Do you use binds or keyboard shortcuts?
anyone remember WordPerfect?
In the time before computer mice, you commonly accessed program functionality through shortcuts - generally being the F-keys or combinations of Ctrl or Alt and various letters or numbers.
GUI interfaces and application menus made all of these functions accessible without finger twisting shortcuts. It’s also slower, so keyboard shortcuts live on for the people that want to speed up their workflows.
A common paradox is that the programs with a massive number of functions ends up with a massive number of shortcuts. Because of the limit of the number of keys on a keyboard, these shortcuts can either get unintuitive, or they can be physically difficult to key on a keyboard.
A good solution for this is to get a macro keyboard/stream deck. The terminology varies from product to product, but the functionality is largely the same. You can program a key to do any number of functions. It can trigger a keypress. It can call a batch process. It can do all kinds of things - largely only limited by your ability to conceive of the solution.
Basic macro pad solutions can be had for as cheap as $25. I got one on Newegg, and it’s 24 keys of mechanical switch goodness. And there’s RGB, for what that’s worth.
Want to step up to a nicer solution without breaking the bank? For $54 there’s the ULANZI D200 U-Studio. There are 15 LCD buttons. It’s completely configurable, with you able to swap out the profiles based on the application that’s got focus. You can have multiple pages of macros, and everything is easy to set up.
The only weakness of the D200? It’s not actually an HID peripheral, so it’s not sending actual scancodes out to the PC. This leads to some general wonkiness when it comes to how text injection is implemented - it’s text copied to the Windows clipboard, and then Ctrl-V called. Bruh. Even the SendKeys API call would have been better.
Assuming that’s not a show stopper for you, the D200 is basically the match of the Elgato Stream Deck MK.2 - for almost $100 less. You can get one here using my Amazon Affiliate link. It doesn’t make it any more expensive for you, but I do get about $1 for your trouble.
In case you’re thinking it, yes - you can make your own macro keypad using free solutions like AutoHotInterceptor and HidMacros. However, it’s worth noting that the options I’ve covered may be cheaper and/or better than rolling your own.
Check out my full YouTube review on both devices here.
Follow this to my YouTube review
