INTRODUCTION
 
Mice are handy.  But even with a mouse, computing is 
easier if you know how to type.  Imagine being able to 
copy text into your computer with nearly 100% accuracy 
without looking at your keyboard or monitor.  Wouldn't 
that make data entry easier, even if you typed slowly?  
 
This is not a capability that you learn.  Your fingers 
learn it, while you suffer the indignities of the 
learning process.  They learn it with practice.  PRACTYPE 
will make that easy for you.  
 
There are some things that you can do to make it easy for 
your fingers to learn typing, as well as to make your 
typing tasks easy. These are explained in Typing entry in 
the Help pulldown menu.  The Options and Practice entrys
in the Help menu describe the use of the PRACTYPE program.
For the most part, however, PRACTYPE is self-explanatory.
 
PRACTYPE provides for the use of your mouse.  However, you
should disconnect your mouse, when using PRACTYPE, because
this is a keyboard practice program.  No one needs 
practice with a mouse.  We suggest that you run PRACTYPE 
without the mouse to learn how to find the cursor and page
positioning keys without looking.  Incidentally, you 
should learn also how to find the tab, enter, backspace, 
home, end, insert, and delete keys, without looking.
 
 
TYPING BASICS
 
There are only a few typing basics.  The first is posture.
Sit erect, near the front of your chair, with your feet 
flat on the floor.  Your forearms should be nearly 
horizontal, with your elbows bent 90 degrees, when your
fingers are on the keyboard. 
 
The second is hand position.  Curve your fingers so that 
you type on their tips.  Place your left index finger 
above the "f" key and your right index finger above the 
"j" key.  This is the "home" typing position.  Many
keyboards have bumps on these keys so you can find "home"
without looking.  Type, MOVING YOUR HANDS FROM "HOME" AS 
LITTLE AS POSSIBLE, by reaching with your fingers.  (You 
don't want to have to search for "home" by feeling for 
the bumps or looking.)  
 
From the Home position your left fingers can type "a", 
"s", "d", and "f" by simply pressing down.  Similarly, 
your right fingers can type "j", "k", "l", and ";".  
Also, either thumb can type a space by simply pressing 
down.  A space appears as a ° on the practice screen.  
The Keys entry in the Help pulldown menu describes how to
type other keys.  
 
Finally, your typing should occur at a very constant 
rhythm, as if you were typing to music.  See the Speed
entry in the Help pulldown menu.
 
 
KEYS
 
The "home" hand position is reached by placing your hands 
with the fingers curved and the tips of the index fingers
above the "f" and "j" keys.  From this position your left 
fingers can type "a", "s", "d", and "f" by simply 
pressing down.  Similarly, your right fingers can type 
"j", "k", "l", and ";".  Also, either thumb can type a 
space by simply pressing down.  A space is shown as ° on
the screen.
 
To type any other key you reach with your fingers, MOVING 
YOUR HANDS AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE (you don't want to forget
where "home" is).  The keys reached by each hand are shown
below.  Keys reached by the little fingers on many 
keyboards are shown in red, and those reached by the index
fingers are shown in magenta.
 
   Row     Left Hand     Right Hand
 
  Number   ~s741~q 2 3 ~s754 5~     6 7~q 8 9 ~s740 - =~q
  Upper    ~s74q~q w e ~s75r t~     y u~q i o ~s74p [ ]~q
  Home     ~s74a~q s d ~s75f g~     h j~q k l ~s74; '~q
  Lower    ~s74z~q x c ~s75v b~     n m~q , . ~s74/~q
 
 
SPEED
 
You may control typing speed in your practice sessions in 
two ways.  The simpler is by selecting the character 
speed.  You do this by choosing the desired entry in the 
Speed pulldown menu.  
 
The more difficult speed control requires practice.  
Higher speed occurs when you press the keys soon after 
the character enters the Character Display Line.  Slower 
speed occurs when you allow the character to move further 
to the left along the line.
 
In each practice session it is important that you try to 
press the keys when the characters are at the same place 
on the Character Display Line.  This produces a constant 
typing rhythm that, in turn, allows you to focus on typing
problems, rather than speed, and thus gradually improve
both accuracy and speed. 
 
It is important, too, that you keep your speed low enough 
that your accuracy is high.  Don't work on speed - work on
accuracy and rhythm!  Speed will develop naturally.   
 
 
PRACTICE OPTIONS
 
PRACTYPE allows you to practice on any of several portions
of the keyboard and over a wide range of speeds.  
Beginning typists should start with the Home Keys and the 
Beginning Speed.  As your accuracy and rhythm improve, 
PRACTYPE will suggest increasing speed and trying new 
keys.
 
More advanced typists may start with whatever keys and 
speed that they can handle accurately with a constant 
rhythm.  PRACTYPE will suggest changes as warranted.
 
Practice sessions are specified by making key and speed 
selections from pulldown menus.  It is good practice to 
accomplish this without looking.  Highlight the options 
with the cursor keys, place your hands in the Home 
position, and then press the Enter key by reaching with 
your right-hand little finger.  Practice begins by 
selecting Practice from the Menu pulldown menu.  Keep your
hands in the Home position and, when you are ready, press 
any key to start the practice session. 
 
 
PRACTICE SCREEN
 
The Practice Screen appears when you select Practice from 
the Menu pulldown menu.  Initially the screen contains 
four important areas: a Character Display Line, a Message 
Window, a results window called "Hits and Misses", and a 
Scoring window.  A Recommendation Window appears at the 
end of the practice session.  It is described in the 
Scoring entry in the Help pulldown window.  
 
The Character Display Line shows which keys to type.  It 
is at the top of the practice screen.  The character to be
typed moves from right to left along the line.  Type this 
character before it reaches the end of the line. 
 
Each character appears to the right of the Character 
Display line before it enters the line.  This is done to 
shorten your reaction time, and thereby increase your 
typing speed.  Do not watch the space where the next 
character appears.  Doing so causes confusion and creates 
errors.  Watch the Character Display Line instead and 
observe the next character with peripheral vision.  If you
can't see the next character with peripheral vision, 
ignore it.  
 
The Hits and Misses Window is immediately below the 
Character Display Line.  It displays your typing accuracy 
and timing.  At the bottom of this area is a line 
containing the names of keys used in this session.  Above 
each key name is a display of your performance in typing 
that key.  A smiley face appears when you type that key 
correctly.  If you mistyped that key, the character you 
typed is displayed.  
 
The height of the key above the key name line is a measure
of the time it took you to type the key after it first 
appeared.  If your typing rhythm is very good, all of the 
characters appear on one or two horizontal rows.  
 
The Message Window is at the bottom of the screen.  It 
provides directions for controlling the practice session 
and finding information about PRACTYPE. 
 
 
PERFORMANCE
 
Your typing accuracy, speed, and rhythm error appear in 
the Scoring Window at the end of each session.  The 
Practice Basics section of the PRACTYPE document describes
the calculation of these scores.   Keys for which there 
was no response appear at the very top of the Hits and 
Misses window.  
 
Accuracy and rhythm are improved by selecting problem keys
and by carefully adjusting typing speed.  Select problem 
keys by using the Problem Keys entry in the Keys pulldown 
menu.  The Speed entry in the Help pulldown window 
describes techniques for adjusting typing speed.  Base 
speed changes and problem key selections on the 
performance you usually achieve, rather than the results 
of a single session, because performance values usually 
vary significantly from session to session.  The log 
capability, if enabled, allows review of your progress 
for this purpose.  See the Log entry in the Help pulldown 
window for details.  
 
The Recommendations window, which appears at the end of 
the practice session, suggests ways to improve your 
keyboarding performance.  Scoring results are compared 
with predefined limits to develop the suggestions in this
window.  These limits vary with the number of characters 
shown on the bottom line of the Hits and Misses Window.  
 
 
LOG
 
This facility allows you to keep a running record of your 
keyboarding performance so that you can review your 
progress or look for chronic problems.  To record your 
performance you must open a log file.
 
The first step in developing your log facility is to name 
a new log file.  Name new files by using the New entry in 
the Log menu.  The name must contain one through eight 
characters, which may be any of the following:
 
          a through z
          A through Z
          0 through 9
          ~#$&_-{}
 
Do not include a DOS file-name extension (a period 
followed by one, two, or three of the above characters).  
The log name capitalization displayed by PRACTYPE will 
depend on your system.  
 
A newly named log file is open and ready for use.  To open
a previously named log file, choose the Open entry in the 
Log menu, and select the file by highlighting its name and
pressing Enter.  The name of the currently open log will 
appear later in the upper right-hand corner of the 
Practice Screen.  You may examine it by using the View 
entry in the Log menu.  
 
Only one file may be open at any time.  To change files or
to stop recording performance data, close the currently 
open file using the Close entry in the Log menu.  
 
You may delete any existing closed log file.  Choose the 
Delete entry in the Log menu, and select the file by 
highlighting its name and pressing Enter.  
 
PRACTYPE can find up to 32 log files.  If you have more 
than 32 in your practype directory only the first 32 will 
be displayed.  To use other files delete some displayed 
files, rename them with a different extension, or move 
them to another directory.  
 
A PRACTYPE log file can hold the results of 64 practice 
sessions.  If your file is full you must start a new file 
or remove some entries from your existing file using an 
ASCII text editor.  
 
 
 