Xah Lee, 2006-06.
In 2005, Microsoft produced a new keyboard called the “Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000”. This keyboard is a relative major change from their previous natural keyboard The Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard.
Here are the notable changes:
• The keyboard features a front-tilt, and large palm rest. For example, the space bar is about 1cm higher than the function keys. Most people like to prop up the back legs so that they actually have to bend their wrists upward to type. That this bad. This keyboard tilts higher in the front with wrist wrest build into the keyboard, so that your wrist don't bend.
If you rest your forearm on a table and let your hand relax, you'll notice that your wrist actually have to bend upward a bit. Suppose now that you tab on the table with your fingers as if making a impatient gesture. You will feel discomfort after some 20 minutes. It would be of less strain, if you place a book under your wrist, so that your wrist don't bend upwards. This is what the MS 4000 front-tilt does.
• The key group Insert/Delete/Home/End/PageUp/PageDown has been reverted to the traditional formation of 2 rows by 3 columns.
• 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 keyboard is now quieter.
• 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. (as opposed to be on a radio-receiving usb-base as with the WNM keyboard)
• There is a “zoom” knob, which is designed to allow a user to zoom-in or zoo-out in a web browser. However, this does not always work. (in particular, it does not work if you are not usng the latest Microsoft Windows) It is not possible to make this knob to function as a scroll-wheel with the bundled software IntelliType.
• 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 functions, 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 number pad for input or as a calculator. Although they cannot be re-programed.
• In the WNM 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 reprogram the Back and Forward keys that appears below the space bar. However, overall both keyboards have the same number of special keys, so it's a trade off. You either use these forward/next buttons for web browsing or for listening to music.
• The physical shape of the keys are now curved in several ways, some good and some questionable. In WNM and previous generation of MS keyboard, the rows of the keys on each side lines up straight. For example, the row starting from Cap-Lock to ASDFG keys all are on a straight line. But with 4000, this is no longer so. This is not necessarily a good change. For me, when i need to press shift or control keys, i have to bend my wrist to the side with this curved layout.
• The Control keys have become smaller and less protruded. For emacs users, this is bad news. On the WNM keyboard, one can flatten the palm and press control that way very comfortably. But with the 4000, using palm to press the Control key will take more effort.
