How I created An Innovative Keyboarding Method

When I was learning to swim, pretty soon, I could dog paddle. My feet were off the ground and I was moving through the water. “Wow, I can do this”. I felt excited, confident and eager to learn more. I swaggered all the way home. My neighbor, Alice, badly needed a “Wow, I can do this” moment right now. She had been trying to learn keyboarding for 5 weeks and hadn’t even typed G.

I learned to type in typewriter class at school, typing random letters over and over, so that was no help. I thought hard. Every time we use the keyboard, we mentally split it into two sides, left-hand letters and right-hand letters. Why not learn one side at a time? It makes sense and, 15 keys instead of 30, it’s much easier.

Alice, there are 4 fingers on your left hand and 4 home keys on the left side in the middle row, ASDF, so it’s easy to figure out what finger hits what key, but how to remember ASDF, it doesn’t make any sense. Animals in the Snow Dig for Food, yay! Alice, type ASDF and say this sentence aloud. Do this 10 times.

Now, what words could Alice type using ASDF? She typed add, as, dad, fad and sad without looking at the keyboard and was thrilled to bits. Alice had her “Wow, I can do this” moment within 5 minutes of starting.

But wait, there’s another letter in the middle row, the elusive G, and we don’t have any more fingers. The Food finger does double the work and moves over to G. Alice, type ASDFG and say aloud Animals in the Snow Dig for Food Greedily. Do this 10 times. Now, type gad, gag, gas and sag without looking at the keyboard. She did it easily.

Next, the top and bottom rows. I placed my four left fingers on ASDF and idly moved them up to the top row and down to the bottom row. The Animals finger types Q on the top row and Z on the bottom row. Animals Queensland Zoo (or Qatar Zoo, Quebec Zoo, Qingdao Zoo). Type AQZ and say aloud Animals Queensland Zoo. Do this 10 times.

Top and bottom row associations for Snow, Dig and Food followed: Snow White Xmas, Dig Easter Chocolate, Food Raw Vegetables.

Two keys to go. The hardworking Food finger also types T and B. Type FTB and say aloud Food T-Bone. Do this 10 times.

One home row sentence and 5 up and down association words and Alice had finished the left side in 35 minutes. Wowee. She left my place on a “high”, do I detect a little swagger, and she was talking to herself, what was she saying? Oh, ha, ha, “Animals in the Snow Dig for Food Greedily . . .”