While I personally use a computer and word processor, I could never stand the feel of writing with a ballpoint on a single sheet of paper laid atop a hard surface. Too much the sensory equivalent of the occasional screech of chalk on chalkboard. Invariably, I would pad the piece of paper with the Sports section from the daily newspaper and the world would flow smoothly again. 
 
I’m not a speed typist by any means (I still have to look at the individual keys), but over the years in my career as a writer I’ve managed to move beyond the two-finger hunt and peck system. When the thoughts do start coming, you want to be able to transport them to your monitor without worrying about keyboard issues. You want the input device to do its job by becoming completely invisible or transparent: something you don’t have to think twice about it. When that happens, you know you’ve found the “perfect” keyboard, apart from any bells or whistles it may also boast. 
 
The keyboard became a concern for me recently when I adopted the portable Apple Powerbook as my desktop machine. Since even the best laptop keyboards can’t compete with the standalone item, I went in search of a keyboard for heavy duty day to day use. At the time it made sense to go with Apple’s own Pro Keyboard, $60 if I remember right. It was a USB device with the added bonus of having two USB ports of its own, one on either end, with volume control keys, CD eject button and so on. 
 
Trouble was, at anything faster than two forefingers at a time, the keyboard generated double consonants the way our recent rains bred mosquitoes. I would type n and get nn onscreen. I would type c and get cc, etc. From a writer’s point of view, this was decidedly not a good thing. (For some reason I was never able to quite fathom, this rarely happened with vowels.) 
 
I attempted the usual solutions, going first into the Control Panels and slowing the key repeat rate but to no avail. I thought the keyboard might be defective, so I switched out the kid’s iMac keyboard and the problem persisted. I tried living with it, thinking that maybe it was me who needed to learn how to learn to work with the keyboard rather than the other way around. But I simply could not get the hang of the Apple Pro Keyboard no matter how delicately or deftly I tried manipulating my clumsy digits. 
 
Then I came across a rave review by John Dvorak of Microsoft’s latest offering in the field — the Internet Keyboard Pro (retail $39.95) — and decided to see for myself. I unplugged the old Pro and plugged in the new Pro — and the MS Pro was definitely better. Gone were the double consonants. My fingers could fly again when the muse deigned to smile down on me. Well, fly may not be the right word, but at least I didn’t have to crawl as well as go back and edit everything I’d just typed, deleting all the non-vowels. 
 
The MS Internet Keyboard Pro is both Windows and Mac compatible, though if you want an OS X driver you’ll have to download it from Microsoft’s Web site. It’s not on the included CD. But you don’t need keyboard drivers at all, unless you want to take advantage of the available bells and whistles in the form of programmable keys. These aren’t full size key caps like the standard function keys, but a row of horizontal blue buttons along the top of the keyboard with names like, Back, Forward, Stop, Search, Favorites, Media [Player], volume controls, and so on. Above the numeric key pad on the right hand side of the keyboard are three other buttons labeled My Computer, Calculator and Sleep.  
 
It also comes with a detachable palm rest and enough health warnings to make you wonder if typing might not be on a par with a two pack a day cigarette habit. And it’s got the kind of design flaws that always have Apple purists looking down their noses at the Boys from Redmond. The two USB ports, for example, are right next to each other on the right rear of the keyboard. On the Apple, they’re on the left and right side. 
 
On the other hand, the MS keyboard cable is two or three times as long as Apple’s. And while Apple now connects all its peripherals via USB or Firewire, MS still has a huge installed base of older users. As a consequence, its keyboard cable splits into a clunky Y at the end. One fork ends in a USB plug, the other in a PS/2 connector. 
 
But all in all, I’m happy. I can type again.