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KEYMASTER INSTRUCTIONS ---------------------- Table of Contents Section Page ------- ---- A. Introducing Keymaster ................................1 B. Getting around........................................2 C. Getting ready for your first lesson...................3 D. Taking a lesson.......................................4 E. Measuring your progress...............................7 F. Learning to type......................................8 G. Finger placement......................................9 H. Tips.................................................10 I. Returning for more lessons...........................11 J. QWERTY and Dvorak keyboards..........................12 K. The Translator.......................................14 Copyright (c) 1985 Seasoned Systems, Inc. Copyright (c) 1985 Software Publishing Corporation A. Introducing Keymaster Keymaster introduces you to typing by touch, rather than by looking at the keyboard to find each key. Working at your ability level, you practice typing combinations of letters. Drill sessions alternate between speed and accuracy, so you don't sacrifice one for the other as you build your skill. The program measures your progress and reports on the letters you're learning, your speed rate, and your accuracy percentage. If you're making mistakes on certain letters, Keymaster customizes your drill sessions so you get more practice on those. Before you know it, the process is automatic--you've become a touch typist! Keymaster lets you switch between the well-known "QWERTY" keyboard (named after the first keys on the top row) and the revolutionary new Dvorak keyboard. Try out the Dvorak system. You can learn it faster and its designed to increase efficiency, speed, and accuracy. It's already attracting the attention of computer manufacturers. If you learn this system, you can use the Translator program to adapt your computer to the Dvorak keyboard. -1- B. Getting around You need to learn only a few keystrokes to follow the instructions and use the Keymaster program: Instructions F3...........Print a copy of these instructions (or, later in the program, print a copy of your statistics). Make sure your printer is turned on and loaded with continuous feed paper. PgUp PgDn.........Move up and down a page at a time when you're viewing lesson statistics or reading instructions. HOME.........Move to the Table of Contents at the beginning of the instructions. Program F1...........Display a help screen at any time while you're using Keymaster. (Press the F1 key again to return to the program.) F2...........View instructions. When the table of contents appears, type the letter (on the left), or the page number (on the right) of the section you want to read. Press the F10 key to return to the program. ESC..........Return to the main menu from any other program screen (if you're working on a lesson, your statistics are saved). F10..........Continue to the next menu screen. TAB..........Move forward to next menu item. Translator ALT--Left Shift--ESC.....QWERTY keyboard ALT--Left Shift--TAB.....Dvorak keyboard ALT--Left Shift--CTRL....Dvorak keyboard with CTRL/ALT option -2- C. Getting ready for your first lesson When the program has loaded into computer memory, the main menu appears. First enter your name and tell Keymaster what kind of lessons to prepare for you: Entering your name Type 3 and press the ENTER key to see the ADD NEW USER screen. There are spaces for the list of people using the program, but you're entering the first one. Respond to the prompt at the bottom of the screen by typing your name (as long as 20 characters). Press the TAB key. Choosing a keyboard and level Decide whether you want to use the QWERTY or the Dvorak keyboard. Type Q or D and press the TAB key. (See Section J for more information about the Dvorak system if it's new to you.) Enter your level as a touch typist: Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced. If you've never typed by touch before, or if you're learning a new keyboard, choose beginner. If you have some experience, but your skills are rusty (and your speed is about 20 words per minute), choose intermediate. Advanced is for typists who want to drill to sharpen their skills. Type B, I, or A and press the F10 key. As soon as you've entered all this information, the message "Building your personal file" appears for a moment, and then you see your name on the roster beside the number 1. You're ready to begin a lesson. Press the ESC key to return to the main menu. -3- D. Taking a lesson When the main menu appears on the screen, type 1 and press the ENTER key to begin your lesson. Keymaster asks you to choose a user from its list. If you're the only user on the roster (or if you're returning to a session), you see the number of your name displayed. Press the ENTER key. Keymaster welcomes you and explains how the program works. When you're ready to begin your lesson, press any key. The program screen appears section by section: first, you see the keyboard diagram at the top of the screen. Then the finger prompts appear below the keyboard, but only for a moment. They're replaced by a highlighted window giving you messages about your drill session. Keyboard diagram On the keyboard diagram at the top of the screen, the key positions are labeled according to the system you chose. If you have to check the placement of a letter, it's better to refer to this diagram than to look back at the computer keyboard. The window A highlighted window appears at the lower part of the screen with messages about each drill session. First you see the four letters that are your goal for this session. As you progress, Keymaster gives you two new letters and two familiar letters. If your scores show that you've learned some of them slowly, Keymaster repeats them. There are spaces for your results, and these spaces are filled in after each short drill session. You'll see your SCORE in words per minute (WPM) and the number of errors you made. You can compare this score with your best ACCURACY for the session (percent of letters typed correctly on first try) and your average accuracy for the session. Next, the program displays your best and average SPEED for the session. Hand placement Hold your fingers over the "home row" (the middle row of letters), leaving the two letters in the center (g and h on the QWERTY keyboard, or i and d on the Dvorak keyboard) uncovered. Find the four letters you're learning. Familiarize yourself with their locations before you start your lesson. When you're ready to drill, press the space bar with your right thumb. Letter combinations At the center of the screen is a line of short letter combinations or words, separated by spaces. This line is -4- your assignment. Type exactly what you see: letters and spaces in the order they appear. The letters you type are printed after the > prompt: ease lass easel lease lea seal sale less > Your objective is to duplicate the line--sometimes emphasizing speed and sometimes accuracy, according to the note below the row of letters. When you finish, the line should look like this: ease lass easel lease lea seal sale less >ease lass easel lease lea seal sale less Speed and accuracy Keymaster drills you in speed and in accuracy. You need the balance of these two kinds of drills to build your skill. The exercises are slightly different to achieve this balance. When you see the notice on the screen that you're stressing accuracy, the message tells you to "get it right." This means that you should take as long as you need to copy the letters exactly. They're just nonsense letter combinations, and you'll probably find that it's hard to move too fast. If you make a mistake, the cursor doesn't move on. The error is highlighted. Try again--and again and again, if necessary-- until you type the right letter. Only then can you move on. When you see the message "Stressing speed--keep going", you react differently. The program highlights a letter you typed incorrectly, but the cursor moves to the next letter. Try to ignore the mistake, and keep typing as fast as you can. We suggest you go fast enough to make several mistakes per line. At the bottom of the screen, you see a horizontal line that diminishes as you type the letters. The line marks your progress. If you've been drilling a while, and you forget whether you're working on speed or accuracy, just glance down at the bottom of the screen to see whether there's a speed bar. After you've completed a few sessions, you'll find the program using real words for speed drills. (On the QWERTY keyboard, when you've learned only a few letters, you'll only see syllables like "ja"). Your speed improves dramatically when you're working with real words. Finger prompts At the bottom of the screen, you see a diagram of ten fingers. When you drill, a finger moves to show you which one to use for the letter you're practicing, and the letter appears above it. An instant later, the letter flashes on the keyboard at the top of the screen. These hints help you -5- find the letter without looking down at the computer's keyboard. Try to type the letter before the keyboard flashes and soon you'll be able to type the key even before the finger prompts. After you've built up speed, you'll notice some changes in the way the finger prompts flash on the screen. The split second before the finger prompts appear becomes shorter as your speed becomes faster. Eventually, you'll hit the key before the finger moves or the letter appears. When you reach 50 WPM, the finger prompts automatically stop, but they return if you drop back below 30 WPM. Results When you finish a line, Keymaster encourages you and tells you how you're doing by filling in the spaces for SCORE, SPEED, and ACCURACY. You review which letters you've just learned. When you surpass your previous high speed or accuracy, Keymaster congratulates you. From time to time, you see a notice of how many minutes you've been working. To make sure you take breaks occasionally, Keymaster interrupts you by displaying this message: You've been working hard and well. Stop a while and flex your fingers. Even if you wanted to ignore the message, the program won't go on. Your progress in both speed and accuracy diminishes unless you refresh yourself by getting away from the keyboard now and then. After a pause while Keymaster more thoroughly analyses your progress, you see a prompt to press the Space Bar to continue. End of the session After 20-30 minutes, you should end a session. Press the ESC key, and the program asks if you're sure. Type Y and press the ENTER key. Keymaster displays a message that it's updating your records while it stores all the statistics about your practice session, and you return to the main menu. -6- E. Measuring your progress Choose option 2, "View Statistics," from the main menu to check your progress. A list of the people using Keymaster, with their keyboard choices and levels, appears on the screen. The program prompts you to select a user number. If you just finished a drill session, your number appears. To see your own results, press the ENTER key. Keymaster displays a summary of your results. You see how many sessions you completed, and how much time you spent on those sessions. (You also see how much of that time was spent typing.) Your best speed is displayed in words per minute, followed by your average speed for all sessions. Use these statistics to set your goal for your next practice session. Your accuracy appears in percent (number of keys typed correctly on the first try compared to number of keys typed). You see your best and your average scores. Keymaster shows the letters you typed the fastest and the slowest. This helps the program customize your lessons to drill you in the letters you need the most. You can press the ESC key to return to the main menu, or press the F3 key to print these results. If you'd like to see more details, press the F10 key. The program displays information about each of the practice sessions you completed: the number, date and length of each session, your speed, and your accuracy. You can see how the scores for each session affected your averages. It's a good way to get an overview of your progress. If you have more than one page of results, Keymaster displays the last page first (so that you see the most recent sessions). Press the PgUp key to see pages of earlier statistics. You can return to the statistics of the latest sessions by pressing the PgDn key. To return to the main menu, press the ESC key. -7- F. Learning to type Your goal is to acquire a complex skill that involves your eyes and fingers working together automatically. It's similar to the way your eyes, hands, and feet work together when you drive a stick shift car. You're not consciously directing each of the movements, but you've learned to coordinate them all. In the first stages of learning to drive, you have to think about where the gears are. When you're learning to type, it takes time before you stop thinking about where the keys are. At first, you consciously think about the location of a key and then press it. This is when Keymaster emphasizes accuracy more than speed. Take all the time you need to strike the correct key. Next you acquire the magical ability to see a word and type its letters without conscious thought. Program practice sessions are aimed at helping you make the process automatic. It's hard to predict how long it will take you. Manual dexterity in other areas generally carries over to keyboard skills. You can help by frequent, short Keymaster practice sessions. Rapid all-finger touch typing is your goal. By this time, pressing the correct key has become an automatic response-- your brain directs your fingers to press the keys as soon as you see the word. You don't have to think about it. At this stage, use Keymaster to improve your speed and accuracy. -8- G. Finger placement On any keyboard, the middle row of letters is called the "home row." When you start work, your fingers rest lightly on the home row. The two letters at the center (GH on QWERTY, and ID on Dvorak) are uncovered. When you're typing, your index fingers stretch to cover those keys as well as the ones they're resting on. The following keyboard diagrams show which fingers to use on the keys. QWERTY \ Q \ W \ E \ R T \ Y U \ I \ O \ P \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ A \ S \ D \ F G \ H J \ K \ L \ : \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Z \ X \ C \ V B \ N M \ , \ . \ / Imagine the keys aligned in slanted columns. The little finger of the left hand types Q, A, and Z. The left index finger types R, T, F, G, V, and B. The right index finger types Y, U, H, J, N, and M. Try this out on your keyboard, and you'll find the other fingers rest naturally on the keys in the diagram abovethis out on your keyboard, and you'll find the other fingers rest naturally on the keys in the diagram above. DVORAK \ ' \ , \ . \ P Y \ F G \ C \ R \ L \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ A \ O \ E \ U I \ D H \ T \ N \ S \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ ; \ Q \ J \ K X \ B M \ W \ V \ Z Again, imagine the keys aligned in slanted columns. The little finger of the left hand types the apostrophe, A, and the semi-colon. The left index finger types P, Y, U, I, K, and X. The right index finger types F, G, D, H, B, and M. Try this out on your keyboard, and you'll find the other fingers rest naturally on the keys in the diagram above. -9- H. Tips From time to time, Keymaster forces you to take a break. You should stand up, stretch, and flex your fingers. You'll be refreshed when you return to work. Short, frequent sessions are best for learning. Use Keymaster every day for about 20 minutes (no more than 30 minutes at a time). When you're working on speed, Keymaster is counting your errors. Each time the letter you type isn't the same as the one above it, it counts as an error. If you're typing a line and you accidentally insert a letter, but then type the rest of the line correctly, Keymaster tallies up a large number of errors. It looks like this: else seal lease sale easel ease leas else lease >else seal lease saALE EASEL EASE LEAS ELSE LEAS The letters that count as errors aren't actually capitalized; instead they appear in high intensity. But this example shows you that even though the rest of the row is in the correct order, it's all considered wrong because one extra "a" is inserted in "sale." You can improve your score by pausing as soon as you see this type of error, and following the line exactly from the current cursor position. But remember, when you're working on speed, you should go fast enough to make several mistakes on each line. -10- I. Returning for more lessons When you return for the second and later practice sessions, the procedure is slightly different from getting ready for your first lesson (Section C of these instructions). Starting your second lesson When the main menu appears, you can go right to option 1, "Begin lesson". The program displays a roster of all the users with their keyboard choices and levels. Type the number of your name and press the ENTER key. Keymaster loads your records. The lesson screen appears, and your practice session is under way. Adding other users When the main menu appears, type 3 and press the ENTER key. Enter the user's name, choice of keyboard, and appropriate typing level. Press the F10 key. You might want to list yourself twice--once for QWERTY and once for Dvorak, or on different skill levels. Keymaster keeps the statistics separate, as if you were two different users. Keymaster accommodates a maximum of ten users. Deleting users When you see the main menu, type 4 and press the ENTER key. You see the list of all the users, with their keyboard choices and skill levels. Type the number of the one you want to delete and press the ENTER key. Keymaster asks you to confirm your request by pressing the F10 key. If you decide not to delete that user, press the ESC key. Exiting from the main menu When you see the main menu, type E to exit from Keymaster and return to DOS. -11- J. QWERTY and Dvorak keyboards The QWERTY keyboard, named after the first six keys of the top row of letters, is the current standard arrangement. Few people know that it was invented to slow typists down! In the 1870s, inventor Christopher Sholes found that his early mechanical typewriters jammed easily. He experimented and found that if he spread the most commonly used keys around the keyboard, he forced typists to slow down. This prevented the jamming. By the turn of the century, QWERTY had been adopted everywhere. By the 1980s, our needs have changed. We want to learn and to type as fast as we can, and we're not going to damage our computer keyboard as we build up speed. Foreseeing this change, the late August Dvorak invented a new keyboard arrangement to give typists several advantages: The home row The middle row of the QWERTY keyboard isn't much of a home-- you can only write about 100 words using its letters! On the Dvorak keyboard, the home row keys combine to make more than 3,000 words. Comfort With the letters on the QWERTY keyboard deliberately placed for awkwardness, it's not surprising that typing can be tiring. A professional keyboard operator's fingers travel about 19 miles a day. The Dvorak keyboard reduces the distance for the same text to just one mile. In studies, Dvorak keyboard users reported that they're less fatigued at the end of a day's work. Accuracy Since your fingers aren't reaching so often for the most frequently-used keys, you make fewer mistakes. Balance People say the QWERTY keyboard is for left-handers, since the left hand types over half the keys used in normal text. Take the word BASIC: four of its letters are on the left side of the keyboard. Speed and accuracy increase when the key load is balanced between your hands. On the Dvorak keyboard, all the vowels are on the left. You can't type any words using only the right hand, and there aren't many you can type with your left. The ideal is to alternate hands. Look at the word BASIC again: the hands alternate with each letter. -12- As computers replace typewriters, the Dvorak keyboard will probably become a common option. Some computers are already equipped with an internal switch that lets you use the Dvorak layout. The American National Standards Institute has approved a Dvorak standard (ANSI X4.22-1983), so manufacturers can move forward with Dvorak keyboards. The following diagram shows the correspondence of QWERTY and Dvorak keys: QWERTY/Dvorak QWERTY/Dvorak QWERTY/Dvorak QWERTY/Dvorak ------------- ------------- ------------- ------------- A A H D O R W , B X I C P L X Q C J J H Q ' Y F D E K T R P Z ; E . L N S O ? Z F U M M T Y ; S G I N B U G . V V K , W -13- K. The Translator Using Dvorak on your computer It wouldn't make sense to learn the Dvorak keyboard if you had to resume using the QWERTY keyboard as soon as you left the Keymaster program. That's why Keymaster includes a small program called the Translator to convert your system to use Dvorak with other software. Your Dvorak keystrokes are "translated" so that the computer gets the right keyboard codes. You can switch back and forth between keyboards while the Translator is installed. The Translator remains in memory until you turn off the computer or press CTRL-ALT-DEL. Other users who prefer the QWERTY system aren't affected. Installing the Translator To install the Translator, insert your Keymaster diskette in Drive A and type: SSTRANS You see this message on the screen: Installing Dvorak keyboard. Now your keys respond to the Dvorak layout. Choosing a keyboard When the Translator is installed, your keyboard defaults to the Dvorak layout. To switch to QWERTY, hold down the ALT key and the SHIFT key on the left side of the keyboard while you press the ESC key. To return to the Dvorak keyboard, hold down the ALT key and the left SHIFT key while you press the TAB key. While you're working in Dvorak, you can specify that any keys you strike while you're holding down the CTRL or ALT keys will have their QWERTY values. When would this option be useful? Suppose you're using a word processing program that moves the cursor to the end of the line when you press CTRL-Z. If you've gotten used to the location of that key for the function of that special key combination, you might want it to remain the same. It won't affect your learning the Dvorak keyboard pattern. To choose this option, hold down the ALT key and the left SHIFT key and press the CTRL key. -14- This table summarizes these choices: QWERTY keyboard ALT--Left Shift--ESC Dvorak keyboard ALT--Left Shift--TAB Dvorak with CTRL/ALT option ALT--Left Shift--CTRL Troubleshooting The Translator works with almost all your software programs. The reasons for the few exceptions are listed below, with some suggestions for possible ways to correct the problem. The Translator uses only a small part of your computer's memory: about 600 bytes. If you have a program that uses ALL the available memory, you can't use the Translator. Some copy-protected programs run only if you insert the program diskette in your computer and then press CTRL-ALT-DEL or turn the computer on. You can't use the Translator with these programs. You can tell if your program is one of them by booting DOS, inserting the program diskette in Drive A, and typing: DIR If you see illegible characters on the screen, assume that you can't use the Translator with that program. If you have to copy DOS to a diskette to run a copy-protected program, that program has a readable directory, and usually an AUTOEXEC.BAT file on the diskette. Try following these steps to run the Translator: o Insert your DOS diskette and turn on your computer or press CTRL-ALT-DEL. o Insert the Keymaster diskette and type: SSTRANS o Remove your Keymaster diskette and insert the program diskette. Type: AUTOEXEC You can't use the Translator with programs that don't use PC-DOS. Some few programs read and interpret the keyboard codes themselves, usually into QWERTY. So, Dvorak disappears while they are running. The Translator can use a software interrupt to emulate the keyboard read for a Dvorak keystroke. The Translator works with most other keyboard enhancers as long as you load the Translator BEFORE the other enhancer. -15-