The past few years have seen computer equipment manufacturers jump aboard the "ergonomic redesign" bandwagon. There has been a plethora of keyboards, mice and related equipment entering the market that focus on making the computing experience as safe (from a health perspective) and as user-friendly as possible. After all, so the argument goes, we spend so much time in front of computers we might as well feel comfortable while doing it.
One such a manufacturer is Microsoft. While its software has been the focus in the omnipresent anti-trust case with the US Department of Justice, Microsoft hardware has come through relatively unscathed. Sceptics might argue that designing hardware to best suit your own software is not the most difficult thing to do. However, with the Natural Multimedia Keyboard, the company seems to be moving away from the Office-centric nature of some of its previous keyboard models.
The first thing that struck me was the sleek design and funky blue colouring of the keyboard. The creamy look of the standard keys is offset by the grey colouring on the function and extra keys at the top of the keyboard. The multimedia keys have been added above the function keys to allow the keyboard to take up slightly less space than several of its earlier cousins.
The power of one
One thing that Microsoft needs to be commended for is the removal of the "Power Off" button. While it could be disabled through the keyboard settings, it was still one of the more annoying additions to keyboards. On more than one occasion I accidentally brushed over the button only to see all my unsaved work disappear into the computing ether.
The "Calculator" button now takes it rightful place above the numeric keypad. This is the ideal placement for an often-used application (maths isn`t my strong suit) as the keypad operates in a similar way to a standard pocket calculator.
The "Delete" button is the most annoying part of the keyboard. It takes up the space of two keys and sees the disappearance of the "Insert" button (not a bad thing if you ask me). This means that the "End" button has moved up a row, which leads to some getting used to for my little finger.
Bundled with the keyboard is the Microsoft IntelliType 2.1 software, which is required for Windows to pick up the functionality of the extra keys. While the multimedia keys are what you would expect (increase/decrease volume, play/pause, stop, track forward/backwards, mute and Media that opens your preferred music program) it is nice to have them all together at the top of the keyboard.
There are three additional buttons on either side of the multimedia keys:
* My Documents (left-hand side)
* My Pictures
* My Music
* Mail (right-hand side)
* Web/Home
* Messenger
These keys (and the multimedia and function keys) can be customised to your heart`s content when using the bundled software. The function keys serve a dual function. By disabling the "F Lock" key, the function keys are shortcuts to often-used commands such as "New", "Open", "Send", "Save" and "Print". It takes some getting used to toggling between standard function keys, ie "F5" can either refresh your current browser window when using Internet Explorer or can open a new document.
Overall, the Natural Multimedia Keyboard is a nice addition to the Microsoft keyboard family with the lack of Office-specific keys an added advantage to winning over converts.
Share