The Microsoft Arc keyboard.

The Microsoft Arc keyboard.

IT WAS quite an emotional moment for Bleeding Edge when we managed to reach out to the keyboard and type that well-worn and immensely profound message, ''The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'', without feeling a desperate need for a strong analgesic and a good lie-down.

It wasn't a major milestone in the annals of progress but it meant we probably weren't going to be restricted to using voice recognition forever. Although Dragon NaturallySpeaking did a great job for us as we recovered from our recent shoulder injury, we remain attached to the familiar mouse and keyboard.

While most of us take these two fundamental elements of the average computer for granted, and the industry labels them dismissively as ''peripherals'', they are worthy of much more attention than the average user tends to give them.

We were so delighted by our reprieve from having to have long, calm conversations with our computer, rather than occasionally swear at it, that we immediately headed off to the shops to buy ourselves a new keyboard and, while we were at it, a mouse.

We needed them for the new Sony Vaio notebook. As this column has opined more than once, anyone who uses a notebook computer for long periods without an external mouse and keyboard - and, for that matter, an external monitor or a stand to elevate the screen - runs the risk of serious injury.

We expected choosing our input duo would be an easy mission, until we got to the display shelves. At that point, the Bleeding Edge brain began whimpering.

We can report there has been an observable population explosion in the world of mouses and keyboards. There were models with cables. Models with Wi-Fi. Models with Bluetooth. There were mouses that were actually trackballs. Mouses that folded flat. They came in different sizes, separately and in sets. We were quite overwhelmed by choice.

Had we been looking for a gaming mouse, we would have been even more perplexed. Gaming keyboards look like something that belong on the bridge of Battlestar Galactica, with features such as media keys, headset ports, removable wrist rests, banks of programmable keys, adjustable backlighting and something called anti-ghosting, which allows you to hold down multiple keys without the keyboard having a nervous breakdown.

There are some pretty substantial keyboards for non-gaming use as well. Bleeding Edge suggests they are best avoided. While the additional features may be enticing, in our opinion most users position the mouse beside the keyboard and the monster versions cause over-extension of the elbow, a common cause of repetitive-stress injury.

We were looking for something even more compact for the Vaio and we found it in the Microsoft Arc keyboard. It's a stylishly moulded piece of glossy black plastic that is about two-thirds the width of a conventional keyboard and weighs 358 grams.

Despite its size, the keys are large, well-spaced and responsive. There is no dedicated number pad and the usual arrow keys are replaced by a single four-way rocker key, to which Bleeding Edge found it easy to adjust.

The Arc has PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, volume up, volume down and mute keys; one Ctrl and two Alt keys, a Delete key, power, Insert, Print Screen and a Function button that turns the F1-F6 keys into F7 through to F12.

It has a nano USB receiver that clips into a storage slot on the bottom of the keyboard and the wireless range is impressive. It projects a little more from the slot than Logitech's nano receiver but probably not too much to be problematic. You turn it on and off by hitting the Function and Escape keys.

The price of keyboards has dropped dramatically, so the $48.97 at Officeworks wasn't all that different from the $40.19 you'd have paid at, when you add GST and freight.

The Arc keyboard has a companion mouse called the Arc Touch. It's an ingeniously designed thing that, when flat, looks like a mobile phone. In that position, the mouse is turned off. Cleverly, the bottom section folds into a comfortable curved shape and that action turns the mouse on.

It uses Microsoft's Bluetrack technology, which employs an ultra-wide laser beam that allows it to work on a wider variety of surfaces, but, unlike Logitech's Darkfield, not on glass or mirror surfaces.

Touch-enabled scrolling means you can flick to scroll up or down quickly and touch to stop. Clicking the forward edge of the scroll pad sends you to the top of the page and clicking the trailing edge gets you to the bottom.

The left and right mouse buttons seem a little stiff, although users will probably adjust to that. The usual centre scroll wheel is replaced with a metal tab that has three click positions.

The price tag at Officeworks is $53.90, or $40.26 at Amazon.

We still might have bought it had it not been for the fact it takes up another USB slot. Unlike Logitech, Microsoft doesn't yet have a universal receiver that works with both keyboard and mouse.

We opted instead for a Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 for $58.75. It's smaller than the average mouse, uses laser technology for good responsiveness and has a low-battery indicator. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't have any Bluetooth mouses that use its Bluetrack technology but we haven't had any problems getting it to work.

Microsoft category manager Julia Donnelly says only 20 per cent of Windows 7 PCs and notebooks use Bluetooth but we expect road warriors will increasingly demand it to save those valuable USB connections.