Re: Proper Way to Type [OT]

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:12:34 -0500, TaliesinSoft wrote
(in message <0001HW.C4CFA45200124F4AB01AD9AF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>):

Today I was in a medical facility where there were numerous computers in
use.
I noted that every single person I saw at a keyboard typed with their wrists
resting on the surface on which the keyboard was placed. This is not the way
I was taught typing (long before it became known as "keyboarding"), instead
I
was taught to hold my hands so that the wrists were not touching anything,
allowing my hands to move somewhat about as I typed. Furthermore, I was
taught to have my fingertips pointing amost straight downward on the keys,
this differing from what I saw today where fingers were laying flat so that
the contact point of the finger onto the key was almost on the opposite side
as the fingernail. Is this the way people are taught these days? My initial
reaction is that such positioning is not conducive to rapid and effective
typing.




Well, I have gotten so much help from this particular usenet group - much of
it from those of you who have posted on this subject. I gotta weigh in with
my opinions, too, please. Sorry, can't help it.

The proper way to type is the way that gets the job done. If it meets your
needs and does not injure someone ... well, that's all to the good.

In my old typing class, we used rimfire Underwoods, and there was
considerable effort used in typing, compared to today's keyboards. Apples and
oranges, sorta.

Carpal tunnel injuries are the big bugaboo in typing, today. The wrists
should be in as close to a neutral position as possible. By neutral I mean
that there should be as little muscular tension in the wrists as possible.

Let your hands hang down loosely by your sides, all muscles slack. Now, raise
your forearms upwards, until they are at your keyboard height, and you will
notice that your hands are likely rotated somewhat out of good typing
position. You have to pronate your wrists (rotate them) so that the backs of
your hands are more nearly flat or parallel to the keyboard surface. If you
had a keyboard that was folded up in the middle you could keep your wrists in
a more neutral position, minimizing or eliminating the muscle effort for
pronation. These keyboards exist, but they can be spendy and may not be
compatible with your computer. I saw an extreme example, where a young man
took two keyboards and cut them up in such a way that he had the left half of
his keyboard down at the left side of his chair, a right half at the right
side of his chair, and he typed with his hands hanging straight down at his
sides.

If, when you are typing, your wrists are bent in such a way that your
knuckles are higher than your wrists, there is unneccessary muscle tension
used in flexing your wrists, and you may be setting yourself up for carpal
tunnel problems. The wrist rest is, I think, an attempt by some to have a
means by which their wrists can be slack, and still have their fingers in
place for typing.

I have seen some women typists with very long fingernails, and the only way
they can type is to have their fingers strike the keys flatways, rather than
with the ends of the fingertips. It makes me crazy to watch this, but they
seem perfectly at ease.

In the California job case fonts, there were different sized spaces used,
depending on whether the spacing was used between words or after terminal
punctuation. The old typewriter keyboard only had one space character
capability, so two spaces were used at the end of a sentence. With word
processing software, you have the ability to set the width of the spaces you
use between words, between sentences, between lines and between carriage
returns. The world is at your fingertips, literally. You can make your
document look any way you wish, with any kind of formatting which suits you
.... or your publisher.

I use a modified hunt and peck system when I type. I employ eight fingers and
one thumb, and look at the keys because I never really know for sure just
exactly where my hands are. I know that there are little raised marks on a
couple of the keys on home row, but I never stay in touch with them, so the
marks are no help to me.

It might be possible to ask nine blind typists to describe an elephant to us,
and get an equally correct answer as we have here, regarding correct typing
methods.

Respectfully submitted,
tom koehler

and thanks again for all the help I have gotten from you in the past


I will find a way or make one.

.

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