Workplace Challenges
Time for a change?Everybody knows that keyboards come standard with computers. But did you ever wonder if yours was adapted to your hands? ANDRE BOILY |
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 [ 2006-10-16 ] |
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If you spend hours on end in front of a computer screen, you should definitely pay as much attention to the type of keyboard you use as to the monitor itself.
It's been a while since I've tried a new keyboard - which is since I write about new computer products that grab my attention or piques my interest from time to time.
Yet the same old keyboard keeps coming with the computer. In my case, a sexy Mac bi-pro G4 that has kept me content for more than three years. After all, a keyboard is a keyboard is a keyboard, right?
As long as the kids haven't spilled fruit juice all over it, we generally replace the computer - which needs replacing after some four odd years, when it becomes technologically obsolete - instead.
Recently, I had the chance to put to the test one of those ergonomically curved keyboards equipped with a hand rest.
Microsoft's Natural 4000 ergonomic keyboard can be adjusted both angle- and heightwise. Its two-block design provides for a smoother interface with the hands by eliminating the left-right angle that the wrists have to contort into with straight keyboards.
Note that due to the hand rest, the keyboard does take up more space on your desk.
It took me a few hours to get used to the feeling, more so considering I've been using a straight keyboard since . . . since . . . the Mac Plus era, or the end of the 1980s - eons ago!
And between the two sets of keys, there's a zoom key to increase and decrease the display size of a text or Web page. The top portion houses the traditional F1-F12 and quick access keys, all of which can be configured using the driver supplied on the CD.
Compared with my white Mac keyboard, my trial Microsoft keyboard is much quieter, except for the letter B which, oddly enough, emits a noise that calls to mind . . . 1980!
On the other hand, the Mac keyboards taught my pinkie to seek out a large Enter key. The 4000's is tiny - my little finger keeps probing for it, sometimes failing to land on target.
On the other hand, the small tactile indicators on the F and J keys are inconveniently located. I still find myself positioning my fingers on the wrong typing sequence - for instance, with my right hand which often needs to leave the keyboard to fetch the mouse, only to land back on HJKL instead of JKL;.
But those are just details. And the snags ultimately fade with practice.
Although this product originates from the Microsoft empire, the Natural 4000 keyboard remains perfectly compatible with any Mac, as long as your system is recent (Jaguar OS X 10.2 series and later).
Whether your operating system is Windows or Mac OS X, you'll still need to install the driver that comes on the CD. If - like me - you use a Mac, you have to access the freshly installed driver and hit the System Preferences to make a few adjustments to specify the same Apple, Option and Control keys as your old keyboard and set an Eject button for your CD/DVD player.
Finally, two things of importance to us in a bilingual country - both driver and keyboard are available in French.
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