Touch typing

Typing zones on a QWERTY keyboard for each finger.
There exists an alternate method for the top row as described in the section Other methods; usual ergonomic split keyboards support this alternate method.

Touch typing is typing without using the sense of sight to find the keys. Specifically, a touch typist will know their location through muscle memory. Touch typing typically involves placing the eight fingers in a horizontal row along the middle of the keyboard (the home row) and having them reach for other keys. Most computer keyboards have a raised dot or bar on either the F/J keys and/or the D/K keys (or the keys in the same position, for non-QWERTY keyboards) so that touch-typists can feel them when their fingertips are correctly over the home row.

History

Frank Edward McGurrin, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City who taught typing classes, reportedly invented touch typing. On July 25, 1888, McGurrin, who was reportedly the only person using touch typing at the time, won a decisive victory over Louis Traub (operating Caligraph with eight-finger method) in a typing contest held in Cincinnati. The results were displayed on the front pages of many newspapers. McGurrin won $500 ($11,400 in 2007) and popularized the new typing method.

Whether McGurrin was actually the first person to touch type, or simply the first to be popularly noticed, is disputed. Speeds attained by other typists in other typing competitions at the time suggest that they must have been using similar systems.

The most common other form of typing is search and peck typing (or two-fingered typing). This method is slower than touch typing because instead of relying on the memorized position of keys, the typist is required to find each key by sight and move fingers a greater distance. Many idiosyncratic styles in between those two exist – for example, many people will type blindly, but using only two to five fingers and not always in a systematic way.

"Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a little trying to do so much typewriting?" "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters are without looking."

— Arthur Conan Doyle, A Case of Identity (1891)

Training

Standard finger placement on a QWERTY keyboard.

Touch typing can efficiently bring an average speed typist to 60 words per minute (WPM) fairly quickly and at the same time increase accuracy by great amounts. Upon learning to touch type, comfortable typing speed is expected to be achieved within a month. The typing speed can be increased gradually with regular practice and speeds around 60wpm could be achieved within a year or so. Many websites and software are available to learn touch typing and quite a lot of them are free. Learning touch typing can be a bit stressful both to the fingers as well as the mind in the beginning, but once it is learned to a decent level, it can be a very pleasant experience requiring very minimal usage of the brain and having almost no stress on the fingers.

Typing speed generally improves with practice. While practicing, it is important to ensure that there are no weak keys. Typing speed is typically determined by how slow these weak keys are typed rather than how fast the remaining keys are typed. If a stage is reached where irrespective of the amount of practice, typing speed is not increasing, it is advisable to let some time pass and continue serious practice thereafter as typing speeds typically tend to increase with time even when no serious practice is done.

Home row

Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro, circa Q4 1999.

"Home row," or "home keys" is a term that refers to certain keys of the center row of alphabetical letters on a typewriter or computer keyboard. On the most common type of English language keyboard, the QWERTY layout, "a s d f g h j k l ;" represents the contents of the home row.

The middle row of the keyboard is termed "home row" because typists are trained to keep their fingers on these keys and/or return to them after pressing any other key that is not on the home row.

For instance, to type the word poll on a QWERTY keyboard, one would place all of his fingers on the home row. (The right hand should be covering "J K L ;" with the thumb on the space bar while the left hand covers "A S D F".) The typist will then use his little finger to reach for the "P" key located just above the semicolon and then return the pinky back to the semicolon key from which it originated. The ring finger, located on the "L" key will be moved directly upwards to press the "O" key and then back. Finally, the same ring finger will remain on the "L" key and press it twice. Experienced typists can do this at speeds of over 100 words per minute , but the method is that they always return their fingers to the home row when they are not in use. This provides for quick, easy access to all of the keys on the keyboard.

Other methods

The Kinesis Advantage keyboard.

A method taught since the 1960s (and perhaps earlier): The left little finger is used for the keys 1 2, the ring finger for 3, the middle – 4, the left index finger is responsible for 5 and 6. On the right side of the keyboard: index – 7 and 8, middle – 9, ring – 0 and the little – all other keys on the right side of the upper row. Probably these two methods reflect the layout of the typewriters from early days when some of them have no 0 and/or 1 keys.

There exist special ergonomic keyboards designed for both typing methods. The keyboard is split between the keys 5 and 6 or 6 and 7.

Some specialized high-end computer keyboards are designed for touch typists. For example, Das Keyboard provides blank mechanical keyboards. A trained touch typist should not mind using a blank keyboard. This kind of keyboard may force hunt and peck users to type without looking.

See also

• Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, an alternative English keyboard layout, optimised for comfort and speed
• Das Keyboard, a mechanical blank keyboard designed to encourage touch-typing
• Model M keyboard, the most widely known "clicky" keyboard, favoured by touch-typists

External links

• Listing of touch typing software