About ergonomics, there's several things I don't do (and you shouldn't as well)
- Don't use your laptop without a 'docking station' for long. Strain to your neck, back and hand/wrist. A mouse/keyboard and support to keep the screen at eye level does wonders
- Don't use a 'moving mouse'. Apple magic trackpad is great. Trackballs are great as well.
- Even better, limit the use of a pointing device (if your job allows it, e.g. for anything graphic this is difficult). Today I do most of my work with keyboard alone, even web browsing (the exception is clicking links and buttons)
Clicking links - In firefox, activate 'search for text when i start typing' (options->advanced), then just type the text of the link and press enter. If the link is something frequently occuring on the page like 'reply' then type something right in front of hit then press tab and then enter. :)
>> Don't use a 'moving mouse'. Apple magic trackpad is great. Trackballs are great as well.
I have used Apple Magic trackpad for almost an year and I started having severe discomfort when I my middle and ring finger are stretched. I was not resting my palm properly and that probably contributed to the issue. I switched to an evoluent mouse (http://www.amazon.com/Evoluent-VerticalMouse-Regular-Right-V...) and it got better very fast (in couple of weeks).
Is the reasoning behind avoidance of the 'moving mouse' simply because you move your wrist a lot when mousing? I find that with the dpi cranked way up on my mouse it takes considerably less motion to click on things than with a trackpad. Moving my mouse all the way across a 1080p screen is essentially a finger twitch. I've tried the vertical mice before too, but they definitely take some getting used to.
Any ideas for file manipulation with the keyboard? With long Windows paths there's no way a CLI is going to be faster than moving files around with Explorer, which is not very keyboard friendly. I've looked at alternative file managers and haven't found anything that sticks.
What's not keyboard friendly about explorer? I find it very easy to work with, actually one of the most keyboard friendly programs i have! Arrows and typing for navigation, (shift+)tab for jumping from tree to file list(without mouse you actually get used to working without tree-view, i have mine always hidden), ctrl+c/v/x = duh. F2=Rename, Ctrl+shift+n = new folder. Alt+Up = Up, Alt+left/right = back/forward. Alt+D = Navigation bar(with autocomplete!). Ctrl+E = Search. Alt+P = Preview, Contextmenubutton alone = right mouse button (i'm surprised many people don't know about this button), this contains almost all the remaining things you need that don't have a dedicated hotkey, and even this list can be navigated quickly with the keyboard, for example Contextmenubutton+R = Properties, Or N for SendTo.
Frequently working with two different folders? open a new window(Ctrl+N) and dock one window on each side of the screen with win+left/right. Then simply alt+tab between them, or use the win+nr if you have it docked on your taskbar.
The only thing i'm missing for keyboard navigation is a hotkey to toggle navigation bar on/off and a more sleek autocomplete, such as visual studios or quicksilver.
- Don't use your laptop without a 'docking station' for long. Strain to your neck, back and hand/wrist. A mouse/keyboard and support to keep the screen at eye level does wonders
- Don't use a 'moving mouse'. Apple magic trackpad is great. Trackballs are great as well.
- Even better, limit the use of a pointing device (if your job allows it, e.g. for anything graphic this is difficult). Today I do most of my work with keyboard alone, even web browsing (the exception is clicking links and buttons)