Keyboard arrow keys

I am very interested as well, I wait for a 65% ANSI layout before I do my purchase

I would love to have a thinkpad style keyboard!

Some “ugly” looking keyboard, but every special key has a characteristic form. Full size arrow keys, full size enter key.
Somehow this has to happen! This will gather all the old computer nerds to buy a framework.

In case anyone checks this who knows what to do: the linked site doesn’t seem to exist anymore. Would someone please be so kind to write or link to detailed explanations on how to achieve remapping to any “superfluous” key that’s closer to the arrow keys, so they can be used in their alternative state, as page up/down/pos1/end? For Linux and Windows? It’s really annoying being told no-one uses those alt functions a lot, when people actually just maybe have decided not to buy a Framework laptop even due to the size of those keys.

Totally agree. All the things I would use a 13" laptop for (writing, coding, simple browsing) involve the arrow keys a lot, so the fact that there’s no option for full-height arrow keys is a complete deal breaker for me. I’m stuck using my heavy 16" laptop for the simplest of things just because it has the arrow keys I need.

As soon as they announce a 13" that lets me choose to have full-height arrow keys, I’m sold. Just eat up some of the space used by Right Shift! I can’t think of a single instance where I use Right Shift anyways, so having it be a bit smaller would work perfectly. Even my 16" laptop has a relatively reduced Right Shift to make space for the Up Arrow.

Welcome to the forum, but I doubt the keyboard will change, and with a separate keyboard it still maybe lighter that your 16"

I hope they don’t change it! A lot of people seem to like the keyboard as it is. But having a new keyboard option would be nice, that way people could choose.

As for your proposed solution, that might work for some people, but it sacrifices a lot of convenience, makes the track pad unusable or uncomfortable depending on the exact keyboard and setup, and just straight up wouldn’t work in many contexts (I like to code in bed :slight_smile:).

I don’t mind the little arrows too much, but the lack of page up/down is bad.

I installed keyd on Debian 12. I have it set to use the caps lock key as a sticky toggle for what the arrow keys mean and I can see the caps lock LED as an indication of which mode I am in.

I am also teaching my fingers to know that ctrl-fn with my left hand and up/down with my right to change tabs. Turns out I don’t want to navigate tabs one-handed very often, but paging up and down through documents, yes.

Why nearly every computer manufacturer standardized on no page up/dn keys I’ll never never understand.

At least Framework didn’t take away the headphone jack, because it isn’t a “smartphone”. But I suppose the day Macbooks lose their headphone jacks the rest of us will be doomed to follow.

-kb

Very subjective subject. Basically after having to use all kinds of laptops for work I just dont really care anymore and have muscle memory for almost all of them.

If you are into keyboard navigation check out cvin for firefox or another browser vim bindings extension.

I would also prefer full size arrows. They could even be smaller than the normal keys if they were the same shape (roughly square). I’ve got this on my current Asus TUF, and it’s bearable although not ideal. I’m considering Framework to be my next laptop after this one dies (or before if I can afford it), and the current keyboard would not be a deal breaker, but a better layout would definitely an incentive.

Another idea would be to offer a side panel with the full size arrow keys and the navigation key block. I would buy that and swap between this and the numeric keys panel when I need.