The Best of The Best? Personal Best!

[snailblazer]

Hi, this is my first message:

I hope you all agree that one reason we use a keyboard is to get ideas out of our head as fast as possible. I want to be like Helena Matouskova, a former typing world champion. Google how fast she is typing - it is crazy.

Here my first question: Could anyone watch the following YouTube movie and tell us which keyboard she is using?

I own several keyboards but all of them have their weak points:

- Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 (biggest problem I have: the space bar is really hard to push down)
- Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 (as is the case with the Natural Ergonomic, the feedback is poor)
- Apple Keyboards (both bluetooth and wired without and with numpad, bad feedback and I find the position of the keys awkward - they are just in the wrong place)
- Fujitsu KBPC E USB ergonomic splitfiel keyboard (the feedback is even worst than on the Microsoft keyboards)
- Lenovo SK8855 Thinkpad USB keyboard with trackpoint (actually my favorite non-mechanical keyboard I have)

I just ordered and received a  FKBN87MC/EFB2 (USA Filco Ninja Majestouch-2, Tenkeyless, NKR, Click Action, Keyboard) with MX-blue switches but I had to return it to www.keyboardco.com because the right shift key was very hard to press down, much harder than the left one. I sent the keyboard back and asked them to exchange it and to do me the favor to send me a MX brown instead. I have a Filco keypad with brown switches and I am a big fan of MX browns.

I found the difference in force to be applied as annoying as the space bar that is too difficult to press down on the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000. I think all keys should be fairly uniform in their resistance.

My only goal is to find THE KEYBOARD for me. I do that because I have to write a lot and I end up writing with pen and pencil. Over the years I have accumulated tons of paper and books which was difficult to sort and to access. I ended up searching the internet because everything seemed so easily accessible, but I realized that the quality of information on the internet is not always great. I therefore cut and scanned everything (also all my books) and tried to create my own private net to search in. I used a Fujitsu scansnap M 1500 and an EPSON Perfection V750 Pro to scan. Before that I cut everything with an IDEAL 4305 guillotine.

I know to speed up I finally have to settle for just one keyboard and then stick with it. But until my final decision I always ordered a happy hacking pro2 and a Topre Realforce 108UDK Black Sj38c0 with uniform 30g resistance from Japan.

I play piano but I have lazy fingers that is why I settled with a 400 Dollar keyboard (CASIO CDP-120) because the keys are so easy to press down. I could hardly play on a regular mechanical piano anymore because my fingers became lazy.

I am looking forward to learning from your experience with different keyboards and I will share mine with all of you.

I try to type instead of jotting down ideas on paper which I then have to scan. One problem is that I have to write in four languages (English, French, German and Italian). Therefore, a german or swiss keyboard layout would be great. For programming the US layout is one of the best. For writing Italian the italian layout is very easy to use. I tried the french layout but it really gives me a hard time. Trying all these layouts and hopping from one to the other slowed my typing down.

[aggiejy]

Quite a first post.   Welcome to the forum.  Finding "THE KEYBOARD" is no easy task as preferences vary so much that recommendations are not worth as much one might expect.  But, as you read around in various threads, I think you'll pick up on some trends and opinions that may help.  There's no shortage of different shapes, sizes, switches, and layouts.  I've got several, and still don't have a particular favorite.

[Tym]

The best of the best? Immpossible for us to tell you, keep buying and buying..."Don't" (See do) buy from amazon and return those which you dislike. Have fun.

[GordonZed]

The keyboard she's using is most definitely a Cherry. As for the model, it looks quite a bit like the G80-3000 but I doubt I'm right on that. I would head over to the Keyboards section and ask there. There are quite a few people here far more knowledgeable on Cherry keyboards than myself.

Welcome to the forum by the way, hope you find what you're looking for.

[snailblazer]

Thanks GordonZed - you are right. I looks like a Cherry G80-3000. Thank you.

Thank you Tym for your advice - I often find it hard not to use amazon where I live.

[nick[0]]

As French/English bilingual programmer, I've run into the same issue.  Instead of taking the time to become familiar with three keyboards (US ANSI, AZERTY, and the French Canadian QWERTY), I decided to learn EMACS, and do all of my work using their multilingual extensions.  In a nutshell, instead of going directly for the é key, you type e' to compose the é.  This let me specialize on US ANSI, and allows me hit 85 wpm in both languages.  If German is too diacritic-heavy for this to be efficient, then you might need two keyboards.  As someone who plans to switch to either a Lenovo 0B47189 (for consistency with my laptop) or a Topre uniform 45g, I hope that you might also find this useful.  There might be other ways to get this compose feature, but this method works pretty much the same way on every operating system.

http://www.math.utah.edu/lab/unix/emacs-mule.html

P.S. 30G uniform!  You must have the perfect touch for playing Chopin!