Bayubay, Gabrielle F.

How to Use a Computer Keyboard

Part I: Sitting at the Keyboard

1 Sit with good posture. In order to prevent 2 Center the keyboard. When typing, your
strain on your hands, back, neck, and other keyboard’s spacebar should be centered to
joints, you’ll want to sit at the keyboard with your body. This will keep you from having to
good posture. Sit slightly reclined on your rotate to reach the keys.
seat allowing the chair to support your lower
back. Ideally, your elbows should be angled
down slightly to promote circulation. Your
feet should be planted firmly on the floor

3 Avoid resting your palms or wrist. Your
hands should float above the keys while you
type. This will help you reach keys by moving
your hands instead of stretching your fingers.
Resting your palms or your wrist on the front
of the keyboard and stretching your fingers
promotes carpal tunnel syndrome.
4 Use a soft touch. Most keyboards are
fairly sensitive and don’t need much pressure
for the key to register. Lightly tapping keys
will keep your fingers active and will improve
your speed.

5 Relax your hands when you’re not

typing. When you’re not actively typing, rest
your hands. Keeping your hands tense when
not tying can increase stiffness and soreness
later.
Part II: Learning to Type

1 Open2 Find
a word the processor.
Home position
Nearly with
every both
hands.
computer hasThe Homeprocessor
a word position is where your
installed.
Even hands
a basicwill text
starteditor
when like
your Notepad
typing, andwillwhere
work. your
This fingers
will let return
you seeto after
what striking
you typea key.
while Most keyboards have raised bumps on the F
you practice.
and J keys. These indicate where your index
fingers are placed.

○ Slightly arch your fingers, and place your

fingers on the keys next to F and J.

○ Your left pinky rests on A, your left ring

finger on S, and your left middle finger on D.
3 Practice typing the home keys. Get used
○ Your right pinky rests on ;, your right ring
to pressing each key with its corresponding
finger on L, and your right middle finger on K.
finger. Memorize the key that each finger
rests on through repetition.
○ Your thumbs rest on the spacebar.
 4 Use the Shift key to capitalize the home
letters. You can capitalize letters by holding
the Shift key when you press the letter. Use
your pinky to press and hold the Shift key
using the hand that isn’t pressing the letter,
and then press the letter you want to
capitalize.
5 Expand to the keys surrounding the
home keys. Once you have a good handle
on the Home keys, you can start expanding
to the other keys on the keyboard. Use the
same repetition exercises to memorize the
location of the other keys. Use the nearest
finger to reach the key.

6 Practice
7 Learn the positions of punctuation and typing basic sentences. Now
symbols. Punctuation marks such as . , that ; , you are able to reach most keys without
and “ are located at the right side of the looking, it’s time to start typing sentences.
keyboard. You can reach these keys using Try transcribing something else on your
your right pinky. Many symbols need to have screen without looking at your keyboard.
the Shift key pressed in order to type them.Sentences like “The quick brown fox jump
○ Symbols are located above each of the over the lazy dog” contain every letter in the
number keys that run along the top of the 8 Focus on accuracy over speed. While
alphabet, allowing you to practice with all the
keyboard. You will need to have the Shift key typing fast may seem useful, it won’t matter if
pressed in order to type them. keys.
you’re making a lot of errors. Speed will
come with practice, so focus all of your
efforts on avoiding mistakes.

Part III: Using the Navigation Keys

1 Move up, down, left, and right. The
arrow keys up, down, left, and right are your
main navigation keys on the keyboard. You
can use them in a word processor to move
around and between lines, use them in
webpages to scroll, and use them in games
to move around. Use your right hand to press
the keys.
2 Scroll quickly through pages. You can
quickly through documents or webpages with
the Page Up and Page Down keys. If you are
using a word processor, these will move your
cursor one page up or down from the
cursor’s current location. If you are viewing a
webpage, these keys will scroll the page up
or down one screen-length.
 3 Jump to the beginning or end of a line.
You can move the cursor directly to the start
or end of a line with the Home and End keys.
These keys are most useful in word
processors.

4 Understand the difference between
Delete and Backspace. The Backspace key
will delete a character to the left of the
cursor, while pressing Delete will delete a
character to the right of the cursor. You can
also press Backspace to go back on a
webpage.
Part IV: Mastering the Numeric Pad
5 Use Insert to toggle Insert mode. The
Insert key changes the text input mode for
your word processor. When Insert mode is
toggled on any character you input will
replace the character to the right of cursor.
With Insert mode toggled off, existing
characters will not be replaced.

1 Open the calculator program. Using a
calculator program is the best way to get
used to the keys on the numeric pad. You
can use the numeric pad keys to perform
calculations in the calculator program.
2 Use NumLock to toggle the numeric
pad. When the numeric pad is not activated,
the 8, 4, 6, and 2 keys will act as arrow keys,
Press NumLock to enable the keypad. Some
laptop keyboards do not have a separate
numeric pad. They often need to be activated
using the Fn key, which changes keyboard
functions.
3 Find the Home position. Like the main 4 Enter number. Use your finger to enter
part of the keyboard, the numeric pad has a the number keys. You will see the numbers
Home position. On the 5 key, you feel a appear in the calculator program. Use
raised bump similar to the F and J keys. repetition to memorize the number placement
Place your right middle finger on the 5 key, and which fingers you use to press them.
and then place your right index finger on the
4 key. Place your right ring finger on the 6
key, and your thumb on the 0 key. Your pinky
rests on the Enter key.

5 Perform calculations. Around the edge of

the numeric pad, you will see the basic
arithmetic keys. These let you divide (/),
multiply (*), subtract (-) and add (+). Use
these keys to perform a variety of calcultions.