14 ms·
I've been enjoying my ergodox, but have yet to venture out into the layout customization side of things. The default layout (mostly QWERTY, but split ortholine
by jszymborski 6y ago
I've been enjoying my ergodox, but have yet to venture out into the layout customization side of things.
The default layout (mostly QWERTY, but split ortholinear) took a week or so to learn and has been totally fine. My only problem with it is that so many of the modifiers depend on my pinkies, which are my weakest finger.
Luckily, the default layout maps control as "hold Z key" which means my pinky doesn't need to travel as much, but it still leaves me with a sore pinky. I'm thinking of mapping a key like "O" that gets hit with a stronger finger like my ring, but inertia is great when changing a habit you've developed daily.
One thing I'll say about the ergodox is that you really notice it's value when you go back to your e.g. laptop's keyboard. Whenever I use my T495, I immediately notice that, while my typing speed is higher, it's putting a far greater strain on my hands and wrists (and back!)
- positr0n 6y agoI've experimented with putting some or all of my modifier keys under non-pinky keys like O on my ergodox. My problem with that is that it forces me to drastically slow down my typing. Otherwise typing a word like "word" will register as 'w ctrl-r d'. I have not found a timeout value that will always register "word" when I'm typing at 110wpm and also Ctrl-r when I'm just lazily hitting that single hotkey :/ It's either too fast or too slow for some use cases. I have read some posts from people that use layouts like that and it either seems they already type pretty slowly or they have RSI problems and it is worth it to them to slow down.
- jszymborski 6y agoYah, my typing speed is far slower on my ergodox just from lack of practice I suppose (maybe 1 year?), but that doesn't stop me from the occasional "zv" instead of "ctrl+v". I can't remember a time where I've held z too long accidentally, but yes, z is less commonly used than e.g. O.
- jacobkania 6y agoI had this problem too, so I don’t have any of my normal letter keys as dual-function. The pointer-finger vertical-middle keys that they default to Hyper and Meh, I changed those to both be Cmd on MacOS (would make them Ctrl on Linux). I set the bottom row and pinky keys to also have lots of modifiers & layer toggles, and my pinky-fingers can hit those modifiers/toggles when needed. Then moved basically all symbols to another layer on easy-to-reach keys. This means I can type regular words as fast as I want, and can easily reach any symbol when I need it. Only downside is that it takes some adjusting and practice, but I personally think it was worthwhile
- bredren 6y agoI’m two weeks into the ergodox ez, using the onyx trainer a bit each morning. It is just okay, almost wish there was something better. It lags and stuff typing Alice. How are y’all handling shift? Left Shift is my pinky’s biggest pain. I saw this hold the key for shift option, people using that?
- StevenWaterman 6y agoI used https://www.keybr.com/ https://www.keybr.com/ which took ages but felt satisfying, slowly unlocking new letters
- bbojan 6y agoIf you're on Ergodox EZ, check out the options "Ignore mod tap" and "Permissive hold", they might solve your issue.
- psychometry 6y agoWhy not use thumb keys for modifiers? I thought that's what most people did.
- jszymborski 6y agoright now, thumb keys are mapped to space/tab and backspace/enter. It's a tempting prospect, but I'm hard-pressed to sub-out any of those for modifiers. Maybe I can make it "hold enter" or something like that, but that seems like a dangerous prospect