What Words Can You Type Using Your Right Hand?




If you’re left-handed, congratulations! You join Albert Einstein, Barack Obama, and Bill Gates, among others, in a select group of approximately ten percent of the population. Note: If you aren’t already celebrating International Left-Handers Day, put August 13th on your calendar now. As a left-hander, you’re probably familiar with the down side of being in the minority, and are used to dealing with desks, scissors, cars, and everyday conveniences that, well, aren’t as convenient if you don’t have a right-handed orientation. On the other hand, you’ve got the advantage over those right-handers because your left hand will generally be stronger and more flexible, making it easier to use that hand to touch type. That will help you increase your typing speed, because many of the most common letters, including A, S, E, T, R, and D, are typed with the left hand. It will also help you with those difficult words that include a Q or an X or a Z, all of which are also typed with the left hand (and which generally are the most difficult words to type).

But even with this keyboard advantage, don’t forget that touch typing depends on both hands! To make sure that your right hand works as well as the left, try practicing your typing skills with this list of words that are typed with right side of keyboard only:

lollipop
monopoly
polyphony
jumpily
pool
holly
homonym
lumpy
million
kimono
pippin
pompom
unholy
hippo
nylon
nymph
onion
puppy
union
monopoly
minimum
opinion

Even if you prefer to have your mouse on the left side of the keyboard, there’s only one right way to touch type and reach the typing speed you want, and that’s to keep both your left and your right hand strong, flexible, and accurate on the keys.


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Are You Right-Handed? Use This Exercise And You Won’t Be Left Behind




Right-handed people tend to have a weaker left hand, but a good touch typist needs to have equal strength in both hands, since both are used equally in typing. The Typesy software system focuses on making sure that both hands have equal agility, flexibility, strength through a series of exercises that focus on each hand and every finger. If you’re not using Typesy, you can still practice on your own to build your left hand strength. Try typing out this list of practice words that only use the left hand on a standard QWERTY keyboard.

stewardesses
reverberated
desegregated
beater
breeze
actress
debase
dessert
beverage
addressed
cataract
aggregate
stargazer
aftertaste
exaggerated
stared
swerved
greet
detest
crease
abracadabra
cabbages
watercress
database
afterwards

Another way to equalize the abilities of your hand is to use your left hand for things you’re accustomed to using your right hand for. Hold your toothbrush in your left hand. Use your left hand to brush your hair, or point out the window, or dial the numbers on the telephone. It will seem awkward at first, but as your mind forms stronger connections between the actions and the nerve impulses, it will be easier.

If your left hand is significantly weaker than your right, you might consider getting a small rubber ball to squeeze in your left hand to build up muscle strength. Be careful not to overdo the exercise at first, and stop exercising if you feel your hand start to cramp. Even simply tapping the fingers of your left hand in different patterns is a good way to develop agility and precision. When both your left and your right hand are working well, your typing speed will definitely increase.


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The Three “L”s of Typing: Limbs, Leg Position, and Length




How you sit at your desk and where you have your arms and legs will have a big impact on how fast you can type, because when you’re sitting out of alignment or in an uncomfortable position, your speed will slow and your error rate increase. In addition, improper keyboard height and position can both lead to the development of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, tendonitis, and other wrist problems. It can also cause shoulder and hand pain.

Finding the ideal keyboard position is made simpler by focusing on a position that is natural and relaxed, one that creates the letter “L” like your legs and body do when they’re in the right position. Let your arms hang down to your sides naturally so that they don’t cause your shoulders to hunch. When bent at the elbow, your arm and forearm should form the letter “L” – or, if easier to visualize, a ninety degree angle. When properly positioned, your keyboard and your elbows should both be about the same height. You should also be able to naturally curve your fingers and position them close to the keys.

Remember to use your chair’s arm rests to alleviate excess weight on your back and shoulders. If necessary, you can purchase a keyboard tray, an accessory that can be attached to your desk and adjusted.

As with your computer monitor, the placement of your keyboard on your work surface matters. You don’t want it too close to you or too far away. If you have to stretch your arms and tilt your torso forward to reach it, it’s too far. If the keyboard is too close, your arms and forearms will create more of a “V” shape than the preferred ninety degree angle or “L-shape”.

If you find you bend your wrists sideways or upwards while typing on the keyboard, you will have to make adjustments or consider purchasing one of the other styles of keyboard available.

The best advice for maintaining a more neutral wrist posture is to try adjusting your keyboard or your chair’s height. Additionally, you can try elevating either the back or the front of your keyboard. Finally, you can consider adding a wrist rest to your work surface. Some keyboards have built-in wrist rests. If yours doesn’t have this feature, don’t worry. They can be purchased inexpensively and can definitely help reduce the risk of developing RSI.

Note: If you experience musculoskeletal pain and discomfort now, or while completing the Typesy Course, you may need to seek professional help. Only someone with the proper training can accurately diagnosis the source of your pain or discomfort and recommend a treatment plan that may or may not include ergonomics.


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Quick Eye Exercises to Improve Typing Speed




Your fingers get a pretty good workout from touch typing – and believe it or not, so do your eyes. Your eyes might actually work harder than your fingers as they quickly and repeatedly dart from left to right, right to left, up and down and all around as they continually refocus on monitor images. No wonder eye fatigue is such a common complaint among computer users!

To help alleviate some of this strain, remember to give your eye muscles frequent breaks. One simple way to do this is by switching your view from your monitor to something off in the distance about once each hour. All you have to do is locate an object that’s about 15 to 20 feet away. Then, once an hour, look at it for a minute or so. That’s it!

Another eye exercise you can do right at your desk to help give tired muscles a rest is eye rolling. Simply close your eyes, and while closed, move your eyes over to the right and pause for five seconds, then look over to the left and pause, then move your eyes up, pause, and look down and pause.

Then with your eyes still closed, slowly move them in a circular direction. Make the circle as big as you can with your eyes. Continue until you have completed five full circles. Then reverse direction and slowly make five more circles. Do this whenever your eyes feel tired. If your boss asks what you’re doing, tell him you’re exercising!


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Shining Some Light On Typing Best Practices




Adequate lighting is an absolute must if you want to avoid eye strain, but it often seems that few typists understand just how important proper lighting is. Without adequate lighting, it is difficult to see your work. That’s obvious. But when you have to assume an awkward position just so you can view what’s on your monitor, you are setting yourself up for eyestrain, eye fatigue, and headaches. Glare on your monitor screen is another problem that often results from positioning your computer monitor in the wrong spot. Glare can make it difficult to clearly see what’s on your monitor, and can also trigger eye strain.
Why suffer when the right amount of illumination and proper placement can alleviate these problems before they have a chance to develop?

When it comes to lighting your work space, remember that brighter is not always better. Bright overhead lighting can “wash out” images on your screen. Task lighting, window blinds and shades, light diffusers, removing bulbs to reduce brightness, and other lighting adjustments can all help tone down light that’s too bright.

Sometimes, however, you may have to reposition your monitor in order to increase visibility or reduce glare. For example, a lot of typists position the backs of their monitors in front of windows so they can gaze out the window. But the resulting contrast problems can make it difficult to clearly see what’s on your monitor. No doubt we all would like to look out the window, especially if we’re stuck in an office all day. But if doing so interferes with visibility, it’s a problem.

Again, window coverings can help. So can shielded lighting and indirect lighting. If possible, you can even rearrange your work space in a way that puts direct light at a right angle with your monitor.
Just as too much light can cause problems, so can too little. As often as possible try to avoid situations where there is a lot of contrast between dark and light at your work space, on the monitor, and in the room.

Glare is another problem created by inadequate lighting. Glare often results when light from overhead lights and windows is reflected on the monitor. Again, quick fixes like window coverings, task lighting, glare filters and guards, light diffusers, and repositioning the monitor and the light at right angles can all help reduce glare and the health issues it can trigger.

As we’ve mentioned before, while these changes might be easy in your home office, you might hesitate before making major adjustments at work. However, your employer will probably be more than happy to help you set up your workspace to reduce your stress and increase your efficiency as a typist!


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4 Ways to Earn $ With Touch Typing Skills




Besides enhancing your career prospects, touch typing has the potential to improve your earning potential, as well. Many employers are willing to pay higher salaries to individuals who can prove they are invaluable and possess a desirable skill set that includes touch typing. It doesn’t get much better than that! Here are four reasons you can quickly see an increase in the amount of money you have available after you’ve learned to touch type:

Touch typing saves time. Whether you work for yourself or others, in the end it all comes down to productivity. The more you can produce, the more you’ll get paid. When you can speed up your power of production by learning how to touch type, you’ll also speed up your earning potential.

Touch typing reduces your risk of developing RSI, or repetitive strain injury. Carpal tunnel syndrome and other stress-related injuries may need to be corrected by painful surgeries and expensive medication or injections. In addition, you’ll probably have to take time off work to get these problems fixed. If you can lower the risk of incurring these injuries in the first place, you won’t have to worry about spending more money on medical expenses, or losing more money by missing work days.

Touch typing can open the door to exciting careers in the secretarial, administrative, transcription, research, and writing fields. Take a look at some of the salary lists for transcriptionists and secretaries and you’ll see that it’s possible to earn a good living at these jobs. The standard typing speed required to start in these fields is around 45-60wpm (with good accuracy) but if you can increase your typing speed to over 80wpm you’ll automatically move to the top of the list.

Touch typing can improve performance in any job, regardless of whether the job is related to typing or not. Even business owners can benefit from the ability to touch type, whether or not they employ secretaries to do most of the correspondence. But whether you’re a business owner or an employee, touch typing can improve both your career prospects and your earning potential.


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What If I’m Not Typing In English? All About Non-QWERTY Keyboards




The Typesy system is designed to teach you to touch type on a standard QWERTY keyboard, where the letters are in a specific arrangement across the three rows. The system also supports keyboard layouts for UK English and Spanish, which have the same letter layout but some different arrangements of punctuation and symbol keys. There are other keyboard layouts in use around the world, however, and if you do a lot of traveling and rely on internet cafés for your e-mails, you need to be aware that your touch typing skills might actually cause you to slow down, since the letters you expect to find under your fingers won’t be where you think they are.

If you’re traveling in Germany, Poland,, or Switzerland, then you’ll probably see the QWERTZ keyboard, where the Y and Z keys have switched places. In addition, the many accent marks (diacritical marks) and special letters in Eastern European alphabets will appear beside, or instead of, some of the punctuation and symbols you’re used to seeing.

To support French-language typists in France and Belgium the keyboard configuration AZERTY is used. This keyboard also includes accented letters used in French, and switches several letters across the rows.

It’s difficult for typists once non-Latin alphabets are considered, because everything changes, and there won’t be an easy way for someone used to a QWERTY keyboard to type on a keyboard in Russia that uses the Cyrillic alphabet. However, some computers make it easy to switch between the two layouts, and for letters that are the same in both alphabets (like J, M, K, and B) the positions are identical.

What happens when a language doesn’t depend on a letter-based alphabet? For people in China and Japan, a computer is the only practical solution. It allows phonetic word entry, which then calls up a pop-up window of possible word choices for the typist to select. If we did this in English, it would be like typing in the letters W-A-Y-T and being presented with the words wait and weight to choose from. That might seem to be a long way around to simply type a word, but think about this: where there are only 26 letters in the English alphabet, there are over 10,000 characters in Mandarin. Imagine trying to fit all of those keys on one keyboard!


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Can Laptop Computers Cause Typing Problems?




If you regularly use both a laptop and a desktop computer, you’ve probably already realized that the keyboard on your laptop is smaller than a standard keyboard. This can make it difficult to stay in the best position to reduce stress, and they way you sit and hold your arms might feel awkward because of the size of the keyboard. To compensate for its flatness and the reduced space in between keys, try raising your fingers a bit. Alternatively, you can plug in an external standard keyboard or use a wireless keyboard instead.

This is strictly a personal choice based on what you are more comfortable with. Some would advise you learn touch typing using the keyboard that you will use the majority of time you type, so if you do most of your typing at work on a standard PC but use a laptop for internet chat at home, try to get access to a desktop computer when you’re working on your typing studies.

Keyboard differences with laptops can cause problems, and the same is true with the laptop touchpad that moves the cursor around and performs other functions similar to those performed by a mouse. The touchpad is there for those of you who want to use it. If you’d rather not, you can always plug in an external mouse or use a wireless mouse.

One other problem with laptops is that the screen is fixed to the keyboard. If the keyboard’s low enough for comfortable typing, the screen is probably not at the optimal height to keep you in a good posture. Conversely, if you put your laptop high enough that you can see the screen straight ahead, you’re probably typing with your arms and hands elevated, which will also lead to stress. Again, a plug-in or wireless separate keyboard will help eliminate these problems.


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Which is More Important: Speed or Accuracy?




When it comes to touch typing, the two most common goals are speed and accuracy. Each of these goals provides you an opportunity to define a specific measurable accomplishment that you would like to achieve. Whether you choose a goal of speed or a goal of accuracy, or both together, is a personal decision that should be based on answering this simple question:

What do I hope to achieve by learning touch typing skills?

In order to answer this question and help you decide on your first typing goal, here are some more questions to think about. The answers to these questions will help you prioritize how you use the Typesy system to improve your touch typing skills.

1. Will touch typing help me qualify for a specific type of employment?

2. Will touch typing help me complete more school assignments in less time?

3. Will touch typing help give my written correspondence a more professional appearance?

4. Will touch typing help me realize my dream of opening my own typing business?

5. Will touch typing help me teach a child, relative or other acquaintance touch typing skills?

6. Will touch typing help me be more responsive to questions and other requests for information I encounter on various social media sites?

7. Will touch typing simply allow me to add another valuable skill to my existing skill set?

8. Will touch typing benefit my life in some other way, and if so, how?

Once you define your touch typing goal, whether that’s improved speed or more accuracy, simply enter it into Typesy and let Typesy help you achieve it!


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Help! I Can’t Find My Keys!




If you’ve done any traveling in different countries, you’ve probably had the experience of going to an internet cafe and trying to send an e-mail to your friends back home – and realizing that your e-mail is full of typos you didn’t even know you were making! That’s because the layout of computer keyboards from different regions of the world may vary. A United Kingdom keyboard is a good example. The main difference on a UK keyboard is that the symbols above the numbers are in a different order, and a few of the punctuation keys are in different locations. Another difference is that the Enter key on a UK layout takes up two rows rather than one. Spanish keyboards are set up to accommodate specific non-English letters and symbols, and if you’re a good touch typist and aren’t looking at the keyboard, you’ll probably end up pressing the wrong keys accidentally. Some computers and laptops allow you to change the virtual keyboard layout, however, so no matter what the letter or symbol on the key is, you’ll be able to type as you’re used to without making accidental errors. Note: Typesy will adapt to your keyboard as long as that type is supported.

In addition to regional variations in key layouts, some keyboards have entirely different shapes. One you may be familiar with is the split keyboard. Split keyboards look as if they have pie-shaped cracks running down the middle of the letter rows. The split was designed to conform to a more natural hand position, which is supposed to help reduce shoulder, wrist, and arm tension. Other split keyboard designs actually consist of two separate keyboard pieces with half of the letters appearing on the left-side piece and the other letters appearing on the right-side piece. This ergonomically designed keyboard makes it easier for different users to adjust the position of the two sides in whatever arrangement results in the most comfort.

Other keyboard designs are split and contoured, which supposedly improve comfort and typing speed. Some designs have repositioned the most commonly used keys for easier access. There’s also the Dvorak Simplified keyboard, which has undergone several design changes since its creation back in the 1930’s.
Although futuristic-looking and favored by some, the majority of updated and non-traditional computer keyboard designs have failed to gain widespread acceptance among computer users. It is for this reason that the makers of Typesy decided to base their touch typing lessons on the QWERTY keyboard. This decision was also based on the fact that the QWERTY keyboard is the number one recommended choice for touch typing. Nearly all modern computer keyboards have the QWERTY layout; the name comes from the order of letters on the top row, Q-W-E-R-T-Y from left to right. Because the QWERTY layout is so common, the touch typing lessons in Typesy are based on this layout.


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