Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 amazon
Xah Lee, 2006-06
Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 amazon
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 rest build into the keyboard, so that your wrist don't bend.
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.
Arrangement of Home Cluster keys on MNM. Right: Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000's more traditional arrangement.
• 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. (for the Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Pro., these leds are on the usb transceiver that is often placed away or under your desk.)
• There is a “zoom” knob, which is designed to allow a user to zoom-in or zoom-out in a web browser. (As of 2009-11-19, it basically works in any app that supports “Ctrl++” and “Ctrl+-” shortcuts for chaning font size or view size. In Firefox, it scrolls the window.)
• 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.
• 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 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. For example, in previous generations of their ergonomic keyboards, the row starting from Cap-Lock to ASDFG keys all are on a straight line. But with 4000, this is no longer so. I think this and other curves have good reasons, for example, pinkies are usually much shorter. However, i find that when i need to press shift or control keys, i have to bend my wrist to the side more 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, 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: Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Pro. If you prefer notebook-style flat keys, or non-split keyboards, i recommend: Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000.
Addendem.
One major 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.
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