ESDF has the edge too. Plus its on the home keys so it's easier to go between typing and "playing". UHJK is way too far from Tab, Crtl, Shift and Esc for my taste.

Well the idea is that with creating a lot of buttons on the pinky side you need less alt/ctrl/shifting. This way you have more direct controls at your disposal, possibly speeding up reaction time.

Why do you need to be close to the tab key? I just rebound targeting to the L key.

Play to type switching might indeed be a bit more of a hassle at first, but I have never had any difficulty with that. It did take me a week or so to adjust to this positioning, but now it's my second nature.

Exactly how small are these hands we're talking about?

I wear a size six ring and I can do stuff like SHIFT-R with no problem. Maybe its just a matter of practice?

I think comfortable positioning and utilizing the keys you can reach most easily is more important than sheer hand size. My hands are actually not all that small, but it just feels sooooooo clumsy for me to reach up to the row of numbers like many people do, plus there's a very large danger of me trying to return my hand to its old position but missing, hitting Psychic Scream instead of Fade, and causing wipes

I wear 5 1/4 ring size and can reach shift-r, shift + almost anything is ideal for small hands. Reaching CTRL would need to use my pinky finger which is contorts my hand so much i get a muscle cramp after 30 seconds- not to mention it completely removes my ring finger from pressing anything but shift and makes my middle finger take the #1 position on the number keys. Shift modifiers are the way to go.

This is the reason I suggested changing Caps Lock to Control via your registry. Caps Lock is easier to reach for me than Shift. So my primary modifier is Control using the Caps Lock button. (whoever it was that designed the original capslock button missed a little when he imagined how useful this button would be... I don't think I ever used it except by accident. :X)

I play a shaman (and I have fairly small hands too). Setting up proper keybindings is something that I've invested a lot of time into and I feel that I've finally come up with the most optimal settings (at least for my playstyle). As many here seem to have done, I have CTRL where Caps Lock is generally found (I use a really nice small-form unix keyboard which helps out a ton in this regard--but remapping the keys via the registry works too). This really is the best move you can make in setting up efficient keybinds because it will literally triple the amount of functions available to you without moving your hand away from 'WASD' (since with CTRL down, the 'WASD' keys become available for other actions). Here's what I have:

1 = PVE totems macro (Mana Spring, Wrath of Air, Totem of Wrath, Strength of Earth)
2 = Earth Shock macro (hold alt to downrank)
3 = Flame Shock macro (hold alt to downrank)
4 = Frost Shock macro (hold alt to downrank)
5 = Bloodlust (which I usually just click because it's out of reach for me)

(Notice the above are all instant-cast: It's way easier to hit 1-5 while moving and not so easy to hit, say CTRL+E while moving. This is why I save chorded bindings for actions I can't perform while moving. Very important.)

CTRL+1 = Totemic Call
CTRL+2 = Healing Wave
CTRL+3 = Lesser Healing Wave
CTRL+4 = Chain Heal

(The above are for "healing mode". Since you can't move while healing as a shaman, I park my pinky over CTRL. When I do this, my first three fingers naturally find themselves over the 2, 3, 4 keys. Perfect.)

CTRL+Q = Cure Poison (shift Q for Cure Disease)
CTRL+W = Nature's Swiftness/Healing Wave macro
CTRL+E = Lightning Bolt (shift E for top trinket)
CTRL+D = Elemental Mastery/Chain Lightning macro (shift D for bottom trinket)
CTRL+S = Far Sight
CTRL+A = Ancestral Spirit
CTRL+X = War Stomp

(The above bindings are some of my more commonly used spells. Since I don't like deviating too far from the movement keys, I have their functions changed when I hold CTRL down. This makes a huge difference after playing for a while: Less movement for my whole hand--say to key number 6 or 7 like some people foolishly do--results in less overall strain.)

X = Mount
F = Ghost Wolf
R = Purge
T = Bandage
C = PVP totems macro (Grounding Totem, Earthbind, Searing Totem, Poison Cleansing Totem)

(These last ones are used fairly often too, but since they're further away from the movement keys, I don't have to use CTRL for them--again, all easy to reach)

I also use the Middle Mouse button to refresh Water Shield (or Lightning Shield if CTRL is held down) and have other not-so-often-used abilities bound to various function keys (like professions).

Important to shamans, of course, are totems. The Call of Elements mod allows me to arrange your totems by element in a collapseable (that is, viewable on mouse-over) grid. This comes in really handy since it saves a lot of space but still allows me to easily access the lesser used totems that aren't bound to a /castsequence macro. I've tried literally every single totem management addon out there over the years and this one still beats them all. Highly recommended.

Anyways, I hope this helps out or at least gives you some ideas on how to set things up more efficiently for her. Good luck!

Like most people I use the alt or shift or whatever modifier plus number keys for a secondary bar, and I saw someone mention using the extra mouse button as one of their abilities, but what I find works amazingly well is setting a thumb mouse button up as Alt and just holding it down while I hit 1-= on the keyboard to access my second row.
In terms of 'easy access' buttons I can then hit 1-5, alt 1-5, F1-F5 without really having to move my hand at all, which is a life saver. I use an MX1000 from a couple years ago, has 3 thumb buttons but I have the other two bound to mounting/dismounting and healthstone/pot/etc, no reason you couldn't bind several modifier keys to those though and access more bars that way.

I play a resto shaman with small hands (and size 12 feet, go figure heh), and have spent a lot of time working out my key configuration, and honestly still fiddle with it from time to time. First off let me say this would be an impossible class for me to play without Grid+Clique for all my healing/cures. Impossible.

Here is my layout:

Mouse - Turning + Camera Movement with LMouse or RMouse

L Mouse = HW (max rank)
Shift L Mouse = HW (rank 7 or 8 I forget)
Ctrl L Mouse = HW (rank 1)
Alt L Mouse = Cure Poison

R Mouse = LHW (max)
Shift R Mouse = EarthShield
Ctrl R Mouse = Chain Heal (max)
Alt R Mouse = Cure Disease

Mouse 3 (wheel click) = Trinket 1
Shift Mouse 3 = Trinket 2
Ctrl Mouse 3 =PVP Totem Sequence Macro

Mouse 4 (back button) = Nature’s Swiftness
Shift Mouse 4 = Grounding Totem)
Ctrl Mouse 4 = Bloodlust

Mouse 5 (forward button) = Purge
Shift Mouse 5 = Mana Tide Totem
Ctrl Mouse 5 = PVE Totem Sequence Macro

Keybinds

W = Forward
S = Backward
A = Strafe Left
D = Strafe Right

~ = Assist Macro
1 = Warstomp (go cows!)
2 = Lighting Bolt (max)
Shift 2 = Magma Totem (rank 1)
Alt+2 = Lighting Bolt (rank 1)
3 = Windfury Totem
Shift 3 = Wrath of Air Totem
4 = Searing Totem
Shift 4 = Fire Nova Totem
5 = Health Spring Totem
6 = Str Totem

Tab = Tremor Totem
Q = Auto-run
E = Earth Shock (max)
Shift E = Earth Shock (rank 1)
R = Flame Shock
Shift R = Chain Lightning
T = Focus Frame Macro

F = Frost Shock
Shift F = Earthbind Totem
G = Flying Mount
Shift G = Epic Mount
Ctrl G = Ghost Wolf

V = Ventrillo Chat Toggle
C = Water Shield
Shift C = Character Screen
Ctrl C = Lightning Shield
X = Poison Cleaning Totem
Z = Totemic Call
B = Bags

And I always pray for more keys, but I simply can’t reach them. I almost bought a Nostromo N52 Speedpad, but heard people with small hands had issues with them. There is a new keyboard out called Timber Wolf (?), which I am considering buying, but it is a bit pricey at $50 online. Haven’t seen one in a store yet, and am hesitant to buy something like a keyboard that I haven’t been able to touch and feel.

Any suggestions/Improvements would be appreciated.

I apologize for the necromancy, but I didn't think this question was worthy of having its own thread. I see multiple times in this thread where, for cleansing poisons or diseases, either a separate keybind or modifier key is used to switch between curing different types of debuffs. What I was wondering, and I believe I was able to do it pre-BC on my shaman (although it may have made use of the IsUsableAction() function which can't be used anymore) is whether or not it is possible to have purge/cure poison/cure disease in 1 macro without needing to use a modifier key to simplify things. Right now the macro I'm using is:

/cast [nohelp] Purge
/cast [help] Cure Poison
/cast [help] Cure Disease

For purging an enemy, or curing a poison from a friendly target it works perfectly. If I try to cure a disease though, it returns an error "Nothing to Dispel". Is there a way to make this work? Or will I have to just add a modifier key to it?

It is not possible post-2.0 to have a fall through macro.

Pretty much what I expected. Thank you for the quick replies.

I guess I'm going to have to just stop being lazy and either actually configure Clique or add modifier keys to the macro.

You can put a CastRandom(Purge, Cure Poison, Cure Disease) and just mash the button on a target and hope the right one fires.

That's the type of thing I'm trying to stay away from. I prefer to not leave anything that's potentially time sensitive to chance. I've already gotten use to having separate keybinds for Riposte and Sinister Strike (Oh how I loved the, IsUsableAction().) on my rogue. Now I'll have to do the same with poison/disease curing on my shaman.

I got two things to add here:

Firstly, I usually miss buttons if they are far away so i bind my binds with SHIFT button and it goes like this:
Walking: W A S D;
Other: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Q E R T F G V and also for things i use very rarely Y and i have all these with SHIFT too, so double the key bindings i listed, ah and i have X for normal mount and SHIFT+X for flying mount for years now. Also u can add Z button for rare stuff too and ~ for anything u like too, tho I don't use it.

So thats my binds

Since you started talking about mouse bindings and similar stuff I'll put this here, maybe someone had similar problem too:

I came a cross this problem with mouse, I'm using Logitech G5 mouse and got latest software installed etc etc, but i can't seem to make extra buttons and scrolling sideways work with WoW, in fact i can't make them work for any game and to make matters worse, i used to have Mouse4 (side button) for vent on my old mouse (MX 510) but now it doesn't work when I'm in WoW tho if i minimize it, everything works just fine. Anyone had same problem or knows how to solve, please help out.

For the top buttons, I remapped them to be keystroke's in the logitech mouse application generally used something like CTRL+ARROW_UP , so that I could aslo make shift and alt bindings to them.

For the left side buttons it seems that somewhere in your WOW keybindings you have it mapped to an action. Unbinding the key should fix the problem.

Yeah I have to agree with the Nostromo n52. As a rogue, I won't play without it. I'm currently thinking of picking up one for my fiance who's a resto druid. You can use the D-pad at the thumb for movement which leaves the other 14 buttons for spells, more if you use the bottom left key as shift. then you have 26 buttons.

For healers, you can setup macros for all your heals using:
/cast [target=mouseover] SPELL

Then all you have to do is mouseover the player on screen, unitframe or raidframe and hit the desired button on the nostromo.