47 year old newbie

[Kevin28934296yjcx]

I'm old.... this is new. 

Looking for a keyboard that may help in designing.  Something that won't break the bank.  

Any recommendations? 

[Monika Gause]

A keyboard? Any cheap keyboard that connects to your computer and doesn't fall apart when you simply look at it, will do. Personally I prefer the extended ones with separate number pad. Are you planning to use shortcuts a lot? Then you might want to make sure it has F keys.

If you will also be typing a lot, you might want to try some out and see which one best supports your typing needs.

[Test Screen Name]

I think I'm a bit confused too. What do you envisage it doing, that your current keyboard doesn't already do? 

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

Is there something you don’t like about your current keyboard, a specific problem that you need to solve?

For the most part, keyboards don’t make that much difference when designing. Maybe only in some very specific ways:

If you love function key shortcuts, for example if you like to assign actions or commands to the function keys (F2 through F15), then you might prefer a keyboard that has function keys across the top.

If you enter numbers all the time, for things like height, width, font size, percentages… then you might prefer an extended keyboard with a 10-key number pad next to the main keyboard.

If you frequently use the Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys when designing (for example, Page Up and Page Down scroll the window in Illustrator), then you might want an extended keyboard that includes those keys.

If you frequently design using both your computer and creative tablet/phone apps, you might want a Bluetooth keyboard that can pair with multiple devices. My keyboard has three buttons so that by pressing a different button, the keyboard will switch its connection from my computer to my iPad or phone, so I can type on them instead.

There are some specialty keyboards that have unusual features, like a built-in trackpad. The Logitech Craft keyboard has a dial on it that you would map to an option in your design software, so you can adjust a number by turning the dial.

But for many designers, the input device that makes a bigger difference is whether they prefer using a mouse, a trackpad, a trackball, or a graphics tablet with a stylus.

[Kevin28934296yjcx]

thank you