TL;DR
I tried alot of things to correctly use the keyboard.
- Overall position on your desktop is the most important thing and is, i.m.o, the first thing to check when you want to get rid of pain (even in hands).
- Customization for one hand usage is one of the strength of the M01. Using it Vanilla is, i.m.o, not worth the investment (in time and money).
- Keep in mind the different functions you can use the the keyboard, tap dance, leader key, dual usage, one shot…
- Don’t be shy, use those layers for per application customizations!
I did try alot of different positionning before finding one that fit me. I also used to feel pain on hands when using the keyboard.
The positioning that fits me is splitted M01 without octofeet, flat into the desktop, I lay my wirsts on the wood. A rather unspectacular setup but it works for me. Knowing that, here is my 2 cents about adapting to this keyboard:
Firstly, I do believe that the Fn keys played a role on hand discomfort at first. Not being used to slightly rotate the hand to not hitting these Fn, I realized that I tensed my hands at first, this would be better the more I used the keyboard (this tension was also due to the ortho layout, when I was first missing keys).
I don’t advice you to persevere if you feel pain but I went cold turkey about this keyboard with long typing trainer session to overcome this barrier. Not fun but I think it’s better to get rid of these hassle a.s.a.p instead of having a persistent frustration.
Secondly, I focused too much on hand placement on the keyboard but the huge game changer was updating my whole body positionning w.r.t the desk. Elbow 90 degrees, screen height…
In fact I had to update these factor because the M01 is very thick, especially with its octo feet, it means you have to find a way to keep good position having your keyboard higher than normal.
For the one hand usage, I think customization is the key (yeah, maybe not you want to hear). In fact, these extra keys under the thumb are what makes customization so interesting for one hand usage on this keyboard.
I came up with an approach I’m satisfied with which use alot of leader keys. More details on my blog if you are interested.
The missing link if you want to go to the customization route is a thing to apply/remove layer automatically. I made one for windows, but I don’t know if there is one for mac.