I have had my Chrome OS netbook since January and I have never had an issue with the lack of a caps lock key… until today. Somehow while typing, I inadvertently turned it on.

On Chrome OS netbooks the caps lock key has been replaced by a search button that opens a new tab. After bashing on the search button a bunch of times I used one of the new tabs to search for information about my problem. The solution is simple. Press both shift keys at the same time to activate and deactivate caps lock.