Still not used to splits after a year…how do you type one-handed?
I’ve been using a Sofle split for almost a year, probably in about 30-40% of my typing. Despite tweaking my setup as best I can, I still find the experience difficult.
One issue that seems to have a big effect is that I still think of the position of mouse in my dominant hand and keyboard with my other hand as useful.
I use it often for everything from casual surfing to editing. For example during editing you’re often selecting text with the mouse and doing some minor editing with your other hand. Split keyboards seem to really remove this efficient option since both your hands need to be used most times.
A lot of people who extol the benefits of split keyboards are comparing to traditional keyboards when your tasks are static.
There are a few different options, though none of them are without trade-offs.
It could be interesting to develop a project from idea (3).
What shape should have the left hand side for instance, assuming it should have ~40 keys under a single hand?
It could take a lot of shapes. It could look like https://www.beeraider.com/one-handed-keyboard/ or https://tipykeyboard.com/en/?v=fa868488740a or you could check out the split keyboards here with 80+ keys https://jhelvy.shinyapps.io/splitkbcompare/
Here I was thinking that my ergodox ez3000 was cool....
A split, 2 hands, keyboard that sometimes can be used one-handedly should not be the same as a one hand keyboard.
Somehow, it should include all the uncompromising layout of a typical split keyboard, plus a set of keys on the left side, replicating the right side keys, but maybe with some adaptations. It could also be just another layer on the left side, but I don't believe this would cover the need expressed by op.
Form and function are inextricably linked: one will inform the other. A lot of the ergo-split community focuses on the use case where you move your hands as little as possible, and the designs tend to revolve around maximizing that ideal. And they are damn good at it. The drawback, as you note, is that it's a design that expects you not to move your hands around: it encourages keyboard navigation and shortcuts in place of using the mouse as much as possible.
That said, you can get around it. You can use layers to move common shortcuts to the left hand, so you don't have to do the whole "Stretch my hand across two units" dance. Or, you can look into something like a macro pad.
Me, I just deal. The comfort when typing is well worth the tradeoff, to me. I'll favor avoiding the mouse when possible, and just dance my one hand across both halves when needed. It's not a huge deal to me, but the whole point is personalization: find what works best for you!
You could try out QMKs swap hands feature. I've not tried using myself but have considered doing so for this use case exactly.
+1 for swap hands feature, I have one pinky key on each side with momentary hold and one-shot for hand swapping, I use it mostly in CAD or image editor while using the mouse with my right hand.
I moved my mouse between the two splits.
Sounds like you could benefit from a trackball
I am a vim user (and use vim keybinding for web browsing), so I rarely need to use both my mouse and keyboard at the same time.
If I need to type with one hand I just push them back together. Or just use the second one piece keyboard that I have for gaming use.
Love this simple solution 😂
Single handed operation is usefull for my use case as well (mainly CAD and graphic work). I've tried various approaches:
Ok so I use a split since two months and the switch is certainly not automatic but the solutions are fairly simple. I’m a good exemple of a user scenario that requires a lot of one-handed operations because I mainly edit text and not writing it and I use a lot of GUI related to graphic work (illustrator mainly but also photoshop). For the following process, I should make clear that I’m on a Mac and it’s clearly a big plus since this platform promotes consistent patterns of shortcuts.
Text edition :
GUI
I should mention that I use Colemak and that it certainly help compared to layout leaning toward hand switch (Dvorak, Bepo…). But if you’re on QWERTY it should be good.
You could use autohot key to setup a FrogPad like meta key to give you access to all the keys from one side. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FrogPad
No need to do it in AHK (platform specific) when it can be achieved in QMK.
I've been using a Corne for over a year. The halves are close enough that I can move my non-mousing hand to the other half. I like the split primarily for a more comfortable typing angle rather than a wider stance.
When I started using home row mods I also experienced issues with shortcuts requiring ctrl (copy, paste, cut, dave, select all, close window, new tab, erc)
The solution I found was to map Ctrl in multiple positions only on the left hand so I do not need any contortions
@ink_black_night
I would also recommend considering combos.
@phario
I have a Moonlander, and use the keyboard itself for most of my “mouse” needs. You can do the same on the Sofle: https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/blob/master/docs/feature_mouse_keys.md
I also have trackpad between the keyboard halves for scrolling while eating or when I need to make ultra-fine selections. For gaming I use the left half of the board and a mouse in my right hand.