Ask HN: tips for working with Mac OS X without using the mouse? (RSI)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1638567

49 106 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I noticed that avoiding the mouse is very useful to lessen the effects of RSI.

Do you have tips (useful tools, hints, ...) on how to avoid the mouse for almost all tasks on Mac OS X (I'm a developer, most of the day) ?

Artagra2• 16 years ago

Divvy will help tons:

http://www.mizage.com/divvy/

Otherwise, consider getting a trackpad / trackball for when you have to use the mouse. Or even using your mouse with your left hand (my brother does this).

thibaut_barrere5• 16 years ago

Thanks for all this - trying out Divvy right now, and will definitely consider buying a trackpad.

I already switch hand from times to times and it helps, too.

Artagra2• 16 years ago

My pleasure. One more tip - try switching mice from time to time. I used to use a MS mouse at home and a Razer mouse at the office to reduce strain - different shapes reduced problems. The Razer you control with your fingers, palm on the desk, while the MS mouse I had in my palm, moving my whole hand. Using both every day reduced strain :)

http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_US/pd/productID...

tibbon• 16 years ago

Wow, this is great. One thing I've missed for years from Windows is being able to easily tile windows in a sane manner.

scotth• 16 years ago

I use and love SizeUp.

http://irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/

alextgordon• 16 years ago

Can't say enough good things about this. It's basically eliminated my need to mouse to move and resize windows. Massive timesaver.

Brajeshwar• 16 years ago

ShifIt (free) seem to do almost the same thing as SizeUp. http://code.google.com/p/shiftit/

roryokane2• 16 years ago

As cjoh also mentioned, Divvy (http://www.mizage.com/divvy/) is a more customizable alternative to SizeUp.

florentvaucelle• 16 years ago

Also consider trying Zooom2 (http://www.coderage-software.com/zooom/). It's all about moving/resizing a window with the trackpad and a key combination. I can't live without it.

zackola• 16 years ago

I'd say try becoming ambidextrous with the mouse, and switch hands every month or so.

And under Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts make sure Full Keyboard Access is on 'All Controls' so you can focus/select buttons with tab.

Also, make that useless Caps Lock key into Ctrl :)

Ctrl+F2 = Access Menu bar Ctrl+F3 = Access Dock

I will give someone 1 american dollar if they can tell me how to get menu bar selections to wrap back around to the top when I get to the bottom of the menu.

EDIT - the magic mouse has been fantastic for eliminating the need for precise clicking when scrolling - that swipe to scroll feature is amazing, especially in tabular apps like Sequel Pro and Excel.

Timothee2• 16 years ago

I did the same thing (full keyboard access and Caps Lock=>Ctrl), so I don't have much to add.

For your question, I just noticed you can use Page Up/Down to go to the top/bottom of the menu.

Is there a way to select which functions keys should work as function keys and which one work as the Apple special keys (Exposé, volume control…)? The reason I ask is that I always found it inconvenient to use shortcuts like Ctrl+F2 because I have to move my hand much more to get to the fn key. But at the same time, Exposé is too useful to be left behind it.

jcl• 16 years ago

I'm not sure if this helps in your particular case, but I believe some of Exposé's functions are mapped to four-fingered multitouch swipe gestures on the touchpad (up and down).

hopeless2• 16 years ago

It's interesting that you mention the magic mouse. I switched to a Mac about 2 months ago and can't believe how uncomfortable the magic mouse is. Apple understand aesthetics but obviously haven't a clue about ergonomics. I've reverted to my 10 year old Logitech trackball although I do miss the fast smooth scrolling of the magic mouse.

Any suggestions for a better trackball or did all innovation cease 10 years ago?

piramida• 16 years ago

Not quite a trackball, but apple released a separate track pad not that long ago. There are two input devices that Apple does way better than most - keyboards and trackpads. Magic mouse was a complete disaster, unfortunately.

protobuf• 16 years ago

Love my Kensington Expert Mouse trackball. Much better than the thumb operated variety IMO.

thibaut_barrere5• 16 years ago

Thank you all, thank you really! I will definitely summarize all this into a blog post.

Hagelin2• 16 years ago

"MouseClick is an ergonomic software that will click the mouse for you. The software assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI).”

http://ufridman.org/mouseclick.html

thibaut_barrere5• 16 years ago

Are you using it ?

Hagelin2• 16 years ago

Nope, thankfully I don’t have a need for it.

pvg• 16 years ago

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC380LL/A (you don't have to put it on the side of the keyboard or you could get one of the tinier al. keyboards)

Not the same as mouse-less operation but a lot less strain than reaching for and moving a mouse.

isleyaardvark• 16 years ago

A nice thing about the Magic Trackpad is you can set it to "tap to click" and just set it on your lap. It's not the ideal setup, but it's pretty nice.

roelbondoc• 16 years ago

I'm a ruby/php developer who works on a Macbook Pro 9 hours a day and I've learned to work w/o a mouse. Took a while to get used to, but now I keep my mouse in my desk drawer and only pull it out if someone borrows my computer.

First it starts with the setup. At work I have an external monitor and keyboard. I keep my MBP to the right so I can use the touch pad here and there when I can't use the keyboard for certain things.

Here are some tips/programs/plugins I use:

1) Vim (not macvim) and screen - This dynamic duo is the greatest invention. I recommend it to anyone who has the time to learn. Once you do, you'll never go back.

2) Vimperator - Firefox plugin - This one has changed my browsing experience for the better. Once you learn all the commands you'll be flying through pages.

3) Remap your CAPSLOCK key to ESC - Once you start using vim and vimperator, the esc key becomes more useful. I remapped my CASPLOCK key to ESC so its quicker to reach. I used the program called PCKeyboardHack.

4) Learn your keyboard shortcuts.

6) Try to replace programs you use often with console versions. For example I dont use any gui programs to access databases. Diffs/text search/file searches are all done through command line.

7) Spotlight - I don't use Dock, sometimes I forget its even there. I would disable it if I could.

8) pbcopy - command line program that you can use to copy to your gui clipboard. Try piping contents of a file to it. Becomes very handy.

Most of my day I spend using Vimperator and Terminal. So it's easier for me to not have to use a mouse.

felxh• 16 years ago

7) +1 Spotlight or Quicksilver if you prefer. There is also Alfred http://www.alfredapp.com/

If you listen to music while working, I also find Coversutra http://www.sophiestication.com/coversutra/ or Bowtie http://bowtieapp.com/ very useful.

tta• 16 years ago

There's also LaunchBar. http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html

maximilian• 16 years ago

Google has a new launcher that I think is developed by the dude who made quicksilver (who now works at google afaik)

http://code.google.com/p/qsb-mac/

Dobbs• 16 years ago

For vim and many other old programs ctrl+[ is equal to escape. So what I've done is map caps to control which lets me easily hit things like ctrl+c, ctrl+u or when needed escape. Mac also comes with a program that can map caps->ctrl in the keyboard section of system preferences.

steve19• 16 years ago

try tmux instead of screen. Supports vertical splitting. tmux is in macports.

mace• 16 years ago

The latest version of screen also supports vertical splitting.

doki_pen2• 16 years ago

I'm not trying to besnarky, but why even use a MAC. It seems like Linux is a better fit and less expensive. MAC is really about the UI, and if you don't take advantage of that you are just left with an almost Unix environment.

tmcw2• 16 years ago

I appreciate that you're trying not to be snarky, but that's a vast oversimplification of the differences between Mac and Linux.

thibaut_barrere5• 16 years ago

To me it's really nice UI + convenience/simplicity of use + all the command line goodness. I use it for a couple of reasons:

- simplicity and reliability (I'm on mac since 2006) - it just works, for everything I do actually

- an ecosystem of tools that are decently priced and very simple and reliable (such as 1password, knox, deskshade...)

- interop with our (i)phones

- the UI is really pleasant to my eye (fonts)

- I'm still in love with TextMate after all those years (Allan if you read this, take your time)

But then everyone is free to use what they like, no need for the neighbours to use the very same platform :)

tvon3• 16 years ago

Not to pile on, but It's "Mac", short for Macintosh. MAC is, as far as I can think, only for Media Access Control (as in MAC address).

That said, my first thought for the low barrier to no-mouse would be Linux as well, but as others have said there is more to OSX than just a pretty face.

evilduck• 16 years ago

Considering the time most of us spend on a computer, the cost differences between a Mac and a PC are negligible over the lifetime of the purchase, people should use what they prefer and what they're most productive with.

A $300 to $500 difference over two or three years of primary usage is probably a difference of pennies per hour of usage, and that's assuming that you won't waste more time maintaining a Windows or Linux install and that you're equally productive on each OS, which generally isn't the case.

mike_h• 16 years ago

A common misconception about the OSX UI is that its main virtue is visual. For me, an equally-prominent virtue is the far-superior ability to control it using the keyboard and a universal scripting framework (applescript/automator). No linux WM that I know of has such a unified UI paradigm.

Terretta2• 16 years ago

I think "MAC" is a kind of makeup: http://www.maccosmetics.com/

The computer is capitalized "Mac": http://www.apple.com/mac/

pepijndevos• 16 years ago

I'd like to add that you can control the Dock with the keyboard as well. You need to enable it in System Preferences, and by default the keycomby is really stupid, but I mapped it to ctrl+cmd+space. You can even navigate stacks with it. For me works better than Spotlight.

Also, you probably wouldn't use the Dashboard, which _can_ be disabled.

1amzave• 16 years ago

> Spotlight - I don't use Dock, sometimes I forget its even there. I would disable it if I could.

While my replacement isn't spotlight (I just use Proxi with a bunch of switch-directly-to-application-X hotkeys), I don't use the Dock either and would disable it if I could do so easily, without losing Dashboard, Spaces, and everything else that runs as part of the Dock process. (Although I actually still use command-M and Witch to minimize and unminimize windows to & from the Dock via the keyboard.)

In Tiger there was a nice hidden preference that allowed you to put it at the top of the screen, under the menu bar, where it would only come out if you really wanted it to (because the mouseover activation row was only one pixel tall and not at the top edge of the screen but rather the bottom edge of the menu bar), and was thus effectively pretty much disabled. Sadly, that option disappeared in Leopard. The best alternative I've found so far is to make the Dock really really tiny -- you can make it smaller than the System Preferences GUI will let you via 'defaults':

  # defaults write com.apple.Dock tilesize -int 1

namastasyai• 16 years ago

I find Quicksilver to be absolutely essential to my OS X keyboarding, http://www.blacktree.com/quicksilver I always disable the spotlight trigger and assign Quicksilver to the oh-so-easy command-space trigger. Try it! It's faster than spotlight and vastly more extensible.

Hemospectrum• 16 years ago

Get a launcher app. Quicksilver has long been a favorite of Mac users, but I'm much more fond of a newcomer called Alfred (http://www.alfredapp.com/). There are a few others, as well.

The idea is to extend the command-line metaphor to parts of OS X where a regular shell isn't useful, and most such tools provide a whole lot of functionality besides just launching apps.

sgiese• 16 years ago

Using SnapRocket will allow you to select different windows using the keyboard instead of the mouse.

http://graymatterlabs.com/snaprocket

gte910h• 16 years ago

Automator Automator Automater (Free drag and drop scripting toolkit already installed on the machine).

ignu2• 16 years ago

i like my apps fullscreen to eliminate all the other noise and using spaces to navigate.

fullscreen macvim is actually a beautiful editor.

ignu2• 16 years ago

just get rid of your mouse for awhile, even if it kills your productivity. it'll make you figure out the keyboard shortcut for everything.

spanktheuser• 16 years ago

I'd add two points to the excellent comments above. My RSI was aggravated by use of the mouse. I found that using a trackpad with tap-to-click enabled helped significantly. But even more important was moving all of my informational surfing, twittering, emailing, etc. to the iPad. That probably accounted for a couple hours of computer use a day. Perhaps I'll come down with "iPad wrist" in the future, but for now the different gesture patterns don't trigger the RSI pain.

yanowitz• 16 years ago

This is a post from earlier in the year on this subject: http://smartic.us/2010/02/04/using-your-mac-without-the-mous...

mccutchen• 16 years ago

This might be old news to you, but it took me a while to discover after I started using OS X:

Cmd-Tab switches between applications (as I'm sure everyone knows), but it's less useful on OS X than Ctrl-Tab is on Windows or Linux because it doesn't switch between individual windows in those applications.

Cmd-Tilde (~) was the missing link for me. It switches between windows in the current application. Those two are probably the most important keyboard shortcuts I know on OS X.

Plus, another endorsement for Quicksilver. That's always the first application I install, and I now find it really frustrating to use any computer that doesn't have it installed.

And maybe you should set your Dock to auto-hide, so you're not so tempted to move the mouse over there to monkey with things.

thibaut_barrere5• 16 years ago

Woa - I've been looking for cmd-tilde :) Thanks!

jaxn• 16 years ago

That is Cmd-` (~ would require a Shift)

And after Cmd-Tab, Cmd-~ takes you backwards in the list of apps. So if you Cmd-Tab too many times, Cmd-~ takes you back instead of having to cycle through.

Likewise, in Safari Cmd-} (aka Cmd-Shift-]) and Cmd-{ take you forward and backward through the tabs. This also works in Terminal.

Cmd-L puts the focus on the location bar in Safari if you want to type in a URL (or tab over to the search)

Quicksilver is cool, but I just use Spotlight for launching apps. Cmd-Space turns on Spotlight.

If you use TextMate, I highly recommend the TextMate book from Prag Press.

Those are some of my favorites.

prawn2• 16 years ago

Only had a MBP for a few days (first Mac), but isn't Safari tab-cycling also via Ctrl-Tab, and Ctrl-Shift-Tab to go in reverse? At least on the laptop keyboard, involving the square brackets would necessitate a fairly long stretch, or using both hands?

Being new to the Mac, I'd be happy to hear more shortcuts!

mark_l_watson• 16 years ago

That is great! I didn't know about Cmd-~ either. Thanks!

mmorris2• 16 years ago

Also, Cmd-Shift-Tab and Cmd-Shift-` will walk you through Apps and Windows (respectively) in the opposite direction.

bobbyi• 16 years ago

In OpenOffice spreadsheet, Command-Tilde toggles between it evaluating your formulas as you expect and it displaying the formulas in the cells. If you don't know this, it can be very confusing to figure out what happened after you hit Command-Tilde out of habit trying to switch windows.

gkelly• 16 years ago

Use Cmd-w to close windows and Cmd-q to quit applications.

Also, when Cmd-Tab'ing, you can hold down Cmd and hit q to quit an application. It's a quick method for closing a lot of applications.

jonmc12• 16 years ago

Clipboard history is a hidden gem on Quicksilver.

Just enable on Triggers, I set Shift-Ctrl-Cmd-V, and then I can use 1-9 to paste any of the 9 most recent clipboard items. I can use the mouse to select any of the most recent 250 clipboard items.

cabacon2• 16 years ago

Check out jumpcut too. It has a mode to pop up a bezel where you can keyboard your way through the various copy/paste buffers you've used. I use quicksilver, but I also run jumpcut just for its paste buffers.

fdb• 16 years ago

I use Witch (http://manytricks.com/witch/) which can you can setup to use alt/option-tab for window switching. This switches correctly, as in, with the same behavior as Cmd-Tab (LRU list). It is not free, but very handy.

bingaman3• 16 years ago

Visor http://visor.binaryage.com/ hasn't been mentioned but it's how you should be opening and running your terminal.

Turn on and spend a few minutes learning the keyboard shortcuts in GMail if you use it (conveniently, they map nicely to vi). This alone probably has saved me days of mousing, plus it can make ripping through your inbox kind of fun.

I also strongly second vimperator (the only reason I'm still using Firefox) and sizeUp.

Finally, just try unplugging your mouse occasionally to see how you're doing and what is still causing you to reach for it. Then sharpen the saw :)

tvon3• 16 years ago

I couldn't live without Visor, I have it set to ctrl-~ and a full screen terminal. It's lovely, I spend most of my time there with vim and screen.

bingaman3• 16 years ago

I have caps-lock mapped to ctrl and visor set to ctrl-<CR>. So my terminal is always two pinkies away :)

js2• 16 years ago

Seems substantially similar to DTerm -- which BTW, doesn't require SIMBL http://www.decimus.net/dterm.php

bingaman3• 16 years ago

Tried it and I much prefer Visor. But I tend to want to go into Terminal and stay there rather than just running single commands.

doubleg• 16 years ago

You could use Conkeror. It's a keyboard-oriented browser based on Mozilla inspired by Emacs and vi: http://conkeror.org/FrontPage

The extension 'Vimium' for Chrome offers similar functionality: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/dbepggeogbaibhgn...

jfager• 16 years ago

I haven't seen anyone mention Optimal Layout yet in the thread, so I will:

http://most-advantageous.com/optimal-layout/

It lets you move, resize, and tile windows easily with just the keyboard, and you get a better Cmd-Tab that switches by window (though unfortunately it binds to Alt-Tab by default, and I haven't figured out how to override that).

I think it's better than both Divvy and SizeUp.

Also, +1 for vimperator and Quicksilver.

dgallagher• 16 years ago

While not 100% perfect, nor supported by every app in Mac OS X, you can enable voice commands under "Speech" in System Preferences. This will allow you to do certain things without touching your mouse or keyboard (minus a "listen" hot key)!

Your Mac will need a mic of course (most have them built in, except for Mini and Pro desktops I believe...).

Jakob• 16 years ago

ctrl-F2 and ctrl-F3

Did you try the Apple Magic Trackpad http://www.apple.com/magictrackpad/ ?

spif• 16 years ago

My mostly mouse-less OSX toolbox:

1. SizeUp, small window management tool with keyboard shortcuts

2. QuickSilver

3. Ctrl + tab

4. Things quickentry ctrl + alt + cmd + space (that one is actually very helpfull)

thought_alarm• 16 years ago

When you're working/coding you should never have to use the mouse, except for say, positioning windows, etc.

Use the Keyboard Preferences to add or change shortcuts for your most-used commands. This can be done system-wide or on a per-application basis.

For example, give the "Access Menu Bar" command a better shortcut, such as Option+Space; give Window Zoom a shortcut (I use command+control+Z), etc.

In your most-used apps, explore the menu bar to see what keyboard shortcuts are already available, learn them, assign shortcuts for commands you use the most.

And make sure the software you write can also be navigated using the keyboard, assign thoughtful keyboard shortcuts, etc.

gregwebs• 16 years ago

A lot of great tips here. I tried hard to get used to things, but I always felt that I was fighting the Mac window manager. I now have Virtualbox running Linux on my Mac. In full screen mode it is the same as running Linux. I use Xmonad, a tiling window manager with great support for keyboard shortcuts.

My other pain point was that Mac doesn't have autocopy, although I am not sure if that is good or bad for your RSI.

cjoh• 16 years ago

Divvy for a window manager, quicksearchbar for shortcutting, and the vimium chrome extension or conkeror browser are super handy.

I prefer quicksearchbar to quicksilver.

I wrote about how to set up divvy shortcuts here:

http://infovegan.com/2010/08/18/manage-pixels-not-monitors

As a paying user of both divvy and sizeup, I have to say I'm bummed about my initial expenditure on Sizeup. Divvy is far more customizable.

cabacon2• 16 years ago

+1 for divvy, especially if you switch back and forth between an external monitor and the laptop display at different resolutions. I have a ton of app-hotkeys setup to resize everything to the aspect ratio I like after swapping resolutions.

0x5a177• 16 years ago

One of my favorite shortcuts is the Command-? (Command-Shift-/) which will let you search the application menu in any app.

michael_scheibe• 16 years ago

This shortcut is genius. In TextMate for example, you can type the first few letters of a project and open it near instantly if it's still in your recently opened list. It's one of my biggest productivity differentiators in OS X. You should all try it.

I think it's enabled by default on Snow Leopard (not on Leopard). You'll find it under Setting > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Application Shortcuts > Show Help menu.

anotherperson• 16 years ago

KeyRemap4Macbook

I’ve enabled “Simultaneous Key Presses” which allow me to use F+H/J/K/L instead of arrow keys. It takes a little getting used to, but I find myself hardly ever needing to leave the keyboard.

awt• 16 years ago

How do you position windows on Mac without a mouse?

kevinburke• 16 years ago

Use Divvy and shortcuts - Full screen is Cmd+E, then F, right is Cmd+E, then R

yalestar• 16 years ago

One really simple thing that was driving me crazy was when an app pops up a dialog with buttons. Coming from Linux and Windows, where you can tab between the buttons and just hit enter to click the selected button, I was shocked that Mac doesn't do this.

Turns out, Enter always fires the default button that's colored blue (e.g. Save), but you have to hit Space to fire the button that's highlighted (i.e. just outlined in blue).

That simple revelation has prevented me from defenstrating my MBP in a fit of pique.

superheroname• 16 years ago

Not exactly what you're asking for, but I found the only thing that "cured" RSI for me was push ups. Check out http://hundredpushups.com/ and give it a shot for a few weeks, I'll bet you see a difference. I struggled with RSI for years before hitting on it.

abraham2• 16 years ago

SizeUp is great to move application windows around with keyboard shortcuts.

http://irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/

Mizage• 16 years ago

You might also checkout Divvy by Mizage for unique window management on Mac OS X: http://mizage.com/divvy

abraham2• 16 years ago

I checked out Divvy at one point. I recall not needing the extra power so I stuck with SizeUp.

sullrich• 16 years ago

A great tip: Hit command and then space afterwards. This will drop down the spotlight search box where you can quickly launch applications. For example I will hit command, space and then type Term<enter> which will auto complete to Terminal.

ido2• 16 years ago

Did you try using a trackball?

alanthonyc• 16 years ago

The Magic Trackpad.

After getting my MacBook Pro, I knew I couldn't go back to a regular mouse again unless I could use a multi-touch trackpad on it. I had no plans of buying a desktop Mac at all until the new trackpad was released this summer. I got one a couple of weeks ago and find it works perfectly.

jon_hendry2• 16 years ago

I had to disable pinch-to-scale with mine. All too often I'd be reading something in the Xcode documentation window, and a slight, inadvertent movement of my fingers would cause the text to get really big or really small.

gabrielroth• 16 years ago

I've dealt with RSI too, so I have a few years experience trying to minimize mouse use.

Other people have talked about the main keyboard shortcuts -- Command-Tab, Command-Tilde, and Control-F2. Make these second nature. Also, of course, learn the keyboard commands for your most-used applications. You can add and change many keyboard shortcuts in the Keyboard preferences pane in System Preferences. Make liberal use of this to make the commands you use most often the easiest to remember and invoke.

I used Quicksilver devotedly for years, but it became much less stable with Snow Leopard. It may be better now that it's under more active open-source development, but I'm happy with LaunchBar. Certainly one of those two (or Butler, or Alfred, or there's probably others) will allow you to perform basic filesystem tasks (launching, opening, moving, copying, duplicating, opening a document with a specific application, etc. etc.) with a few quick key commands.

A general suggestion: Don't try to learn every single keyboard shortcut all at once -- it'll never work. Instead, figure out the single most common reason you're reaching for the mouse, and replace that with a keyboard method. Once that's second nature, repeat the process. You'll be surprised at how quickly you can learn this way.

Use shell scripting, AppleScript, Automator, Keyboard Maestro, and/or Hazel to simplify anything you do repeatedly. Once you've reduced mouse use, you can use these tools to reduce keyboard use as well!

Good luck.

chriseidhof• 16 years ago

There are a lot of emacs keybindings available in OS X's text fields, you can even add your own. Check out http://www.applematters.com/article/emacs-commands-work-in-o... and the links in those comments.

In particular, the following links are very interesting:

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/selectors.html

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/system-bindings.html

edj• 16 years ago

There's a lot of excellent advice here. Beyond keyboard shortcuts, there's a universe of options to help combat RSI. Here are some of the things I do:

1) Posture. You want your eyes to be on the same plane as your screen so your back and neck are straight. You want your elbows to be be bent at around a 90-degree angle--that helps keep your wrists straight. And you want your shoulders to be relaxed, not hunched.

2) Breaks. Both long and short. I used to use software for this, specifically AntiRSI for Mac. I think I did an 8 minute break every 52 minutes and a 30 second break 5 minutes or so. Now that I've built up better habits I don't use this software anymore.

3) A good chair. My favorite is the Swopper. It's quite expensive, though--around $600 I think. Right now I have standing desk and no chair. I like this set up even better than sitting on an ergonomic chair.

4) A good keyboard. I like "clicky" keyboards in the vein of the old IBM Model M. I use a DAS Keyboard. Costs around $100. It's not ergonomic per se, but the mechanical keyswitches provide great feedback so you can reduce your keystroke pressure to just the right level.

5) Physical therapy aids. I use Theraputty during my microbreaks. It's like silly putty, only it comes in various levels of resistance. I like green, which is medium-firm. Costs like $5 on Amazon. Some people also use the colored rubber bands, but that's more for elbow and shoulder work and my RSI is all in the wrist/hand.

6) Other activities. Rock climbing has very nearly cured my RSI. When I climb regularly my hands, wrists, and forearms are strong enough that keyboarding can't touch them.

I suspect fighting RSI is like fighting obesity (though I only have the former so I can't be sure): it's all about building good habits. There's no magic bullet and you can't simply cure it and be done. It's an always on-going process. Hope this helps. Good luck!

blackguardx• 16 years ago

I second climbing. I have been climbing consistently for over two years and have never had a bout of wrist tendonitis like I used to. My wrists sometimes get uncomfortable if I am stuck in an awkward position for long (e.g. typing like a bunny) but I generally have no more pain.

joestein• 16 years ago

I use the wacom bamboo. Its intended for graphic designers but its also very ergonomically and fun to use, and apparently their newer models act just like the mac trackpad too. I also do baoding ball exercises

crazydiamond• 16 years ago

Surprisingly no one has mentioned Namely (http://amarsagoo.info/namely/). Its a free alternative to QS and Launchbar, although simpler.

+1 for FF + Vimperator, Screen + Vim.

I also use vifm for a filemanager, alpine/mutt for emails, Gmail with keyboard shortcuts enabled.

kjetil• 16 years ago

I always add the following keybindings in System preferences:

Cmd-<, Cmd->: switch windows Cmd-': zoom (the green 'maximize' button on windows)

I just use Spotlight for launching (Cmd-space).

Oh, and set caps lock as ctrl. MacOS supports this out of the box, unlike Windows.

Ask HN: tips for working with Mac OS X without using the mouse? (RSI)

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