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Comment by ambrosite | Hacker News Reader

I've always found it easier to type long strings of numbers on the number pad. I don't know why, it's not as though I ever deliberately trained myself to use it, but for me the number pad is much faster than using the top row.

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Your fingers don't have as far to travel, and there's no seeking involved (hand doesn't move)

Less ambiguity (three vertical rows, no horizontal movement), and the most-frequently entered keys (1, 2, 0) are not at extreme and hard-to-assess ends of the movement range.

Everything is much closer together, you don't have to move your hand only your fingers. It is clearly the better input device for pure digit sequences.

Not for left handed people. My primary hand is better/closer to the top row. My non-primary handle struggles with the keypad, especially if I don't use it very often - which I don't.

Worse, if you're on a laptop a lot then this habit is kicked out the door. Enabling a numpad on the keyboard is less efficient than just using the top row.

> Not for left handed people.

I'm left handed; the numpad is freakin' awesome for number entry. Back when I still played games like Descent and WoW, it was also very efficient to setup the mouse for my left hand and leave my right hand on the number pad. Aim and fire with mouse, maneuver with numpad (in Descent), or action bar items on numpad (in WoW).

I think that using phones trains the muscle memory for the number pad (although upside down). I have found the same thing though, where I instinctively can use the num pad much faster than I should be able to, with relation to the amount of time I use it.

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