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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 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 invented by Frank Edgar 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. This date can be called the birthday of touch typing, the basis of all typing methods taught today. 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:
Modifications of the touch typing system In some countries a slightly different system is taught. The left little finger is used for the keys ยด 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, little - 0 and all other keys on the right side of the upper row. This modification is important in connection whith the ergonomic keyboard, which is splitted into two parts. See also | ||||||||
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