Clicking through the ergonomic keyboards

Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro

January 4, 2000
Web posted at: 4:44 p.m. EST (2144 GMT)

By D. Ian Hopper
CNN Interactive Technology Editor

(CNN) -- Keyboard choice is a very personal and important thing. As your primary input device -- with the mouse as a close second -- a bad keyboard can make computing unbearable.

Many people have embraced ergonomic keyboards, split down the middle in order to give your hands a more natural position. You'll have to try it for yourself to see if you can adapt to the different setup. Luckily, keyboard overlays aren't very popular anymore, like the ones in the MicroProse simulation games of the early '90s. An ergo keyboard wouldn't play very well with an overlay.

Yet while manufacturers are splitting the keys, sometimes they also take the liberty to monkey around with other keyboard specs -- with mixed results. We take a look at the Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro, and Logitech Cordless Desktop Pro, which includes a mouse as well.

Microsoft: Learning from mistakes

Microsoft's previous iteration of the Natural Keyboard was fraught with design oddities, with a redesign of the arrow keys as the most disastrous choice. Instead of the usual inverted-T, they looked like a plus sign. Worse yet, they were tiny, which made for even more mistakes.

The Natural Keyboard Pro, which retails for $75, brings the arrow keys back to the traditional format. They also took a chance by making the left-hand control, alt and Windows keys oversized. Presumably, this is because most people use that set rather than the ones on the right. (Anecdotal experience seems to bear that out. Have you ever seen anyone use the right side?) They're significantly larger, which means you have to press a little harder, but it less likely that you'll hit the wrong one. Alternatively, the function keys are small, which can be annoying if you use them often.

The feel of the keyboard is superb. There's just enough resistance to make you sure that you've depressed a key without making them too stiff, like those horrible clicking IBM PS/2 "Chicklet" keyboards.

Along the top, there are 19 hot keys. There's a large Sleep button, only usable if your motherboard supports it, Internet shortcuts, multimedia controls and two custom keys. The latter two keys default to My Computer and the calculator. Remapping one to Windows Explorer turned out to be very useful. There are also Control-key shortcut labels on the sides of some letter keys to remind you of shortcuts such as cut, copy and paste.

The keyboard driver software is simple to use and lets you remap the keys to almost any other program. Thankfully, it also lets you disable the useless Windows key, which also happens to cause problems in many programs. It must have taken several long meetings to decide whether to allow a user to disable a key that Microsoft itself introduced to keyboards, and we can thank the designers for their bravery.

Lastly, and perhaps the best design choice of all, there are two USB ports on the back. In addition to connecting into the keyboard port, there's also a USB plug, making the whole contraption work as a USB splitter so you'll have an extra port. Not to mention that they're also right on your keyboard, so you don't have to go crawling under your desk just to swap a joystick with a gamepad. The only downside is that the USB ports have low power, so a peripheral that requires more juice -- like a Web cam -- may not work. The only peripheral that didn't work in tests happened to be a Web cam, but other peripherals worked fine.

Logitech Cordless Desktop Pro

Great gimmick, bad components

The Logitech Cordless Desktop Pro ($130 retail) includes both a keyboard and mouse, which work within a six-foot radius from the receiver unit. It's radio controlled, working from a cigarette pack-sized box that plugs into both ports. Just pop the included batteries in the keyboard and mouse, press a little "initialize" button, and it works. Just make sure the box is a fair distance from the monitor and CPU, so there's no interference.

After you get over the initial rush of being wireless, the cool factor drops off quickly. Both the keyboard and mouse are of very low quality.

The keys are squishy, which hurts typing accuracy. Worse yet, Logitech took too many liberties in designing the layout. The block of keys with the insert and home buttons are vertical instead of horizontal and the print screen, scroll lock, and pause keys have been moved so that sit right above the number pad.

There are also no status lights on the keyboard itself, though there's a software workaround with the caps lock and num lock status lights in the system tray -- as if you don't have enough junk in there already. There are 13 hot keys, which can be remapped within limits, and the Windows key can't be disabled within the software.

The mouse is extensively contoured, making it almost useless for left-handers. There's a scroll wheel, but it moves roughly and is very imprecise.