Do you use "home row"?

[JQ Public]

I'm not from the stone age and i still type using the home row keys. Thats just how i was taught!

[coriolis]

I learned typing in high school back in '75. My mother went back to college when I was in grade school, and she was always typing stuff. I figured that I'd probably need to know how to type too. Those were the days, manual typewriters, onionskin paper, carbon paper, no coreccting ribbon, no white out. WOW!

I never did learn the numbers though.

Here's something I figured out on my own. Those little bumps on the "f" and "j" are to help you find your place on the keyboard without looking! You all probably knew that already but I didn't. DUH

[azskyman]

Home Row saved my life. Literally.

I was trained to be a forward field communications soldier in Vietnam. During my first week, I found myself moving further and further out into the bush. Just before I was to go to a fire base near Ban Me Thout, I overheard a conversation between a warrant officer and an enlisted trooper.

"Can you type," he asked the soldier? I didn't wait for his response.

"Sir," I jumped in, "I can type 50 wpm with no mistakes while in the dark. Just show me a keyboard and I'll show you I can do it."

The next day I was instead headed back to relative safety and out of the field. I spent my time in Vietnam doing many things...but among them was typing my fingers to the bone to save my life.

I did and it was.

Today, with word processors I can out-type anyone at the plant. Because of home row...I can do it in the dark! It is a gift from my high school teacher that truly saved my life.

[janswizard]

Speaking of home row, how many of you realize that both the letter "f" and "j" on the keyboard have a little raised line underneath the letter?

The reason? So that you will always know that your index finger on both hands is on the correct key for when you touch type rather than hunt and peck.

[Stephanie]

Okay, so I cheated...I peaked at some of the answers to figure out what Tom was referring to before I enterred the poll.

I'm a student of the "Stone Age" like Cajun Mama. I used the MANUAL typewriters in typing class for my first year and then "upgraded" to IBM the following years. One of the best classes I've ever taken! Little did we all know how valuable they would become about a decade later when the PC era came around.

[wx247]

I actually use home row sometimes although we called them home keys in my computer class back in 6th grade.

The reason I don't always use it is because I like to multi-task occasionally and so I may have one hand reading something while the other is typing. I do find it amazing still that I can type without looking for the keys. I guess it is just a learned behavior after awhile.

[stormraiser]

I took typing in HS to prepare for college. I use the home row, but I never made it through a semester of college (I got bored and decided to make it on my own.)

[Skywatch_NC]

Well, when my paternal grandfather and my Dad both scolded me over a period of time for 'hunting and pecking' (this was during my jr high years)...
in high school I took typing for one year...got C's and D's though.

Anyway, later on took a basic computer keyboarding course at the local community college (during my adult years) and did MUCH better!!

Yes, I DO use the home row!

Eric

[timNms]

I took 2 years of typing in high school. I think I managed to get up to about 50 wpm lol. (without mistakes). Hey, I could burn up the keyboard, but no one could read a word of what I was typing because it was full of mistakes. I always hated it when the teacher would stand over me and watch. That's when I would make the best mistakes LOL.
Yeah, I use the home row keys. Like another poster, I still have problems with the numbers. I have to look at them.
I can remember the days of the old manual typewriters too. Those things were terrible. I also remember the days of carbon paper, no white out and no correction tape. We had those eraser pencil things we had to use. They didn't work well and usually we'd end up having to redo the paper we were working on.
Anyone ever get their fingers on the wrong keys just before having to take a speed test? Now that was fun!
Since getting online in '97, my typing skills have improved quite a bit. A while back I could have 4 or 5 ICQ messages and 4 or 5 aol messages going at once and never miss a beat. (Thank goodness for the backspace button!)

[streetsoldier]

Not I, says the streetsoldier...I employ what is referred to as "Pharmacist's style", using two fingers on each hand.

Besahds, Ah ain't rowed a home since the Flud uf 1993 or tharabowtz.

Annabelle (our poogle puppy), on the other hand, spends SO much time in the street on our many-times-daily walks that "she be a 'road ho'".

[WoodstockWX]

kind of, I learned in for several years in GS/MS then over time I began able to type using the home row but I'd peak every now and then, and since I use the computer and internet so much, I've learned to type without looking, but my fingers are not EXACTLY lined up as they should be in home row, but I can still avg 50 WPM without many errors.

[chadtm80]

Yep, Type 50 to 60 WPM

[furluvcats]

I use two fingermails, one from each hand to type...but I'm really fast! You'd be amazed .

[coriolis]

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[JQ Public]

look what i found...



A virtual keyboard, designed by VKB Inc., is illuminated by a laser infront of a pocket PC, during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 9, 2004. Sensors in the unit detect precise finger position. The unit is available as a stand-alone product or can be embedded into product lines. Panasonic will test market the technology in Japan this April said Mario Neves, VKB senior vice president of marketing and sales. REUTERS/Steve Marcus

[OtherHD]

I want one of those!!!

[Lindaloo]

I can type 85 WPM.

I want one of those too. Pretty neat!!

[Miss Mary]

Hey I'm glad someone mentioned the bumps on two keys: the f and the j keys. Your index fingers go there and if you're off by one key, you will know it as soon as you look at what you're typing. Ed, I never learned the numbers either!!! I still need to look at them. But get this - I use the numbers on the top row, not the numbers on the right side. My husband watches me type numbers and can't understand why I use that row - he says just use the ones you use when using the computer calculator. To each his own. I'm sure some people wonder why the heck we even have numbers twice on a keyboard!!! The answer - the top row is where they are/were on old typewriters. Not sure why they're on the right side but maybe it's b/c of the calculator? Maybe someone can confirm this.

Mary

[chadtm80]

Chalk me up as another who never learned the numbers

[OtherHD]

I like the #'s on the side because all the keys are right there, and you can basically type them using just one hand. I'm trying more and more to use that set of number keys rather than the ones at the top. I find that the layout is more convenient on the side.