IN THIS CHAPTER

Taking a tour of the keyboard and touchpad

Learning about shortcut keys

Changing your keyboard and touchpad settings

Using an external keyboard and mouse

It’s hard telling whether Christopher Latham Sholes thought that his design and letter layout of the keyboard would still be in use well into the 21st century. Regardless of what his original intent was, his legacy is alive and well in the world today. When Sholes devised the layout and functionality of the keyboard that we use today, his intent was to reduce typewriter jams and thereby speed up the typist. (“Glass half empty” people argue that the arrangement of letters was really to slow down the typist and thus also reduce typewriter jams.)

Over the last 140 years, the keyboard has evolved very little. The basic layout of letters and numbers is the same; the only major additions have been multipurpose keys like the ?/ key or the :; key. Additionally, with the advent of word processors and computers, keys like Alt, Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Shift appeared, as well as function keys (you know, the F keys located at the top of some keyboards).

Several other modifications came about as computer manufacturers and software developers like Microsoft and Apple fought to differentiate themselves within the marketplace. For instance, Windows computers have a Start key and rely heavily on the function keys. Apple keyboards ditched the Alt key for the Apple key (now the Command key) and the Fn key. Vive la différence!

Each computer manufacturer created nuances designed to improve users’ experiences while typing and otherwise operating their computers. The Chromebook is no different! In this chapter, you explore the Chromebook keyboard and touchpad in all their glory. You learn how to customize the language of your keyboard, adjust the function of some keys, and save time with keyboard shortcuts. You also learn how to add an external mouse or keyboard and how to customize external devices.

The Chromebook Keyboard at a Glance

Google didn’t stray too far from the norm when it created the keyboard for the Chromebook. Figure 4-1 shows the keyboard on the Lenovo C330. Check out the top row: If you’ve done much work on a Mac or a PC, you probably remember the function keys (F1 through F12), used as shortcuts for various operating-system-specific functions. On Chromebook, the function keys are gone, replaced by a series of more intuitive keys, called shortcut keys.

Moving left to right, the top row of keys are

• Esc: The “get me out of here” key. Often used to stop something you’re doing. In the web browser, it stops a page from loading.
• Back (indicated by a left arrow): Navigates to the previous web page.
• Forward (indicated by a right arrow): If you navigated back a page, use forward to navigate forward.
• Refresh/Reload (indicated by a circular arrow): Reloads your current web page.
• Full Screen (indicated by a box with little arrows in two corners): Makes the current window full screen, without the menu bar or other ancillary window controls.
• Reveal All Windows (indicated by a box with two bars to the right): If you have multiple windows open, clicking this key reveals them all on the screen at one time so that you can quickly click and navigate between windows.
• Dim (indicated by a small sun): If you’re in a dark environment, you may want to reduce the screen’s brightness so that the light emitted isn’t a disturbance to others. This feature is also a great way to extend battery life if you’re using your Chromebook with its internal battery, away from electric power.
• Brighten (indicated by a bigger sun): If you’re in a bright environment, you may want to brighten your screen because the screen may be too dim to see.
• Mute (indicated by a speaker with a slash through it): Quickly eliminates all sound coming from your machine.
• Volume Down (indicated by a speaker with a single sound wave): Decrease your machine’s volume incrementally.
• Volume Up (indicated by a speaker with two sound waves): It’s time to party. Turn up the volume!
• Lock: Locks your Chromebook if you are stepping away and don’t want others to tamper with it (requires that you have your screen lock setting turned on).

The remaining keys on the keyboard are more or less what you’d expect — with the exception of the Search key, as shown in Figure 4-2.

As is typical of laptop manufacturers, you can find some minor variation in the layout of keys among various makes and models of Chromebooks. The two Chromebooks in our home differ a bit, and you might notice that the keyboard of yours varies slightly from what I show in Figure 4-1.

Pushing the Search key opens the Launcher and puts your cursor in the search bar so that you can quickly submit a search query. If you’re searching for an application, like Gmail, simply type in gmail, press Enter, and your Chromebook opens the Chrome web browser and loads your Gmail. Maybe you want to quickly do a Google search. This search can even find one of your Google Docs documents. To do a Google search, enter your query in the search bar and press Enter. Chromebook opens a Chrome browser and loads Google.com (or your default search engine, if it’s something else) with your search results teed up.

The last thing you should notice about the keyboard is that the bottom row of keys includes no Start key, Fn key, or Command/Apple key. Instead, it simply has a Ctrl and Alt key on both sides of the spacebar. Ctrl and Alt are used quite a bit in shortcut combinations, so you might as well get used to having them there!

Using Shortcut Key Combinations

In addition to shortcut keys, several key combinations perform a litany of tasks on your Chromebook without making you navigate and click your way through the Chrome OS menu system. Tables 4-1, 4-2, and 4-3 show several different shortcut key combinations that will make your experience on a Chromebook more intuitive and efficient. (You can find a full list in the Cheat Sheet for this book at www.dummies.com.)

When you see a keyboard shortcut like Ctrl+N, it means you should press the Ctrl and N keys at the same time. When you see a keyboard shortcut like Ctrl+Shift+N, press the Ctrl, Shift, and N keys at the same time.

When using external keyboards: If you are using a Windows keyboard, use the Windows key when Chromebook specifies the Search key. If you are using a Mac keyboard, use the Command key for Chromebook’s Search key.

The good news is that when you don’t have your copy of Chromebook For Dummies, 2nd Edition nearby, you can use Google’s built-in Help tool for quick reference. To access the visual helper, press Ctrl+Alt+/. The Keyboard Shortcuts window appears. The main categories of keyboard shortcuts appear on the left; select one and view the individual shortcuts on the right. (See Figure 4-3.) Use the Keyboard Shortcuts screen for a quick reminder as you use your Chromebook.

Don’t be intimidated by the long list of keyboard shortcuts. You are not obligated to memorize them! Even every-day Chromebook experts use a small number of these shortcuts.

Configuring Keyboard Settings

The first time you turn on your Chromebook, you have to complete a basic setup process that includes selecting your language and desired keyboard language layout. You can edit this setting, among other keyboard settings, after the fact. To access your keyboard settings, follow these steps:

1. Click the status area located in the bottom-right corner of your desktop.

   You might recall that the status area contains your clock, Wi-Fi indicator, and battery charge level indicator. It is also pictured in Figure 4-4.

   Your settings panel appears.

2. Select Settings.

   A window launches and loads your Chromebook Settings page.

3. Scroll down to the Device section and select Keyboard Settings.

   A Keyboard Settings window appears, as shown in Figure 4-5.

In the Keyboard Settings dialog box, you can

• Reconfigure your Search, Alt, Ctrl, Esc, and Backspace keys.
• Turn your shortcut keys into function keys (F keys).
• Change your keyboard language configuration.

I discuss these options more fully in the next few sections.

Turning shortcut keys into function keys

On most Chromebooks, the function keys (F1 to F10) common to Macs and PCs have been replaced by shortcut keys. Few Chromebook models come with F11 or F12, and depending on your model, you may not even have a reference to the function key on each shortcut key.

If you have a need for function keys, don’t fret; you can disable the shortcut keys and enable function keys in your keyboard settings by following these steps:

1. Click the status area in the bottom-right of your desktop.

   The settings panel opens.

2. Select Settings.

   Your Chromebook Settings page appears in the Chrome browser.

3. Scroll down to the Device section and select Keyboard Settings.

   The Keyboard Settings dialog box appears.

4. Deselect the Treat Top-Row Keys as Function Keys setting.

   This disables the shortcut functionality of the shortcut keys and enables their functions as function keys.

   To re-enable shortcut keys and disable function keys, simply deselect the setting.

Changing your keyboard language

Your keyboard language configuration is set the first time you log into your Chromebook. If you’re in America, you probably set your language to English (United States) and your keyboard to US Keyboard. If you would like to change your keyboard language, you can do so by following these steps:

1. Click the status area in the bottom-right of your desktop.

   The settings panel appears.

2. Select Settings.

   Your Chromebook Settings page loads in the Chrome browser.

3. Scroll down to the bottom and click Advanced.
4. In the Languages and Input section, select Language.

5. Select the desired language.

   If you don’t see your language, click Add Languages. When you find the desired language, click Add.

6. Next to your desired language, click More (three dots) and select how you want to use the language.

   You find two settings here. The first indicates the language used by your Chromebook; the second indicates the language that Google will translate web page content into.

   The Languages and Input page appears, as shown in Figure 4-7.

   The language you selected when setting up your device appears in the Languages pane on the left side of the dialog box.

7. To change the language, click the Add Languages button.

   The Add Languages dialog box appears. (See Figure 4-8.)

8. Select the language you want from the drop-down list of available languages.

9. Click OK.

   The language you selected is added to the list of languages in the Languages pane.

10. Click the newly added language to highlight it.

    A list of options appears in the right pane of the Languages and Input dialog box.

11. In the Input Method section, select the box for the desired keyboard(s).
12. Click Done.

You can activate your newly added keyboard by following these steps:

1. Click the status area in the lower-right of your desktop.

   The settings panel opens.

2. Click the keyboard option located at the top of the panel.

   A menu of available keyboards appears.

3. Click the desired keyboard language.

After you switch your keyboard, you’ll notice as you type that your keys have changed to the standard for the language and country you selected. Change your language by repeating the preceding steps.

Using the Touchpad

Over the years, numerous different laptop mouse controllers have appeared. The trackball was cool until you got too much of your lunch stuck under the ball. The pointing stick was nice if you didn’t mind that it was the size of a pencil eraser. Then came the touchpad. The touchpad on the Chromebook is a lot like most touchpads that are used on Windows, Linux, and Mac computers. Here are some basic gestures to get you going:

• To move the cursor across the screen, simply place one finger on the touchpad and move it in any direction.
• Click buttons and links by pressing down on the bottom half of the touchpad until you feel or hear a click. Or, if you like tap-to-click instead, just tap the touchpad to click.
• Right-click by tapping with two fingers.
• Scroll vertically by placing two fingers on the touchpad and moving them up and down; scroll horizontally by moving them left and right.
• Drag items or highlight text by simultaneously pressing (and holding down) with one finger and moving the pointer using another finger.

Customizing Touchpad Settings

The touchpad is not without customization capability. You can make changes to the touchpad settings from within the Chromebook Settings page. To open the touchpad settings, follow these steps:

1. Click the status area in the bottom-right of your desktop.

   The settings panel opens.

2. Select Settings.

   Your Chromebook Settings page opens in the Chrome browser.

3. Scroll down to the Device section and select Touchpad Settings.

   The Touchpad dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 4-9.

In the Touchpad dialog box, you can make the following customizations:

• Change the touchpad speed.
• Adjust your click settings.
• Change scroll directions.

I discuss these settings in the next few sections.

Connecting a Mouse or Keyboard

Sometimes when duty calls, you have to work on your computer for hours on end. Spending hours upon hours using a laptop keyboard and touchpad may make your mobile-computing experience a bit of a grind. To make things easier, it’s sometimes nice to have a separate keyboard or mouse that you can plug in and use with your laptop. With your Chromebook, you can add a physical keyboard or mouse by using USB or Bluetooth.

To connect a USB keyboard or mouse to your Chromebook, you just need to locate the USB port on the side of your computer and insert the USB connector for your device into the port. (Your USB connector can go in only one way, so don’t force it.) Your Chromebook automatically detects the new keyboard or mouse and applies all existing settings to it. You might not see any messages as you would on a Windows computer; instead, it will just begin to work automatically.

If your keyboard or mouse and your Chromebook are Bluetooth enabled, no cable is necessary! Connect your Bluetooth keyboard or mouse by following these steps:

1. Click the status area in the bottom-right of the desktop and then click the Settings icon.

   The settings panel opens.

2. Select Bluetooth.

3. If your Bluetooth is disabled, click to enable it.

   Chromebook begins searching for available Bluetooth devices.

4. Ensure that your Bluetooth keyboard or mouse is enabled and wait for it to appear in the Bluetooth list.
5. Select your keyboard or mouse from the list and follow any instructions for “pairing” them to your Chromebook that appear.

6a. When connecting a keyboard, enter the randomized pin on the keyboard to ensure that it’s the correct device.

Upon successfully pairing your keyboard with your Chromebook, your Bluetooth keyboard assumes all existing keyboard settings, and you can start typing immediately.

6b. When connecting a mouse (optional): After your mouse has been plugged in or paired and Chromebook has identified it, you can configure it to be a “left-handed” mouse — that is, to swap the functionality of the left and right mouse buttons — by following these steps:

1. Open the settings panel and choose Settings.

2. Scroll down to the Device section and select Touchpad Settings.

   The Mouse and Touchpad dialog box appears. (See Figure 4-10.)

3. Select the Swap Primary Mouse control.