The "alt Gr" Key On Computer Keyboard

[JuniperEccles]

I foolishly hit this key the other day and, to my astonishment, the screen turned upside down! I was advised to do Ctrl, Alt and the up arrow and, thankfully, it turned the right way up again. Pondering on this, I wondered why anyone would want to turn their screen upside down anyway. Any ideas?

[Mamyalynne]

Usually as a prank played on someone else.

[JimF]

For Australians.

Aye. Thang. Yoo.

[CrapAtCryptics]

AltGr (also Alt Graph, or Right Alt) is a modifier key found on some computer keyboards and is primarily used to type characters that are unusual for the locale of the keyboard layout, such as currency symbols and accented letters. Can also be used for preset commands such as you experienced.

[stoofur]

If you were to mount the monitor from the ceiling then you would need to change the orientation of the display. Or in airports they often mount the monitor on it's side so that the display is portrait. I often when reading documents at work flip my monitor on to it's side (the mount allows me to do this) so that it is easier to read the whole document.

[waterboatman]

Just tried it, didn't happen on mine. Did you hit another key at the same time?

[wolf63]

It is to allow a Cat to mess up your computer when stomping across your keyboard. They only have to hit a couple of keys.

[JuniperEccles]

As far as I know, waterboatman, I only hit that key.

[dannyk13]

//AltGr (also Alt Graph, or Right Alt[1]) is a modifier key found on some computer keyboards and is primarily used to type characters that are unusual for the locale of the keyboard layout, such as currency symbols and accented letter//