How to type with ten fingers: a guide for beginners

Why type with ten fingers?

Typing with two or three fingers works, but your eyes keep jumping between keys and screen. With ten fingers the work is shared between both hands, you keep reading the text, and you notice mistakes as they happen.

It also builds a habit. Once each finger owns a few keys, your hands remember the movements and your attention is free for what you write instead of where the letters are. That is why the first weeks feel slow: old habits are being replaced.

Sit and place your hands

A comfortable position makes practice easier. These are general suggestions; adjust them to your desk and your body.

• Sit upright with your feet flat on the floor and your back supported.
• Put the screen at about eye level, an arm’s length away.
• Keep your elbows close to your body, bent at about a right angle.
• Keep your wrists straight and slightly above the desk, not pressed on its edge.
• Curve your fingers lightly and press the keys gently. You do not need force.

Take a short break now and then, and stop if typing hurts.

Start from the home row

The home row is the middle row of letters. Rest the fingers of your left hand on A, S, D and F, and the fingers of your right hand on J, K, L and the semicolon (;). Your thumbs rest on the space bar.

Your index fingers are your guides. F and J have a small bump (the bars under those keys in the diagram below) that you can feel without looking, so you can always find your way back.

After every key you press, bring the finger back to its home key. The home row is the starting point of every movement.

Which finger presses which key

Finger colors on the hands and on the keyboard

Which finger for which key

Each finger covers the keys in its own column, moving straight up or down from its home key. Your index fingers cover two.

Top row (Q to P)

Reach up from the home row. Left hand: Q with the little finger, W with the ring finger, E with the middle finger, R and T with the index finger. Right hand: Y and U with the index finger, I with the middle finger, O with the ring finger, P with the little finger.

Bottom row (Z to /)

Reach down from the home row. Left hand: Z with the little finger, X with the ring finger, C with the middle finger, V and B with the index finger. Right hand: N and M with the index finger, the comma with the middle finger, the period with the ring finger, and the slash with the little finger.

Number row

On the left: 1 with the little finger, 2 with the ring finger, 3 with the middle finger, 4 and 5 with the index finger. On the right: 6 and 7 with the index finger, 8 with the middle finger, 9 with the ring finger, 0 with the little finger. Return to the home row after each number.

Shift and capital letters

Press Shift with the little finger of the hand that is not typing the letter. For a capital A, hold the right Shift with your right little finger and press A with your left.

Punctuation and other keys

The little fingers handle most of the rest: the semicolon, apostrophe, brackets, hyphen, Enter and Backspace on the right, and Tab, Caps Lock and the left Shift on the left. The comma and period go to the middle and ring fingers of the right hand.

Space bar

Use whichever thumb feels natural. The diagram splits the bar in two only to show both thumbs.

The same information as a table

A step-by-step practice plan

Move to the next step only when the current one feels easy and accurate.

1. Step 1: the home row

   Place your fingers on the home row and press A S D F J K L ; with the right finger, returning to the home keys after every press. Do this for a few minutes with your eyes on the screen. When you can do it without looking down, move on.

2. Step 2: the top row

   Add Q W E R T Y U I O P. Reach up from the home row and come back. Words such as “were”, “their” and “quiet” use many top-row keys.

3. Step 3: the bottom row

   Add Z X C V B N M, the comma and the period. Reach down and come back.

4. Step 4: numbers, capitals and symbols

   Finish with the number row, capital letters with Shift, and punctuation.

Tips for building the habit

• Do not look at the keyboard.

  Looking down feels faster at first but keeps the old habit alive. If you get lost, find the bumps on F and J and start again.

• Accuracy first, speed later.

  Type slowly enough to make few mistakes. Speed comes with repetition.

• Short sessions every day.

  Ten to fifteen minutes a day tends to work better than one long session a week.

• Keep an even rhythm.

  Press the keys at a steady pace instead of in bursts. A slow, even rhythm turns faster on its own.

• Use the right finger, even when it feels clumsy.

  Using the wrong finger once teaches the wrong habit.

• Use the tools of this site.

  The Relaxed mode has no timer or score, which makes it a gentle start, and the Easy difficulty keeps sentences short. After a few tests, the statistics page shows your weakest keys, and Practice weak keys picks sentences for them.

Questions about touch typing