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Microsoft Input Devices

Microsoft's New Keyboards Have Dedicated Keys For 'Office' and Emojis (theverge.com) 122

Posted by EditorDavid from the missing-the-Start-button dept.
"Microsoft's latest keyboards now include dedicated Office and emoji keys," reports the Verge: The software giant was previously experimenting with an Office key on keyboards earlier this year, and now the company is launching a new Ergonomic and slim Bluetooth Keyboard that include the dedicated button. The Office key replaces the right-hand Windows key, and it's used to launch the Office for Windows 10 app that acts as a hub for Microsoft's productivity suite. You can also use the Office key as a shortcut to launch Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. Office key + W opens Word for example, while Office key + X opens Excel.

Alongside the Office key, there's also a new emoji key on these new keyboards. It will launch the emoji picker inside Windows 10, but you won't be able to assign it to a specific emoji or even create shortcuts, unfortunately...

Microsoft quietly launched these new keyboards at the company's Surface hardware event last week, but they'll be available in stores on October 15th.
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Microsoft's New Keyboards Have Dedicated Keys For 'Office' and Emojis More

Microsoft's New Keyboards Have Dedicated Keys For 'Office' and Emojis

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  • I don't know why in the name of all that is righteous and holy Microsoft insisted that pressing the windows key now presents a new-age start menu that takes over your entire screen. On a list of bad ideas forced upon us in windows 10 (and everything that came since including server 16 and forward), this is probably my least favorite. It's slower than the old start menu (by a lot), it's orders of magnitude more invasive, and its search function rarely produces what you want.

    And before you say "use Linu

    • Re:Anything to kill the screen-conquering menu (Score:5, Informative)

      by oogoliegoogolie ( 635356 ) on Sunday October 13, 2019 @10:37AM (#59302796)

      There is always stardock products to make MWGA, Make Windows Great Again.

      I just don't understand how UI's are so badly designed today compared to 15 years ago, whether it's the Win10 start menu, websites, applications, or mobile apps. Change for the sake of change or "Google/fb/etc. does it this way so we should too" overrides usability, something that seems to not even be considered anymore. Too many arts graduates being hired as software UI-experts I suppose.

      There is so much inconsistency even in the same product. Hard to read grey text on slightly darker grey background, with grey buttons, hidden menus, menus that cannot be hidden (eg. top/bottom social media bars on mobile websites) , settings pages where every field, text, button, checkbox is the same color, grey controls no longer universally mean unselected or disabled. Much of what worked and was intuitive for 20-30 years has been thrown out and replaced with prettier yet less intuitive and less functional artistic UI's.

      • .... overrides usability

        You haven't been listening to the last two year's keynote speeches, people don't want "usability", they want "an experience".

        Every little thing they do on their computing device should be an experience and that takes time.

      • Re:Anything to kill the screen-conquering menu (Score:4, Insightful)

        by iampiti ( 1059688 ) on Sunday October 13, 2019 @02:49PM (#59303508)
        Yeah, hit the nail on the head. UIs have turned into a mess in the last few years:

        • Buttons were made flat and, in may cases, borderless, leaving space around text as the only clue that they are, indeed, a button

        • Multicolor icons were forbidden in the name of armony and consistency, making in turn said icons much harder to identify and distinguish between one another
        • And my favourite: UIs in general were made so that they worked well with touch-driven devices, forcing into every other category of device, substandard UIs that were much worse than the previous, custom-made ones.

        IMHO the right choice would be to have 2 completely different UIs, tailor made for the input devices at hand: Either touchscreens or keyboard and mice. That's not common but at least, some applications have a half-way solution of letting the user choose the spacing between UI elements. e.g.: Firefox, Office (ironic since Microsoft was one of the worst offenders of the one-UI-for-everyone crap). For them, it seems Office is the only application important enough to let its users adjust the spacing of its UI elements.

        • I can't stand the hidden scroll bars that someone started and someone else copied (I'm talking to Ubuntu and Microsoft here). It's really bad in the Linux version of Slack and you can't change it. For nostalgia I'd like to run olwm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] but I doubt it would run on any modern distro.

      • Re:Anything to kill the screen-conquering menu (Score:5, Insightful)

        by SuricouRaven ( 1897204 ) on Sunday October 13, 2019 @07:08PM (#59304164)

        Some of it is designed to guide the user in the direction the company wants. The Windows 10 start menu, for example - it's not just a simple program launcher any more. It funnels everyone who uses it towards the Windows store, towards OneDrive, towards Bing. The Office save dialog has gone from a very standard file-picker into a series of options that try to give you the chance to save to onedrive first, and only if you decline this offering does it pass you on to save locally. Then there is Amazon's infamous pushing of Amazon Prime - where purchasing means carefully navigating past two large 'buy' buttons which also sign you up for Prime, and looking instead for the much tinier buy button that does not.

        • It's also focusing on Microsoft's primary market, smart phones, and moving away from the one where they barely feature, desktop PCs. So it makes perfect sense if you're trained in Microsoft thinking.

        • See also the substandard "experience" for Reddit in a mobile browser.

          "Do you want to use the app?" "How about now? Do you want to use the app?" "If you don't want to use the app just click this 1 nanometer wide x".

          "Do you want to see more replies in the thread? LOL, we can't serve as many impressions if we do that."

      • "top/bottom social media bars on mobile websites"

        Try the Kill Sticky extension :)

        https://addons.mozilla.org/en-... [mozilla.org]

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The whole screen? It's less than a quarter of mine. What resolution are you using?

    • 2015 called. It wants its complaint about full screen start menus back.

  • Emojis! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Brett Buck ( 811747 ) on Sunday October 13, 2019 @09:43AM (#59302668)

    Again, another change the users have been clamoring for, since everyone is a 13-year-old girl!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rossdee ( 243626 )

      " since everyone is a 13-year-old girl!"

      and 13-year-old girls are actually FBI agents,

      That means that everyone is an FBI agent.

      No wonder Donald is paranoid

    • Again, another change the users have been clamoring for, since everyone is a 13-year-old girl!

      To get teens interested in programming, maybe someone can create a programming language that uses only Emojis? Kinda sorta like APL uses all those wacky Greek characters.

    • Re:Emojis! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by oogoliegoogolie ( 635356 ) on Sunday October 13, 2019 @10:44AM (#59302804)

      I want a setting that can disable all emojis across every application in the OS. Bejeezus, they've even infiltrated the subject lines in emails.
      The worst thing about emojis is that it is difficult to disable them since they are part of Unicode now.

      • Build a font that has all of the emoji glyphs filled with an underscore or somesuch. Use that as your system font.

        The font has to have emoji glyphs so there's no fallback to another font. Can't leave the glyphs blank, I think.

    • Implying that the first emoji was not sent by a nerd to a colleague in a work email?

    • OldManYellsAtCloud.jpg

      I understand that here at slashdot we hate Unicode so much not even punctuation is supported, but here's a spoiler: emoji aren't just for teenagers anymore (if they ever were).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Megol ( 3135005 )

        I'd argue they are for kids no matter what chronological age they have. A few smilies can make the intent clear (irony, joking, ...) but the overly complicated and essentially indecipherable mess we now have standardized (enough to make things even more complicated) is just idiocy. Obviously people like pretty things more than clear communication which lead us back to the UI discussion...

  • Yay, another key to pry off the keyboard and throw away to prevent accidentally hitting it.

  • Will there by a keyboard button with a poop emoji ?

  • ... fix the CAPS-LOCK problem?
    • Are you referring to the common PEBCAK error? Or is there some hardware problem?
      • I'm referring to the prominent location and overly large size of the CAPS-LOCK key.

      • He's referring to the fact that once, the Ctrl key was where the Caps Lock key now is, and the Caps Lock key was where the right Ctrl key now is. An arrangement that is considerably more convenient to touch typists who don't use Caps Lock much but do use a lot of keyboard shortcuts that involve Ctrl.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Misagon ( 1135 )

      Do you mean that Shift+letter becomes lowercase when Caps Lock is enabled?
      That's a Windows problem. There is supposedly a setting for disabling Caps Lock with a press of the Shift key, but I have not been able to find it.

      USB keyboards are supposed to be dumb concerning the Caps Lock and Shift keys. Keyboards just report the state of those keys like any other keys, and the host tells the keyboard which lock lights are supposed to be lit.
      Similarly, Num Lock state is not things the keyboard has any control ove

      • That actually depends on the keyboard.
        Most keyboards have a physical lock for caps lock and num lock.
        Actually I never had one that has not.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Megol ( 3135005 )

          I take it you haven't bought a keyboard the last 20 (30??) years? Can't remember the last time I saw such a design.

          • I bought an USB and an bluetooth keyboard about 5 years ago.
            But yes, my other keyboards are +15 years old, mostly Cherry, and one Apple from 1992.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Megol ( 3135005 )

      That's an user problem as one can remap it to Ctrl or something else. Even Windows support it.

  • Ego (Score:3)

    by Livius ( 318358 ) on Sunday October 13, 2019 @10:01AM (#59302710)

    Imagine how much human civilization could advance if Microsoft put half as much energy and creativity into their technology as they do their vanity.

    • Imagine how much further software would have advanced if Bill Gates never existed
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • "You may not like the guy but if it wasn't for him everything in the PC world would be locked down tighter than a nun's thighs"

          Keep it down girls or I'll put the seats back on the Mother Superior was heard telling the nun's on the Bicycle Built For Three ...

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Almost entirely incorrect.

          MS-DOS was a failure from the point of view of introducing a hardware independant system.

          What created a world without lock-in was the introduction of PC compatible hardware. Although, that in itself, locked everyone into a single architecture, albeit one provided by many manufacturers.

          This was nothing to do with Microsoft or Bill Gates.

          • If only AC had provided clarification, hairyfeet and others would benefit.
            For instance, Gates et al purchased a license to market QDOS to end users (NOT a license to resell to other manufacturers) from Seattle Computer Products.
            Tim Paterson of SCP created QDOS by copying CP/M with only minor renaming of a few commands.
            Gary Kildall, creator of CP/M didn't really care about the cloning of his work, too bad for him...
            Legend has it he blew off a meeting with IBM which eventually led to Gates meeting with Bi

            • The original IBM-Microsoft contract allocated

              $50K for an operating system
              $310K for various programming languages and tools (Basic, Pascal, Fortran)
              $75K for consulting, technical support, etc.

              In 1980, a microcomputer operating system didn't do a whole lot,. It was necessary, and it was important that it fit into as little RAM as possible, but GNU/Linux this was not. The compilers and dev tools, however, were critical to the success of the machine.

              Patterson claims that the syntax of QDOS is similar to CPM bec

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Agripa ( 139780 )

            What created a world without lock-in was the introduction of PC compatible hardware. Although, that in itself, locked everyone into a single architecture, albeit one provided by many manufacturers.

            This was nothing to do with Microsoft or Bill Gates.

            The CP/M systems which led to the IBM PC and MS_DOS were open and there were many manufacturers of them all running CP/M with an abstraction layer and the same software. There were systems other than but closely related to the IBM-PC which could also have become the next generation of CP/M hardware for CP/M-86 or QDOS.

        • Interesting point of view.

          On the other hand: all other OSes and hardware were better.

          So: he destroyed more wealth in my opinion than anything/anyone else.

          Look at actual modern office, completely unusable.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Agripa ( 139780 )

          You may not like the guy but if it wasn't for him everything in the PC world would be locked down tighter than a nun's thighs because EVERYBODY was into hardware lock in until MS-DOS opened the way of PC clones.

          MS-DOS and incidentally Apple DOS, and the hardware they ran on, had to compete with the *earlier* open widely used system CP/M with its open hardware. Apple DOS could not supplant CP/M but MS-DOS could because the IBM PC was the next generation of hardware intended for CP/M in the form of CP/M-86.

          So had Microsoft had not existed, CP/M-86, or a clone of CP/M-86 like QDOS which became MS-DOS, would have taken its place and we still would have had open hardware.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Reminds me of the opening of a certain film where the narrator lamented that our brightest and best focused all their efforts into combating hair loss and prolonging erections.

  • ... who both use Office and emojis. The keyboard is also missing four other common keys.

  • Space bar going to get smaller again ? They have four now on the right, this is nuts. I already map the windows key to 'alt', now a another one to map and I still miss the space bar in rare instances.

    Why don't they get it over with and shrink the space bar to a small dot. Its not like people will be writing using letters any more, just stupid mini-symbols no one knows what a string of them means.

  • office key, I also think emojis? Also, that thing looks painful to type on. No only is it not ergonomic but it's got borderline chicklet keys. Seriously, paint it beige and it wouldn't look out of place next to a PC Jr.

  • Apparently pressing win + . is too hard to access Microsoft's crummy smiley font they obviously put their most talented artists to work developing.

  • Can I reprogram it to start the Libre Office launcher? Becase otherwise it will end up being a useless null key, or worse, a key that when you bump it loads up an Adware screen to buy/rent Office 361-1/2 (is that about the uptime, or is it worse?).

  • Microsoft's latest keyboards now include dedicated...emoji keys

    :-(

  • I looked for the little turd. Didn't find it.

  • This is because of all the Fortune 500 Corporations that are being FORCED to upgrade to Windows 10. They have apparently discovered that the newfangled menu built into Windows 10 means that it takes their 1 million employees about one minute longer to scroll through the start menu to find the Office programs, and have banded together to sue Microsoft for the $50 Billion in lost productivity suffered so far. It is anticipated that this will increase to more than $100 billion per year.

    As part of the out of

    • Office is amazingly complicated these days. It used to be nice, Excel took off on the Mac first because it was such a great program. But over the years these have become obtuse and unusable. In that sense, anyone out there who actually needs an Office Key because they use Office so much and have figured it out undoubtedly has learned how to either double click an icon, have pinned it to the start bar, or have it start automatically.

      If anything, Windows needs a key that says "Log out and shut down now beca

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Livius ( 318358 )

      Because the control+alt+letter that we've since Windows 3.0 (or was it earlier?) would be too hard for them.

  • "Ergonomic": One step forward, several steps back (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Misagon ( 1135 ) on Sunday October 13, 2019 @11:31AM (#59302984)

    I suppose the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard [microsoft.com] is intended to replace the Natural Keyboard 4000 [microsoft.com].

    Improvement:
    * Columns on the right-hand side are somewhat straighter, i.e. will probably feel less weird.

    Retrogressions:
    * Keys are flat and wide, but are high. I suppose they require more travel distance before actuation than on the MS Sculpt Ergonomic which has chiclet keys. Flatter keys make it harder for the fingers to find their way, and several studies made a long time ago show that people type more errors on wider keys: It's in old textbooks on HMI and should be common knowledge among Microsoft's designers.
    * Gamers using WASD for control will not appreciate having to stretch so far for the Space bar with their left thumb.
    * ISO layout keyboards will get very slim left Shift and Enter keys, and the Alt Gr key is even further away from its normal position.
    They will suck for anything but US-English.

    Lost opportunities:
    * The MS Sculpt Ergonomic had the numpad separate, allowing you to place the mouse closer to the centre, avoiding arm and shoulder problems. There is no space for any touchpad, trackball or rollermouse in the front either because of the fixed large wrist rest.

    Questions:
    * Where is the forward tilt? The MS 4000 had a separate attachment for forward tilt. Are there flip-out feet in the front? Microsoft's web page does not say.
    * What are the dedicated shortcut keys? Why are not all keys programmable as on a real ergonomic keyboard? [kinesis-ergo.com]
    * Why have two Delete keys? Was it put into production before design had been finalised? It would be interesting to see later if the firmware even supports two keys producing the same code or if it bugs out.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fintux ( 798480 )
      I also hate that the F1..F12 keys are lumped together, and I often use them without looking. Having the moved to non-standard positions and not leaving an opportunity to find them by the empty spaces between them would make them so much harder to use me. But this was apparently the case also in the old one.

      Why have two Delete keys?

      There are three delete buttons (when you count the one in the numpad). Maybe it was left as a hint for the person who added the emoji key...

  • Who the fuck thought this was a good idea? How many times does somebody need to start Office in a day? At most, I'll do it once. That's the last thing I need a fucking button for.
    • Agreed. Now, if they had a dedicated button for clippy that would be a different story! That friendly piece of wire can help me with anything..
    • To me that button sounds like an advertisement of Office: "Hey, remeber you have Office", "hit me!, use Office!".
      The emoji one sounds more logical to me. Like adapting computer keyboards to what we have on smartphones but I'm and old man anyway and I don't like my keyboard layout altered.

  • Design conversation (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 13, 2019 @01:13PM (#59303306)

    Exec #1: "Let's take away one of the Windows keys and replace it with an OFFICE key! Much convenient!"

    Exec #2: "Brilliant! And let's put it on the RIGHT-hand side of the keyboard, so that Office+X for Excel and Office+W for Word takes TWO HANDS!"

    Exec #3: "My God!!! You guys are amazing! I'll break out the Zima!"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      Errm....I think you meant break out the Zune. Now everybody party like its 1984, and no sneaky shutting off the telemetry, MS is only interested in your well being, your personal history, your likes and dislikes, and your uncle's dog (strange but true).

    • Exec #1: "Let's take away one of the Windows keys and replace it with an OFFICE key! Much convenient!"

      Exec #2: "Brilliant! And let's put it on the RIGHT-hand side of the keyboard, so that Office+X for Excel and Office+W for Word takes TWO HANDS!"

      Exec #3: "My God!!! You guys are amazing! I'll break out the Zima!"

      Perplexed test user: It would be quicker for them to just click the Show Desktop button on the task bar and then double click the Office shortcut. Why complicate such a simple task?

  • I use the sculpt ergo keyboard at home and work but it requires a USB dongle which is easily misplaced and has some connectivity issues

    They do have the almost equivalent keyboard for the Surface, but it includes a built-in number pad which means longer reach from the main typing area to the pointing device, worse ergonomics in practice.

    The closest I found was a $20 foldable travel keyboard but it is missing the row with ESC and function keys. Other solutions usually have long travel keys and I would prefer

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Misagon ( 1135 )

      You could take a look at the Goldtouch Go!2 [goldtouch.com].

      It was also designed as a travel keyboard though, so it lacks a wrist rest and some parts are cramped.
      Because both sides need to be the same size for the hinge to work, some keys are on the left side instead of the right like we're used to.
      Also not cheap.

  • Keyboards Have Dedicated Keys For Emojis (Score:3)

    by grep -v '.*' * ( 780312 ) on Sunday October 13, 2019 @02:40PM (#59303492)
    I give. I'll beg, borrow, steal, pay, or even KILL to have emojis turned off on my phone keyboard.

    Not out of the way or hidden, but GONE -- DISABLED. No matter what you do or hit by accident, you CAN'T bring them up w/o revisiting the configuration screen. I*NEVER* want to see or use them. Icons, moving pictures and memes, none of that.

    If I wanted to read hieroglyphics I'd move to Egypt. If I wanted to hear stupid people I'd turn on the TV. (Although if PornHub sponsored some emoji, I might use some then.)

    • There's an unallocated character slow at alt-6969 which would be ideal for them. I'm sure the Unicode consortium has their price.

  • ... I wouldn't be to sure it would work again.

  • So rather than doing something useful like adding a compose key that would actually make life simpler for millions of users, they add junk like this.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    I mean DEC only introduced this in 1983, all the other features of the LK201 have been adopted, it's about time this was. Personally I map the utterly useless Scroll lock for a compose key on Linux, but it's about time the majority of people got to experience the simplicity it brings to accent characters and the like.

    Not of cour

  • I'm typing this on a Surface Book 2. There is exactly one Windows key. On my desktop's keyboard - one Windows key. In each case, on the left.

    Are they maybe thinking of the rarely-if-ever-used hamburger/context menu key?

  • There hasn't been a shadow of a doubt in my mind that we're headed to idiocracy. The average IQ in my (north-European) country is steadily declining, and it seems the same thing is true for North America. I really hope Japan will make a last stand and this BS won't get in - even if Windows 10 already has.

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