Typing is the ability to write without looking at the computer keyboard and using both hands. Computers currently have word processors which incorporate dictionaries and are capable of detecting mistakes and correcting them, so that it is much faster to type, but with typewriters this process was slower and errors couldn’t be erased without a trace, so the speed and accuracy gained by a person who could learn to type was very important. And it is also important nowadays for those who want to work in programming, since it will not only help us to write code faster, with the added difficulty that we have to use many symbols and not only letters, but we will also make fewer mistakes and we will not have to waste time trying to identify them if our code does not work as expected.
How does typing work?
As we have said at the beginning, typing is based on writing using both hands, which means our ten fingers. To achieve this, we will divide the keyboard into two parts, one for the right hand and the other one for the left hand, and in turn we will place all fingers of both hands on the row that starts with the A key, a position that will help us define a different area for each finger. So, if we want to write the letter A, for example, we will use the left hand and the little finger. The little finger of the right hand would be placed on the ; key and the rest would be placed in order above the letters of the same line: the ring fingers on the letters S and L, the middle fingers on the D and K and the forefingers would have to deal with FG (left) and HJ (right). In this way, by slightly moving the fingers towards the upper row or the lower row we can easily use all the other keys and we can press the space bar whenever we need it with the help of both thumbs.
With practice, we will be able to immediately realize we are making a mistake just by touch, before even notice the error on the screen. But this position also has many benefits for our health, since if we do not need to look at the keyboard it is much easier to stop curving our back, start sitting with our back straight and always looking at the screen, with our elbows staying close to our body and our back properly using the back of the chair.
QWERTY keyboards
Keyboards can use different layouts, but the current standard for many Western countries is the QWERTY layout. If you are using an English-language keyboard, you will be able to notice that this name is due to the first letters on the first line, but some countries use different keyboards which have been designed to type faster taking into account their language.
In Germany this layout changes a bit and they use the QWERTZ keyboard, since it switches Y and Z keys, while in France or Belgium they use the AZERTY keyboard because, where you can find the letters Q and W, they have the A and Z keys. Therefore, if we decided to move to another country with a different language and we bought a computer there, at first it would be hard for us to get used to the keyboard layout, although typing skills would help us overcoming this challenge.
Codelearn students can improve this skill and get faster and more accurate when coding thanks to the “Typing” activity, which is available in our online platform.