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Ask Slashdot: Do You Press "6" Key With Right Or Left Hand?
New submitter ne0phyte73 writes: In some countries and in some touch typing books key "6" is pressed with right hand and in some others with left. It's not a big issue until you have a split keyboard. Guys at UHK are putting it on the left side. Do you agree? What hand do you use to press "6"? Left hand here, but it's not a strong preference; I'll take a keyboard that omits Caps Lock wherever they put the 6.
I press the "3" key twice, really fast.
I use the number pad a lot more often than the top row of number keys.
So I use my right hand to press the "6" key (and any other number key, for that matter).
Whichever finger is closest to the 6 key wins. It's the American way.
My Microsoft Natural 4000 keyboard has it on the left.
Since I've been using Microsoft ergonomic keyboards for years, I'm now in the habit of hitting the 6 with my left forefinger.
(Microsoft can't make a decent operating system, but their keyboards and mice are first class.)
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I took a typing class in 10th grade (the first opportunity I had back in the 80s). It was the most practically useful class I had in high school. The class was very clear in teaching that you use your right index finger for 6 and 7, while your left does 4 and 5. Going down the keyboard, the left index finger also does T, G, and B, while the right does Y, H, and N. The only one I do wrong is 6.
Now looking at my keyboard, 6 is almost centered between F and J, the home positions for the index fingers, but it's ever so slightly closer to F, so perhaps they were teaching the class wrong?
I use base 6 for all my work.
If you ever work with numbers on a regular basis, like in a spreadsheet, it's SO much faster to use the numpad.
Not really. On the numpad, you're limited to three fingers and the occasional thumb (for zero). On the typewriter part, you can use all 8 fingers for the numbers. I am very very fast at both, and I find the numpad to actually be slower.
Of course. For those of us who are, shall we say, gifted, we don't even have to get out of our chair to hit the "6" key.
However, the fact that we have to type sans trousers makes us sort of unemployable but that's a decent trade-off.
I can also play five octaves of the C note simultaneously on my piano in this manner.
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I have a split Microsoft Wireless Natural at home (yes, a huge offense as a Linux-only user) and the 6 is on the left.
And at work (also Linux-only of course) I have some type of split Logitech and 6 is also on the left.
I am thinking left is probably right (pun intended).
Personally I think split keyboards are extremely uncomfortable. I don't know why people prefer them to the old style.
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Because people who type all the time don't like to have their wrists twisted like they are wear handcuffs. I remember the first time I used a Hodgekiss keyboard (split and tilted up) my wrists were much, much happier in just a few minutes.
I use the numpad almost always.
I don't have a numpad you insensitive clod! I have a Happy Hacking keyboard.
However when typing I just sort of launch my fingers at the keyboard and hit the keys in the required order. This comes from typing from an early age. I never learned 'proper' touch typing, but the muscle memory is pretty well ingrained and I can type faster than I can think of what to type.
So whatever finger is close to the six and fits in the logic sequence of where my fingers need to go will be the one that hits the 6 (right hand that time - Left hand hit the 'e' of the the, so the right hand was ready and available to hit the 6).
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As a draftsman, I find myself using the Caps lock key quite a bit. Without it, I'd be sitting on the Shift key for pretty much of the day. No, the Caps lock key is quite useful, thank you very much.
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Left hand for 5, right hand for 6, like it's supposed to be.
Next question: To capitalize, do you use the Shift key with the hand opposite of the hand typing the capitalized letter? ie.: type "A" with right hand on shift key and "J" with left hand on shift key?
Oh snap, I forgot that nobody cares.