Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2018 April 10

= April 10 =

Are all laptop keyboards "chiclet" style or "island" keyboards?
Are non-chiclet" style/"island" keyboards for laptop dead nowadays? Is some mainstream manufacturer still producing alternatives? I find them annoying specially, the separation between the keys... --Doroletho (talk) 02:10, 10 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Some manufacturers are making laptops with mechanical keyboards. Ian.thomson (talk) 02:17, 10 April 2018 (UTC)
 * These seem to be gaming laptops. This is not what I need.
 * An alternative question is: what laptops have good keyboards for people who type a lot (like a typist)?
 * Alternative 2: could I replace the keyboard from a brand laptop with a third-party keyboard? --Doroletho (talk) 12:46, 10 April 2018 (UTC)


 * Can't you just attach an external keyboard with a wired or wireless USB connection ? There are a wide variety of external keyboards available at Amazon, for example. Gandalf61 (talk) 12:59, 10 April 2018 (UTC)


 * That's what I do at home. But it's too clumsy when you are out (which is the whole point of a laptop). --Doroletho (talk) 17:40, 10 April 2018 (UTC)


 * You still have some choices: there is the chiclet type, but there is also the scissor-switch keyboard type. Both are membrane keyboards basically, but they provide a different typing experience.
 * Keyboards also have different key travel distances.
 * And they all have different level of quality.
 * That is, basic thin cheap laptops would have a basic thin cheap keyboard. If you go for the business laptops (like Thinkpad]]s), you'll get a good typing performance. I do not feel that mechanical keyboards are better. Hofhof (talk) 22:39, 10 April 2018 (UTC)

Free OCR software
Hello, Is there any free OCR software that can convert multipage pdf document into editable text? --Remadevil (talk) 11:21, 10 April 2018 (UTC)


 * tesseract 209.149.113.5 (talk) 12:05, 10 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks. That appears promising but too complicated for a n00b. --Remadevil (talk) 14:22, 10 April 2018 (UTC)


 * There's a dictum in business (and elsewhere) called the good/quick/cheap triangle and for software, the "quick" can probably be read as "easy to learn": if you want it good and easy, it won't be cheap; if you want it cheap and easy, it won't be good; if you want it good and cheap, it won't be easy. Tesseract has a good reputation - our article cites it as being the best free OCR available - and it's cheap ('free!'), so the lack of GUI (making it somewhat opaque and difficult to learn) should be no surprise. Per the dictum, if you want it to be both good and easy to learn, you should expect to have to pay. Matt Deres (talk) 13:52, 12 April 2018 (UTC)