Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. amazon
Xah Lee, 2006-06, ..., 2010-08-24
In 2005, Microsoft produced a new keyboard called the “Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000”. This keyboard is a relative major change from their previous ergonomic keyboard.
Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. amazon
Summary: in the 20 or so keyboards i've used since 1990, i found this to be the best.
Front tilt.
The keyboard features a front-tilt, and large palm rest. e.g. The middle of space bar is about 2 cm higher than the F5 key. This is GOOD.
Usually, people like to prop up the back legs of their keyboard so that they actually have to bend their wrists upward to type. That this bad.
Rest your forearm on a table and let your hand relax, you'll notice that your wrist bends upward about 30°. Now, tab your fingers on the table as if making a impatient gesture. You will feel discomfort after some 20 minutes. Now, place book under your wrist. You'll notice it's more comfortable. Because, wrist don't bend upwards. This is what the MS 4000 front-tilt does.
Various curves.
The physical shape of the keys are now curved in several ways. For example, in previous Microsoft ergonomic keyboards, the Caps-Lock and ASDFG keys all are on a straight line. But with 4000, this is no longer so.
The keys are curves for good reasons, for example, pinkies are shorter. So, the A key is curved towards you. Also, the J key is ~1 cm higher than “;”, and similarly F is higher than A. This is good because when you don't have to rotate your wrist when you type.
When i have to press Shift or Control keys on the 4000, i have to bend my wrist to the side, much more with this curved layout than previous MS ergonomic keyboard. So, the curves are not necessarily peaches and creams to everyone.
There are 2 type of arrangement for the key group “Insert, Delete, Home, End, PageUp, PageDown”. Traditionally, they are arrange 2 rows by 3 columns (2x3). Since about 2000, some arrange it in 3 rows by 2 columns.
Left: 4000's traditional arrangement of Home, End, keys. Right: Vertical arrangement.
If you read a lot keyboard comments, you'll find there's no universal agreement on which is better. Personally, i hated the new arrangement, but after using it for about 2 years, i got used to it. Then, when i first started using this 4000, i find the traditional arrangement annoying, till a month of adjustment.
Arguably, the new (vertical) arrangement is logically better. Because, the Home key moves cursor to the beginning of line, and End to end of line. So, Home and End side by side is more intuitive. Also, the Insert key is a defunct key today, not used in vast majority of applications, even for programers.
• There is a “zoom” knob. You can use it to zoom-in or zoom-out in web browser. I find this very useful. It works in all applications that zoom makes sense that i've tried. All MS apps, IE, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, Gimp, Inkscape, Blender. In most apps, you can zoom by holding Ctrl key and use the scroll wheel, or press “Ctrl++” and “Ctrl+-”. But a dedicated zoom knob is slightly more convenient.
The only problem i found is that the zoom does not work in Firefox by default. (it scrolls instead) If it doesn't zoom in some app, you can use the bundled software IntelliType to make it zoom, or scroll, or any other, but it requires some programing background. (see: Microsoft IntelliType Hacks.)
• There are Back and Forward keys below the space bar. This is convenient for browsing the web. These keys can also be reset with IntelliType to other purposes, such as switching to previous or next application, windows, or tabs.
• There are 4 new keys: = ( ) ← on top of the number keypad. This is convenient for those who uses the calculator application. These keys send identical keycode as the ones on the main section of the keyboard, so, yeah you can't re-program them.
• The PrtScn, Break, ScrLk are each a physical key. (some keyboards don't even have them, or jam them into 2 physical keys with modifier for meaning.)
• The led indicators for Num-Lock, Caps-Lock, ScrLk, F-lock are right in front of the keyboard, below the space bar. This makes them easy to see. (for the Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Pro., these leds are on the usb transceiver that is often placed away or under your desk.)
• The keyboard is now more quiet.
• There are many complaints about the space bar being stiff. As far as i know, Microsoft have tried to fix the problem over the years. Some comment on amazon mentions that they didn't have that problem. Personally, i didn't have a problem with the space bar.
• In the Natural Multimedia Keyboard keyboard, there are skip-to-next-song and skip-to-previous-song buttons. This is not present in the 4000. So, now you have to switch to your music player first in order to skip to the next song. This is a terrible oversight. As a work around, you can make Back and Forward special button to do the same. Overall, both keyboards have the same number of special keys, so it's a trade off. I set the Forward/Backward buttons to switch tabs in browser.
• The Control keys have become smaller and less protruded. For emacs users, this is bad news. On the WNM keyboard, you can flatten the palm and press control that way very comfortably. But with the 4000, it's difficult to use palm to press the Ctrl key. Instead, you curve your hand into a semi-fist to sit on the Ctrl. (Never use your pinky to press Ctrl.)
As a alternative to this keyboard, i recommend:
Addendem.
One problem i found in this keyboard is that the right Alt key needs to have pressure on it for it to register. Note, it's just the right Alt. The left Alt works perfectly. The right Alt, needs a pressure when you hold it down. When i use right Alt to do key combinations, often it results in just typing without having Alt down. This is very annoying. I don't know if this is just particular to the one i bought, or is a general problem of this keyboard. According to a blog by Greg Smith at http://notemagnet.blogspot.com/2009/11/ergonomic-keyboards-kinesis-vs.html, he seems also seeing this problem. However, even with this problem, i still consider this keyboard a good one. Most of my Alt usage is done with the left Alt, and now i habitually apply more pressure when using right Alt.