I'm a lefthander. I use my left hand for the mouse, and the right hand for movement keys. A natural way to handle this is to change the movement keys to the arrow keys, instead of requiring me to cram both hands into a narrow space with the mouse and WSAD movement keys.

I spent the last several years playing Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas with this switched key structure. When Fallout 4 came out, I switched the movement keys to the arrow keys like with every other Bethesda game (including Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim). The unlocking minigame still used the WSAD keys, but that was fine. Sure, the conversations often resulted in an automatic selection of the Up Arrow dialogue selection, but I got used to that.

Everything was fine....until I tried to assign settlers to tasks. Falliout 4 has no tutorial for this, so I spent a fruitless period of several hours being completely unable to assign anyone to anything. Then my rightnanded spouse came by and said "just select something in the workshop menu and then move to the settler" and found out that with the keys changed, you can't move to a settler, as the game forces the workshop menu to use the arrow keys.

Is there a way to change the workshop keys to WSAD so that I can move around in the workshop menu and still move around in the game? I'd love to just swap all functions of WSAD to the arrow keys and vice versa. Or are lefthanders just encouraged not to play Fallout 4, or just forced to shove our huge hands into a tiny cramped space?

I am a left hander and I have no difficulties whatsoever. I use the default keyboard and my hands are not cramped at all.

You've used a custom set up for your keys that doesn't work as well for aspects of Fallout 4 and that is your issue. Not an issue for all left handers.

Never mind, I should have just googled for an answer instead of expecting sympathy here. Turns out someone already figured out a way, over on Nexus using AutoHotKey, to allow lefthanders with huge hands to enjoy Fallout 4 with natural keyboard re-bindings. I'd post a link but the forums won't let me post one.

I'm sympathetic. I'm poorly ambidextrous, I do thing badly with either hand. I played both FO3 and FONV on PC and my solution was an Xbox Controller.

I'm an oldtimer that has always used the arrow keys.

So I use a clunky method in Workshop mode.

I have found i can do everything in workshop by just having a forward movement key and the mouse.

So if i need to build I hit escape, reassign the forward movement key to an unassigned key in settings.

Do my building and on completion reassign the forward movement key back to the arrow so that I can resume "killing them all"

I use Autohotkeys to reassign the numpad keys for favourites as movement not responsive enough using autohotkeys for movement but usually good enough for weapon swapping.

So my script reads like this with numlock off.

NumpadIns::0

NumpadEnd::1

NumpadDown::2

NumpadPgDn::3

NumpadLeft::4

NumpadClear::5

NumpadRight::6

NumpadHome::7

NumpadUp::8

NumpadPgUp::9

I'm so jealous, I've never been able to play anything with a console controller.

Ooo, I shall try this idea.

Well, slightly off-topic, but at least all weapons are chambered just for you.

People still use their left-hand?

Is it common that lefhanders switch the mouse/keyboard so they use the left hand for the mouse? I'm lefhanded and always use my lefthand but when it comes to the computer i've always used the right hand for the mouse and left for the keyboard. I'm happy for that now seems such a hassle otherwise

Yeah i am the same. Lefthanded, but right hand on the mouse. Been like that since we first got a computer in the 90's.

Same here, and have also never bothered getting a left-handed mouse or trackball. I can see why some do so, however, as in some games the way the firing controls on the mouse are set up makes right-handed use feel 'backwards' to me.

same here. Mouse with right,keyboard with left. Works fine for me. Never even thought about it to be honest,

I'm a lefty myself and have had zero problems using M&K the same as right handers.

Another lefty here. I just trained myself to use a right handed mouse. Now, I cant handle a lefty mouse to save my life.

I've got the exact same problem, OP. I've always used the arrow keys for movement and the numpad keys for hotkeys as they are conveniently located to tab with my little finger while in combat. The recent patch screwed that up, though, as you no longer can use the keypad numbers for hotkeys. What? Why would they ruin something that worked before the patch, you ask? I'm gonna have to get back to you on that one cause it's truly a wonder.

One thing I just discovered, though, when in workshop mode and trying to build a settlement, assign settlers etc., you can actually just hit X, which is the auto-move key. That will let you move forward while you rotate view by using the mouse. That way you can walk around while in workshop mode and just hit X again when you need to stop. It really shouldn't be this difficult, but hey, at least it beats reassigning movement keys every time you want to build something.

And don't worry about the sympathy, haters gonna hate, I'm with you =)

Surprising amount of lefty's here. I don't think there is any hating? I remember using the arrowkeys back in the day, but as soon as WASD became a thing i just jumped on it. Following the mainstream!

Also a lefty. I use the WASD keys too, but I'm also one of those lefties that use right-handed scissors.

More control options are generally better, though. May as well let people map whatever keys they want.

You pretty much lose the rest of the keyboard then, don't you? Everything is nicely centered around the arrow keys. Keypad, Ctrl, Shift, Enter, Backspace and the whole Ins, Del Pgdn/Pgup, Home and End cluster. Those are all I use as I can reach all of them without taking all my fingers off the arrow keys, which lets me keep moving while I do other stuff. Never use any of the letters.

Well i do, but i bind everything on the letters and my mouse anyway. Also feel more natural to me to have my left hand and right hand further(farther?) apart when playing. I probably couldn't go back to the arrow keys now even if i wanted.

Hmm.... Huge handed lefty... Hmm...

While not a lefty, I sympathize. I'm an old school gamer, and former "pro" gamer. I did quake leagues for CTF mods back in the day. I used to write all my own control cfg scripts and the scripts of the rest of my team. Quake. Yes a game that old had fully customizable controls. There is no excuse for hardcoding control configurations in modern games.

Only normal people...

Throwing grenades is impossible.

Try a controller. See if that helps.

I′m right handed so i can really relate that well.

I'm left handed myself, but ever since the late 80ies, I never felt the need to move my mouse with the left hand. It's all about how you got used to your equipment and certainly not something all left handers do. So, no, I've got absolutely no problem with keys or mouse.

Remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon: "Don't assume malice for which can be explained with stupidity".

It is impressive how their UIs just keep getting worse, though