Tablet thickness is not an issue; the weight is

Having used several different tablets for many months now, I have realized what nonsense striving for the thinnest possible gadget is. Sure, as an engineering feat, it is a worthwhile challenge, but it's not necessarily what suits our anatomy best. In fact, the thicker the gadget is, the better if fits in the hands and feels closer to a physical book or any other tool we humans use.

When you read a thick book (300+ pages) in bed, say, do you hold it by the thick or thin half? If you have just read 20 pages, it's very likely that you are holding the other 280 pages in your right hand, not the 20 pages in your left hand. The grip just feels natural and less tiring.

The tablet weight is, of course, another thing -- we want the lightest possible, even lighter than our traditional paper books. Please, Apple and other tablet makers, work on the weight, the thickness is not an issue.

When the Notion Ink Adam tablet appeared (and promptly vanished?), I immediately liked many things about it: a grip so thick that it accommodates removable batteries (very few tablets have that, maybe none) and speakers larger than the norm.

The Sony S1 tablet also sports a human grip, similar to Adam's, although Adam was the first to break the (mostly) Apple-imposed thin-is-beautiful dogma.

My HP TouchPad (running Android, of course) is quite thick, but I like it more now that I've increased its thickness with a protective case! The weight, on the other hand, is a real, not cosmetic, problem, requiring various strategies for carrying around and using comfortably.

Winkey power key

A surprising number of users have no idea what the Winkey (the key with the Windows logo, next to the LEFT Ctrl key) is for, let alone the Application or Menu key (the one next to the RIGHT Ctrl key). They may hit them only by accident and simply ignore them, or panic and make sure they never touch them again! Even if shown that pressing the Winkey is the equivalent of a mouse click on the Start button, they are not impressed and continue to waste a few seconds here, a few seconds there, navigating with the mouse exclusively. Those seconds do add up, resulting in days or months wasted. Sigh...

We have already seen the power and simplicity of using the Winkey+Pause shortcut, but Winkey has many more uses assigned to it out of the box. When this key first appeared on keyboards with the advent of Windows 95, Microsoft assigned only a handful of functions to it. With every new  Windows version, new assignments were added. Unfortunately, with Vista and Windows 7, Winkey became overloaded and too complex to use even for keyboard fanatics. Worse, some assignments introduced in Vista were revoked in Windows 7, totally discrediting the UI design team in charge of keyboard issues.
Here are the essential Winkey combinations introduced in XP that have proven to be very useful. I rely on many of them daily. The list is much longer and may change as Windows evolves. Note that UPPERCASE letters below require pressing Shift in addtion to Winkey:

Winkey+F1 - Windows Help
Winkey+Pause - System Properties
Winkey+b - Select the first icon in the Taskbar Notification Area. Use arrows to select other icons, or TAB to jump to other elements on the Taskbar. This is extremely useful if no pointing device is available!
Winkey+e - Windows Explorer
Winkey+E - Network Connection
Winkey+f - Search for files, people, computers, Internet
Winkey+Ctrl+f - Search for computers
Winkey+l - Lock your session, or switch user
Winkey+r - Open the Run dialog (a must for power users)
Winkey+u - Utility Manager
Winkey+d - Show Desktop - please learn at least this one, please...
Winkey+m - Minimize all windows
Winkey+M - Restore all windows (after Winkey+d or Winkey+m)

Be sure you try them at least once and start using them. Also, please, promise me that you will at least start using Winkey+m (or Winkey+d) and Winkey+M if you often click on icons on your desktop. Why am I asking this of you? Because I see so many people not knowing how to bring their Desktop into full view other than minimizing (even closing!) or dragging around windows until the icon the need becomes visible. When they've launched the icon, they happily restore everything manually, never wondering if there is an, er, intelligent way of doing this.

And then came Vista and 7... and made a horrible mess! Some of the combinations introduced in Vista and 7 are doomed to be totally ignored, or hated when pressed inadvertedly.

For example, Winkey+[n] will bring to front the applications currently on the taskbar. Good for the first 10 applications, where Winkey+0 is 10. What if you have more? I can see why Winkey+1 or Winkey+2 is a time-saver, but not, say, Winkey+8. Locating the 8th item on the taskbar by counting is slower and more error-prone than just grabbing the mouse and clicking on the item.

For the first time, I find that switching to the mouse would make more sense for certain operations!

As for me, I will continue using Alt+TAB or Alt+Escape as the preferred way to bring an application to the front. Winkey+n should have been left for users to assign their own functions -- something I've done years ago using AutoHotkey and that I now have to abandon.

There are also plenty of combinations related to moving windows around the screen(s) and Winkey+DOWN/UP to Restore/Maximize the currrent window.

The assumption here is that users would want to spend all their time manipulating windows instead of doing useful work. Does one really maximize/restore windows frequently? I have never done it -- I just Alt+TAB to something else and leave all my windows as they are.

Computers and health

I don't believe even moderate keyboard or mouse use is good for our hands, wrists, and tendons. I think it goes even further: the shoulders, back, blood circulation, digestion -- the entire body suffers simply because we were not made to be seated for so long. I keep some boxes or other support for my feet under the table and, whenever I can, I put my feet up on the desk. I do this when I need to read a longish web page or document: feet on the desk, the hand near the arrows keys, font size zoomed to HUGE, so I can remove my glasses and read naturally.

Prolonged stress of any kind will hurt us, so reducing the amount of computer input device manipulation is always welcome.

Playing, learning, working, and socializing in the computer age is fun and fulfilling, however, sitting slouched at a computer all day will eventually cause damage to your body. Our entire body is almost totally inactive, except for the eyes and the hands that do all the work. So make sure you learn tricks that will save eye and hand movement! It may seem like nothing, but seconds wasted looking around the screen or clicking inefficiently may add up to hours every week, easily resulting in months over a lifetime...

Mouse vs Keyboard example 1

It's almost embarrassing to write about this ancient (several decades) knowledge, but here it goes. All standard Windows applications recognize a set of keyboard shortcut keys assigned to very frequently used actions, such as Open, Save, Print, Select All, Copy, Cut, Paste, Close, Find, Undo... I won't list them here: just glance at the top of any screen and open the File or Edit menu options to see them.

Watching somebody stubbornly continue to use the mouse to, for example, select/copy/paste via the Edit menu (or even via mouse right-clicks) always saddens me. It may be done very fast and efficiently, and thus be impressive, but soon becomes a grotesque robot-like activity. A more dignified approach is to learn which tools are best in which situations and use them at the right time. But, if you never took the time to learn the alternatives, you fall back on what had been imprinted upon your first encounter with the computer. Almost always, beginners are forced to rely on the mouse, while keyboard techniques are dismissed as arcane, nerdy stuff they are not yet ready for. The result is that the mouse habit becomes so strong that it's impossible to overcome, even when reason dictates otherwise. It simply becomes too late to retrain the mind, which resists unlearning if it can be avoided.

I could be mean and call this minor pathology "rat-addiction", but don't want to offend those who simply are in no hurry and just want to click their lives away without stress and worry. I understand you. I have less understanding for computer professionals whom I see troubleshooting co-workers' PCs without bothering to learn faster ways of doing long, frequent routine operations.

Practical example: Just because something is available by clicking Start, Programs, Accessories, Notepad, does not mean that you have to navigate there using the mouse and your eyes every time. What if the mouse is broken or there is a driver problem? A keyboard is always available and usuall works -- it's hard to imagine any troubleshooting or work activity without one -- so why not learn to reach the above panel using it?

The above navigation can be achieved via: Winkey, P[rograms], A[ccessories], Enter, N[otepad]. Once learned, it's hard to forget and go back to the mouse. Try it and note that you don't even have to look anymore! Of course, items can be moved around and renamed by Microsoft, but nothings stops you from coming up with your own names and moving items where you please.

Your enemy, The Mouse

The mouse becomes your enemy when you use it exclusively even for the most keyboard-oriented functions. Consider the login dialog that you may encounter several times on a typical day. You start by clicking on the Username field and typing in your name. Then, you click on the Password field and fill that in as well using the keyboard. Finally, you click on OK. You are going back and forth between two input devices, instead of doing the following without lifting your hands from the keyboard: type in your name, hit Tab, type in your password, Enter. This general TAB-navigation works in all forms, yet it's not used by most people.

Here is a typical web login session that also does not require the mouse. Note that there are a total of four objects to visit and do something about. The tricky one is the "Keep me signed in" check box. In all GUI environments, the SPACE bar is used to check/uncheck an option. If you want to leave the state as it is (unchecked in this case), just Tab to the next field, else hit SPACE to toggle the state.

You may be wondering why the Enter key worked here, making clicking on Sing In superflous. The answer is that well-designed Windows (and web) dialog boxes always have one, and only one button shown in bold. Most of the time the button says OK, Send, Yes, Sign In, or some other positive action. This visual cue is telling the user that the button in bold is associated with the Enter key, which is also something affirmative. Learn to observe dialog boxes and you will soon learn how simple and logical this is.

The negative action (buttons that say No, Discard or Cancel), as you might have guessed, is strongly associated with the Escape key.

It's not really the poor mouse's fault, but our habits and lazyness that prevent us from learning and growing if not forced to do so. Remember: all good GUIs have been designed to work without a mouse efficiently, and not only in an emergency. One trick I used to teach my kids to realize that the keyboard offers more than just typing in text, was to remove the mouse and let them work without it for a while. Afterwards, they no longer resisted learning keyboard shortcuts and understood what the underlined letters in menus were for, and why some buttons are shown in bold.

Homework: force yourself to fill in dialog boxes and dismiss popup without using the mouse. Do this for one full day and afterwards you will feel pretty foolish when reaching for the mouse to click on OK or Cancel instead of hitting their Enter or Escape keyboard equivalents. Of course, there are exceptions: when your hand is already on the mouse, then switching back and forth is extra work that could be avoided.

Some of your best keyboard friends are: Enter, Escape, Tab, SPACE

Efficient web browsing

Regardless of which web browser you use, you can greatly improve your navigation efficiency by using the keyboard when browsing.

It is little known that one can hit Enter to follow a selected link, there is no need to reach for the mouse every time. This is especially useful when a web page consists of many links you need to follow one after the other, allowing you to TAB to the next link, then hit Enter to follow it. You then use Backspace or Alt+LEFTARROW to return to the page and repeat the process:

TAB, Enter, Backspace, TAB, Enter, Backspace, TAB, Enter, Backspace...

Try it! You'll be amazed how you can quickly visit many pages without taking your hands off the keyboard.

Yes, the web is normally associated with clicking on links and occasionally typing in something. But things have changed. Many web pages are actual applications (like Google's GMail or Documents) with complete keyboard support. The Google Documents word processing application supports all the usual keys you would expect in such a tool: Ctrl+S, Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I, Ctrl+U...

Text substitution

Are you tired of typing common phrases like:

For what it's worth,
If I remember correctly,
As far as I know,
By the way,
as soon as possible.

So am I, so I stopped doing this years ago, that is, after I taught my computer to generate them automatically when it sees btw, afaik, asap, and so on. I type in  a few letters, and watch them as they expand into text strings of any length. Microsoft Word also has this feature, but for me this works everywhere, globally.

Many keyboard macro tools can do this simple substitution. I use Autohotkey (freeware). Here is what the "programming", which can be written using Notepad, looks like:

:*:fwiw::For what it's worth,{Space}
:*:iirc::If I remember correctly,{Space}
:*:afaik::As far as I know,{Space}
:*:btw::By the way,{Space}
:*:asap::as soon as possible.

Even if you have never programmed in your life, you can learn to use Authotkey, but you must put some effort into it! Spend a few hours learning it, and reclaim days of your life for something else other than typing boring, repetitive text!

Get to know a PC with Winkey+Pause

What is the very first keyboard action you perform when you sit in front of a Windows PC for the first time? I know, you immediately reach for the mouse, right? I invariably first hit Winkey+Pause, which I consider a psychological pause before getting down to work. Note that this key combination is sometimes (wrongly) called Winkey+Break, so you may think about "breaking into" the computer as the very first thing you want to do. Regardless of what association you prefer to use, press and hold the Winkey ("Windows logo key" or "Start key") and then hit the Pause/Break key on a standard full-size keyboard.

(Note that as PC keyboards "evolve" on laptops, the Pause key becomes increasingly hard to locate and use, and may even disappear altogether.)

Winkey+Pause, when executed correctly, will bring up a very clear popup (the System Properties applet, technically speaking). I'm often asked to look at a problem on a machine I don't own and thus need to know what is actually inside, and this is the fastest way there is, trust me. Asking the user is not necessary (or reliable) since this popup will tell your the essentials: which version of the Windows operating system is running, how much memory is installed, and which CPU is under the hood.

 I can also learn who the real owner is, or should be. If the machine is behaving in strange ways, I normally go into the Hardware tab and check if any devices have alerts next to their name.

If you are viewing this page from a Windows PC, hit Winkey+Pause now and see if what you get is what you expected. (Note that on Vista and 7 the System Properties applet looks a bit different, but what matters is that the key combination Winkey+Pause has been preserved!) For example, you may find out that you have not applied the latest service pack on this machine, or that only half of the memory you paid for is detected. If everything is OK, just hit Escape to close the popup, or explore other tabs to learn more about this machine's configuration.

Of course, the popup you see is nothing other than the System Properties applet that you obtain (on Windows XP/English, in this case) by clicking Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, but there is no reason that you should ever go down this path again when you can achieve the same result in half a second. Even more so since, as the Windows user interface (UI) keeps getting "improved", the above navigation is guaranteed to stop working due to changes in names and/or locations. On the other hand, it is hard to imagine that Microsoft would phase out or reassign Winkey+Pause shortcut to something else. Once again, learning a keyboard shortcut is a long-term investment and a time saver. In addition, standard Windows keyboard shortcuts work as expected across all language variants and are life-savers when you sit in front of a PC whose user interface is in a language you don't know.

"It does not work on my laptop", you might say. All laptops I've seen have the Pause key somewhere, either by itself or sharing a key cap with the Break or some other function . The trick is making sure you are actually hitting Winkey+Pause and not some other combination! This article will help you resolve any problems you may be having.

What is the best PC keyboard to use?

The best keyboard is the full-size desktop one!

I use several laptops, but both at home and at work, I attach a USB keyboard. It may be awkward in meetings, but if there is a lot to type or demo, I would do it. Don't compromise your efficiency, arm yourself with the best instrument you can get your hands, literally, on. Imagine a pianist like Glenn Gould or a guitarist like Santana doing a concert on a third-rate instrument somebody just threw onto the stage!

Yet, people spend countless hours on inferior laptop keyboards and its inferior pointing device, the touchpad, just because it is possible to do so.

From my observation, touchpad manipulation and navigation seems about 10 times less efficient than the mouse. For one thing, mouse movements tend to be fluid, and one does not struggle so much when positioning the cursor until one is ready to click. Of course, both the touchpad and the mouse require that the eyes are glued to the screen, which keyboard action does not (but that's another topic).

By all means, continue to do use laptops on the plane or on a park bench, but for serious work (development, extensive writing), get a real keyboard and mouse.

The keyboard is your friend

The keyboard is not going away, despite mice, tablets, touch-sensitive surfaces, or voice control. Hitting keys or buttons on your personal computer, mobile phone, various gadgets or various remote controls in your living room will remain for quite some time. Get to know them and use them efficiently!

This blog focuses on the desktop PC keyboard and the Windows platform, but general principles apply to all other types of keyboards and human-computer interaction.

Time invested in learning to type properly and memorizing keyboard accelerators pays back immediately in saved time and effort -- if you manage to beat its main enemies: the mouse, laziness, habit...

The new digital generation will spend their lives, literally, pushing virtual or physical buttons as they interact with computers and other digital gadgets.

Humans spend about 1/3 of their lives sleeping, but today millions are probably spending another 1/3 of their lives (8 hours per day) typing and clicking, or touching a surface. Our fingertips are, more than ever, extensions of the brain.

Even if your daily job does not include computers, you probably spend a few hours in the evening surfing the net with your hands on the mouse and the keyboard.

You no longer need to be a professional pianist to realize that you also "practice" long hours daily. But are your keyboard technique and efficiency improving accordingly?

Unfortunately, it's hard to improve on anyone's mouse-clicking skills: for example, you can't click or drag it faster without losing precision and it becoming awkward. You cannot use a mouse in a more "intelligent" way than you actually do, because it's a simple point-and-click action that has no alternative.

On the other hard,  when your hands rest on the keyboard, there are always several ways to perform an action, provided you are willing to discover and learn them. Personally, I enjoy learning (and creating) new keystrokes and other shortcuts and see my productivity increase all the time.