Typing quirks

From Kill Zone Blog, this entertaining post: (Not) Using the Middle Finger

I thought it might be about cussing in fiction or something. No. It’s literally about fingers:

So here I am typing with seven fingers, and one thumb for spacing.

I’m sure we all type differently. Some with only index fingers, while others might utilize more digits as they watch the keys. There’s the “hunt and peck” crowd, and then those of us who were taught to touch type without looking at the keyboard.

That’s where I fall in. I never look at my fingers or the letters, only the words that appear on the screen, at least until three weeks ago when my orthopedic physician diagnosed a partially torn ligament in my left middle finger. That injured digit is now strapped securely to its index neighbor, requiring me to watch my left hand hunt and peck.

I’m chuckling in recognition and sympathy. I’ve sustained various finger injuries over the years, and therefore type without using the ring finger on my left hand. The scar on the tip of that finger is still fairly sensitive and apparently always will be, but I could use that finger these days. On the other hand, I don’t see any reason to bother re-training myself to use that finger, so I don’t use it.

I have a tendon issue with my right thumb. I don’t use that thumb at all while typing. In fact, I try to minimize use of that thumb in daily life and seldom, for example, grip the steering wheel with it. I never try to open jars with my right hand. As far as typing goes, I hit the space bar with my left thumb or (I just now realized) sometimes with my left index finger. (I just did that while typing this post. I hadn’t realized I ever did that, but apparently sometimes I do.)

The surprising thing to me is that retraining yourself not to use one or another digit is not very difficult at all. At least, that’s been my experience. Plus, the unexpected benefit of training myself not to hit the space bar twice after periods. If you’re going to be switching hands for the space bar, that’s the time to change that habit. I used to just do a global find and replace to switch double spaces for singles. I still do, as a handful of double spaces tend to creep in as plain errors. I wouldn’t have bothered changing that habit if I hadn’t also needed to retrain my hands anyway.

A different issue: the letters wear off the keys. That means I really have no choice but to look at the words on the screen because about half the letters aren’t on the keyboard. Of course occasionally I put my fingers in the wrong spot and type something like yu[r dp,ryjomh ;olr yjod/. You know how there’s a little raised gizmo on the keys where you’re supposed to have your index fingers? That’s worn off too.

Well, I’ve hated my laptop practically since I got it. Eventually the damn thing will break in a way that legitimately compels me to get a different laptop and then, for a while, I will have letters on all the keys. I don’t like the modern laptops I see the students using, however, so I’m dragging my feet. I may hate and despise my laptop, but at least I’m familiar with its exceedingly annoying quirks.

Anyway, how many of you are nodding? Oh, yeah, you quit using one finger or another a decade ago, or yes, you too lose the letters off half the keys? I bet this sort of thing happens a lot.

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