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Your keyboard should be like a favorite chair: You should be able to use it without thinking about it. Like taste in furniture, people's taste in keyboards varies dramatically. Click or no click, firm touch or soft, standard shape or "ergonomic," no one approach works for everybody. But if you're no longer comfortable with your old standard keyboard--or you're looking for an improvement over your current ergonomic model, you may want to try Microsoft's new Natural Keyboard Pro.

It's difficult to improve on one of the best ergonomic-style keyboards on the market, but Microsoft has done so with its Natural Keyboard Pro. Like the original Natural board, the new, $75 (list) model has a curvaceous design with a split keypad and a built-in wrist rest. Unlike its predecessor, however, the Natural Keyboard Pro also sports a USB hub and 19 programmable multimedia and Internet buttons.

Although using the Natural keyboard may take some getting used to--especially if you're not accustomed to the split-keypad design--many users find themselves hard-pressed to return to flat, basic keyboards once they've acquired a taste for the Natural's approach. As with previous versions, the contoured design allows you to easily keep your wrists straight; I found typing to be smooth, almost noiseless, and extremely comfortable--even for long stretches.

What's the Shortcut?

Programmable multimedia buttons can cut down on your keystrokes and mouse clicks, allowing for quick launch of applications and Web pages. Installation of the IntelliType Pro software assigns preprogrammed buttons to control media file playback from a long list of supported media players (including some DVD players). You can also program repetitive online activities such as checking e-mail or opening a search page. Especially useful are the play/pause and mute buttons--very handy when you're listening to music on your PC and someone walks up to your desk--and a lot quicker than using your mouse to find your player's controls. While the defaults for the buttons fit typical use, they can easily be customized; this allows you, for example, to open Yahoo with the Search button instead of using your browser's default search action. The Natural Pro keyboard supports Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and later, AOL 4 and 5, and Netscape Navigator 3.x and 4.x, along with a number of popular e-mail applications.

In addition to the eight Internet buttons and the seven media buttons, three buttons on the keyboard's far right offer quick access to the My Computer folder, calculator, and sleep mode. These buttons can easily be programmed via IntelliType Pro: Just browse to the application you want to open in the Keyboard Properties window.

Although you need to plug the keyboard into a standard PS/2 port on your PC to start, if you attach the USB cable when you're running Windows 98 or 2000, it will automatically install the drivers for the two-port USB hub at the rear of the board. Even though you get a net return of only one port (after subtracting the one on your PC you need to use for the keyboard), having two USB ports within easy reach makes for simple installation of devices such as USB mice and video cameras.

Love That Keyboard

Even with all these extra features, it's the little touches that really make me love this keyboard. For instance, I like that the shortcut functions are printed on the front of certain keys as a reminder (for example, a tiny "Save" label on the S key, reminding you of the meaning of Ctrl-S). While the list price of $75 doesn't seem like a particularly cheap deal, a quick search for retail prices on the Web showed that it can be had for less than $50, which is much easier to swallow. With its rich set of useful features and tried-and-true design, this is a perfect example of a good product getting better.