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To be really pedantic (sorry! I'm not complaining about your comment), your keyboard does not have any key labelled 'control', it is always (AFAIK) abbreviated as 'ctrl'. Which is really weird to me, as it's hardly a big word needing abbreviating, and keyboards often have other long words written on the keys ('delete', 'page down', and so on).

On top of that, the shortened 'ctrl' is really a terrible abbreviation. It's not obvious that it stands for 'control' and I would guess that most non-techy people would have no idea that it means this word. Plus, it's near to another key with multiple letters ('alt'). The overall effect is that 'ctrl' appears to just be a jumble of letters with some esoteric meaning. A really odd design decision. Why not just put 'control' on the key and be done with it?



You're incorrect, especially for the typical reader here. A good chunk (maybe not over 50%, but its gotta be close) of the regular readers on this site use Macs. Most Mac keyboards, including the ones on the Macbook Pro, spell it out. Same for most non IBM/IBM-PC compatible keyboards.


I'm typing on a MacBook Pro that has "ctrl".

Not sure I've ever seen a Mac keyboard that said "control", but maybe that's because I've mostly seen Finnish keycaps.


Enjoy this picture of an Apple keyboard that says "control": https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_Keyboard.JPG


Look in the menu bars and you'll only see ^ describing the shortcuts.


I'm typing on a mac keyboard too. It has 'ctrl', 'esc', but 'delete' is written in full.


My mid 2014 MBP control key is labeled "control"



How odd! My mac keyboard is a similar design, but has 'ctrl', and has no writing on the shift keys, caps lock and so on. The only unabbreviated word it has is 'delete'.

Perhaps the standard is something to do with the country (mine is a UK layout).


Yes, it does. Not sure why, but:

http://i.imgur.com/vvQNuQX.jpg




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