Submitted by guitarhellboy t3_126mfjl in MechanicalKeyboards
NoOne-NBA- t1_jebao8f wrote
Reply to comment by samvvell in Thoughts on using an alice/arisu board as your main board by guitarhellboy
I hit Command+Opt a lot, in both Illustrator, and Photoshop.
Any keyboard that separates those two modifiers, will make it more difficult for me to hit those commands with my left hand only.
I generally hit those two keys with my left thumb, while rotating my entire hand to hit the actual character I need with my index finger.
On my custom ortho work board, I can hit Command+Opt+P with my left hand only.
I can't even come close to that on a WKL, or Alice.
I'm limiting my reach, right off the bat, by having to hit one of the modifiers with my pinky.
You can build a work-around for that, with either macros or mod-tap commands, but I like to keep things as similar as possible across all keyboards, to avoid muscle memory issues.
I have to use other people's computers a lot too, so I don't want mine to be that different from theirs.
samvvell t1_jebgdl8 wrote
Oh, you're on Mac, too. I use Windows, so it's a little different. I primarily use my right hand for combos since I use my mouse in my left hand, but it's challenging having most combos on the left side of the keyboard. I might just go the HHKB layout route and move Control to Caps Lock. I'm not sure if that would be more comfortable or not.
I understand the sentiment about using other computers though. People hate using mine haha
NoOne-NBA- t1_jebs8v6 wrote
I use both platforms interchangeably because I have my Windows keyboards set up to mimic the Mac format.
Ctrl+Alt+R on a PC is exactly the same key-chord as Command+Option+R on a Mac, with that layout.
I posted a pic of my two layouts below.
The top one is my work layout, and the bottom one is for home use.
The top layout is considerably more efficient for graphic work because I designed it specifically for that purpose, and have the numpad overlapping the right hand alphas, in home position.
That lets me switch between alphas, arrows and numpad, on the fly, without moving either hand from its home position.
I even have the number row numbers mapped to the numpad area, so I don't have to go off home position for those.
The home board is slightly different, and less efficient, because I use it primarily for gaming and browsing.
I game using the mouse in my left hand, and use the numpad for button input.
Having the numpad area all the way to the right, with the blocker just to the left of Num0, feels more comfortable to me while gaming, so that's how my home board ended up being laid out.
Futuristick-Reddit t1_jeckd84 wrote
I design on an Arisu board and have no trouble with key combinations; what key do you have bound to cmd?
NoOne-NBA- t1_jeda5qi wrote
The one next to the space bar, with Option next to that, mimicking a Mac layout.
Can you hit Command+Option+P with your left hand only?
I can do that on all of my keyboards, which is why I don't like any board that splits the modifiers.
Futuristick-Reddit t1_jee87vc wrote
Gotcha, have you tried using left space as cmd? Everything under the left hand ends up being in roughly the same place as the MacBook keyboard, aside from Fn but it's not like that's used often on the MacBook. I do use mod-tap so I still get to use that key as space, although I see you mentioned you're not a fan of that
NoOne-NBA- t1_jeen3a5 wrote
I haven't tried that, but also haven't needed to.
A while back, I dove down the portion of the rabbit hole where you finally acknowledge that nobody else is going to design your perfect keyboard, so you will have design it for yourself.
I'm so far down the custom ortho hole now, even stuff I used to love has lost a lot of its attraction, like the Apple AEK, and my Wind X.
Futuristick-Reddit t1_jeengbv wrote
Totally fair, just wanted to chime in and say there are always options to make a layout work
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