Keyboard Number Pad: Necessity or Luxury? MACROPADS?!

Do you need a numeric keypad? What if you could improve its utility? I discuss the arguments for and against number pads on keyboards and provide a glimpse into the world of macopads - custom programmed keypads to make computer tasks more efficient. Do you use the numeric keypad?
📋 Table of Contents:
Intro: 00:00
Macropads: 02:08
Why you need keypads: 03:04
Numpad vs Top Row WPM: 03:44
Why you don’t need keypads: 03:59
Specific uses: 05:32
Verdict: 06:26
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[@AnsonAlexander]

The thumbnail should have said "Numpad or Noompad?"... Sorry for my pronunciation mistake but I'm enjoying the laughs in the comments! Noooooming away...

[@iainh]

I love the aesthetics of many mechanical keyboards, but anything less than 100% is going to affect me greatly. 96% hides keys behind a modifier (making them too cumbersome). Scroll Lock, Pause, Right-Ctrl, Right-Alt, and the majority of the F keys are the ones I don't use. The numpad is insanely useful by comparison, as shown in this video. Pronouncing it "noompad" though.... yikes.

[@AnsonAlexander]

To be honest, I've never really thought about the pronunciation that much but the comments are letting me know... :D

[@philxcskier]

I couldn’t do my work without a keypad- I work mostly with spreadsheets and numbers haha

[@fishi6674]

I don't really use the num pad a lot except for putting in my pin code or just typing numbers but I still like having it, it's easier to type numbers using that then the row ontop.

[@AnsonAlexander]

Yeah, I really didn't realize how much I use it until I started working without it. So many occasions where I take it for granted...

[@MalGames91]

as a gamer I really want more space to the left to move my mouse around. But I can't live without the numberpad for changing what potion is slotted or whatever I wanna bind them to for a game. I love my small keyboard that lacks arrows and the numberpad. I have a separate device with the num pad and the arrow keys on it. Its called the "Kisnt Mechanical Numeric Keypad" it has white backlight but the keys that come with it do not shine through for the letters so I had to buy new keycaps. I left the top row of keys default and for the Tab button I used a T key =D

[@mjsud]

I love my macro pad. Its great for games and leaves me room for mouse. Great video! Not sure how I feel about the pronunciation of NUM pad. 😂

[@AnsonAlexander]

That's awesome, I'm excited to get one setup and, yeah, didn't realize about the noompad pronunciation until reading the comments here...

[@ezrapierce1233]

As much as i love noompads on fullsize keyboards, i really avoid them on laptops.

[@AnsonAlexander]

I agree, makes them too bulky but I don't mind have docking station for it with a keyboard ready when it's at it's home base.

[@Diceflame]

What if you move it to the side of the mouse they do make mice with enough buttons where you could just move it to the side of the mouse I'm thinking like Logitech g600 for an example and I know there's more mice with more buttons

[@AnsonAlexander]

Yeah that is definitely worth a try - I can see you hand getting a bit cramped up there when doing a lot of number crunching though...

[@Kavaitsu]

That's why I have 7 and 8 locked to the side buttons on my glorious mouse.. 9 and 0 idk where to put tho

[@MrKZee]

you aren't worthy of calling yourself a nerd! pre left alt and num 1 then release both, did you get ☺ ? 0177 ± - 0151 m dash • bullet 26 → right facing arrow do you know how satisfying to respond to someone ± like that , and these are just those that i use from the ancient times )) but in my case it's just an engineering background and working with numbers, my laptop doesn't have num pad, and it doesn't bother me a lot. However, i trained myself to be portable and for some time i worked exclusively on a laptop ... painful experience ))) But i just can't understand how people live without num pad and live without it half of the time i'm using the computer. ) Also! the old Warcraft would be impossible to play without num pad because it gave you quick access to the hero's inventory, to this day i remember that num 7 is teleport)) so when you talk gamers, they are just not worthy 😆 😆 😆 But yeah, in modern action games you don't need that many keys bu simulators, strategies, and general workflow when you are power user and just have more keys for bindings... is a life-changing experience.

[@Team40MilliGs]

Clicking off after hearing how you say numpad "NUME PAD" xd

[@AnsonAlexander]

Noooom

[@lollllloro]

Danger! Stop thinking about this right now or you'll inevitably end up with a fully programmable keyboard. Keyboard normalcy will be over for you and normal keyboards will continue to disappoint you with their immense clunkiness for the rest of your life. Heck, I don't even have, need or want an extra row to fit numbers any more, my number pad's central 5 is at my right hand middle finger when I hold a modifier and I'm basically unable to go back. All keyboard and adjacent functions I could ever want can so easily be compressed down to about the number of letters plus less than ten extra keys when the keyboard itself separates the physical from the logical.

[@akeem2983]

I switched to macintosh keyboard layout on my linux machine to make it easier to write things like degree sign and I also use caps lock key to switch between languages on the keyboard. How desperate am I?

[@lollllloro]

@@akeem2983 Naturally, of course you should make your computer and keyboard more useful for you in any way possible, including switching layouts! Since I have never intentionally used the caps lock function, I had previously always bound it to something useful back when I used normal keyboards, for the longest time I had it as compose, before I later swapped places of that and escape. Compose is nice for many weird symbols, you input three keystrokes for a symbol, such as [compose]oo for ° [compose]oc for © and so forth. My current keyboard just directly has the key to the left of A as escape instead and I don't have a caps lock at all since that would break my current "not needing to change any settings" on any device it's connected to (any host device sees it as a normal keyboard).