BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard

Subject: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Mar 09 - 03:42 PM

Years ago I had some software program which made authentic typewriter sounds when I typed on my computer keyboard. I remember asking here if anyone knew of a generic program which I could download so that I could have that tapping sound in whatever program I was using. At the time, no one knew of one and I finally gave up.

Today, I was thinking of it, went to google and did a search. came up with two of which I prefer Jingle Keyboard. IT made some funny extra sounds for the enter key and some others, but the neat thing is, you can pick and choose which keys you want to have sounds, including right and left click on your mouse. IT is a blast! So, I am happy! Check it out, it's a blast! OH, here is the link to the actual program I got: HERE.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 02 Mar 09 - 05:22 PM

Nice thought, kat. I would enjoy it, but my husband would run away and join the Foreign Legion.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: GUEST,Green
Date: 02 Mar 09 - 05:39 PM

I have been wishing my computer would make typing sounds for a LONG time!
Thank you

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Mar 09 - 06:40 PM

Oh,,,funny! I have a collection of sounds....I may try it.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Mar 09 - 06:44 PM

But if it ain't free, I won't keep it.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Mar 09 - 07:23 PM

But, it IS, Billdarlin'...see, I learned from you!**bg**

Green, it's a hoot, isn't it?!

leeneia, I bet you could wear headphones!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Mar 09 - 09:02 PM

"free trial" indicates to me that it does something to impose limits after awhile... the "full program" is $17.50, it says... Yes, I see the words "license-freeware",,,but...

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Mar 09 - 09:48 PM

Hmm...didn't see that, Bill. Guess I've got more larnin' to do! So far, the free trial is working fine and, when I downloaded it, there was nothing about it turning into a pumpkin after X amount of days. I guess we'll see. There are others out there.

I love the carriage return sound when I hit "Enter!"

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: GUEST,Green
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 12:00 AM

if it does turn into a pumpkin, I hope it waits until fall so we can get a bit of seasonal cheer from it!

I somehow got the idea that the trial maybe had something to do with offering less themes (is that the right word?) I didn't read the agreement thing closely, but I did skim it and didn't notice anything about a dire, unexpected event happening.
You got yours first, Kat. I count on you to give warning if something weird does happen!

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 12:41 AM

No problem, Green. Ya know membership here is free AND we don't spam or anything else nasty...and, if you become a member, you can send personal messages and IF you're lucky, you might someday get a secret decoder ring in the shape of an o'possum ocarina!

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: GUEST,Green
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 12:45 AM

That decoder ring you wax so eloquently sounds practical as well as the unmentionable Natural Beauty!

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 05:34 AM

What I'd like would be a keyboard that felt like a typewriter keyboard. I wonder if it would be possible to have some gizmo that allowed one to use a real typewriter with a computer...

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 05:49 AM

There is at least one computer keyboard available that "duplicates the touch" of an IBM Selectric typewriter, and I've seen comment on the continued production of it quite recently. The Selectric of course was an electric typewriter - not an original Royal cast iron job, but it came from a time when electrics had to compete with manuals in a lot of offices. (When quite a few typists accustomed to manual machines would "outrun the ball" on the early electrics.)

I'm not sure to what extent the sound of the flying balls is replicated; but if you're going to have the sound from a program you should have the touch on the keyboard to go with it.

I'll have to dig a bit to come up with the name of the maker. Google may be able to find them faster than I can, although I think I know about where a reference to the article might be in my notes.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 06:14 AM

A Google search for keyboard click sound gives several options for the sound.

I didn't find my ref to the keyboards, but Unicomp may be the maker of the "IBM style buckling-spring keyboard" that's supposed to simulate the electric typewriter "feel." Unfortunately it's not easy to tell from the Unicomp site which of their keyboards is/are the one(s) with the feelies built in.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 12:04 PM

Do you think such a program would help cure my wife of the habit of POUNDING on the keyboard as if it were an old manual typewriter and she were trying to make six carbon copies? Does anyone else do this?

Maybe I need one that says "ouch!"

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: open mike
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 01:02 PM

does it make the sound of the carriage return and "ding" when you puch enter?

i do like playing with different fonts, including the Runic
"alphabet" or rather Futhark....(alpha and beta are the first
letters in greek and Futhark is the first letter in Runic)

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 01:32 PM

I think StillyRiverSage just got one of those typewriter keyboards for her PC.

open mike, it does have a "ding" when you hit "enter." I didn't like the sound it had for the space bar, so I told it not to use one for that key. You can pick and choose which keys you want to have sound. I didn't like the one they had for backspace, either. BUT, I am loving the actual typewriter sound!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: GUEST,Ravenheart
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 01:51 PM

John, as I bet you know, people still prize and deal in the original IBM clicky keyboards, as described here.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 04:50 PM

Never liked electric typewriters. What I want is a computer keyboard that feels and sounds like a real typewriter.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: GUEST,Ravenheart
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 05:22 PM

Maybe you need something with this kind of quality.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 06:56 PM

Bit modern for my taste. This is more what I had in mind. But attached to a good PC with a big screen - best of both worlds. Rather the way we can have an acoustic guitars with a pick-up.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: GUEST,Ravenheart
Date: 03 Mar 09 - 07:48 PM

Well, Here's another intriguing direction to look into, although the software looks a bit dated.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun stuff for your keyboard
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Mar 09 - 03:48 PM

Here's a page from someone who had the same idea of what was needed as I did, but also had the technical know-how to put it into practice - "the typewriter-keyboard conversion":

"My wife suffers from repetive stress problems in her fingers and wrists. Sometime in October we were talking about different keyboards on the market for people such as herself. In the course of the conversation she mentioned that she finds old-fashioned mechanical typewriters much easier on her fingers because they offer gradual resistance rather than the feeling of moving through air then hitting a wall, like most computer keyboards. Ah-hah, I think to myself! At last I know what I will give her for Christmas. The first weekend after Halloween I went out and found an old Smith-Corona and got to work"....

Now what I want is a cleaned up version of this which I could buy off the shelf, maybe in kit form. But I don't envisage that happening.