Unicomp Keyboards

[Stephen Coates]

Hmmm. I'm glad you like the keyboard then. There's no way I could be getting on with having the keys in those awkward positions and having all the extra function keys at the top. I would find that rather annoying.

[Harrison]

Because of design packages I have to use a traditional shaped keyboard, instead of a curved one. And also they are no good for gaming. For design packages such as everything from Adobe I mostly use keyboard shortcuts for everything instead of the mouse. It speeds things up 100 fold, but with this split of curved designs it wouldn't work.

[Stephen Coates]

Why wouldn't a curved keyboard work for the shortcuts? Would it just be awkward to find the right key to press?

Does anyone know if if keyboard shortcuts are quite popular amongst people that are new to using computers? I have noticed that things seem to be more graphical all the time, and some of the beginers books that I have looked at havn't said much about keyboard shortcuts. I wondered because my grandparents recently got a computer, and we were sorting through some photographs that someone had given them on a CD. I copied them onto the HD, nd then we were deleting the ones they didn't want using IrfanView, and they seemed to find it easier using the left and right arrow keys to move between photos, the delete key to delete the photo and the return key to confirm the delete. Seemed a bit easier than moving the mouse between the toolbar buttons.

[Harrison]

Keyboard short cuts tend to be used my by advanced users. But when I ever show anyone a keyboard shortcut they instantly think how useful it is and then continue using it themselves.

As for shortcuts for something like Photoshop, the reason is because you use a lot of key combinations for many shortcuts. Such as using the Alt, Ctrl and Shift keys in combination with letters or numbers. And normally it is faster because you leave one hand hovering over the left-hand corner of the keyboard, and the other on the mouse. Those split keyboards would be annoying too because the 1-0 keys are used for opacity shortcuts.

[Stephen Coates]

Why is it that some keyboards, have keys such as Shift, control and return, all in a brown colour, rather than beige, which the rest of the keys are? Is this to make them easier to see? I have noticed that alot of newer keyboard that are black or grey or silver, don't have these keys in a different colour.

[Harrison]

Umm... keyboards haven't had different colours for many years Steve! You are definitely living in a parallel retro world somewhere it seems. I do however remember that in the 80's and early 90's a lot of PC keyboard did have different colours keys, as did the lovely coloured Amstrad CPC range.

Not really sure of the real point other than to distinguish the keys from the rest.

[Stephen Coates]

Define many years . My 1999 keyboard has the two colours. Whereas my old Apple keyboards don't.

I don;t really have any need for the two colours, but I am actually quite liking them now.

[Harrison]

Well... 1999 is now 9 years ago Steve so that is definitely many years in my book.

[Buleste]

Now you've revealed that your keybourd is from the last millenium then it is classed as old (probably works better than some new ones though). Personally i don't give a flying fig about the colours of my keys just as long as i can use it who cares. Now colours of cases thats a different matter altogether. Pimp my PC anyone?

[Harrison]

Definitely. Case design is a whole different thing. Glossy Piano black finish for me! I love my Thermaltake Tsunami case with it's cool blue glow.