Keyboards at a glance

In computer terminology a keyboard is an input device, modeled on the lines of a typewriter keyboard. It contains an array of buttons or keys which act as electronic switches. Keyboards contain characters which are engraved or printed on its keys. When a user presses a key it typically corresponds to a single written symbol. However, for printing special symbols a user has to hold several keys in a sequence. While various keyboard keys are able to produce letters, signs or numbers, they also produce special characters by pressing keys simultaneously or carry different computer commands.

In general practice a keyboard is used to type text, numbers, special characters and various other symbols in a word processor, text editor or other programs. In contemporary computers, the elucidation of key presses is most often left to the software. The keyboards attached to the computer differentiate each physical key from each other and reports all key presses to the software controller. Keyboards are also utilized for gaming purposes and several keyboards have custom design applied to its interface each uniquely tailored for its own supported game. Today, wireless computer keyboards have also become popular.

With the help of keyboards various commands are applied to the operating system of a computer. For example through the windows command sequence the “Control – Alt – Delete” combination on a keyboard shuts down the machine. There are a variety of keyboards available like the standard keyboard which contains 101-key US traditional keyboard and 104-key windows keyboard. A standard keyboard contains alphabetic characters, numbers, punctuation symbols and a variety of other functions. Meanwhile the common international 102/105 keyboard contains a smaller ‘left shift’ key along with some other symbols most often Z or Y.

Laptop or notebook keyboards have shorter keystrokes with a reduced number of keys. Most of these notebook keyboards do not contain numeric keypads. The function keys are located differently as compared to standard or full-sized keyboards.

There are also multimedia keyboards available which contains special keys and are used to access web, music, volume control, mute button etc. These keyboards also provide gaming functions like pressing ‘Ctrl + Shift + Y’ is generally used to start certain computer games. In word processing, graphic designing and other editing programs a combination of keystrokes is used from keyboards to start certain functions of the respective program.

Now-a-days thumb-sized or QWERTY keyboards have been introduced in PDAs, cell phones, etc. The size of the keyboards is drastically reduced by removing the numeric keyboard and numpad. Another way in reducing the size of a keyboard is reducing keys from the keyboard and applying a set of keys at a stretch to get the desired command.

Buying tips: Keyboard • Check whether your keyboard uses a PS2 connection or USB 2.0 connection? • If you intend to use your keyboard for gaming purposes search for keyboards tailored to that specific keyboard, for example World of Warcraft keyboards by Ideazon. • If you often move your keyboard around, then choose a wireless keyboard instead. • If you use your computer frequently you can consider getting an ergonomic keyboard. These keyboards are so designed to bring comfort to a user.