Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Pretty Nifty Keyboard from a "Keyboard Picky" User.
First of all, let me say that I am very picky about keyboards. I like a tactile feel and even like a mechanical key-click. This puts me in the minority, I know. Having said that, though, I admit to really liking this Microsoft Office keyboard (for the most part). The alpha section feels really nice. It's high-quality, and even though it's a bit soft for my touch, the keys have a very positive feel to them. I wouldn't call it mushy.
I like the roller bar to the left, which lets you scroll up and down the way a wheel mouse typically does. I also like having "Back" and "Forward" buttons over there on the left side. I haven't gotten the knack for using the "Cut," "Copy," and "Paste" buttons yet, however. The extra buttons across the top are very handy... especially useful is the "Mail" button, which (on my machine) brings up Outlook Express. Overall, I'm very satisfied with this product. Unlike the other reviewer, however, I have to say I DON'T like the oversized delete key. It makes that whole section of the keyboard feel strange and unnatural to me. (Take a close look at the section of the keyboard where the "Home," "End," and "Page Up" "Page Down" keys are located and you'll see what I'm talking about.) Make sure you are willing to adjust to this before you purchase this keyboard. Additionally, I would have appreciated some USB ports. A friend of mine got the Microsoft Internet keyboard, and if I had it to do over again, so would I. Still, if you're heavy into MS Office... this is the one to beat! I give it 4 stars... not 5, but only because of that "Delete" key weirdness. Overall, it's a dandy!
Rating:  - What a bunch of great ideas. Very Helpful!!
I had been using the Microsoft Internet Keyboard for several years. I enjoyed that keyboard but I never quite felt the keyboard was designed for the way I work. The Office Keyboard, however, very well may be as good as a keyboard gets.The keys have a nice soft touch, but that's just the beginning. The best feature is the scroll button on the left. Not only has it sped up my internet surfing, its functionality has proven itself in almost all of my daily computing experience. It has a much looser scroll than I have found in a mouse so one can literally ZIP to the end of any page or document. Additionally, its location is near enough to the CTRL button to press CTRL with your thumb and scroll up and down with your finger, which zooms in and out in many programs. The cut/copy/paste buttons have proven themselves very helpful. No more accidentally striking CTRL+C when I want to paste something! The application scroll buttons also nicely replace and enhance what I used to use CTRL+TAB to do. Some reviewers poo-poo the enhanced F key functions. With the latest Intellitype Pro software, I have found that I can customize them very easily and set their functions to the tasks I use most frequently. (The defaults, however, were nicely chosen and I have found rare occasion to change them.) I am constantly opening, closing, and saving documents. I can now do this quickly without moving my mouse. Most of the button also work in non-Microsoft programs as well. Contrary to others, I have not found that the enlarged delete button to be a problem. In fact, I enjoy the absence of the Insert button that I erroneously frequented prior to using the Office Keyboard. Although this review has been overwhelmingly positive, I do not mean to presume that everyone will love this keyboard as soon as they take it out of the box. I am very picky about keyboards and usually get attached to ones I've used for a long time-vocational hazard, I guess. But I liked the philosophy of this keyboard, and although it took a while for me to get used to utilizing my new keyboard to its fullest, within two weeks of daily use this keyboard's functionality revolutionized my computing experience. This one is a keeper.
Rating: - Microsoft has done it again
When one takes into account Microsoft's success with what I consider to be the best mouse in the market out there--the Intelimouse Explorer (and its Wireless cousin)--and then take into account this keyboard, its hard not to get the impression that someone *really* knows what they're doing at Microsoft. This keyboard truly is a wonderfuly keyboard, in my opinion.First, addressing its status as a Microsoft Office keyboard--You don't really need office to make it useful. Only two permanent buttons deal with office programs, Word and Excel. All the others are general ones (Web, Mail, Calendar, Files, Calc, etc.). Of course, Office benefits quite a bit from this keyboard. Pros: As another reviewer pointed out, this keyboard is mechanically great. When you type with it the keys hit gently and you don't end up with a typewriter style sound from your keyboard. The wrist rest at the bottom of the keyboard may bother some at first, but I got used to it and think its quite nice, and helps your hands position when typing. The sidepanel is where this keyboard truly shines: an inch scroll wheel added with cut, copy, paste, back, forward, and application buttons (having the same function as ALT-TAB, causing you to switch between programs). All of these can be useful depending on your habits, but personally, I use the scroll and application switching buttons the most, and use the others less frequently. Cons: OK, there are some downsides to this keyboard, but none of them are too bothersome, and were significant enough to give it a 4 (if only Amazon allowed 4.5... =). First, theres this function thing they have going on with the Function keys. The function keys (F1 - F12) have their normal function, and also have an "enhanced mode", with special Windows functions such as help, new, open, close, reply, fwd, send, spell, save, print, etc. I'm sure that these are useful to some people, but for the past 5 years I've trained myself to use all the shortcuts. And, unfortunately, the keyboard defaults to enhanced mode and when you restart it goes back to enhanced mode as well. What irks me even more is that they didn't have the brains to put at least some of these enhanced keys to correspond to their normal function. Everyone knows what Alt+F4 does, right? Well, do that in enhanced mode and it opens a new window--and add to that that the close button is only two keys down from it. Why not have Close be on the F4 key? The enhanced key thing is a serious problem that Microsoft has to take care of--its not too inconvienet, but I expect better from them. Two more comments on key placement: there is only one windows key, and its on the left side. This is just me personally, but I've grown quite accustomed to using it on my right hand. Second, and even more of a pain if you switch between computers (and thus keyboards) often. The delete key is huge. Basically, they took the normal 6-key group of Insert, Home, Page Up, Delete, etc, and made it 2x3 instead of 3x2, and then they took out the insert key and made the delete key 2 keys long vertically. It takes getting used to, and its a pain when you switch keyboards. I don't want to stress too much the problems--they really are few, and I'm nitpicking here. It truly is a good keyboard.. Microsoft just needs to fix a few things though.
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