Why do you use a numpad?

[liist]

Excel spreadsheet data for lab reports, and I'm changing my major to accounting, so I'm pretty sure I have to use a number pad there.

It's also nice and convenient to have at transcription work when they mention phone numbers and account numbers. I don't use for the number pad for dollar amounts and percentages.

[Magna224]

Garrys Mod is my only reason.

[ironman31]

flyin' dem choppers in gta iv

[Chaoticmass]

My first computer, an IBM PCjr, did not come with a numpad. It also did not come with a mouse. It was already a pretty old computer when my family got it. I noticed other computers I'd seen came with a mouse and their keyboards had more keys and didn't need batteries because they used a cord. I was really, really jealous of people who had computers with such luxuries.

Our next computer, a 386 Packard Bell, oh joy, DID come with a mouse and a full 101-key wired keyboard. Ever since the Packard Bell I used the number pad exclusively for numbers.

Actually, not until my first laptop, a Dell Latitude LX, did I start to use the other number keys. It wasn't until many years of laptop use later that I became proficient.

I am still way, way, way faster at 10-key on the numpad. This was only reinforced when data entry became a daily part of my job for a few years. Entering ten digit invoice IDs an hour a day will do that.

I like having the numpad when I need it. I can really fly on it when the job calls for it.

[cromartie]

the more i think about it, the more i like the idea of having the number pad on the left side of the kb. i'm sure adjusting to entering numbers with my left hand wouldn't be all that bad. It's just because i find my self having to lift my right hand off the keypad to get to the mouse a lot. if i can keep my left hand on the num pad and right hand on the mouse, it would speed things along. maybe it's time i started looking for a leftie kb. Or tenkeyless + external num pad. hmm...

[Chaoticmass]

the more i think about it, the more i like the idea of having the number pad on the left side of the kb.

I think it is on the right because the numpad was originally for data entry and business applications, and pre-date the mouse. Remember those old printing calculators? I think the numpad was supposed to be for people who were used to those.

Of course now that the mouse is the predominate input method today it might make more sense to put the numpad on the left. Then you could mouse around your spreadsheet with your right and change values with your left, never lifting a hand.

[substract]

The only game I've used numpad on are MMO's to quickly mark targets. Other than that I use it to input CC's quicker.

[nhwhaup]

I've had a laptop as my main computer both at work and at home for years and have always had a separate number pad for mainly spreadsheet work. Just so much easier and faster.  Up until is year I typed on the laptop keyboard and really didn't know what I'd been missing until I discovered this website. Then I kind of became sucked in and addicted to purchase after purchase to find the best keyboard for me. Although I do have a full sized keyboard at work with the built in number pad, I swap back and forth between two different tenkeyless boards with separate number pads at home. That set up actually gives me the best of both worlds - more centered main keyboard and number pad available when I'm working on spreadsheets.