In search of a good keyboard

“One two, one two,
Type a word or two.
Arrow left, arrow right,
Keep those fingers nice and tight.
Keys up, Keys down,
Move those digits all around.
One two, one two,
Type a word or two.”
― Jazz Feylynn

I don’t remember why I took an elective typing class to learn touch typing in high school, but I did.   Now you might rightly ask, “You mean they had typing back then?” and I would tell you they did, but it was on old Underwood mechanical typewriters.  Part of the first couple of weeks was developing finger strength so you could pound those keys and get a dark and even print.  Then it was all about not looking at the keys and learning to type by touch and memory of standard key placement.  Now I wasn’t the fastest or the most accurate in my class, but when considering both together, I did pretty well.

After joining the USAF in 1977 and finishing basic training, I was sent to an Air Force technical school at San Angelo, TX.   One of the first classes was a typing class because my career field involved a good deal of report generation and typing.  The class instructors would let you test out of the class if you could achieve a set standard of so many words-per-minute with less than so many mistakes.   I thought, Yes, good Karma, I’m getting the pay off from taking that typing class years ago.   So the first day, I typed out thinking I’d have some free time.  Do you know that old saying about never volunteering in the military? Well, the same goes for overachieving.   While many of the others set for a couple of weeks in the air-conditioned classroom learning to type, I and a small group of others, who also knew how to type, were assigned to mowing grass with push mowers in the Texas summer sun.  No good deed goes unpunished.  But, I did a lot of typing for the 11+ years I was in the Air Force.

The point of all of this is that I learned to type on and used for years the older style of mechanical keyboards and find myself less than satisfied with what is passing as keyboards today.   I’m currently using an Apple Magic Keyboard on my Mac desktop machine.  I selected it because it’s laid out and constructed similar to a current-generation Apple laptop keyboard.  I thought it would make it easier when switching between my Apple laptop and desktop computers.  However, I’m finding that I make a lot more typing errors on the Magic Keyboard.

So what’re the major factors of this keyboard that may be causing me to make these errors.  First, the keyboard keys are almost completely flat with only a tiny suggestion of a concave surface.  To conserve space, the keys seem to be a little closer together than in older keyboards.  It’s also a 107 key design with a separate number pad, meaning all typing is done on the left side of the keyboard.  While this hasn’t bothered me with some past 107 keyboards, with this one, I seem to drift to the right, and when finding the home keys, I’ll be off a key to the right unless I pay close attention.  There is also little to no feel or feedback with this keyboard.  Key depression is very slight, more of a tap rather than a depression.  Key bottoming seems okay, but it is totally silent unless you are typing hard; then it’s just the key bottoming’s dull sound, but no real key click feedback.  Some of these things are true of my laptop keyboard as well.  

I have no doubt it has almost everything to do about me and not the keyboard.  Others might love the Magic Keyboard and be able to type fast and accurately on it.  I’ve tried for a long time, and I can’t.  It’s on my last nerve now!  Does anyone have similar complaints or experiences with keyboards? 

Bottom line, I’m looking for a replacement old-style mechanical keyboard.  Something new but akin to the old IBM mechanical keyboard of the past, except made for a Mac.  Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations about a good keyboard or brand of keyboards?  🤔