Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard Mac Sierra

Question: Q: Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard 'h' and 'i' keys are swapped, and 'a' key doesn't work I have been using a Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic with my MacBook Pro for years without problems. Aside from no Karabiner support, upgrading to macOS Sierra was fine too for this keyboard. Mar 14, 2018  Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic is by far the best Keyboard I've used so far and I suffer from RSI a lot. Too bad there is no Mouse or Trackball/Trackpad which can let me work for hours without pain. Really looking in getting a Treadmill for the desk as I think the pain is coming from my shoulders and them becoming too hard while sitting. Sep 25, 2017  Sculpt ergonomic keyboard broken on Mac OS X El Capitan (10.11.1) My MS Sculpt keyboards worked great for several years on various versions of OS X and on Macbook Pro's as well as iMac's. Starting with my recent upgrade to OS X El Capitan (10.11) the keyboard. Aug 15, 2018  - the same keyboard worked flawlessly with my iMac until High Sierra - the very same keyboard works flawlessly with my PC at work - an identical Microsoft Sculpt keyboard, that works absolutely fine with the PC at work, doesn't work with the iMac & High Sierra at home. Download ControllerMate from here, then install it. (It will ask to restart at the end of installation) Download the already-made settings from here. Uncompress the file, and in ControllerMate, import (under File menu) the setting. Enable the settings by checking the appropriate programming group in the side bar. Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop is built on advanced ergonomic principles, with a split keyboard layout that keeps wrists and forearms in a relaxed position, and a cushioned palm rest to provide wrist support. The domed keyboard shape works to reduce and correct wrist pronation that can cause pain and limited mobility. May 20, 2019  This is the second Sculpt that I have had that this has happened, but the last one was at work so I just swapped it out as I was unable to find anything on line to indicate what this means, let alone fix the problem. I should point out that the underside of the keyboard from where the red LED is gets warm to the touch after a few minutes.

1. Microsoft Keyboard For Mac
2. Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard Mac Sierra Vista
3. Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard Mac Driver
4. Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard Mac Sierra Mac
5. Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard Mac Sierra Pro

By David Röthlisberger. Comments welcome at david@rothlis.net.

Last updated 4 Oct 2011. This article is Creative Commons licensed.

The Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 doesn’t feel very “Mac-like”, at least not out-of-the-box. Read on for helpful settings to improve the experience, and a brief review of the keyboard at the end.

If your kernel panics, upgrade the drivers

OS X kernel panic

On Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6), the IntelliType Pro 8.0 drivers caused me kernel panics at least once a day.

The recent 8.2 driversdon’t cause kernel panics on Lion (OS X 10.7). I haven’t tested them on Snow Leopard, but I assume it is the new drivers, rather than the new Operating System, that contain the fix. Readers have reported that the older 7.1 drivers work well with Snow Leopard (note that the 7.1 drivers say they are for the older Natural Keyboard Pro, but they also work for this newer keyboard). Let me know if you have tested other combinations of driver/OS versions.

Or don't use the Microsoft drivers at all

Ironically, the Microsoft drivers stop OS X from recognising the keyboard for what it is! Without the drivers, OS X reports “Natural® Ergonomic Keyboard 4000”; with the IntelliType drivers, it’s a mere “Keyboard”.

With IntelliType drivers

As the last straw, if you remap your Caps Lock key to Control via Apple’s Keyboard preference pane, with the Microsoft drivers installed the remapping will be lost every time you restart.

The following table should help you decide whether you want the Microsoft drivers. More detailed explanations follow.

Microsoft Keyboard For Mac

How to uninstall the Microsoft drivers

The IntelliType UnInstaller is in the Utilities sub-folder of your Applications folder. (If you installed the IntelliPoint mouse drivers, which were bundled in the same installer, the corresponding UnInstaller is in the same location.)

If you don’t want to run the uninstallers, you can remove the following manually:

• /System/Library/Extensions/MicrosoftKeyboard.kext

• /System/Library/Extensions/MicrosoftMouse.kext (if you also installed the IntelliPoint drivers)

• /Library/Keyboard Layouts/Microsoft Keyboards.bundle

• and the Microsoft Keyboard preference pane (open System Preferences, and right-click the Microsoft Keyboard icon, or drag it off the window in a puff of smoke).

Swap the Alt and Windows keys

Microsoft Natural modifier keys

The Windows key is automatically treated as Command (⌘), but on Apple keyboards the Command key is next to the spacebar, with Option (Alt) the next key out. On the Microsoft keyboard this is reversed, and the IntelliType drivers helpfully have a setting to reverse these two keys; luckily OS X also has this functionality built in.

It’s under the Modifier Keys button of the Keyboard System Preferences pane.

Simply map Option to Command, and vice-versa. These settings are per-keyboard, so you won’t mess up your MacBook’s built-in keyboard.

While you’re here you can also map your Caps Lock to Control, if you so wish.

Use the Application key as a Command or Option key

Application key

Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard Mac Sierra Vista

To the right of the spacebar, this keyboard has an “Application” (or Context Menu) key instead of a Windows key. The IntelliType drivers include a setting to treat this key as Command, but OS X has no such setting.

Apple’s customizable XML keylayouts only allow mapping key codes to output characters, but not changing or adding modifier keys. Graphical interfaces built on top of this mechanism, such as Ukelele, have the same limitations. You’ll need the open-source KeyRemap4MacBook.

In spite of its name, KeyRemap4MacBook works on any Mac (with OS X 10.4 or later). It doesn’t allow arbitrary key mappings, but, in the best open-source tradition, it does have zillions of settings. The one you want is under “For PC Users” » “Change PC Application Key” » “Application Key to Option_L” (i.e. left-option, not option+“L”). What you set here doesn’t seem to be affected by OS X’s own modifier keys remapping.

Media keys

The keyboard’s mute, volume and play/pause keys all work out of the box, no IntelliType required. There are no keys for previous/next song.

(Without the Microsoft drivers) None of the remaining media keys work (web/home, search, mail, calculator, “favorites” 1 through 5, back and forward, and the zoom slider).

Function keys

The Function keys (F1, etc) behave as such (as opposed to brightness, volume, etc), regardless of what you set in the Keyboard preference pane. If you press “F Lock” the F keys simply do nothing. Luckily the F Lock remembers its setting across reboots.

There is no Fn modifier key as on the Mac keyboards.

KeyRemap4MacBook allows you to map the F keys to the usual brightness, volume, etc. but then you’d lose the normal F keys.

Insert, Delete, Home, End, Page Up, Page Down

On the Mac OS there is no such thing as an Insert/Overwrite toggle (even on Apple’s extended keyboard there is no Insert key). So unsurprisingly, the Insert key does nothing.

Delete works. Page-Up and -Down work. Home and End scroll to the top and bottom of the window instead of moving the cursor to the beginning or end of the line (but this is consistent with the behaviour of Apple keyboards) except in Microsoft Office, where Home and End behave as on the PC.

Numeric keypad

Num Lock doesn’t work, but fortunately it is stuck in the numeric mode.

Final thoughts

I initially liked this keyboard: The split and tenting angles provide a comfortable resting position, it has Command, Option and Control keys for both hands, and the price is quite reasonable.

But after several months, I have stopped using this keyboard. It’s just too large! Keys like Return, Backspace, and Escape are quite far away from the home position. I don’t really need a numeric keypad (it forces the mouse that much further away). The keys are loud (especially the clunky spacebar) and the key travel distance (and the force required to press them) is more than I’d like.

2020-4-1  Splitting the screen enables you to view two parts of your Word 2007 document in the same window. The top half of the window shows one part of the document, and the bottom half another. Each half of the screen scrolls individually, and so you can peruse different parts. 2020-3-29  Here’s how to use the Split feature in Microsoft Word for Mac. To try out the Spit feature, first open a document in Word. Split works with documents of any length, but is most effective with documents longer than a single page, so keep that in mind. In our example, we. 2015-10-11  Word missing ability to drag out a split screen from the tab bar. I can open a split screen from the window menu but the division can't be moved.Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate. MAC 2016 - Word missing ability to drag out a split screen from the tab bar. 2020-3-30  You can split a window in Word 2008 for Mac so that you see two windows on-screen simultaneously, making moving text or images between documents easier. Word’s Split Window feature splits your active window into two separate panes, reducing or eliminating the need to scroll long distances. You can split the active window in one.

These are of course quite personal opinions, and this keyboard could be just perfect for someone else. As a computer programmer I do a lot of typing, so I try to optimise for ergonomics.

Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard Mac Driver

Kinesis Freestyle for Mac:
No right-hand Control key

I really like having all three modifiers (Command, Option and Control) available to my left and right hands, though this may not be so important for non-programmers. I don’t think I’d buy an ergonomic keyboard without this feature. The Kinesis keyboards, and Apple’s own keyboards (except the Apple external keyboard with numeric keypad), lack the right-hand Control.

I have been using a Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic with my MacBook Pro for years without problems. Aside from no Karabiner support, upgrading to macOS Sierra was fine too for this keyboard. However, I used it again today and noticed some weird behavior. First of all, the Option and Command keys were not swapped in System Preferences > Keyboard > Modifier Keys. I normally have them swapped, so I changed it back to swapped. But then I noticed that the 'h' and 'i' keys are swapped, and the 'a' key doesn't work at all. I opened the onscreen Keyboard Viewer and saw that nothing is highlighted when I press the ‘a’ button. The ‘i’ button is highlighted when I press ‘h’, and vice versa. These keys function as expected when I plug the keyboard into my Windows PC. If I launch my Mac in safe mode, these problems are still there. I read somewhere that an issue like this might be caused by a stuck function key, so I pressed all of the keys on the keyboard to try to ‘unstick’ them, to no avail. The only time the keys work correctly is when I am at the login screen. My password includes the problematic characters, and entering it with the Sculpt keyboard works just fine. I guess it must be some sort of software issue, but restarting in safe mode should have fixed it.

Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard Mac Sierra Mac

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), macOS Sierra (10.12)

Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard Mac Sierra Pro

Posted on