One month with the Ergodox EZ, the Colemak layout and learning keyboard shortcuts
One year later: The keyboardio model 100 is a 1000x better keyboard than the ergodox. Get that instead. Colemak DH is awesome. Use the ansi layout on your laptop, and remap your keys so the work in matrix mode on the keyboardio without having to switch inputs.
Confession: I was a pecking typist. Not two fingers, probably four-ish. I didn’t have to hunt, I knew where the keys were, and would type reasonably well with this approach. I started typing as a child in the mid/late eighties, but missed the boat on formal typing. I remember using Mavis Beacon but it didn’t stick. I never thought much about it, but recently, my index fingers would hurt at the end of the day. It was time to do something. And I needed a new coronavirus activity.
The Keyboard
Having looked around I decided on the Ergodox EZ, a split style ortholinear keyboard. After using it for a month I really like it, although, if I had to do it again, I would probably have gotten the newer Moonraker keyboard which was released days after I purchased the Ergodox. The Ergodox is nice but big, and the Moonraker looks much thinner with an optimized thumb keypad (more on that later).
Things I like:
The split keyboard is very comfortable. I set it shoulder width apart and find I hunch my shoulders less. It’s easier to move my fingers around with the palms resting on the pads; switching back to the laptop feels awkward with my hands and arms angled in. I tried various tilt positions and ended with a slight downward tilt which felt the most comfortable. Despite tweaks here and there I’ve been going back to the tilted/tented position.
I love the ortholinear layout: the keys are aligned up and down instead of each row at an offset. This makes the proper touch typing movement of up/down so much easier: you simply move your fingers north/south instead of at angles. When I was practicing proper touch typing I couldn’t believe how much easier the ortholinear layout was for moving and finding keys than the smaller, laptop layout.
The last part which I didn’t think I’d like, but love, is the set of thumb buttons. There are four large and eight normal size keys accessible by your thumbs, which normally map to space, backspace, tab and enter so you don’t have to use your pinky for modifiers. It’s very convenient, and I wish laptops had something similar than a huge spacebar in the middle. However, three buttons on each side are somewhat difficult to hit, so I really only leverage six in total. This is another win for the Moonraker: I think they figured out a better layout with that version.
Finally the keyboard is entirely programmable. I didn’t think I’d really use this, but I’ve reprogrammed it several times and can’t get enough of it. I’ve moved the command keys around, and heavily leverage dual function keys: if you tap it’s one character, but if you hold, it’s another. I use this far more than layers, which let you remap the entire keyboard to something else. I use dual function keys to place command, control and option in multiple places to facilitate keyboard shortcuts and I remap common programming characters, like (), to blank modifier keys that serve a dual purpose. It works well, but takes some time to remember. Fiddling is always fun: if I can’t remember something I try to think what makes sense, and program that. And if I don’t like a movement, like a layer switch or key combination, I think of a way to remap it.
I splurged and bought the glow model. It’s nice, but I find the glow more distracting and have kept it off. If you want to reduce costs it is an unnecessary expense. I also suggest getting the blank sculpted keycaps, where each row is a different shape. This is more inline with a Kinesis Advantage2 which a friend has, and after trying it, makes movement much easier. Compared to the Advantage I like the split and tilt of the Ergodox EZ more, and would love the same sculpted keycaps which you can get, but both are nice options. I didn’t get the sculpted keys because I wanted the glow, and I thought not having printed keys was insane. Turns out I don’t look at the keyboard, negating both issues. Lesson learned.
One cool thing about buying an Ergodox EZ is you get to choose your keyswitches. I was completely overwhelmed by the choices, and went with the default Cherry MX browns. Curious, I also bought the accessory pack that has one of each keyswitch. Luckily, I like the Cherry MX Browns the best (or at least, not any better I’d buy a new set).
Keyswitches come in three different types: tactile, which has a little bump when you press down, and make a slight amount of noise; linear, which has no bump, and is generally quieter; and clicky, which are tactile but make an annoyingly load sound and I don’t advise under any circumstances. Variations include how much force you need to push down on a key, how much travel there is in the keystroke, and at what point does the key ‘actuate’, meaning, at what point does it type the key.
Although I like the browns, I would buy the reds or silvers which are linear if I were getting a new keyboard. I like the smoothness of the linear switch over the tactile browns and they are quieter. I’ll also say this again: clicky keys are more annoying than you think they are, even for yourself. Just don’t. I put the silvers and reds on my enter and space keys, just to use them. And in reality, I can barely tell the difference, so really don’t sweat it.
Colemak Keyboard Layout
I knew I’d have to rethink and relearn how to type. I knew there were alternative keyboard layouts and figured if I’m going to do this, why learn Qwerty if there a better options? The layout was designed to prevent typewriter jams, and has become the standard just because. Why be stuck in the past?
There are three popular alternative layouts: Dvorak, invented in the 30’s as an ergonomic replacement to Qwerty; Colemak, which has some overlap with Qwerty but minimizes finger travel by keeping most popular keys in the home (middle) row; and finally Workman, an alternative to Colemak that promotes up/down finger movement over Colemak’s side to side movement on the home row. I chose Colemak because it was (arguably) more popular. Googling these differences will yield some fascinating Reddit discussions. I like the Colemak because the most popular letters in the English language are easily placed under your at rest finger position, requiring less movement per word over Qwerty.
To learn Colemak I spent a lot of time on typing tutor tools. My favorite is https://www.keybr.com/. Keybr introduces you to the popular Colemak keys on the home row, and records several analytics to help you improve over time. It’s very addictive. I spent time each day over the course of a month practicing, and still practice daily, reducing my error rate and increasing my WPM (currently in the high forties), maxing in the 60's.
On a positive note, it is nearly impossible for anyone to use a keyboard with an alternative layout and no key etchings. So if you don’t want someone snooping, here’s another layer of security.
Window Management and Keyboard Shortcuts
With my new keyboard I was determined to minimize the use of a trackpad, focusing on keyboard shortcuts for most tasks. When I coded heavily I spent most of my time in a terminal, and relied on keyboard shortcuts. I knew I could do the same on my mac.
I already used Alfred, but only as a launcher. I know it can do a lot more. I just don’t use it for any of that.
The two tools I do use and love are Amethyst and Contexts.
Amethyst: Tiling Window Management
I’m a huge fan of tiling window management. Amethyst brings first class support for tiling window management to the mac, and is keystroke driven. It will auto layout windows in a variety of ways, let you move windows around and across screens, and easily switch focus between windows. A cool feature of the Ergodox EZ are the Hyper and Meh keys, which send command-shift-control-option or shift-control-option as a single keystroke. I remapped the Amethyst keys to the Hyper and Meh keys, and can easily navigate around mouse free using those keys. On top of that, Amethyst is my birthstone!
Contexts: Amazing Cmd-Tab
I cmd-tab a lot, especially as I heavily use spaces and it’s the best way to find something if it’s not on the current monitor. Contexts takes switching to a whole new level, in a way I couldn’t easily (and surprisingly) find with Alfred (tips anyone?).
Contexts can group apps in a variety of ways, and lets you jump to apps with typeahead search or numbering. I remapped cmd-tab to search, so I can easily navigate to one of my many open windows in a few keystrokes. The one thing I wish it would do is list my Firefox tabs, instead of just windows. Luckily I’ve been grouping my Firefox tabs together into different activities, making it easy to find the activity I need.
All in All
All in all I’m happy with the setup, and wish I endevoured down this journey years ago. I’d love to get my touch typing in the 70s-80s wpm. Reducing my error rate and preventing fat fingering keys will do it. The hardest part is remembering my keyboard shortcuts across all the apps and sites I use. I put these post it notes up on my monitor to help me remember, and stop myself every time I feel the need to go the trackpad. Over the course of the past two months, slowly but surely, it’s persisting in muscle memory.
