What is the difference between the “return” and “enter” keys on a keyboard?

A full computer keyboard has two keys with a similar design and very similar functions, although they do not have very pronounced differences and their history follows different paths, which explains why they are placed there. We are talking about “return” and “entry”.

These keys are located on devices that include a numeric keypad, “enter” is located there in a vertical and narrow layout, and “return” is located in the main part and bears this name on desktop computers. Manzana; and in windows It has an inverted L layout and is also called “enter”.

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Login and return history

Return originates from electric typewriters, where pressing it executed the carriage return (CR) command, which originated in older devices and was levered to move down a few lines to start a new paragraph.

What this button did was prevent a person from indenting by hand and instead moved the carriage, a set of rollers that hold the paper you’re writing on, to the start of the line. To this he added the action of turning the roller so that the paper slides and continues at the bottom.

Although the Enter key is a little more recent, since it was born for the first computers with a screen, with the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bdifferentiating the carriage return action and sending information. In addition, this button served as the “equals” sign (=) for mathematical operations performed with the numeric keypad, hence its location on the side.

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Differences today

This story already shows why these keys coexist on the keyboard, despite having similar functions today, because many of these tasks were grouped together for both cases.

As technology and computing advances, these two keys can be the same and different at the same time. In case windows It will be the developers of applications or platforms that can note these differences, because Return can be the same, and Enter to move to the next paragraph.

An example is what happens in some programs microsoftoffice i Adobe, in which both keys are treated differently depending on the context. The button in the main section works as a carriage return to move to the next paragraph, and the button in the numeric section is for receiving and sending data.

The reason for this equality of characteristics is that the system Microsoft Both keys give the same execution code, which in this case is 13, but with the caveat that it can be reported from different locations.

The complete opposite of what happens Mac. The codes there are different: 36 for Return and 76 for Enter. Although there is a shortcut to make the first work for the second: pressing the Fn key and then Return will do the same as the second, which can be very useful for those who do not have or do not use a numeric keypad. before using it.

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