Tips For Keyboarding at Home

Good keyboarding skills are essential if we are going to use our computers effectively and efficiently. The most important thing with keyboarding is realizing that good keyboarding is based on neurological patterning ... we groove this into our brain.  To do this well it is essential that we type with our fingers on the home keys in a consistent manner.

Home Keys:

Learning to base our hands on the home keys will help us become very fast, efficient typists.  We can find the home keys by the raised dot or bumpy lines on the F and J keys.  Index fingers rest there and other fingers rest beside them in a straight line.  Thumbs rest on the space bar.  Imagine your fingers are glued to these keys and that one finger at a time can stretch up or down to other keys, but immediately springs back to its home once it has typed the letter.

Wrist Position
It is really important not to rest your wrists on the computer or the table as you will build an incorrect neurological pattern and a bad habit.  This could cause problems if keyboarding a lot later in life, as you will be putting ongoing pressure on the medial nerve in your rests and could cause repetitive strain injuries.  Aim for a straight line across your forearm into your hand as in the third picture below.

Seating

It is difficult to have a good wrist position if you are not seated at the correct height table and chair.  Ideally your feet should be flat on the floor and your shoulders relaxed, allowing your forearms and wrists to come straight over the keyboard.  

How Do I Know If I am Doing Ok?

Typing is a balance between speed and accuracy.  Accuracy is the most important.  You are aiming to keep you accuracy percentage between 90 and 95%.  If it's higher than 95%, focus more on improving your speed.  If it's lower than 90%, slow and down and focus on your accuracy.  Speed will come if you stay consistent on home keys and accuracy.

If you are using keyboarding online, we have preset the accuracy for you and allowed quite a slow speed, so just focus on home keys and being as accurate and consistent as possible.  Try and keep a steady rhythm.

Have fun!