Two operating modes of the keyboard
Your keyboard, as an input device, has two main functions, called modes: One is a text entry mode, which allows the operator to enter text in a document. The other is command mode, which instructs the software or operating system to do something in a certain way, e.g. alt-tab to cycle through open windows. The mouse also has these two functions: command mode, such as double-clicking a file to open, or clicking a button to restart the computer; enter mode, such as using drawing software to draw lines.
Many people primarily use the keyboard to enter text and the mouse for command mode. Unfortunately, moving your hands from the keyboard to the mouse takes time and forces your eyes and brain to switch focus. This reduces efficiency.
Consider the following experiment:
Comparing the efficiency of the two modes
Let's do a test to see how much productivity you can gain when using keyboard driver software.
On a Microsoft Windows-based computer, open a browser such as Safari, Chrome, or Firefox. Visit www.google.com or any other website. Move your two hands back to the keyboard on this row.
Test 1: Visit www.yahoo.com with mouse and keyboard
Open a new tab with the mouse.
Move the cursor over the navigation bar. Click the URL field.
Type http://www.yahoo.com and press Enter.
Move your hand back to the keyboard.
In most cases, Test 1 takes about four seconds.
Test 2: The same test, but using only the keyboard in content and command mode:
Once set up as per Test 1, type the following:
control-T
control-L
Yahoo
control carriage return
Test 2 achieved the same result in less than a second.
So you can see from this example that utilizing keyboard shortcuts to operate your computer software in key command mode can lead to some huge productivity gains. Some software makers design their products with this in mind, while others don't.
In another article, we'll compare Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Microsoft Windows 7 to see which one makes their users more productive.
Which keyboard shortcuts do you use the most? Which actions would you like to have keyboard shortcuts?