Touch typing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Touch typing is typing using the sense of touch rather than sight to find the keys. Touch typing usually places the eight fingers in a horizontal row along the middle of the keyboard (the home row) and has them reach for other keys. Most computer keyboards have a raised dot or bar on either the F/J keys 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 over the correct home row.
Touch typing was reputedly invented by Frank Edward McGurrin, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City who taught typing classes.
On July 25, 1888, McGurrin, who was purportedly 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 splashed on the front pages of many newspapers. McGurrin won $500 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[1].
The most common other form of typing is "hunt and peck" (or two-fingered typing) which 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. 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.
Some of the suggested ways of improving typing speeds in touch typing are:
- Ensuring a correct posture
- To exert only the correct amount of force required and not bang on the keys
- Taking frequent breaks helps to relax and improve accuracy
[edit] Modifications of the touch typing system
In some countries a slightly different system is taught. 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. This modification is important in connection with the ergonomic keyboard, which is split into two parts.
Some specialized high-end computer keyboards are designed for touch typists. For example, Das Keyboard provides blank mechanical keyboards.[1] 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.
[edit] See also
- Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, an alternative English keyboard layout, optimised for speed
- Keyboard layouts
- Muscle memory
- The Typing of the Dead (a unique horror game based on typing)
[edit] References
- ^ Liebowitz, Stan & Stephen E. Margolis (1996-06), "Typing Errors", Reason
