no "Enter" key on new wireless keyboard?

[Virgil-TB2]

This may be a stupid question, but I have to know.

I use wireless peripherals exclusively, but I also use the number pad a lot. I have tried to resist the new "non-professional" smaller wireless keyboard as it seems like it will just cause excess frustration, but I am being strongly affected by the RDF and may buy one anyway.

But while the lack of a number pad will slow me down, a complete and total deal-breaker is the absence of an "Enter" key.

I understand accepting a hit in one's work performance in order to look a bit cooler while typing, but without an enter key how am I supposed to do any serious data entry? I have to use the mouse?

If anyone who has actually used one of these things could let me know how one gets around this conundrum I would appreciate it. Also, does anyone have any info/rumor/whatever to indicate Apple may come out with a "pro" wireless keyboard (with number pad), anytime soon?

 

[Father Jack]

What makes you think there's no enter key?

 

[odinsride]

I don't think it's missing the enter key.

 

[dedaelus]

I have the wireless keyboard and can tell you that there is an Enter/Return (as it is labeled) key. Whether this will suffice would depend on what type of data entry you are doing, but my experience is that it would be fine in most cases.

 

[Father Jack]

I don't think it's missing the enter key.

It most certainly is not ......

It's located exactly where you would expect to find it.

 

[wordmunger]

To get enter functionality you must press fn-enter. (dual return/enter key). But I find very few Mac apps use enter -- they just use return. What do you need it for?

 

[pjarvi]

There's a difference between Return and Enter? Is this some Mac-only thing?

 

[wordmunger]

There's a difference between Return and Enter? Is this some Mac-only thing?

I think it might be. Usually there's no difference, but a few apps make the distinction. In MS Word, for example, shift-enter is a page-break, but shift-return is a line-break.

 

[Virgil-TB2]

Yes, there is a big difference

There's a difference between Return and Enter? Is this some Mac-only thing?

I think you guys are all showing your (lack of) age.

There most certainly is a big difference between "Enter" and "Return," there always has been, and it's certainly not Mac only. Why do you think we have had separate Enter and Return keys on keyboards since the advent of computers?

Enter = "confirm/yes/ok"
Return = put in a carriage return (or functions as "Enter" on web sites)

Take data entry for example.

In FileMaker, on any standard data entry form in any standard FileMaker solution you click in the first field, enter data and hit "tab" to go to the next field. When you are at the last field you hit "Enter" to confirm or get out of the loop. Without the Enter key, you have to pick up the mouse and manually click somewhere else on the layout to do the same thing. If you hit the "Return" key by mistake, you enter a carriage return in the last data field you were in instead. This generally screws up the data to say the least.

Almost any database or data entry form ever created works this way and has done since the birth of computers.

Just the fact that Excel and FileMaker work this way alone is enough to make you wonder why they left it out. These are the two most commonly used data applications that exist on the Mac.

Where I work we have hundreds of people doing data entry all day long. Without the Enter key, they will be using a mouse to do something that was intended to go a lot faster on the keyboard. Not that our secretaries will get them, but if they *did* use the wireless keyboards, this would slow down the entire University by (my guess) a factor of four or so.

I guess the answer I am looking for is "Fn-Return" = "Enter" now, but this is a seriously stupid move on Apple's part IMO.

You can't just ignore 20 years of precedent. There are lots of people and lots of apps that need the regular, standard keyboard. Apparently if you go wireless with Apple now, you can't do that.

I am just surprised at how many bonehead mistakes like this that Apple is making this year.

 

[wordmunger]

Not that our secretaries will get them, but if they *did* use the wireless keyboards, this would slow down the entire University by (my guess) a factor of four or so.

No it wouldn't. I did data entry as my work study job for four years. The keyboards provided with our IBM workstations were god-awful. They didn't even have numeric keypads. For DATA ENTRY!

Yes, they slowed me down initially, but eventually I learned the necessary key commands (and how to touch-type numbers). The main limitation on my data entry was poor print quality of the forms I entered. If I had had to use fn-return, I would have soon become adept at that too.

That said, a wireless keyboard is a very bad idea for data entry. It's a consumer product, it's expensive, and it will cruise through batteries, all for a job where the keyboard will never be moved from its initial position. And who cares about aesthetics in an office setting that's piled high with ugly paper forms all day long?

Personally what I'd like to see from apple is a wireless keyboard with an integrated trackpad. How can I surf the web from my couch if my mouse needs a flat surface to work?

 

[xUKHCx]

Personally what I'd like to see from apple is a wireless keyboard with an integrated trackpad. How can I surf the web from my couch if my mouse needs a flat surface to work?

My MM works on my leg/chest.

 

[Virgil-TB2]

...Personally what I'd like to see from apple is a wireless keyboard with an integrated trackpad. How can I surf the web from my couch if my mouse needs a flat surface to work?

This is part of what makes me shake my head about this new wireless keyboard.

It's obviously not a Pro keyboard, so any of the "unix-y" kind of people that use a wireless keyboard are left out. On the other hand, although this new keyboard seems aimed at the couch-potato set, (or possibly your mum), it lacks the track-pad that would make it work for Web-TV (sorry I mean Apple-TV ). It's kind of a "stuck in the middle" product that doesn't really work for either group.

We generally use iMacs as our standard desktop for users, and more than a few like to get wireless keyboards and mice. Now we will have to steer all our personnel *away* from the wireless options they are already using, when they upgrade to a new machine.

That's just crazy IMO.

 

[squeeks]

My MM works on my leg/chest.

indeed but not too well on the arm wrest of my computer chair however...works well on shiny surfaces too which is a big plus

 

[gotzero]

Personally what I'd like to see from apple is a wireless keyboard with an integrated trackpad. How can I surf the web from my couch if my mouse needs a flat surface to work?

I could not agree more! The current wireless keyboard just seems to be missing too much. There is nothing the laptop keyboard does not have, so what is the point for portable/laptop use...

I would love an integrated keyboard/trackpad, for the couch/projector. They do not make enough of these!