One of our Macs needs a new keyboard. I’d rather not pay the Apple tax if I can avoid it, but don’t use it enough to know what problems could arise. It’s primary user doesn’t have the patience to find out herself.
In my limited experience, my MS Ergonomic keyboard’s Control, Start, and Alt keys substituted for the Control, Option and Open Apple (when did they get rid of the Closed Apple key?). Is that everything? Are there pitfalls or special keys I need to consider?
Thanks.
It will work fine. The Windows key will be the Command key and the Alt key will be the Option key. This order is reversed from a standard Mac keyboard so you may want to investigate something like DoubleCommand (http://doublecommand.sourceforge.net/) to remap the keys.
If your girlfriend/wife/mistress needs a new keyboard, just pay the Apple tax so she doesn’t get pissy. It’ll be cheaper in the long run.
Probably some of the best advice ever.
Closed Apple Key? Wow, I’m not the only person on these boards to remember it. The “Option” key is actually the Closed Apple Key from the Apple 2 days. Originally, it had the closed apple icon on it, but they key was later changed to what we know as the option key but remained functionally the same. This would have been in the mid 1980’s. The Open Apple Key became the Command Key about the same time, though it retained the image of the open apple for quite a bit longer, though it was formally called the Command Key.
The keyboard control panel will let you reconfigure any of the modifier keys to your liking on any USB or Bluetooth keyboard. It’s the “Modifier keys” button in the lower right hand of the keyboard pane.
You can also get cheaper keyboards from Macally or Logitech with the proper Mac markings, if the person needs to look at the keys.
Not that looking at the keys helps. Apple has never bothered to put the same symbols on the keyboard as they use in the OS. I’ve always hated that.
The main thing to watch for is that special-purpose keys like multimedia keys and application shortcut keys may not work correctly on the Mac, since these keys are defined by the manufacturer’s driver. (Although, even then, many manufacturers provide the Mac software as a download).
The basic keyboard will work just fine, though.
And one warning that may be so obvious it’s not worth making: make sure the keyboard is USB or Bluetooth. There are no PS/2 ports on a Mac.
There are also plenty of third-party keyboard manufacturers who make Mac-compatible keyboards with the Command/Option keys labeled as such. Many of them sell at the same price as the PC versions. Even the Apple-branded keyboards are not more expensive than keyboards of comparable quality; Apple just doesn’t make the thin-plastic, ready-to-fall-apart $20 models you sometimes find for PCs.
I switched to a microsoft mouse and keyboard for my mac, and I’m perfectly happy with them. They’re both cabled, too - I got tired of switching batteries on my wireless mac stuff every two hours.
You know, the Apple keyboard costs $49. A quick search on Newegg.com for wired, USB keyboards reveals that 1/3 of the options are above that price, and 2/3 are below.
And its a nice keyboard!
If you want a $20 piece of crap, say so. Not everything Apple Makes is over priced. They just don’t sell cheap shit.
I use Logitech wireless keyboards and mice with my macs and they’ve been great, no issues whatsoever.
What happened to the original keyboard?
One other caveat: Most Apple keyboards also have buttons for ejecting the CD and for sound volume. There are other ways to do both of these, but if the user has gotten used to those, it might be an uphill climb to get used to something else.
I just noticed that my new Apple keyboard has no open apple. It’s been replaced by “command.”
Thanks.
I must admit I’m tempted to get one with a PS2 connector, just so I can use one of the fifty bajillion adapters that have gathered over the years.
Current keyboard is slowly failing. We’ve tried cleaning it from time to time, but the return key is pressing the ’ key, and other mish-mashes are occurring. It’s several years old–predating the current Powerbook and even the Mini. I think it goes back to a G4.
No doubt Apple makes stylish, good products (though somehow 3 drives of theirs have crapped out GRRR), and if things come to it we’ll shell out the $70 for a wireless keyboard. But for something as importantly mundane it seems both a sin to overpay for high quality (not that we’d go $15 Chepees, but Logitech, for example, makes some great hardware), and a sin to limit touch-n-feel to just Apple’s version of hipster typist.
Note that we have 4 Macs here, we’re not averse to multiple platforms (pats his Linux server). I just don’t want to overpay and limit choice if I don’t have to.
Extra bonus points now that I know keys can be reconfigured (sound is on the speakers; eject CD I’ll look for). Super bonus points if I can figure out enough Applescript to write her a few macros.
Thanks!
I like Apple’s new keyboards, just not the wireless version. After having to change the batteries 3 times in as many months, I’d had enough and replaced it with the wired version. No more problems. The other benefit is the wired keyboard has a standard number pad on the right, which the wireless versions lack.
Another downside of the new Apple keyboards is they lack an ‘ins’ key, which is not a problem until you need the ‘ins’ key and realize you no longer have one and there’s no substitute or alternate key that performs the same function.
Yeah, that happened in about 2002. 
I don’t know what you mean. My MacPro keyboard has an open apple along with the squiggly command icon on the same key. My bluetooth Mac keyboard (from the same era, circa 2007/8) has the same. My MacBook Pro from last year, however, has “command.” The original MBP I have (2006) also has the open apple.
The keyboard on my other Mac, a few years old, has the open apple.
Huh, you learn something new every few weeks, apparently. None of the Macs near me have the Open Apple key. In my defense, it’s NEVER been called that on the Mac – it’s always been Command. The Apple II computers called them open and closed Apple.
Yeah, I don’t call it “Open Apple” either, but command. Anyhow, for reference, this is what my keyboard looks like. (Both the wired keyboard that came with the MacPro and the bluetooth one I had bought.)
