OT: RE: Mousing Hurts! (Was: Paragraph Tag shortcuts?)

["Banttari, Ananda" <Ananda_Banttari@xxxxxxxx>]

The key to getting rid of mousing pain is using the least amount
of arm and shoulder movement possible: try a keyboard with an 
integrated touchpad or trackball.  

For the last four years, I've been using a split keyboard with an
integrated touchpad. The touchpad is 2.5" x 1.75" (70mm x 44.5mm),
lives right below the inverted T arrows, and has two buttons. 
(I have seen keyboards with integrated trackballs, but never got 
around to trying one.)

I tried a split keyboard with a detached touchpad, but it 
required a lot more arm/shoulder movement, resulting in more 
hand/wrist pain.

Several different manufacturers have keyboards with integrated 
touchpads, including Logitech and Adesso. Adesso's current 
models have the touchpad below the spacebar (which I dislike 
since I tend to hit it accidentally with my thumbs). The one 
I have is by "PC Concepts". You'll want to compare brands and 
models to get the keyboard layout you want: there are numerous 
Backspace/Enter/Backslash/Shift key size/position variants! 
You can get them with cabling for most standard PC & Mac ports, 
with the notable exception of USB. Depending on brand, the 
prices range from about $90 down to about $30. For about $20, 
Cirque also has a small touchpad that could probably be 
attached to your keyboard. 

(I've hated mice since 1986, the first time I got tendonitis 
from mousing while "trying to learn how to draw with a 
potato".... ;-)

--Ananda (Banttari) Stevens
Technical Publications Specialist, Diab-SDS (ISI)
ananda@sdsi.com

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