I was doing a few few Windows-related tasks on a Mac with Parallels yesterday, and accidentally put things into overtype mode. Computers have two input modes:
- Insert Mode: When you type, the cursor inserts characters at the current position and shifts over anything that is found after its position.
- Overtype Mode: The cursor overwrites text that is present after its position — when you hit keys, you type over what’s already present.
Insert mode is the input mode that people most commonly use. The most common method of switching to overtype mode (and back) on a Windows PC is to press the “insert” key, which we previously covered in “Keyboard Types Over Other Words”. The problem with accidentally putting Windows into overtype mode when running it on a Mac with Parallels is that an Apple keyboard does not feature the “insert” key.
I took a guess here and hit the “help” key. The “help” key on an Apple keyboard occupies the same space in which “insert” lives on most Windows PC’s keyboard — directly above the “delete” key, above the number pad. This guess was correct, and Windows went back to insert mode.
