in the taskbar with aero instead of webpages? Similar to Ctrl+Windows logo key+Tab>arrow key, preferably without the need of a program?

[Thinkpad Lover]

Some people complain about those keys because in some cases, if they press them by accident, making the browser page forward or backward, they lose whatever information that's been typed in.

That used to happen to me so then I would right click, "Select all", "Copy" so at least I would have my work preserved on the Clip Board if I hit that Left Browser Back button (mistaking it for Backspace or Left arrow which I used to do a lot). I started doing that in the midst of a long email composition or long posts like this one. Now I realize that if you accidentally hit the Left Browser button and just immediately hit the Right Browser Forward your work will still be there in most cases. At least that works on the Forum here! That don't (I'm using bad English on purpose coz I'm angry!) work during Ebay message composition- if you hit that Left Browser Back button by accident then realize, OOPS!, and immediately try to hit the Right Browser Forward to recover your work- it will have vanished into thin air! They delete it (probably for some weirdo, anti-SPAM, security reason). BTW (off topic), do you notice how difficult they (Ebay geniuses) make it for you to ask a seller a question nowadays? You have to enter an annoying verification code each time. They assume everyone's a spammer with time to waste.

If you hit that Left Browser Back button in the middle of composing an email, most email clients (at least AOL, Yahoo, Gmail that I know of) will warn you if you want to stay on that page or leave and/or save what you've been typing. Check your Drafts folder.

I assume other laptop makers such as Dell, HP, etc. will soon incorporate those Left and Right Browser buttons into their keyboards also, as Lenovo has? How come I don't see those keys on an HP Pavilion DV6000 or a Dell D620 Keyboard that I have here? Is this only an IBM/Lenovo trend? And am I right in estimating that they started with the T40 generation keyboards?

BTW I love those Browser Back and Forward buttons now, but they sure took some getting use to They are a great time saver flipping back and forth through browser windows. I think long Microsoft Word documents or Adobe PDF documents should make use of those buttons somehow (if they don't already) but I guess they already have Page up and Page Down. And more websites (such as EBay) should be considerate enough to preserve your work in case you press that Left Browser Back button in the middle of composing a message. Sometimes you want to be able to go back to a previous page in your browser, check some piece of information, then come back and finish your message (without opening a new tab or window). Why do they delete your message! Didn't they ever think about that? Can't they be more considerate of people's needs?

Daniel

[rumbero]

Please excuse my question, but is it possible to replace the browser key function in order to Cycle back and forth through programs in the taskbar with aero instead of webpages? Similar to Ctrl+Windows logo key+Tab>arrow key, preferably without the need of a program?

Regrettably, i don't know Windows well enough to answer this question the way you asked for. But in case you would like to try an external program, i can heartily recommend http://allchars.zwolnet.com, which i used at work to add on the keyboard features to Windows which i was missing from Linux. Maybe it is also possible to remap your keyboard with this nice free tool in the way you intend it?

[amardeep]

Use them all the time for forward and back in a browser. Somehow just very convenient (= if anyone from Lenovo sees this, ignore stuff above and keep them as-is ).