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Writer's tip:

Remember that standard keyboards have a numpad. This means if you're doing lots of writing (of whatever style) you want to OFFSET the keyboard's position to the right.

This stops you typing at an angle, which forces you to stretch and twist your right shoulder/hand without realising.

keyboard offset to the right, so that the main qwerty section is centred on the body.

Charlie Stross reshared this.

in reply to John Bull

Nicholas Jackson
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Nicholas Jackson
• •
Some years ago I started to get slight numbness in my third and fourth fingers while typing. Eventually we concluded it was because I was using the shift key on the same side as the key I was shifting, instead of the opposite side (as basically all touch typing books recommend). This was causing me to twist my hand slightly, which kept trapping that nerve.
in reply to John Bull

Jon
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Jon
• •
Makes more sense to move the wrist rest as well, IME.
in reply to John Bull

johnbierce
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johnbierce
• •

Ayuuuup! My back issues got WAY better after I started doing this.

(And then better yet when I switched to a fancy ergonomic split keyboard.)

in reply to John Bull

zimboe
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zimboe
• •
Tried this a while back. The mouse would then be uncomfortably far to the right. Could try mouse on the left.
in reply to zimboe

John Bull
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John Bull
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@zimboe oh i wouldn't have it as a STANDARD position.

Just for when you're doing big bursts of writing, and thus aren't relying heavily on your mouse hand.

@zimboe
in reply to John Bull

Riley S. Faelan
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Riley S. Faelan
• •
Shouldn't the wristrest align with the keyboard, though? I mean, the end reaching over the left end has no real use, and the right end covering the numpad actually might.
in reply to Riley S. Faelan

John Bull
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John Bull
• •

@riley that's just my own writing position.

I use this when I know i'm going to be slamming down a few thousand words, with minimum need to use mouse or numpad.

It's my "all in" writing position.

@Riley S. Faelan
in reply to John Bull

metalfabs
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metalfabs
• •
Be careful or you'll end up far down the ergonomic rabbit hole and end up typing on a monstrosity like mine:
Reviung41 keyboard with Colemak-DH keycaps
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

metalfabs
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metalfabs
• •

@ajlanes The layout is a variant of Colemak. It keeps the most common letters of the English language on the home row, where fingers rest normally (ASDF row on QWERTY keyboards). But also it keeps a lot of positions in common with QWERTY, especially ZXC for keeping common shortcuts accessible.

Numbers, symbols, etc., are on layers accessed by holding down the thumb keys either side of the spacebar, e.g. Fn+Q is 1.

@Alexandra Lanes
in reply to John Bull

David Jaša
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David Jaša
• •
pity that numpads came before the mice, having numpad on the left side of the keyboard would be SO logical
in reply to John Bull

Cecilie 🧙‍♀️
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Cecilie 🧙‍♀️
• •
For the same reason, at work I have my mouse (a trackball) on the left side of the keyboard, since that's the side where it ends up comfortably within reach.
in reply to John Bull

JevidL
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JevidL
• •
This is why I use an 87-key or “ten keyless” keyboard. Let’s me keep the mouse in the right spot without having my right wrist all jammed up.
in reply to John Bull

Arturo Serrano 🇨🇴🤖👽🧙🦄
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Arturo Serrano 🇨🇴🤖👽🧙🦄
• •
I thought the little raised dots on the F and the J were enough guidance for where to center the keyboard.
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