keyboard

Vickie and I were flying home from New York City after Vickie’s appearance on Fox & Friends. As usual, we were crunching away against a deadline. Our keyboards were blazing, fingers were flying and when we got to the point where we wanted to start highlighting some text in the document we were editing, I reached for my mouse, then remembered “Tom, you’re on an airplane and your mouse is packed in baggage.” My fingers drifted towards my touchpad, then remembered “Tom, you disabled your touchpad so that you wouldn’t drop your thumbs on it and move the cursor while you’re typing.” Finally, I thought about using the keyboard’s pointing stick but, it’s a terrible mouse alternative and tends to hop around when I use it so I dropped that idea.

As I was contemplating my next move, Vickie came to my rescue – she reached over, moved my cursor to the start of my text and told me to hold down the Shift key and then hit the right or down arrow and watch it select text. Amazing! It selected all the text I wanted and when I was done, I left-clicked the yellow highlighter and I was done ahead of the deadline.

My takeaway: if you want a quick, non-mouse way to select text for highlighting, cutting or copying, simply start with your cursor at the front or back of the text you want to select, hold down your Shift key and then arrow up, down or sideways until the text is selected. Then you can copy, cut, italicize or do whatever else you need.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

I recently had to replace Vickie’s super-small laptop with a cool fast machine running Windows^® 7. In our home office she runs it from a docking station like I do. Part of the laptop replacement process involved running the new laptop side-by-side with her old one until we were sure all the settings, programs, etc., were identical on both machines.

When I’d matched it all up and it was time to swap them out, I realized that although the new dock has lots of USB ports there’s not one good-old-fashioned PS2 port (PS2 connectors are those round plugs full of pins used to connect your keyboard and mouse). The station also didn’t have a VGA (video graphics array – old school) plug for the monitor, but Vickie’s cinema-sized monitor has a DV-I (digital video interface – new school) connector and it plugged right in, as did her rollerball mouse, external speakers, Dragon Naturally Speaking headset, webcam, charging cables for her iPhone^® and her BlueAnt^® headset and extension cables for her digital camera and Flip^® video recorder.

All was going exceedingly well until I went to plug in the keyboard, which of course turned out to be PS2. Being a techie I have many keyboards around the office (they stack up like firewood for some reason). So I jumped into the global warmer, rolled by the office and grabbed the first USB keyboard I could find, brought it home, plugged it in and it was fine – until I noticed that most of the keys weren’t labeled. All the little white letters had been rubbed off by some miscreant who obviously used a toxic hand lotion while typing. I knew Vickie wouldn’t want an obviously used keyboard so I was off to the computer store, company credit card in hand (Techie Nirvana).

It’s been a long time since I purchased a keyboard and I was surprised by the selection: mini-keyboards not much larger than the one in her old tiny laptop, gaming keyboards with all sorts of rollers and buttons to speed your gaming, wireless keyboards to operate your computer from your recliner across the room, and ergonomic keyboards with funny shapes to help relieve hand fatigue. There were keyboards priced from $9-$99+. I couldn’t make up my mind but immediately ruled out wireless because I didn’t want to be changing batteries.

Finally I chose a sleek, modern, ultrathin, back-lit keyboard with shortcut buttons to open Outlook, Word, iTunes^®, speaker volume and more! She’d never have to take her fingers off the keyboard to reach for her mouse again. It was truly worthy of the CEO of Vickie Milazzo Institute – until I saw the price of $79.99! I was stunned but figured she’s worth it. Installed, it was every bit as cool as I expected. I put on some Barry White music, turned down the lights to set a certain mood and showed her the back-lighting feature that would allow her to type in low light. Things were going my way until she tried to type on it. Turns out I overlooked a wrist-rest extension along the bottom of the keyboard designed to help reduce carpal tunnel. Her movable keyboard tray already has one of those and this pushed the keyboard so far forward she had to uncomfortably extend her arms to use it. Luckily I saved the box and trimmings (a tech tip by itself – always save the packing materials until you’re sure it works).

So it was out into the pouring rain to the computer store. Next I came home with a thicker USB keyboard but without the extra extension. This one had many of the same shortcut buttons as the last one, but as an added bonus it was mechanical, meaning it was more like the old PS2 keyboard in terms of tactile feel and had guaranteed connections. It would never fail or wear out and at only $49.99 seemed like a bargain. I installed it and tried some test typing – it was louder than a typewriter and clackier than a court reporter! I knew there’d be no way I could work in the same room without feeling like a victim of the Chinese Typing Torture.

Back to the store again. Finally I came back with another cool, flat keyboard that looks like it was designed by Apple^® but came with a Wal-Mart^® price of $15.99 and like they say at McDonald’s^® – We’re lovin’ it!

The moral of the story for Certified Legal Nurse Consultants is that when it comes to keyboards, price doesn’t always mean much and size does matter. Some are more expensive simply because of the brand name. Others are expensive because they have multiple shortcut buttons and spiffy features (like an LED clock so you can watch your billable hours) but if you’re not going to use them don’t get them. If you have small hands, you can consider a smaller-size keyboard to reduce fatigue. If you like the firm contact of the keys, you might want a mechanical keyboard.

If you share your legal nurse consulting business’s computer with your family, you may need one that’s soft drink-proof and has larger, kid-friendly keys. Backlighting is nice but not bright enough to allow you to consult your Core Curriculum for Legal Nurse Consulting^® textbook while you work in the dark. Finally, wireless keyboards are terrific because you don’t have to crawl through the dust bunnies under your desk to string the cables, but the batteries will run down in the middle of your legal nurse consulting report so you’ll need to keep plenty of spares.

When you select a new keyboard for your CLNC^® business, don’t be afraid to take them out of the box and try them right there in the store (ask for help though). Also, take a good look at where you plan to install it (look for those pesky wrist rests). Don’t worry about the price – I’ve got $9.99 keyboards (like the one with no letters) that have been in service for years so higher prices don’t necessarily mean higher quality. When you make your decision, base it on what works best for you, your needs and your budget.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

Every computer has cookies. Some come from the Internet and are auto-stored on your hard drive in your web browser. Others are stored in your keyboard – they’re the detritus of all those years of Oreos^® you’ve munched on while hunched over your computer. What’s a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant to do other than start a carb-free diet?

The solution is simple and fat-free! Hit the hardware or electronics store and buy yourself a can of compressed air. Then at least once a month (or more if you’re an inveterate snacker) use that sucker to blow the crumbs out of the keyboard and onto the carpet (where they can be nicely vacuumed up). You may have to practice tilting your keyboard into different positions in order to blow everything out but it’s worth it and less painful than quitting snacking.

While we’re on the subject, how many of you keep your PC on the floor (laptop users don’t answer that)? You might ask yourself, “When was the last time I cleaned my PC’s case?” Be honest. If it’s been a while (or never), grab a flashlight, pull out your desk chair and crawl under the desk and inspect the case. Chances are you’ll discover more dust bunnies around the case and in the air vents and USB ports than there are under your bed. I’ve seen computers where the owner couldn’t find a front USB port because it was so clogged. You need your USB ports for your CLNC^® business and moving files between your office and attorney-clients’ offices. Clogged vents lead to overheating which will shorten the life of your PC.

Here’s what to do. Turn off the computer. Unplug all the connections, cables, power supplies, etc. (make note of where they go so you can put it back together). Pull the PC out from under the desk and get after those dust bunnies with your vacuum. Then, use the vacuum to clear the vents and USB ports. Next, using a slightly damp (NOT wet, duh!) anti-static cloth, clean off the outside of the PC case.

Next, if you dare, open the thumb-screws and take the PC case’s cover off. Look inside the PC (it’s cool), grab your trusty can of compressed air and carefully blow the dust out of the PC. Your hard drive is sealed up pretty tight, but if any dust or particulate matter gets in there, it will cause a world of hurt (and lost data) so keep it clean. I don’t recommend sticking the vacuum inside the case (you don’t want to suck any connections loose). The canned air is sufficient. Keep a slight distance away and don’t blow right up against anything (it’s not an ear – it’s a PC).

After you’ve blown out all the debris, put the case cover back on the PC and tighten the thumbscrews. Make sure the underdesk space is clean. Reconnect your cables and fire that sucker back up. You won’t notice any performance changes but you can sure feel good about yourself for cleaning up your act and your PC.

Keep on techin’,

Tom