Putting the spacebar on a diet; Where do you press it?

[validifyed]

I know for a fact that I am not the only one who is annoyed by the oversized monstrosity that is the spacebar, however it seems that a lot of people have simply grown used to its size.

So I have a question; where do you press your spacebar? When I game I rest my thumb naturally below C (QWERTY layout), for typing I tend to smash it in place between the B and N, with rare overlap into half the M and V keys.

I should clarify that I dont touch type, and use my right forefinger for space-mashing and am right handed.

So where do you press on the spacebar? Id be interested to see if the majority of people use the same position, or if the positions people use can be grouped relative to their dominant hand or if they touch type or not.

[whentheclouds]

my (rather small) left hand is stationed on the qwer/asdf cluster, so my left thumb rests on the spacebar right below V or between V and C. my right thumb also rests on the spacebar (under N) but never presses it ever. i also touch type, and typing wise my dominant hand is left.

[FLFisherman]

I only press the spacebar with my right thumb. I touch type, and always have my fingers over the home keys, so my thumb presses the spacebar below the "N" key.

I am not sure what I would use all the extra pace for if I had a smaller spacebar. I try to press as many keys as possible with my right hand, so anything in that bottom row probably wouldn't get used.

[validifyed]

I only press the spacebar with my right thumb. I touch type, and always have my fingers over the home keys, so my thumb presses the spacebar below the "N" key.

I am not sure what I would use all the extra pace for if I had a smaller spacebar. I try to press as many keys as possible with my right hand, so anything in that bottom row probably wouldn't get used.

Does that mean you use right handed shift, alt and ctrl keys? Personally I find that I never use them really, AltGr, Menu and Ctrl never get used while RightShift is sometimes useful for 1-hand typing for capitals.

I feel like there could be an extra thumb key left side for sure, I dont really know what it would be used for in a more practical enviroment (eg.. Not gaming), but it should have a good use I feel. Im on a mission at the moment to use AutoHotKey to replace those right hand keys with some useful functions - although so far I am off to a poor start. Possibly macroing them for common unix commands or something, but its not all the time that I find myself using Unix terminal and the common commands are either too plentiful or too short to warrant a dedicated key.

[FLFisherman]

I only press the spacebar with my right thumb. I touch type, and always have my fingers over the home keys, so my thumb presses the spacebar below the "N" key.

I am not sure what I would use all the extra pace for if I had a smaller spacebar. I try to press as many keys as possible with my right hand, so anything in that bottom row probably wouldn't get used.

Does that mean you use right handed shift, alt and ctrl keys? Personally I find that I never use them really, AltGr, Menu and Ctrl never get used while RightShift is sometimes useful for 1-hand typing for capitals.

I feel like there could be an extra thumb key left side for sure, I dont really know what it would be used for in a more practical enviroment (eg.. Not gaming), but it should have a good use I feel. Im on a mission at the moment to use AutoHotKey to replace those right hand keys with some useful functions - although so far I am off to a poor start. Possibly macroing them for common unix commands or something, but its not all the time that I find myself using Unix terminal and the common commands are either too plentiful or too short to warrant a dedicated key.

Ah, good point. I don't use the right ****, alt, or ctrl. I guess I don't even realize my own keypresses until I have to think about it.  )

Let me know what you think would be a good replacement for the other half of the spacebar (right now the closest you have to this are split spacebars).

[validifyed]

I tried dedicated media controls, bad idea if you ask me though - better placed either on FN layer or off main keyboard.
Also had one dedicated to running a USB mount/dismount command once, which I must admit was very useful, but changing hardware ids made this a little annoying too.

One of the best uses I have seen is a freind who uses keys as modifyers for foreign letter accents, and a switch modifier to activate googles japanese IME input, which is one I may add at some point but dont tend to find myself hanging around Japanese websites enough to warrant at present. Other languages are available though I guess...

[LuX]

I replaced my spacebar with the numpad "0". It's much easier to press down on, in-game and while typing.
If I were to split my space bar, I'd try putting shift and/or backspace there, or perhaps even a function key.

[DvorakDachshund]

I use spacebar with my left thumb only on my work keyboard, and have it programmed to left main thumb button on my kinesis at home. I think I developed that habit from playing video games. Most other people seem to use space with their right thumb. My right thumb does effectively nothing.

[alexjd99]

I've gone through a lot of phases with my space-barring

long long ago it would be with only my right index finger. Then I decided I wanted to be over 110 wpm, and I decided to switch to thumb. I did both thumbs (super weird, I know), and it was more towards the edge (m area and c area). Now I only do left thumb, and it's more towards the center (in between v and b). This probably happened after I got my Planck, but only recently noticed it.

It's gonna be interesting when I make my split spacebar Golbat, since I'll have Ctrl as the right space key, and space for the left.

[xtrafrood]

Yup, I've thought about this as well. I can't imagine a smaller spacebar. I guess I would have to try it. I always use my right thumb, and usually press somewhere between v and b. (Gaming I guess)

Edit - left thumb. Sorry, lots of late nights.

[jacobolus]

I press spacebar on a standard layout keyboard mainly under the V key. About 1.5u would be long enough.

In past polls, the right/left spacer split was about 60/40, with a small handful of people regularly using both thumbs.

The spacebar should definitely be either further from the keyboard (for thumb use) or wider (to support both thumb and index finger use), and certainly no more than 5u wide. A split pair of 2.5x1.5u spacebars is great. Use these keycaps:

[rowdy]

This sort of topic comes up every now and again ...

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=18461.0
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=29930.0
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=51788.0
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=64914.0
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=77569.0
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=79901.0

I have become accustomed to the small space bars on today's keyboards (only 6.25x) and find that I press it almost exclusively with my right thumb about 2/3 the way across.

[validifyed]

I press spacebar on a standard layout keyboard mainly under the V key. About 1.5u would be long enough.

In past polls, the right/left spacer split was about 60/40, with a small handful of people regularly using both thumbs.

The spacebar should definitely be either further from the keyboard (for thumb use) or wider (to support both thumb and index finger use), and certainly no more than 5u wide. A split pair of 2.5x1.5u spacebars is great. Use these keycaps:

Show Image

I wonder if anyone actually uses both spacebars (If you ignore the change in usage for gaming and focus only on typing), it seems like the only reason for 2 is to accommodate for everyone, but any single person will only use 1 side. For this reason it seems that even on traditional keyboards the spacebar should be split with the second half being set to another key - and then add the option to swap the functions on each of the spacebars to fit the needs of a particular person.

[b0f0]

I use my left thumb to press "space". In my case "space" is a 1u key because I have a 80key Ergodox, means the thumb cluster has 8 1u keys. So I dont have a big space bar. I like it that way.

[jacobolus]

I wonder if anyone actually uses both spacebars [for typing], it seems like the only reason for 2 is to accommodate for everyone, but any single person will only use 1 side. For this reason it seems that even on traditional keyboards the spacebar should be split with the second half being set to another key - and then add the option to swap the functions on each of the spacebars to fit the needs of a particular person.

A small handful of people do actually use both thumbs for pressing the spacebar when typing.

But in general, reassigning the backspace key to be on an easily accessible thumb key instead of in the top corner (where it takes moving the arm or twisting the wrist to reach) is one of the best easy ergonomic improvements that can be made to a standard keyboard.

[whentheclouds]

move it to caps lock? good idea. too bad i'm already using it as winkey.. i guess tilde or tab also work but i need those keys so no-go

[kasakka]

Another vote for split spacebar. Had that on one keyboard and notice myself missing it now. I hit the edge with my right thumb when typing and left thumb when gaming. So that center area is pretty useless.

Most spacebars aren't designed to be comfortable for the thumb. Reversing it on my Topre was a good move.