Submitted by cloudedsky t3_11yti3r in MechanicalKeyboards
cloudedsky OP t1_jd9axv2 wrote
IDOBAO ID75v3 with stock Gateron Oil King switches and DSA Magic Girl keycaps by Mintlodica. Not quite a split board, but ticks the rest of my boxes. This is still quite compact on my desk but allows for access to a numpad and giving my hands a little distance from each other. This keyboard is the heaviest one I have owned, just feels solid. The oil kings are fantastic out of the box, and I wanted a set of cute caps - Magic Girl fit the bill perfectly. I don't think anything will be replacing this on my desk any time soon. Though I could use a 40% hotswap ortho wireless for travel...
NoOne-NBA- t1_jd9okyl wrote
You should try moving the numpad, so that it overlaps the alphas, at their home position.
Having it overlap like that makes it so you can use the numpad, during normal typing, without having to move either hand from its home position.
In those instances where you are moving your right hand to the numpad, I simply press down with my left thumb, to bring the numpad to my right hand.
This is especially noticeable when you are typing something like an address, where you switch back and forth quickly, between numbers and alphas.
It would also leave all those keys down the middle available for other functions, including a proper "Inverted T" arrow cluster, usable by either hand.
Here's my version of your board.
Mine's a custom hand-wire, so I was able to properly lay out the entire numpad, but the same idea works fine on a full ortho, like yours.
cloudedsky OP t1_jd9qtpi wrote
Wow, this is actually really cool and something I might want to mess around with. Definitely going to hop on the configurator tonight and give it a try!
NoOne-NBA- t1_jd9zx5f wrote
It's at least worth giving it a shot.
Worst case, you don't like it, or can't get used to it, and you have to put it back afterwards.
Here's the sister board to that one, I designed for home use.
The numpad is pushed all the way over to the right on that one because that's where it's most comfortable for me, while gaming.
It's funny though, because I've gotten so used to my work board that having to move my hand over four whole keys, to use the numpad, is annoying to me now.
I'm actually working on altering my layout, at the moment.
I want to make my home board a split alpha, like yours, so I can avoid that (relatively minor) hand movement.
pvtparts t1_jdb01cs wrote
Definitely look into Miryoku while you are at it. Changed how I think about keyboards.
cloudedsky OP t1_jdb0ij7 wrote
Will take a look, cheers!
NoOne-NBA- t1_jdd3pfy wrote
I looked into a bunch of the "more efficient" layouts, during the design phase for my boards.
I ultimately chose to keep my layouts as close to standard QWERTY as possible because I use other people's computers/keyboards quite frequently, and didn't want to deal with all the muscle memory issues switching layouts would create.
I think I would do really well with one of the more efficient layouts, if I were able to use it exclusively.
I can't do that though, and switching back and forth tanks my efficiency on both layouts.
Swapping layouts like that requires me to be constantly thinking about typing, which interferes with my ability to type while thinking, if that makes sense to you.
pvtparts t1_jddwlod wrote
That's fair enough. I dunno, I'm not a huge typer but I've found there are enough places where I am "stuck" using QWERTY day-to-day that I never really lose it even though I'm typing on Miryoku Colemak-DH while at my home desk. For example, my phoe keyboard is QWERTY and I (for better or for worse) don't see that changing anytime soon.
NoOne-NBA- t1_jde0odq wrote
You're not touch-typing on your phone though, nor are you transcribing things, so I'm not sure how big an impact the arrangement of the characters actually has.
By contrast, I type professionally, so I spend a lot of my time looking at the source material I'm entering, rather than watching what's coming up on the screen.
Having characters migrating around, on different keyboards, would play hell with that.
pvtparts t1_jdf2awm wrote
Not touch typing, but still thinking in QWERTY daily. You may surprise yourself is all I'm saying. It's like people who learn another language, generally they are OK with switching between them, just not super rapidly.
NatureAndArtifice t1_jdapnpj wrote
You can also put nav keys in place of the numpad. That way you can keep the comfortable distance for the hands. though mine still has a centered numpad
buzzlighter1 t1_jd9vonx wrote
That's defo a high IQ layout!
Miguel7501 t1_jd9frem wrote
I still can't quite comprehend how they fit an entire numpad in the middle of a 60% case.
NoOne-NBA- t1_jd9ovzy wrote
It's simple, if you go ortho.
You're wasting a lot of real estate, if you're using a normal keyboard.
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