• penquin
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    10 months ago
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    What do you do when you need the “F” buttons on those keyboards that don’t have them? Genuine question!

    • Pickle_Jr
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      10 months ago
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      10 months ago
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      It goes deeper than that. On some of those keyboards, you’ll see that there aren’t even number keys and other somewhat common keys such as ()$&! And more.

      These types of keyboards are almost always programmable. If you’re familiar with the FN key, then these keyboards have more advanced FN keys.

      Press one programmed FN key, the entire keyboard might turn into a functional number pad. Press a different programmed FN key, asdfghj might turn into F1 F2 F3 etc. Press another programmed FN key, you can control media playback, control your mouse, and maybe even have a few macros!

      These keyboards are ortholinear keyboards, that’s what this grid layout is. The firmware to achieve this level of customization is called QMK. It’s not just ortholinear keyboards that have QMK ☺️.

      • penquin
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        10 months ago
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        Very nice. Thank you for explaining

      • penquin
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        10 months ago
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        Oh damn, so you can program your regular letters to do that!!! Nice. I’m JUST starting to get into mechanical keyboards and don’t really know much. I have a Corsair K70 pro RGB with red buttons. It’s nice, but I just can’t get used to typing on it. I’m always hitting two buttons at a time. I have to lift my fingers really high and type. Second issue is the metallic ping. So, I’ve been doing some research to find me something I enjoy and also easy to type on. I love the clickitty clacks (or what they call thock). 😁

        • Transient PunkEnglish
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          10 months ago
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          Yeah, they’re infinitely customizable. I have two regular keys where my space bar should be on my keyboard. As a result, I’ve programmed tapping the left one to insert a space, but holding it down acts as CTRL, and tapping the right acts as backspace, while holding down the right acts as shift.

          • penquin
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            10 months ago
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            Pretty cool. Thank you. I like watching videos on all these types of keyboards.