EDUEgypt Program Keyboard Skills

Participants Guide

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

Introduction:
Excellence, best performance, knowledge, connections, success are what everybody is wishing
for. In the business world, time is money and Internet has immensely helped in realizing great
business achievements. Back in the old day's one single facsimile could have changed the future
of a company now it could be changed with one single email. A letter could make or break great
friendships, now networks could make worldwide gatherings. Imagine having the world at your
fingertips, the Internet has made it possible and now it has become an indispensable necessity in
life.

Learning Objectives - WIFIM

By the end of this module, you will be able to:
1. Identify the importance of keyboard skills in a BPO
2. Use the tips to improve typing speed and accuracy
3. Enhance your awareness of keyboarding skills.

Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

Table of Contents

Sn.

Topic

Page

The development of keyboards

Computer ergonomics

Famous Keyboard layouts

How keyboards work

Using keyboards efficiently

Most commonly used Shortcuts

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Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

1. The Development of Keyboards

Keyboards that we see today have undergone a long process of
transformation. The first form of keyboards was typewriters. The
first typewriting devices go back to the 1700s. They were huge,
heavy, and not very user-friendly.

Moving into the computer era, the first computers were not sold along with their keyboards;
modified typewriters were used for this purpose, and were usually converted manually by
users.Apple, Radio Shack and Commodore foresaw the market potential for computer keyboards,
and started manufacturing their own. The notion that all computers come with keyboards and
that a keyboard is the standard input device was then developed. Over the years, keyboards
evolved to what we see and use today.

2. Computer Ergonomics
The study of ergonomics is a very pivotal and crucial discipline in the design and
implementation of computer systems, ergonomics are concerned with the design and
implementation of computer systems, layout and design (In terms of hardware and software) in a
manner that ensures the healthiest and most comfortable way for the user.
Have you ever wondered about why your toothbrush has some dents on the handle? Have you
wondered even why does the steering wheel in your car has a grip for the hand? These are all
ergonomics to ensure user's comfort.
If you look at the curves and dimensions of the keyboard, you will be able to clearly see why are
they in place. Having keyboards and products in general that are ergonomically designed ensures
that you avoid computer use injuries. To better know about the ergonomics of each product,
always read the manual that comes with the product in which you will be able to see clearly how
the designer ensures that his design adheres to the rules of computer ergonomics.

Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

3. Famous Keyboard Layouts:

QWERTY Layout:
Named as such for the positioning of keys in the top left row, the QWERTY is the most widely
used layout.

Dvorak Simplified Layout

This type of layout was introduced by Dr. Dvorak after extensive research on English language
and hand physiology. Although seen as more efficient and comfortable to typists, it could never
really beat the popularity of the QWERTY layout. That is the advantage of being first.

Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

Colemak Layout
Developed by Shai Coleman, this layout did not receive as much popularity as the previous two.

Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

4. How Keyboards Work

When a key is pressed on the keyboard, a piece of metal on the bottom of the keyconnects two
pieces of metal on a circuit-board beneath the keys. This completes an electrical circuit, sending
an electrical charge to a tiny processor locatedinside the keyboard. The tiny processor has a key
map stored, thus, enabling it to identify which letter is being pressed, and whether its capital or
lowercase letter depending on whether or not you are pressing another key with it, the Shift. The
processor then sends the data to the computer through a cable.

Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

5. Using the Keyboard Efficiently

WIIFM
Why is it important for us to improve our keyboard skills?

Improve accuracy
Save time
Increase productivity

Adham wants to learn Keyboarding Skills. His mind works very fast and his hands cannot keep
up to that speed. He wants to learn to type faster and follow the method for typing. He wants to
learn the placement of alphabets on the keyboard and which finger he is to use for which
alphabet. Before Adham can begin typing there are some basic points he must keep in mind.

Keyboarding Skill Principles:

Adham must remember some of the most important points in learning Keyboarding skills are:
1. Adham must remember that it is always better to go slow and steady in the beginning.
2. He must lay stress on becoming efficient at hitting the keys than to be quick and
impressive.
3. Adham needs to understand that it is always better to get into a habit of typing without
looking at the keyboard.
4. Adham should know the importance to becoming perfect with the process of typing with
lesser mistakes each time he hits the keys would be helpful.
5. Adham knows that he should be relaxed while learning to key-in the words each time on
the keyboard as it would quicken the learning process.

Keyboarding Skill Efficiency:

Adham learns that sitting up as straight as possible avoids stress to the back.
Adham learns to have the top of the monitor at eye level.
Adham learns that it is a good habit to be able to type with the back of his hand parallel to
the keyboard.
Adham learns to keep his wrists straight, so that the tendons in the wrist are agile through
the carpal tunnel.
Adham learns that the direction or the position of the arms in a manner to position the
index, middle and ring fingers on the home keys with the little finger being able to easily
reach out to the shift key on either side is suggested.
Adham learns it is good to take frequent breaks; like to get up and walk around, go out in
the balcony/veranda or do some other activity for a few minutes.

Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

Basic Understanding of the direction of fingers

1. Adham learns the layout of his fingers on this random assortment of keys. So he begins
by placing the left forefinger on the F key and the right forefinger on the J key.
2. He must then go about placing the middle, ring and the little finger likewise on the
respective keys on both sides.
3. Adham learns the direction of the fingers in such a way on the home keys i.e. ASDF for
the left hand and JKL for the right hand ensures that its positioned well for a good
session of typing.
4. Adham learns that ASDF and JKL; now become the first point of contact on the
keyboard. From this position he will be able to cover a wide area on the keyboard and
reach all keys with ease.
5. Adham learns that the little fingers are not as little in any way as they play an important
role in reaching out to more keys than any other finger.
6. He learns that the thumbs can always stay afloat in the air to do a bit of smashing of the
space bar which truly brings out the essence of typing.
7. Adham learns that the home keys are the basic keys, so when he speaks of the left hand
direction he basically kicks start by placing the left forefinger on the F and at the same
time arranges the rest of the fingers horizontal to the forefinger with the thumb resting in
its normal position.
Adham learns the direction of fingers is as follows:

The Left Hand:

Little finger left hand --- A
Ring finger left hand --- S
Middle finger left hand --- D
Index finger left hand --- F

Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

Adham learns that in the same way the direction of the right forefinger, middle, ring and small
fingers is similar to that of the left hand. The difference being the side on which it rests. The
right hand is responsible for the following home keys:

The Right Hand:

Little finger right hand --- J
Ring finger right hand --- K
Middle finger right hand --- L
Index finger right hand --- ;
Adham learns thats about the home keys and the direction of the fingers initially.
Moving on further he learns extended responsibilities for each finger, there is a good possibility
that his finger bumps in to more than one key on either side and he wouldnt know which one
strike which key by default. So Adham must make a bit of mental programming by practicing the
extended reach of each of the fingers.
Adham learns extended reach of fingers. He begins with the example of the index finger reaching
out for more than just the home key, and that would be keys G and H for the left and right index
respectively. Thats just about the home keys and the home row.
Adham widens the horizon of reach a little more and takes the practice to a whole new level
now. Next his little, ring and the middle finger will need to reach the column home keys as
discussed earlier that are sloped upwards. Hence the little finger will reach for the Q for queen,
the ring would reach for a jolly W for whisky, the middle would reach out further up north to
an E for egg and the index would run for a R for rooster

10

Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

Here is something that Adham needs to bear in mind, he will come across a number of times
where his fingers cannot extend to keys without moving from the initial set position, in such
cases it is always alright to move his hand just a little bit to reach out to certain keys like the
number keys, special keys like the alt, windows, escape and function keys. His level of
comfort and the ease with which he can return to the initial position is something that he needs to
work on.
Similarly on the right side, Adhams index would jump up to fetch the U for umbrella, the
middle would eye the I for item, the ring will run for an O for Oscar and the little finger will
strike the P for pool.
To further graduate Adham needs to get a hold of keys hidden under his palm, below the home
keys and the left and right fingers shall stoop to grab the following keys respectively.
Left-hand Right hand
Little finger left hand --- Z
Little finger right hand --- M
Ring finger left hand --- X
Ring finger right hand --- ,
Middle finger left hand --- C
Middle finger right hand --- .
Index finger left hand --- V
Index finger right hand --- /

11

Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

Adham learns that the quotes and the apostrophe, are housed in the same key which can
always be reached by the right little finger in an extended position

He sees that the shift keys that are placed diagonally to the home keys can also be considered to
be sister keys of the home keys that always be operated by the left and the right little finger.

Now Adham goes higher up the deck and sees the bunch of number keys starting from 1 to 0
which can be assigned to each of the fingers of the left and the right hand as per rubric, where he
can consider the value of 0 to be equivalent to 10

Adham learns that Brackets come in three pairs and these include the angular brackets, the
square brackets and the curly brackets.
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Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

He sees the angular brackets are above the comma and period, the square brackets are
housed to the right of the alphabets in the upper row and he sees the curly brackets are on the
same keys as that of the square brackets that can be used by holding the shift key.
Adham sees that there is yet another set of brackets, the round brackets that are on the last two
numerical keys i.e. 9 and 0 respectively

Adham learns to get to the symbols which are housed in the numerical keys is a matter of
practice and these can be used by holding the shift and then the corresponding numerical key.

Adham learns that the math keys that do play an important role are located to the right of the
numerical keys and these symbols include: -, +.
The divisor symbol Adham sees is located to the right of the square brackets keys that can be
reached by extending the right little finger.
The duplicates of these keys are also present as an independent set of keys with the numerical on
a desktop QWERTY keyboard.

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Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

Well, Adham has reached the end of the learning curve; there are two fundamental keys that play
a crucial role in documenting that is the backspace and the delete key, keys that you wouldnt
prefer to use at regular interval during your typing practice.
These are keys whose presence Adham should blissfully ignore during the practice, for hed
rather go slow and steady and emphasize on efficiency than use these keys to correct his typing.

Adham must remember practice makes perfect and its always better he practice to being
perfect!!!
Adham is happy once again as he has learnt to follow the method in typing. Now its typing
practice time.

14

Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

6. Most Commonly Used Shortcuts

Shortcut

Function

F1
Ctrl+C (or Ctrl+Insert)
Ctrl+X
Ctrl+V (or Shift+Insert)
Ctrl+Z
Ctrl+Y
Delete (or Ctrl+D)
Shift+Delete
F2
Ctrl+Right Arrow
Ctrl+Left Arrow
Ctrl+Down Arrow
Ctrl+Up Arrow
Ctrl+Shift with an arrow key
Shift with any arrow key
Ctrl with any arrow key+Spacebar
Ctrl+A
F3
Alt+Enter
Alt+F4
Alt+Spacebar
Ctrl+F4
Alt+Tab
Ctrl+Alt+Tab
Ctrl+Mouse scroll wheel
Windows logo key

+Tab

Ctrl+Windows logo key

Alt+Esc
F6
F4
Shift+F10
Ctrl+Esc
Alt+underlined letter
15

+Tab

Display Help
Copy the selected item
Cut the selected item
Paste the selected item
Undo an action
Redo an action
Delete the selected item and move it to the Recycle Bin
Delete the selected item without moving it to the Recycle
Bin first
Rename the selected item
Move the cursor to the beginning of the next word
Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous word
Move the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph
Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous paragraph
Select a block of text
Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop,
or select text within a document
Select multiple individual items in a window or on the
desktop
Select all items in a document or window
Search for a file or folder
Display properties for the selected item
Close the active item, or exit the active program
Open the shortcut menu for the active window
Close the active document
Switch between open items
Use the arrow keys to switch between open items
Change the size of icons on the desktop
Cycle through programs on the taskbar by using Aero Flip
3-D
Use the arrow keys to cycle through programs on the
taskbar by using Aero Flip 3-D
Cycle through items in the order in which they were
opened
Cycle through screen elements in a window or on the
desktop
Display the address bar list in Windows Explorer
Display the shortcut menu for the selected item
Open the Start menu
Display the corresponding menu

Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Information Technology Institute

Perform the menu command (or other underlined

command)
Activate the menu bar in the active program
Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu
Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu
Refresh the active window
View the folder one level up in Windows Explorer
Cancel the current task
Open Task Manager
Prevent the CD from automatically playing
Switch the input language when multiple input languages
are enabled
Switch the keyboard layout when multiple keyboard
layouts are enabled
Change the reading direction of text in right-to-left reading
languages

Alt+underlined letter
F10
Right Arrow
Left Arrow
F5 (or Ctrl+R)
Alt+Up Arrow
Esc
Ctrl+Shift+Esc
Shift when you insert a CD
Left Alt+Shift
Ctrl+Shift
Right or Left Ctrl+Shift

Keyboard Skills Tracking Sheet

Name:
Date

16

Speed

Keyboard Skills | EDUEgypt Program

Accuracy