TIPS FOR LEARNING THE COMPUTER KEYBOARD:

Finger Placement for the Home Row Keys:

  Left Hand -  -   Little finger on the “A” Key
         A S D F
  Right hand  - -  Fore finger on the “J” KEY
            J K L ;
                        Step 1: TYPE    a s d f  -  j k l ;   -  This is your home row of keys!
As new keys are learned your fingers always return to the Home Row of keys.
Your fingers can reach out to all the keys from the home row of keys!

1.  Another key you need to learn that you will often use is the “ENTER Key”.  (Sometimes called “Return Key”)   -  There is one for the "letter" section and also one for the “number” section of the keyboard.  Strike the ENTER Key with the little finger of the right hand.  When typing a letter, the ENTER Key will move the curser to the beginning of the next line or to start a new paragraph.  Hit the “Enter Key” two times if you want to skip a line and go to start a new paragraph.

(You can use the “Enter Key” for a lot of things, even to open up a Web Page Site on the Internet.)

2.   Another important thing that you will often use is the “SPACE BAR” at the bottom of the keyboard.  Strike the SPACE BAR once whenever a space is needed.  When typing a letter you will use the Space Bar to make a space between every word.

3. Your CURSOR is the little blinking stroke IN A TEXT BOX.  You start typing at that point!
Note: As you move the mouse, the “I beam pointer” moves around. Stop at the point to “enter” & click.  Click the mouse one time in the text box to see the cursor where you want to begin to type.

4.  The “BACKSPACE Key” is located to the right above the “Enter Key”.
You will often use this key -  If you make a mistake, just “Backspace” and the letter or words will erase!  This key will erase all letters or words to the left of your cursor to delete all errors you typed wrong!

5.  The “DELETE Key” is used often to delete words to the right of your cursor or you will learn that if you highlight a word or a sentence, you can use the delete key to delete those words!  Perhaps you want to delete a picture, a paragraph or page.  Highlight and delete!

6.  ARROW KEYS – The 4 arrow keys – up, down, right, or left  - are used if you want to go up spaces or down or move over words to the right or left on your word document or when reading your e-mail.  You can use the arrow keys instead of the “Scroll bars” to read your e-mail!  You can use the arrow keys up and down a webpage instead of the scroll bars.

7.  SHIFT KEY – press this key when you want a CAPITAL LETTER or the Upper Case above the numbers, such as !, @, #, $, %,  etc.

8.  If you want All Capital letters, you can press the “CAPS LOCK” key.  Be sure to press this key another time to return to all small (lower case) letters or numbers.

9.  The TAB key on the left is used when you want to indent to begin a sentence but often on the Internet when you want to move the cursor from one text box to the next text box.  Such as, if you want to type in your e-mail address in one text box and you want to move to the next text box for your pass word, you may TAB or just Click your Mouse inside the Text Box to bring in your cursor so you can begin typing!  The little box where you type information or type your letter for e-mail is called the TEXT BOX!  (HAVE FUN)