Editing Introduction to keyboards (section)

==Introduction==
Most of us at some point in our lives gave little thought to the computer keyboard. We paid no attention to the sound that typing makes, or to how typing feels. Maybe you've still never given this any thought. Even though the keyboard is something we use every day—often extensively—it seldom receives any conscious attention. The only time we're aware of the keyboard is when we notice that letters have gone missing from the keys, or when one of the keys has stopped working. In some cases, the keyboard becomes a point of note when typing leads to [[RSI]], or when the keyboard shipped with a replacement PC feels noticeably worse than the one shipped with a previous computer. Then when you decided to keep that old keyboard (despite the wear and accumulation of detritus) the purple plug at the end of its cord doesn't have a matching purple socket on the new PC, so you apparently can't continue to use it. Forced obsolescence! Maybe you did have a keyboard that stood out for its sound and feel, and you couldn't bear to part with it even though it cannot be connected to your modern computer.

Understanding computer keyboards can bring joy to typing where you never felt it before, improve your typing accuracy, or simply reduce the strain on your hands and wrists. It can also lead to purchasing a vast number of different keyboards to try out, and to keeping people awake while you pound away on your newly-acquired noisy keyboard, so explore wisely!

So what is a computer keyboard? Put simply, it is an arrangement of push-buttons labelled with which letter, number or symbol appears on the screen when you press them, or with what special task they perform. Even this part is confusing: people unfamiliar with mechanical typewriters won't know why the [[shift key]] is called "shift", or what system request "Sys Rq" provides (if anything). There are more keys on the keyboard than most people even know what to do with. You may have considered that it should therefore be possible to save desk space—and bring the mouse closer to you—by removing some of these unneeded keys. This is in fact true: some people prefer smaller keyboards, such as [[tenkeyless]] form factor (with the number keys on right-hand side removed) or even a [[60%]] keyboard, with the bare minimum number of keys required.

[[File:Smaller keyboard, closer mouse.svg|588px|centre]]

There is no end of choice available to you, and no reason why you should have to settle with the keyboard that came with the computer if you don't want to.