Top and bottom rows

QWERTY is named after the first six letters of the top row, a layout drawn in Christopher Latham Sholes's patent of 1878.

That history explains a lot about the two rows you are about to learn. The layout was not designed around human hands, let alone computers, so some reaches feel awkward, and that is the keyboard's doing rather than yours. It is also the layout printed on nearly every keyboard you will meet. Each reach you learn here works on any computer, at home, at school or at work.

Reach with the finger, keep the wrist still

With the home row in place, the other two letter rows are reaches. A finger leaves its home key, presses a key above or below, and comes back. Because the columns slant, most fingers reach up and slightly to the left, or down and slightly to the right. Keep the hand still and move only the finger. If your wrist swings across the keyboard to reach a key, the other fingers lose their places, and the next key becomes a guess.

Every letter has an owner, and B and Y are the long stretches

Here is the whole letter chart, finger by finger. Left little finger: Q, A, Z. Left ring finger: W, S, X. Left middle finger: E, D, C. Left index finger: R, T, F, G, V, B. Right index finger: Y, U, H, J, N, M. Right middle finger: I, K and the comma. Right ring finger: O, L and the full stop. Right little finger: P, the semicolon, the slash, the brackets, the apostrophe and the Enter key. Two reaches tend to be the hardest at first. B is a long stretch down and to the right for the left index finger, and Y is a stretch up and to the left for the right index finger.

Capitals use the Shift on the other side

A capital letter is Shift held down plus the letter. The usual touch typing rule is to hold the Shift on the other side. For a capital J, the left little finger holds the left Shift while the right index finger types J. For a capital F it is the other way round, with the right little finger on the right Shift. That keeps the typing hand at home, so the reach is the same as for the small letter. The practice keyboard lights up the correct Shift for you. Caps Lock works differently. It is a switch: press it once and every letter is a capital until you press it again. That is handy for one word in capitals, and easy to leave on by accident.

Drill each reach as home, reach, home

A good drill for each reach is home, reach, home: f r f, j u j, d e d, k i k. Some people find it helps to say the letters in their head. Then move to short words that use only the rows you know, such as were, you, there and type, and after the bottom row, cave, name, zinc and box. The Top row and Bottom row lessons in the practice keyboard follow this order, and the Capital letters lesson mixes in both Shift keys. If one reach keeps going wrong, slow down on that pair alone for a minute and then return to the words.