Ergonomic Keyboards

I've asked this before, but it's been awhile so I'm interested in knowing what people are liking in ergonomic keyboards these days. For the last several months I've been using a split keyboard mounted on my chair, but while overall it is excellent, it is having some problems now (it randomly died, forcing me to reboot and lose my 81-day uptime, but mainly it has only two mouse buttons on the integrated pointer which just isn't cool). My wrists aren't in the greatest shape after typing pretty much non-stop for the last few years, so it's time to try a new keyboard. Anyone have good suggestions? What has worked for you?

Comments

Important information on Ergonomics!

[swordgeek]

Disclaimer: I'm about to marry a professional ergonomicist. :-)

Take a look at the message subjects, ( "I don't leave home without my Kinesis kbd" and "I HATE the Kinesis kbd!" ) you'll find the single most important and fundamental truth of ergonomics.

We're all built differently.

There is no single solution. There is no solution that will work for more than a certain percentage of the population. Furthermore, when you start to push your limits, the percentage that a given solution works for drops drastically.

Let's apply this specifically to keyboards.

If you use a keyboard for an hour or two per week, you can probably get away with almost any keyboard on the market. If you use a keyboard an hour a day, then some general purpose keyboards won't work for you. Others will. If you use a keyboard eight hours a day (or more!), then you are pushing the limits of what your hands and wrists can sustain, and will have to find the _precise_ ergonomic solution that works best for you. In other words, you have to go out and try as many keyboards as you can to find the one that causes the least problems ***FOR YOU***!!! The guy beside you might have stronger forearm muscles, narrower shoulders, double-jointed knuckles, or a thousand other more subtle variations which would make his perfect solution a disaster for you. EXPERIMENT! Try 'em all out, and try 'em again.

However, there's another side to the coin. If you're looking to minimise pain and/or damage, there's a good chance you're spending too much time at it. With the death of mechanical typewriters and manual carriages, we're currently often spending eight solid hours typing (with the odd bit of mousing on the side--the next time you give your sweetie a backrub, pay attention to where the tightest muscles are. If they use a computer extensively, I almost guarantee it'll be on their mouse side), without moving any other parts of our bodies. This is not what we were designed to do!

Make a point of getting some flexing in during the day. Get up and walk around for a minute every half hour or so. Shake your hands out after typing a long block.

If, after finding a good ergonomic solution and loosening up your muscles, you're still suffering, take a (real--weeks!) break, and see a professional.