Home row keys

NOTE – Identification, demonstration, manipulation/application of the keyboard rows are to be done majorly here. Students are to:

• Observe the position of the four rows of the keyboard (Top, Upper, Home, Nottem) and point them out as shown to them by the teacher.
• Practice proper finger placement on the home row keys as demonstrated by the teacher.
• Practice how to manipulate the home row keys using soft touch as demonstrated by the teacher

Correct Finger Position on the Home Keys

The four fingers excluding the thumb of the left hand are placed on “asdf” while the four fingers of the right hand are placed on “;lkj”. It is from here that the fingers move up and down the entire keyboard. “asdf and ;lkj” are therefore called home keys. First of all, master the keyboard to know the positions of the keys, and then type without looking at the keyboard but the copy.

Correct Finger Movement on the Home Keys

After placing the fingers on the home keys, the fingers should strike a key at a time to avoid key jam. The two little fingers are used to strike the guide keys (a & ;). The remaining fingers on the left except the left and right thumb are used to strike “sdf” while the rest fingers on the right hand are used to strike “lkj”.

Activity: Practice exercise 1 from Walmsley’s Commercial Typewriting by Aileen M Prince

Correct Ways for Finger Position on the Top Row, Upper Row, Home Row and Nottem Row

The Top Row

Figures play one of the most important parts in typewriting. Since numerical errors in any piece of typewritten work may cause much harm, therefore maximum concentration on the correct fingering in the very early stages of training is very important to attain that degree of efficiency required.

However, this section of the keyboard training mastery deals with the row of keys which introduces the Arabic numerals (1 to 0) and the hyphen.

The Upper Row/Second Row

When the correct position at the machine has been taken up and the fingers have been placed on the home keys, the keys of the second row can be operated and memorized. They are in a position above and slightly to the left of their corresponding keys in the second row. In order to associate correctly the keys of the second and third rows, the first practice will be to reach from the home keys to the third row. With the little finger of the left hand strike the guide key a. With the same finger reach upwards and slightly to the left to strike the q key, and then return the finger to the second row and again strike the key for a. The movement should be repeated several times, with a space between each series of letters.

Note: 1 represent the index finger, 2 represent the middle finger, 3 represent the ring finger and 4 stands for the little finger.

Activity: practice exercise 10

frf ftf juj jyj frf ftf juj jyj;

frf ftf juj jyj frf ftf juj jyj;

red get yes hug rid yet dye due;

her ate say hue sir fit fly hut;

are the hay fur rat its day rue;

The Home Row

The remaining keys (letters) on the home row are” g, h”. The fourth finger on the left hand side and the fourth finger on the right hand side are used to strike these keys. The f finger strikes g while the j finger strikes h. The fingers should be returned immediately after striking the keys.

Note: 1 represent the index finger, 2 represent the middle finger, 3 represent the ring finger and 4 stands for the little finger. Note also that the counting is from ‘‘f’’ finger i.e. the finger on key ‘‘f’’ is the 1st finger, the finger on key ‘‘d’’ is the 2nd finger, the finger on key ‘‘s’’ is the 3rd finger while the little finger which is on key ‘‘a’’ is the 4th finger, all on the left hand side. For the right hand side, the finger on key ‘‘j’’ is the 1st finger, the finger on key ‘‘k’’ is the 2nd finger, the finger on key ‘‘l’’ is the 3rd finger, while the little finger on key ‘‘;’’ is the 4th finger, all on the right hand side.

Nottem Row/Third Row

As learned in our previous lesson, Nottem row is also known as the bottom row or the third row key. It consists of z, x, c, v, b, n, m, comma (,) and full stop (.) keys. The 1st finger on the left hand side is used to press key ‘‘v’’, the 2nd finger is used to press key ‘‘c’’, the 3rd finger is used to press key ‘‘x’’, while the 4th finger i.e. the little finger is used to press key ‘‘z’’. For the right hand side, the 1st finger is used to press key ‘‘n’’, the 2nd finger is used to press key ‘‘m’’, the 3rd finger is used to press comma key, while the 4th finger i.e.the little finger is used to press the full stop key. For key ‘‘b’’, the 1st finger on the left hand side, i.e. the ‘‘f’’ finger is used for it.

Correct Finger Position and Movement for Special Characters and Figures

The special characters and figures are located on the top row. To effectively type these keys, one needs to associate them with the home and the third row. To type the special characters, depress the shift key.

Activity: Practice exercises 44 to 46 from Walmsley’s Commercial Typewriting by Aileen M Prince.

Two Divisions of the Keyboard

Keyboard is divided into two:

1. The left hand side
2. The right hand side.

The left hand is used to depress a, s, d, f and g on the home row, while the right hand is used to depress (;, l, k, j, h) on the same row.