Help key
{{Refimprove|date=September 2014}}
A Help key, found in the shape of a dedicated key explicitly labeled {{keypress|Help}}, or as another key, typically one of the function keys, on a computer keyboard, is a key which, when pressed, produces information on the screen/display to aid the user in their current task, such as using a specific function in an application program.
In the case of a non-dedicated Help key, the location of the key will sometimes vary between different software packages. Most common in computer history, however, is the development of a de facto Help key location for each brand/family of computer, exemplified by the use of F1 on IBM compatible PCs.
Apple keyboards
{{quote|The standard help key on the Apple IIe and Apple III series computers is either OPEN-APPLE-? or SOLID-APPLE-? ... The standard help key on the Apple II and Apple II+, where practical, is a question mark or slash, or else ESCAPE ? or ESCAPE /.|A 1982 Apple Computer manual for developers.{{cite book | url=http://www.apple2scans.net/files/1982-A2F2116-m-a2e-aiiedg.pdf | title=Apple IIe Design Guidelines | publisher=Apple Computer | author1=Meyers, Joe | author2=Tognazzini, Bruce | year=1982 | pages=39–40 | access-date=2014-03-11 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923172720/http://www.apple2scans.net/files/1982-A2F2116-m-a2e-aiiedg.pdf | archive-date=2015-09-23 | url-status=dead }}}}
On a full-sized Apple keyboard, the help key was labelled simply as {{keypress|Help}}, located to the left of the {{keypress|Home}}. Where IBM compatible PC keyboards had the {{keypress|Insert}}, Apple keyboards had the help key instead. As of 2007, new Apple keyboards do not have a help key. In its place, a full-sized Apple keyboard has a {{keypress|Fn}} instead. Instead of a mechanical help key, the menu bar for most applications contain a Help menu as a matter of convention.
Commodore and Amiga keyboards
The Commodore 128 had a {{keypress|Help}} key in the second block of top row keys. Amiga keyboards had a {{keypress|Help}} key, labelled as such, above the arrow keys on the keyboard, and next to a {{keypress|Del}} key (where the {{keypress|Insert|Home|Pg Up|chain= }} cluster is on a standard PC keyboard).
Atari keyboards
The keyboards of the Atari 16- and 32-bit computers had a {{keypress|Help}} key above the arrow keys on the keyboard. Atari 8-bit XL and XE series keyboards had dedicated {{keypress|Help}} keys, but in the group of differently-styled system keys separated from the rest of the keyboard.
Sun Microsystems (Oracle)
Most of the Sun Microsystems keyboards have a dedicate "{{keypress|Help}}" key in the left top corner (left from the "{{keypress|Esc}}" key above block of 10 ({{keypress|chain=,|Stop|Again|Props|Undo|Front|Copy|Open|Paste|Find|Cut}}) extra keys.{{cite web | url=http://www.g8wrb.org/useful-stuff/Sun/U80/805-6618-11.pdf | title=manual | accessdate=September 25, 2011 | pages=chapter 7 "image of Type-6 keyboard" | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304040941/http://www.g8wrb.org/useful-stuff/Sun/U80/805-6618-11.pdf | archive-date=March 4, 2016 | url-status=dead }}