Finger placement

All computers, regardless of operating system or brand, use a standard keyboard with letters, numbers, and symbols. The keyboard consists of four rows: the top row contains numbers and special characters, while the remaining rows contain letters and punctuation marks. In the center of the keyboard are the letters that appear most frequently in texts; these keys are pressed by the more developed and agile fingers — the index and middle fingers

The keyboard rows are arranged from bottom to top: the first row is called the bottom row, the second the home row, the third the top row, and the fourth the number row

Learning the keyboard begins with the second row. This row is called the home row because it contains the letters most frequently used in texts. From this central position, it is convenient to move the fingers to press other keys

The fingers on the home row keys are distributed as follows:

• left hand: little finger — A, ring finger — S, middle finger — D, index finger — F
• right hand: index finger — J, middle finger — K, ring finger — L, little finger — ;

This finger placement is called the «home position»

All other characters are typed in the same way — each with its assigned finger. The finger moves to the required key, presses it, and then returns to the home position

The keys are distributed as follows:

• left index finger — f, g, r, t, v, b
• right index finger — j, h, y, u, n, m
• left middle finger — e, d, c
• right middle finger — i, k, ,
• left ring finger — wsx ц, ы, ч
• right ring finger — o, l, .
• left little finger — q, a, z
• right little finger — p, ;, ’, [, ]
• The space bar is pressed with the thumbs of either hand

The diagram below shows the layout of the Russian keyboard. It illustrates the finger movement zones when using the touch typing method

At the initial stage, learning the touch ten-finger typing method is carried out without considering letter case. Capital letters, punctuation marks, numbers, and auxiliary symbols belong to the next stage, which can be started after mastering touch typing in lowercase. Practice shows that learning them takes no more than 5–10% of the time spent learning the lowercase keyboard layout

Before starting to practice typing texts, pay attention to the following keys: Backspace, Delete, Enter, Space

• The Backspace key is used to delete the character to the left of the cursor. It is intended for correcting typing errors
• The Delete key performs a similar function to Backspace. It deletes the character to the right of the cursor
• The Enter key is used to move to a new line
• The Space key is pressed with the thumb of the left or right hand (whichever is free at the moment). It is used to insert spaces between words in a sentence