this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2025
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There is a guy out there developing a mouse less solution so you never have to take your fingers off the keyboard too called mouseless.click I'm just waiting for him to release the Windows version. Only on apple atm
IDK, a mousetrapper (or similar) effectively does the same but doesn't require retraining your entire workflow and still allows for precision mouse work.
Ah, doesn't work with my tented split key setup. But it's a cool idea.
Oh thanks. I'll look into it!
I googled mousetrapper but dont understand what it is? Looks like an old school trackpad?
It's just a mouse-device that enables full regular mouse control without taking your hands off the keyboard as well. It's not actually a trackpad, it's a mechanical two dimensional scrolling plate (or bar) which is much nicer to use because it provides better feedback than a trackpad.
Here's what I want: tiny, one handed bluetooth chord keyboard.
For typing on my phone. Can someone make one?
you can make a ferris sweep. you would just choose which side you'd want and setup your layout with QMK. If you want Bluetooth, just use the nice! Nano controller. A coworker built one. It's tiny, about the size of your hand. He would also carry it around in his pockets and connect through USB to his phone for emails.
The only problem is he customized the hell out of the layout. I think he used Colemak. His layers kinda looked like this:
He said he had trouble using regular keyboards after getting used to it. He always had to carry it around with him.
Yeah, that's a lot of work with tools I have no idea with. Definitely a fun project but I don't have the time.
Aren't there hundreds? Like this one? Or maybe I don't know what you mean by "chord" keyboard, or you want more tiny?
A chord keyboard uses combinations of keys, like chords on a piano. You have fewer keys so you can type with one hand. I'm not 100% serious about it, learning curve would be horrendous. But it would be interesting to try. I used blackberry for a long time and I hate screen keyboards.
And yes, looks like I found one while looking for examples :) It's $175 on ebay, bit expensive.
(tangent to your question because someone already answered) I think that courtroom stenographers (people who type up what's said) use special chording keyboards. I've also been to a few events where there has been someone transcribing things in real time for accessibility purposes, and they also use a cool looking chording keyboard. It takes some learning, but the max typing speed is way faster than any conventional keyboard could manage — which is why skilled people use them for transcribing stuff
A brand that I'm aware of that does them is Charachorder.
There are also machines that type things in braille that I believe use chords. I dated this crazy girl who had one and it was actually really cool.
I think someone was making something similar but was a two handed thing that attarched to magnetic hip clips.
As long as it's got mech switches and can run a qwerty layout I'm happy
Hear me out, take the optic sensor from a mouse and put it on the bottom of one of those boards. Then you wouldn't have to move your hand to use a mouse.
Bruh what are you doing posting million dollar ideas like this on a public forum?!
Recently bought a CharaChorder, haven't mastered it yet but it is promising.
I find the topic interesting and want to both experiment with the ortholinear and split concepts. But the main thing holding me back is the same reason I am using zsh and not fish: compatibility. I don’t want to confuse myself with two ways of typing when I need to work on another pc and I will not be using a split keyboard on my laptop for example.
Both of mine died lately and I want to get them working again, but qmk is a nightmare I don't want to have to touch again.