This article collects together and updates advice I have encountered on and off the web to access or map the INSERT key in Windows on a Mac (either in a Virtual Machine or via Boot Camp), which is useful when you are using assistive technologies such as screen readers.
The problem
You may want to use keystrokes in screen readers such as INSERT+F7 (in NVDA or JAWS) to bring up a list of links on the page, or INSERT+CTRL+; (in JAWS) to bring up a list of ARIA landmark regions. However:
- Mac laptops do not have the INSERT key.
- CAPS LOCK cannot be easily used as a replacement, due to the different (to Windows) way that Mac keyboards handle it.
If you have an Apple keyboard with numeric keypad
Then the “0” key on the numeric keypad is INSERT in Windows. Thanks to Hans Hillen for pointing this out. If you wish, you can also map other keys (such as the relatively unused F16) to INSERT, too (more details below).
If you have a Mac laptop, or non-numeric keyboard
In this case, you have three options, detailed below.
Use your Virtual Machine to map a key (or combination) to INSERT
If you are running Windows in a Virtual Machine on OS X, the VM application will most likely offer a key-mapping facility.
- Instructions for VMWare Fusion 5
- Instructions for Parallels Desktop 7
- VirtualBox passes all keys except the Host Key directly to the Virtual Machine, so you would need to use a key remapping program within Windows.
Use a key remapping program within Windows
There are a number of utilities that can be used to achieve this, including the following.
- SharpKeys
- The Windows “Remapkey” tool mentioned in this WebAIM article
Use the numpad on the Mac laptop keyboard
Mac laptops have a ‘hidden’ numeric keypad, as discussed in the WebAIM article mentioned above, though due to the extra keystrokes required to access it, this approach is not recommended.
