If you are a long term PC user, you must have noticed the Chromebook keyboard is quite different from the regular keyboards you find in most Desktops and other laptops. At first blush, it looks familiar until you see some of the standard keys you are used to are missing. There is no delete button; the function keys row is replaced with new keys you might not have seen before, and the caps lock key is also missing. These are only but a few of the most noticeable changes.
Chromebook Keyboard
The omission of these keys doesn’t mean you can’t apply some workarounds and get the same result. One such key is the Caps lock key. Even though it’s omitted, you can still turn on the caps lock feature and write your characters in upper case. Here’s how.
Method 1: Use the Default Keyboard Combination
The easiest method to turn on the caps lock feature is holding down the ALT key and pressing the Search key once (ATL + Search). The search key is one with a magnifying icon. You will see a pop-up notification on the bottom right showing you that Cap Lock is now enabled.
Caps Lock Enabled
To turn off caps lock, press the Shift key, or repeat the same combination (ALT + Search).
Method 2: Customize and assign your own Caps Lock key
This other method is a little more technical but painless. You can opt to change the behavior of another key on your keyboard to act as a Caps Lock key. For example, for this post, we will set the “ESC” key to act as Caps Lock other than the normal Escape function.
Step 1. Open the settings window by hitting the “Search” key and typing “settings.” Alternatively, click on the gear icon at the bottom right of your screen.
Gear Icon
Step 2. Click on the “Devices” tab and select “Keyboard.”
Keyboard Settings
Step 3. Choose any key that you may wish to forego its functionality and set it as Caps Lock. From the image below, you can see I have set the “Escape” key as Cap lock.
Keyboard Settings
That’s it! You can now turn on and off the Caps Lock feature with much ease.
