When you type on the computer, do you look down and search for every letter on the keyboard before striking it? This hunt-and-peck style of typing is much slower than the proper method, called touch-typing. Proper keyboarding can make you a much faster typist. That’s because your fingers learn where each key is, so they can type out words quickly using muscle memory instead of depending on your eyes.

Learning keyboarding makes you not just faster at hitting the keys but also better at avoiding typos. Since you don’t need to look down at the keyboard while touch-typing, you can catch typos on the screen as soon as you make them and fix them right away. This saves time when you’re editing your document after writing it. Keyboarding skills boost your productivity, give you more job opportunities, and make typing less tiring. Proper typing is even healthier for you, since it improves your posture at the keyboard and reduces your risk of injuries such as carpel tunnel syndrome.

Developing keyboarding skills and the muscle memory that comes with them is helpful for you to learn as early as you can, since you’ll need typing skills to write papers for school. Research says that students should begin keyboarding by the time they’re in fourth grade, which is when you’ve developed the hand-eye coordination for the job.

However, senior citizens who may not have learned typing in school can also benefit from learning keyboarding. Senior citizens can save time when emailing and doing other things on the computer by learning the basics of keyboarding. There are different keyboards available that cater to elderly people who are getting into typing. For example, you can find keyboards that have larger letters on high-contrast backgrounds, making it easier to see the letters.

For those who are new to keyboarding, the goal is to move past the hunt-and-peck method and type with your fingers in the right places on the keyboard. Your fingers should sit on the home row, with your left fingers on “A” to “F” and right fingers on “J” to the semicolon key. The ridges on the “F” and “J” give your index fingers something to feel for so you can make sure that your fingers are in the right place without having to look down. Once your fingers are in the right spots, you’ll be able to reach other keys with very little movement, making typing faster. Beginners usually type under 30 words per minute (WPM), but you’ll get faster with practice.

Intermediate keyboarding is about getting more familiar with the keyboard and improving your speed. One thing that helps is learning the different keyboard shortcuts you can use. These shortcuts let you do something on the computer using keys instead of clicking with the mouse, meaning that you don’t have to take your hands off of the keyboard, saving you a little bit of time. Intermediate typists should aim to reach 50 WPM. At the advanced level, keyboarding is all about reaching higher speeds while making fewer mistakes. The fastest typists can type 120 WPM or more. It takes a lot of practice over time to get there. But if you keep practicing, your keyboarding skills and speed will improve.

Introduction to Keyboarding

Finger Placement and Posture

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced