I'm always looking for shortcuts. If there's a quicker way of getting there, I'll always take it. And as luck would have it, the computing world is full of neat keyboard short cuts to save time and increase productivity. The great shame about these time saving shortcuts is their inaccessibility - with most PCs little more than glorified word processors, applications require keystroke combinations (ctrl-c, ctrl-v will be familiar to any Windows user) to achieve results. Here's where video editing applications have an advantage: the keyboard's rarely used for typing, leaving it open for time saving single keystrokes.
Most editing application ship with a handy cardboard shortcut list, but these become dog eared or lost within a few weeks of cluttering up your desk. The ideal solution is to place those shortcuts on the keyboard itself. Until recently the viditor's been somewhat restricted to the keyboards available for this job... and forced to pay a premium for a specialist keyboard for the likes of Adobe Premiere (typically up to£80). Editors Keys have a simple, elegant and affordable solution: convert your existing keyboard into a specialist one! The stickers match exactly the shortcuts displayed on the more expensive specialist keyboards. And if this reviewer's honest, he couldn't find his quick reference shortcut card to compare!
I'm not quite sure why, but I'd anticipated receiving a larger package than the envelope containing the Editors Keys. Once ripped upon, I was presented with a instructions, a screen wipe (for cleaning the keyboard) and the editors keys themselves. Applying the stickers to the keyboard is a breeze, and the sticker sheet itself doubles as an efficient applicator. The stickers are arranged on the sheet in the order you'll find them on the keyboard and although it's tempting to methodically work from left to right, you'll find that some keys have a bevel. I would suggest you locate and apply the stickers to these keys first to ensure your stickers are all positioned equally. Unfortunately the logitech keyboard used in the review has function buttons smaller than the rest, and the stickers therefore overlap these particular shortcut keys.I did manage to stick some stickers less than accurately, but they were peeled off and repositioned easily and stuck fast after an hour or so!
The stickers themselves are of a high quality and clearly visible on the keyboard. Indeed, a nice side effect of the editors keys I've applied is the increased visibility in low light - I can actually see the keys with stickers much clearer than those without. This is the complete opposite of what I'd expected, and normal use of the keyboard is not restricted. However, the black shortcuts against the dark blue stickers are hard to distinguish and the white text isn't as clear as the black (although specialist keyboard typically don't include this useful text description!)
Overall, Editors Keys is an ideal solution to shortcuts. I warmed to the idea of using my favoured and ergonomic keyboard rather than a limited choice of expensive specialist keyboards. And at a fraction of the price of a specialist keyboard, it becomes economical to have a dedicated keyboard for more than one application. It's no longer a choice of whether you can afford a shortcut keyboard... just whether you need one.
You can view a video of me applying Editors Keys to my keyboard - high quality | low quality
