Sunday, August 16, 2020
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Keyboarding skills and tips
Which Fingers Go Where
- Each
finger rests on a particular key in the home row of the keyboard when not
typing, in order to keep "grounded" and oriented at all times.
The home keys (ASDF JKL; ) are
outlined in yellow on the above diagram. The thumbs remain in the air, or
very gently in contact with the keys below.
- Each
finger is responsible for a vertical column of keys, which you can think
of as a "home column". The column is not straight up and down,
but rather slopes up to the left.
- Both
index fingers are responsible for an additional column, the one next to
their home columns towards the middle of the keyboard.
- The
thumbs are used for the space bar, and depending on the shape of your
keyboard can also be used for the "command" (Apple computers) or
"Windows" (PCs) key.
- The
left-hand pinky is also responsible for all the keys to the left of its
home column, including the left shift key, caps lock, tab, tilde, escape
and others.
- The
right-hand pinky is a real workhorse, covering everything to the right of
its home column. Take a look - there's a lot of stuff there!
Welcome to Lesson 1! First, a little orientation: at the top of
every lesson you'll see a diagram of the keyboard that highlights in yellow the
keys you will be working on. In subsequent keyboarding lessons the keys you have already
learned but are not the focus of the lesson will be coloured green. It is vital
that you will have mastered those keys before moving onto a new lesson. Mastery,
for purposes of this course means that you can confidently and consistently
type a lesson exercise in under 60 seconds with NO errors.
With that out of the way, here we go!
The home row is a key
concept in typing (sorry for the pun!). It is that middle horizontal row of the
keyboard that starts with A and goes all the way across. The idea behind the
home row is that each finger remains in light contact with a particular key
there when it is not typing in order to keep "grounded", providing a
reference point for every other key. Here are the "home keys" for
each of your 8 fingers:
Finger
|
Key
|
Left hand pinky
|
A
|
Left hand ring
|
S
|
Left hand middle
|
D
|
Left hand index
|
F
|
Right hand index
|
J
|
Right hand middle
|
K
|
Right hand ring
|
L
|
Right hand pinky
|
;
|
If you have a relatively recent keyboard, it more than likey has
some sort of bump you can feel on the F and J keys, where your index fingers
go. This is of course to help you quickly find the home row when you're not
looking at the keyboard.
Place your fingers gently on their respective keys now, light
enough so that you are not actually pressing them! This is where your fingers
"hang out" when they're not typing, and where they "spring"
back to just after they have finished typing another key somewhere else. It is
very important for your fingers to be able to go to these keys at any time, at
a split second's notice. Practice taking your hands away and placing them on
these keys several times, until you can do it confidently, and without looking.
The space bar is pressed with either thumb. Most people probably
use only one thumb, the one on their dominant hand. The thumbs basically float
comfortably in the air when not in use.
Below is your first interactive exercise based on the four
left-hand home keys: ASDF. These are typed with the left-hand pinky, ring
finger, middle finger and index finger respectively. Before typing even a
single letter, please keep ALL of the Principles for
Effective Learning in mind. Here are the instructions; all the
exercises in all the lessons work this way, so read carefully:
- Remember,
shoot for no errors!! That is the most important thing right now. Speed
means nothing; certainty and correctness are what's important.
- For
practical purposes, you can consider yourself having mastered an exercise
only if you are able to type three reloaded screens of exercises in a row
in under 60 seconds each, with no errors, confidently.
Take a moment to tap your left hand fingers on your
desk/table/thigh while saying the letters they will be typing (a, s, d, f), as
in the above diagram. Do it forwards & backwards, and inside-out!
dda dsa ffd sad ds afs saf ad ffs a sf dsf ss sa aaf adf aad af fds ssa fd ff df das fa aas da daf dd fas sfd sda fs dafs sfa sd ads fads fad ssf ffa asd as fda dds sads afd fsa
Presuming you've now mastered the left-hand keys of the home
row, it's now time to have a look at the right hand.
Below is an exercise that focuses just on these keys.
I'm not going to let you get away with typing and not reading
the Learning Principles again, so here they are:
- No
mistakes. Always
be sure and in control. Follow the principle of 100% correct practice: to
make a mistake is to learn incorrect things, and to confuse that which you
already know.
- Slower is
- faster. Speed
comes from certainty. The more you type things correctly, no matter how
slow it has to be, the more certain you will be, and the faster you will
become a proficient typist. Increase speed only when you feel sure enough
to do so.
- Don't
look at the keyboard! If you don't know where a key is,
look at the keyboard to find it, then look away and type the key. Do not
guess; always be sure.
- Type
to a steady rhythm. Generally, the time between
keystrokes should be the same, giving you a sense of flow and the ability
to scan ahead at a constant speed.
- Relax. No unnecessary or
dysfunctional tension. Enjoy the rhythm of your own typing!
- Hit
the keys squarely in the center. If you find you aren't consistently
doing so, SLOW DOWN!!! It should feel good to type!
·
Because you're still new around
here, you may want to read the Instructions for Use again. Take a deep breath, and when you feel ready,
click the button, put your fingers on the home row and go to it!
;j; ll kkk kjk ll;; k;jl kkkk ;lj jljl ;;kk ljlj klkl kkll kk lk jkl ;jl lljj jl ;l; k;k; jkj j; ; lj l;jk l; ;k; ;; k jjkk ;;; kj;l ;kl jkjk j;j llkk lj; jjj kj; ljl jlk lk;
Lesson 3: Home Row, Left + Right
Now it's time put the four keys you mastered in Lesson 1
together with the four keys you just learned last lesson.
Typing with both hands is more fun and in fact easier and less
fatiguing than typing with one hand alone. Plus, you'll gradually get more
& more letters at your disposal and be able to type more actual words,
rather than nonsensical strings of letters.
Keyboarding is of course a cumulative skill: everything you
learn builds upon what you've learned before, so you mustn't forget what you've
learned!
new! Extra stuff (both exercises link back here when you're done!):
- Musical Typing
(home row, left & right) - generate music with your
keystrokes, making you type rhythmically while testing your powers of
concentration. Cool musical arrangements by yours truly!
- Speed Typing (home
row, left & right) - a simpler version of
the below exercise that allows you to type faster and again focus on the
rhythm of your typing
afls al salsa lass asks a jall aja all fa fall ad flask sf dj la kafka salads slads sad jass fad ; lad ask ad; al; flak flasks sass jal as; asks; lsd fads all; lads ads da fla
Up until now, each finger has been responsible for only one key.
If only life were so simple! Each finger will eventually be responsible for
multiple keys, some more than others!
In this lesson, we ease you in gently by introducing one additional letter for each
index finger: the G key for the left hand index, and the H key for the right
hand index.
The good news: in this lesson you get to type actual words!
sash haha; sagas salads gaff flag ah hah; ahhh; flash ha flask salad kafka glad lags half lash had lad; gash flasks shall hassal galla slash all; gas shag saga has flags gag dash
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