Start Course Keyboarding Skills Progression Course

Enjoy the course – Good Luck. Course Overview This course will introduce you to the layout of the keyboard and help you improve your typing skills and speed. The course has been broken into lessons where you will focus on specific skills. The course refers to the accompanying exercise booklet which has self paced exercises to put your skills into practice. Once you have completed a lesson, you can exit the course and complete the exercise. There is a main menu that will allow you to jump into each of the lessons, so you can complete the course at a pace to suit you. At the bottom of the screen there will be buttons where you can move the course forward or return to the menu. Enjoy the course – Good Luck. Next

Keyboard Layout and Home Keys Shift Key and Punctuation Marks Main Menu Click on one of the following buttons to start the lesson. Complete the lessons in numerical order. Lesson 1 Keyboard Layout and Home Keys Lesson 2 Upper Line Lesson 3 Lower Line Lesson 4 Shift Key and Punctuation Marks Lesson 5 Using Numbers

Keyboard Layout UK Keyboards are referred to as QWERTY keyboards as these letters make up the first six letters on the upper row. Although the layout seems random, when you start using the keyboard the layout becomes easy to use with five of the main vowels on the upper row and the keys least used on the bottom left. Menu Next

Keyboard Layout Left Hand Right Hand The keyboard is designed to be split between the left hand and right hand and you should try to use all four fingers on each hand when typing Menu Next

Keyboard Layout – Home keys On the middle row of the keyboard, the keys F and J have a small lump on each of them. These, along with the keys highlighted are referred to as the Home Keys. Your index finger on each hand should be placed on the F and J key with the other fingers on each of the keys, E.g. Little finger of the left hand on the A. Menu Next

Letters G and H Typing letters G and H will mean you need to move away from the Home keys. Typing the letters should be done with the index fingers on each hand. Each time you type a new letter you should return to the Home Keys e.g. Place your index fingers back on F and J. Menu Next

Spacebar, Return & Backspace It’s nearly time for the first exercise, during this exercise you will need to use the Spacebar, Return/Enter and, if you make a mistake, Backspace. These are highlighted in green on the image. Use your thumbs on the Spacebar, little finger on the right hand for the Return key and any fingers for Backspace. Menu Next

Exercise 1 – Home keys Please refer to the accompanying exercise booklet for an exercise on using the Home Keys. Please press the Exit button to close the course Menu Exit

Upper line – R and U Typing R and U should be done with the index fingers on each hand. R should be typed with the index finger on the left hand and the U should be typed with the index finger on the right. Each time you type one of these letters you should return your fingers to the Home Keys. Menu Next

Upper line – T and Y Typing T and Y should be done with the index fingers on each hand. T should be typed with the index finger on the left hand and the Y should be typed with the index finger on the right. From the Home keys, these keys will be a little bit of a stretch and may take some getting used to. Menu Next

Upper line – E and I Typing E and I should be done with the second fingers on each hand. When typing these letters, move up from the D and K keys. Return to the Home keys once you have typed in the letters. Menu Next

Upper line – W and O Typing W and O should be done with the third fingers on each hand. Return to the Home keys once you have typed in the letters. Menu Next

Upper line – Q and P Typing Q and P should be done with the little fingers on each hand. Return to the Home keys once you have typed in the letters. Menu Next

Exercise 2 – Upper line Please refer to the accompanying exercise booklet for exercise 2 using the upper line. Please press the Exit button to close the course Menu Exit

Lower line – Punctuation The lower line contains the full stop and comma. As you can imagine, these are used a lot when typing! To type these punctuation keys, use the third or fourth finger on your right hand. Menu Next

Lower line – V and N Use the index finger on each hand to type V and N. Drop down from the J and F keys to type these letters. Don’t forget to return to the Home Keys once you have finished typing! Menu Next

Lower line – X and M Use either the index or second finger on each hand to type X and M. Drop down from the home keys to type these letters. Menu Next

Lower line – B The letter B can be typed with the index finger of the right or left hand. This will be down to whatever feels best for you when typing. Menu Next

Lower line – Z and C C is typed with either the index or second finger. Z is typed with the third or fourth finger. The next exercise will give you practice on the lower line and see what feels comfortable when you are typing. Menu Next

Exercise 3 – Lower line Please refer to the accompanying exercise booklet for exercise 3 using the lower line. Please press the Exit button to close the course Menu Exit

Shift keys As you can see from the image above, all keyboards have two shift keys. This is to make typing easier and more efficient as you have a shift key for each side. To use the shift key, press the key with your little finger, followed by another key and letting shift go. When using shift with normal letters, the letters will be capitalised. When using shift with keyboard symbols, the top symbol on the key will be typed. Menu Next

Punctuation Marks - !, £ and ? Some of the punctuation marks, such as the full stop, comma are displayed. Symbols, such as the question mark, will need to hold the shift key to use them. Other symbols, such as exclamation marks and pound/dollar signs are found when you hold shift, followed by the number keys. For example, Shift and 1 will display a ! Symbol. Menu Next

Caps Lock When pressed, the Caps lock will turn on and will capitalise all letters typed. You don’t need to hold the key down like the shift key. On some computers, once the key is pressed a small light will display to the side of the keyboard. Once you have finished with the Caps lock, you should press the key again to disable it. This will then return your type to lower case. Menu Next

Exercise 4 – Shift, Caps and ! Please refer to the accompanying exercise booklet for exercise 4 using the Shift, Caps lock and punctuation marks. Please press the Exit button to close the course Menu Exit

Using Numbers All keyboards will have the number line at the top of the keyboard. Some keyboard have an additional number group on the right of the keyboard. This is particularly useful if you have to type long series of numbers. When using the number pad, there will be a key called ‘Num Lock’. This will need to be activated for the number group to work. Usually, this has a small light to indicate it has been selected and is active. Menu Next

Exercise 5 – Numbers Please refer to the accompanying exercise booklet for exercise 5 on using numbers. Please press the Exit button to close the course Menu Exit