Guides

Finger placement and sitting posture for typing

Good typing starts before the first key. The way you sit and the place where your fingers rest decide how fast you can become and how tired you get.

The home position

Eight fingers rest on the middle row of letters, called the home row. The left hand covers A S D F and the right hand covers J K L ;. The two thumbs rest on the space bar. The keys F and J have a small raised mark so that the index fingers can find them by touch.

Each colour on the chart is one finger. A finger types its home key and the keys above and below it in the same slanting column. The two index fingers each look after two columns, because they are the strongest and most agile fingers. The little fingers look after the outer keys, including Shift, Enter and Backspace.

The same finger map applies whatever language the keys type. In the Hindi and Punjabi lessons on this site the fingers rest on the same keys, and only the letters change.

How the hands should look

• Fingers curved. Imagine holding a small ball in each hand. The fingertips, not the flat pads, touch the keys.
• Wrists straight and floating. The wrists should not bend up, down or sideways, and should not press on the edge of the table while you type. Rest them only when you pause.
• Light touch. A key needs very little force. Hitting keys hard is slower and tires the hands.
• Return home. After each key, the finger goes back to its resting key. This is the whole secret of typing without looking.

How to sit

1. Sit back in the chair so that your lower back is supported. Keep both feet flat on the floor.
2. Keep the elbows close to the body, bent at about a right angle, so that the forearms are level with the keyboard.
3. Place the keyboard directly in front of you, with the letter B roughly in line with the middle of your body.
4. Set the screen at about arm's length, with its top edge at or a little below eye level, so that you look slightly down at the text.
5. Keep the shoulders loose. If they creep up towards the ears, stop and let them drop.

A laptop on a bed or on the lap makes all of this impossible. For regular practice, put it on a table. If you use a laptop for hours every day, a separate keyboard with the screen raised on a few books is a cheap and effective arrangement.

Looking at the screen, not the keys

Typing by touch feels uncomfortable at first because you have always trusted your eyes. Some ways to break the habit:

• Practise the home row lesson until you can find F and J with your eyes closed.
• When you make a mistake, do not look down. Feel for the bumps and try again.
• If you cannot stop looking, cover your hands with a light cloth for one practice session.

Breaks

Typing is repeated small movement, and the hands need rest. Stop for a minute or two every half hour. Open and close the hands, roll the wrists and look at something far away to rest the eyes. If you feel pain, tingling or numbness in the hands or wrists, stop for the day. If it keeps coming back, see a doctor. This page describes common good practice and is not medical advice.

A check before every session

Feet flat. Back supported. Elbows by your sides. Wrists off the table. Index fingers on the two bumps. Eyes on the screen. It takes five seconds, and it is the habit that every other typing skill is built on.

This is an independent practice site. It is not connected with any examination body, keyboard maker or software company. A typing speed measured here is for your own practice. It is not a certificate, and an examination may measure speed in its own way.