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

 Lesson 2: Home Row, Right Hand

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;

·Bottom of Form

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

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!

Remind yourself of the Principles for Effective Learning before starting.

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

 Lesson 4: Home Row, Extended Index Fingers

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