Please help me choose a Mac Keyboard for Light Room!

Started Aug 1, 2010 | Discussions
DFPanno
DFPanno Veteran Member • Posts: 5,552
Please help me choose a Mac Keyboard for Light Room!

New to both Macs and Lightroom. Just bought a MBP 15" and would like to purchase an external keyboard as I often use it with an external monitor. Do the various Apple keyboards make a difference (ie the small wireless as compared to the model with the numeric keypad) relative to LR fuctionality?

Thanks in advance!

Paul T. Klein Contributing Member • Posts: 561
Re: Please help me choose a Mac Keyboard for Light Room!

yes - a big difference - the small keyboard does not have numeric keys while the numeric keyboard has numeric keys.

the wired keyboard has a wire while i can't seem to find the wire on the bluetooth keyboard.

paul

Edvinas Senior Member • Posts: 2,812
Re: Please help me choose a Mac Keyboard for Light Room!

Paul T. Klein wrote:

yes - a big difference - the small keyboard does not have numeric keys while the numeric keyboard has numeric keys.

the wired keyboard has a wire while i can't seem to find the wire on the bluetooth keyboard.

Jokes aside - wired keyboar also have two USB ports. They don't have enough power to drive 2,5" USB HDD, however you can use them for your USB flash memory.

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Edvinas

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Tom_N Forum Pro • Posts: 21,269
Re: Please help me choose a Mac Keyboard for Light Room!

There are also some third-party USB keyboards that claim to be Mac compatible (e.g., the Microsoft Natural Keyboard). (Where is a USB version of the Apple Adjustable Keyboard?)

I'm not sure if all of them have Mac-oriented markings for their modifier keys and function keys, but they give you a few more wired and wireless options.

graybalanced Veteran Member • Posts: 7,267
Re: Please help me choose a Mac Keyboard for Light Room!

DFPanno wrote:

Do the various Apple keyboards make a difference (ie the small wireless as compared to the model with the numeric keypad) relative to LR fuctionality?

Whether Apple or not, I would recommend an extended USB keyboard, not the basic kind that lacks a numeric keyboard. For Lightroom specifically, the extended keyboard will:
...Give you better layout for the arrow keys

...Let you more easily use the Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys to navigate your thumbnail grid and zoomed-in views

...The numeric keypad can accelerate keyword assignment if you take advantage of the Option key-(number) shortcut to apply one of the last nine keywords using the 1-9 keys

...The plus-minus keys on the keypad you may find easier to reach than on the main keyboard, for adjusting your correction values incrementally

...You might prefer to use the 1-5 keys on the keypad for star-rating your images

Tom_N Forum Pro • Posts: 21,269
Re: Please help me choose a Mac Keyboard for Light Room!

Paul T. Klein wrote:

yes - a big difference - the small keyboard does not have numeric keys while the numeric keyboard has numeric keys.

The small keyboard also doesn't have dedicated Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys. I'm sure there are two-button ways of getting the functions; it's just that the keys included on the large keyboard might be a bit more convenient.

graybalanced Veteran Member • Posts: 7,267
Re: Please help me choose a Mac Keyboard for Light Room!

Tom_N wrote:

Paul T. Klein wrote:

yes - a big difference - the small keyboard does not have numeric keys while the numeric keyboard has numeric keys.

The small keyboard also doesn't have dedicated Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys. I'm sure there are two-button ways of getting the functions; it's just that the keys included on the large keyboard might be a bit more convenient.

Yes, that's right. To use the extended keys on the small keyboard or laptop keyboard, you press Fn and then another key. So for Home, press Fn+left arrow, for Page Up it's Fn+up arrow, etc. I have that down in my muscle memory after working on laptops a lot, but it's nice to have the dedicated keys on the larger keyboard.

DFPanno
OP DFPanno Veteran Member • Posts: 5,552
Exactly the info I was looking for; thank you all

I will buy the large wired.

nc3 Contributing Member • Posts: 543
Re: Please help me choose a Mac Keyboard for Light Room!

Don't use Lightroom, but have you considered Apple's new Magic Trackpad?

I find the trackpad on my MBP much more useful than a numeric keypad for navigation, swithing apps etc.
Depends on your budget!

Alpha Doug Veteran Member • Posts: 9,222
Re: Please help me choose a Mac Keyboard for Light Room!

There are thin kind of rubbery membranes that fit over the keyboard that have all the various keyboard shortcuts marked in color. Take a look at this:

http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/photo-app-keyboards/

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Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}

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DFPanno
OP DFPanno Veteran Member • Posts: 5,552
Very cool!

Thanks!

LoonSailor Regular Member • Posts: 104
Re: Please help me choose a Mac Keyboard for Light Room!

I have this keyboard skin http://www.kbcovers.com/servlet/Detail?no=261 . Very nice. It fits on the Apple thin kb.

Paul T. Klein Contributing Member • Posts: 561
Re: Please help me choose a Mac Keyboard for Light Room!

Point is that there is nothing that can't be done with the smaller keyboard.

Paul

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