Some interesting keyboard and typing facts from around the world!
What’s the longest word on the top row?
Typewriter is the longest word that can be made using one row of the keyboard. The word Typewriter can be typed using only the top row on QWERTY keyboards. Some speculate that QWERTY inventor, Christopher Sholes, did that on purpose as a kind of demonstration back in the 19th century.
The bumps on the F and J keys – have you noticed them?
Have you ever noticed that the majority of QWERTY keyboards have a slight bump on the F and J keys? These bumps are made for ease of use for typists. If you place your left-hand index finger on F and right-hand index finger on J, then either of your thumbs will rest on the space bar and the remaining three fingers will cover the ‘A S D’ and ‘K L ;’ keys. This helps you to find keys in the dark, or if you are touch typing.
Why do we call it a QWERTY keyboard?
The QWERTY layout was actually designed to slow typing down to stop people typing too fast, jamming typewriter hammers.
The World Record…
The world record for typing the English alphabet from A to Z is 1.36 seconds.
The fastest typist is…
Longest words with the left and right hand
On a QWERTY keyboard, “stewardesses” is the longest 12 letter word that can be typed with the left hand and “polyphony” for the right. Why not try it out?
What’s the most used key on the keyboard?
The space bar is the most used key on the keyboard. Every second, the spacebar on keyboards around the world are hit about six million times.
Germs!
Keyboards actually contain more germs than toilets! A study conducted by UK scientists found that four out of 33 keyboards tested were potential health hazards.
Did you know?
The French Canadian keyboard used mainly in the Quebec region has a snow flake icon on the Control key.
The Japanese keyboard
In Japan, the space bar is very short, as additional keys need to be added to the keyboard to allow for a switch in characters.
Bilingual Keyboards
Bilingual keyboards exist for translators and for families and businesses to communicate with different countries.
The most famous shortcut
CTRL ALT DEL is a famous shortcut to close a programme on your computer or shut down. This idea came from David Bradley at IBM to avoid accidental shutdown when typing.International
Who has the most complicated keyboards?
East Asian countries have the most complicated keyboards in the world. Because there are so many languages, dialects and alphabets that span sometimes hundreds of characters, most of Chinese, Indian, Thai or Japanese keyboards have 3 or 4 letters on each key. These letters are then accessed by using modifier keys. Japanese keyboards are the most complex example.
What about in France?
In France, not only do you have to hit Shift + ; to get a “;” but digits are accessed with Shift pressed down.
