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MacBook Pro and Ergonomic

H

hajime

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
8,184
1,417
Hello. Recently, I have been spending long hours typing on my MBP 17". Although I love the laptop, there might be a few ergonomic related issues which cause discomfort. I hope to get some comments from ergonomic experts and experienced users. Here is a list of issues:

1. The palmrest area is too hard. For external keyboard, we can place a gel palm rest right next to it. However, as the distance between the edge and the keyboard is far, the gel palm rest becomes more like a forearm rest. I wonder if this is good ergonomically.

2. Any comment on the screen slightly below eye level?

3. I have a desk lamp placed directly over the LCD screen. Is this setup good ergonomically speaking?
I turned the brightness of the lamp to max. As for the brightness level of the MBP, I usually set it to
3-4 bar less than the max.

I have a wireless logitech mouse (Anywhere Mouse M905) already. I wonder if it is a good idea to spend the money to buy an external keyboard. To tilt the laptop slightly, I am using the Podium Coolpad from Road Tools/Targus.

http://www.roadtools.com/podium.html

Many years ago, I used it with my Thinkpad 14". It was very comfortable to type on the laptop for long hours. I just bough the Coolpad again for my MBP. However, the combination is not as comfortable to work with. This makes me think about ergonomic issues.

Any recommendation on keyboards that can work under both Mac OS and Windows 7? Wireless keyboard would be desirable. Thanks.
 
Last edited:
1- If you type a lot then definitely get a good Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for your MBP...

2- No problem

3- I would place the lamp slightly behind the screen...

4- Your mouse should be fine... however going for Bluetooth keyboard/mouse will keep your very limited USB ports available...:)
 
Do you spend a lot of time with your laptop at home/office, or you will be traveling around?

If you are mostly in a home/office, I would recommend:
1) Wireless Keyboard + Mouse (I use the Apple BT Keyboard and a MS wireless mouse. They both work fine in OS X and Windows 7 with the Bootcamp drivers)
2) The Griffin Elevator. It raises your laptop higher than the Podium Coolpad to a more ergonomic position. Also, since the Elevator raises your laptop screen close to normal monitor heights, when you add a second monitor next to the MBP they will match height-wise ;)
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/elevator

The position of the lamp isn't really an ergonomic per se, but you will want to position it so it doesn't create a large contrast between the screen, the lamp, and the surfaces that are directly illuminated by the lamp.
 
It's best to keep the laptop elevated so that the LCD monitor is level with your eye, you don't want to be looking up, and you don't want to be looking down too much,

Also as for the keyboard and etc, The mouse should fit in your hand so that your hand is rotated a little bit, if you're gonna get another mouse for any reason do NOT buy the apple magic mouse, it is terribly designed and forces you to hold it in a way that your wrist is in contact with the table which could always pinch the median nerve causing CTS.

With the keyboard it's best to change the way you type, having one of those gel pads also puts pressure on your wrist which could cause CTS. Try elevating your wrist a bit when you type, that way you minimize any pressure on the wrist, yes it feels weird at first but after a while you get used to it, and trust me it's much better than having the sharp edges of the laptop digging into your wrists.

With the lamp, I'm not too sure, but it sounds like you could get a lot of glare from it, turning the screen brightness near max could always hurt your eyes after long periods of time. Perhaps try moving the light in a different direction so you can turn down the brightness of your screen...:confused::confused:
 
Thanks for all the very useful information.

Since I have a logitech mouse already, I am considering the Logitech Wireless Keyboard K350 (1 USB receiver can be used for both the keyboard and the mouse) unless the Microsoft keyboard offers some other advantages. I had a logitech wireless keyboard few years ago. It was very comfortable to use it for a long time. From the reviews, the K350 is also very comfortable to use. However, it seems that there are several Mac-related issues. For example,

http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Keyboard-and-Keyboard-Mice/K350-wireless-keyboard-on-a-Mac/td-p/385517

The last posting was about a year ago. Anybody here got all the compatibility issues solved?
 
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