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Gaming keyboards/keypads question - Shirl

Posted: May 05, 2011

I was looking for gaming keyboards, since quite a few people are saying how much better they are for doing SR. All of the ones I've seen have a standard layout, but I use an ergo board. Has anyone just added a gaming keypad to their current setup, and does it have enough programmable command keys to make it worthwhile? They sell for about half the price of the gaming keyboard.

I would probably say no to a keypad. The object of the - MLS

[ In Reply To ..]
gaming keyboard is to save keystrokes and finger/hand action. I would think reaching for a keypad would be about the same as reaching for a mouse and we all know you cannot save time or your arms when you do that. They do make ergo gaming boards.

gaming keyboard - workingonit

[ In Reply To ..]
I think one of the reasons it is much faster to type on a gaming board is that the high quality ones have mechanical keys (blue cherry MX the best you can get) which are the most responsive keys evah. They are clicky and tactile and great for fast typers. That is why gamers swear by them. A lot of people don't like the noise but there is the brown Cherry MX which is tactile but reduced noise. Even then I know some prefer a soft mushy keystroke like most keyboards have (membrane boards).

You can feel the difference. All ergonomic board (split) have very mushy keys in my opinion but they are ergonomic. A quality board with cherry keyswitches are usually $100+ or there is a the Scorpius M10 which is about$60 I think, but not a gaming board.

I don't know that there are any trule ergonomic (meaning split) gaming boards if that is what you mean by ergonomic.

I did not know you could add a keypad but it does seem like a lot of reaching which would add extra time.

ergo board - Shirl

[ In Reply To ..]
Yes, I meant a split keyboard.

Since this program seems to delete macros whenever I create them, I think it would be worth having the programmable keys of the keypad. I had a macro for numbered lists - gone. I had a macro for "keep with next" - gone. That's just an example. I'm having a hard time thinking up commands that aren't already in use by Word and the VR program.

I don't know what happened to my ability to create macros. Back in the day when I was still using DOS (dating myself, eh?) I had hundreds and hundreds. Maybe more than a thousand. There were also fewer word processor commands already assigned by the program, so that was a help.

I plugged in the touchpad on my keyboard to see if that would eliminate some time instead of reaching for the mouse. Between dictators that VR doesn't like and the learning process (I don't have a laptop that I learned how to use the touchpad on), my line count isn't all that great today. It's more like $10 whereas late last week it was in the $13-15 range. My biggest problem seems to be scrolling. You actually have to move the cursor to the scroll bar. You can't just move your finger to the far right or bottom of the pad.

This keyboard has the touchpad on the lower right, so I'm still moving my hand off the keys, just not as far as to the mouse. I have another keyboard where it's in the middle, but my monitor is taking up the slot. I'll need to get a 9-pin parallel port to USB adapter before I can try it.

Key noise doesn't bother me one way or the other. I currently have a noisy one.

Moderator, if you get complaints that this is in the wrong forum and should be in Tech Help, could you just move it instead of deleting it? Thanks.

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