Editing Num lock (section)

==Numpad emulation==
Many compact keyboards, for instance on laptops, lack the space for a dedicated numeric keypad but many people are accustomed to entering numbers via the numeric keypad instead of the number row.
Many such compact keyboards therefore offer a special keyboard layer for the keypad on the regular alphanumeric keyboard and that layer is often enabled by a key that is called Num Lock.
Some [[tenkeyless]] keyboards also provide this functionality, including the [[Topre Realforce]].

Some laptops lack a num lock [[LED]], and it is not possible to visually determine whether num lock is engaged (changes in state are indicated momentarily by on-screen notification). This can cause problems for password entry at the logon desktop, when the keyboard is typing numbers instead of letters, and the user cannot tell.

Over [[PS/2]] and [[USB]], the state of the locking keys is host-controlled and the keyboard needs to be smart enough to send virtual Num lock key presses to influence the host's state to match the keyboard's intended state - but this does not always work.
To avoid that complexity and the risk for error, some PC keyboards therefore instead have a separate [[Pad lock]] key only to change the layer, with a separate Num lock key that works as on a regular full-size keyboard switching between numeric entry and navigation.