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Ask Slashdot: Do You Press "6" Key With Right Or Left Hand? 240

Posted by timothy from the ehn-vel-ope-ahn-vel-ope dept.
New submitter ne0phyte73 writes: In some countries and in some touch typing books key "6" is pressed with right hand and in some others with left. It's not a big issue until you have a split keyboard. Guys at UHK are putting it on the left side. Do you agree? What hand do you use to press "6"? Left hand here, but it's not a strong preference; I'll take a keyboard that omits Caps Lock wherever they put the 6.
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Ask Slashdot: Do You Press "6" Key With Right Or Left Hand? More

Ask Slashdot: Do You Press "6" Key With Right Or Left Hand?

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  • I don't. (Score:5, Funny)

    by digsbo ( 1292334 ) on Friday August 21, 2015 @07:22PM (#50366983)
    I press the "3" key twice, really fast.

  • Right side, because that's where the number pad is (Score:5, Insightful)

    by the_humeister ( 922869 ) on Friday August 21, 2015 @07:24PM (#50366993)

    I use the number pad a lot more often than the top row of number keys.

  • It depends on what key I'm hitting just before it and with which hand.
    Perhaps the split-keyboard designers could solve the issue by putting a 6 key on both halves.

    • Unfortunately, one of the features of their split keyboard is that you can fit the two halves together into a one-piece keyboard (which sometimes makes sense to do), and putting a 6 on both halves doesn't work well for that. Maybe if they could put a small, easily-removable extra 6 they could still do it, but that's getting messy.

      The big problem with their keyboard? It's that "Mouse" key where the Control key belongs, next to the left pinky, where most current keyboards evilly put a Caps Lock. Having an

    • You're exactly right! And precisely why I hate split ergonomic keyboards.

      Here's a cluestick Logitech, Microsoft, etc., other split keyboard manufacturers:

      Put the bloody 5,6,T,Y,G,H,B,N keys on BOTH sides of the split keyboard.

    • Buy a keyboard with programmable key displays, then program the keyboard however you like.

  • My numeric key pad is on right side of keyboard (Score:4, Insightful)

    by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Friday August 21, 2015 @07:27PM (#50367019)
    So I use my right hand to press the "6" key (and any other number key, for that matter).
  • It falls on the left side of the keyboard. So use the numpad like a normal person.

  • Depends (Score:3)

    by sk999 ( 846068 ) on Friday August 21, 2015 @07:27PM (#50367023)

    Whichever finger is closest to the 6 key wins. It's the American way.

    • Yup. I really struggled as there were a few characters (YHN, and less so, TGB) that I type with both hands on a normal keyboard, but I avidly prefer ergonomic designs. The Microsoft Natural 4000 is my favourite. But I'd love it if the 6TGB and 7YHN were duplicated on both the left and right side.

      I picked up the habit by keeping my pointer fingers on the D and H back when F# keys were on the far left, and then GJ or GK after the F# keys moved to the top. I have big hands, long fingers, and can reach the enti

  • My Microsoft ergonomic keyboard has it on the left (Score:4, Informative)

    by innocent_white_lamb ( 151825 ) on Friday August 21, 2015 @07:28PM (#50367025)

    My Microsoft Natural 4000 keyboard has it on the left.

    Since I've been using Microsoft ergonomic keyboards for years, I'm now in the habit of hitting the 6 with my left forefinger.

    (Microsoft can't make a decent operating system, but their keyboards and mice are first class.)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fisted ( 2295862 )

      (Microsoft can't make a decent operating system, but their keyboards and mice are first class.)

      I agree, but I think the reason for this is that the only thing they have do with "their" keyboards and mice is the MS logo on it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by C0R1D4N ( 970153 )
        My way of keeping family members off my computer is to use a Microsoft Split keyboard and an Optical Trackball Explorer for my mouse.

    • Personally I think split keyboards are extremely uncomfortable. I don't know why people prefer them to the old style.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Dahan ( 130247 )
      Yeah, I had been using the right hand, but when I switched to MS split keyboards, they all have the 6 on the left side of the split, so I had to change. According to TFA, in the US, touch typing students are taught to use the right hand for 6; I learned to touch type in the US, so that must've been where I got it from.

  • I do it wrong (Score:3)

    by crow ( 16139 ) on Friday August 21, 2015 @07:32PM (#50367053) Homepage Journal

    I took a typing class in 10th grade (the first opportunity I had back in the 80s). It was the most practically useful class I had in high school. The class was very clear in teaching that you use your right index finger for 6 and 7, while your left does 4 and 5. Going down the keyboard, the left index finger also does T, G, and B, while the right does Y, H, and N. The only one I do wrong is 6.

    Now looking at my keyboard, 6 is almost centered between F and J, the home positions for the index fingers, but it's ever so slightly closer to F, so perhaps they were teaching the class wrong?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by xystren ( 522982 )
      Grade 9 for me in the early '80s, and while I can appreciate it, it was the worst mistake of a class that I ever took. I was already using an Apple ][+ for years, and I had my own touch typing style, was up easily to 100+ wpm. Enter typing class, and Biffffzat, now I'm lucky if I can get back to 50 or 60 wpm, even all these years later. I wish it was as easy as Yoda said, "You must unlearn what you've learned." As for the 6 key question? What ever hand is closer to it.

  • The six is closest to the right hand when resting on the home row. It's in line with the rest of the keys that the right hand press like y h and n. Why would you press it with the left?

  • I use base 6 for all my work.

  • Does anyone make a split keyboard with a 6 for both halves? That would seem to satisfy everyone at a cost of one extra key.

  • Of course, I use the num-pad with my right hand. Who would not?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tepples ( 727027 )

      Of course, I use the num-pad with my right hand. Who would not?

      Users of a laptop without a num-pad.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Dahan ( 130247 )
      If you're only typing numbers, that's fine. But it's inefficient to be typing letters then move your hand to the numpad just to type a digit or two. Same reason keyboard shortcuts are important in word processing and other keyboard-centric applications; you don't want to be moving between the keyboard and mouse all the time.
  • I'm one of those guys that took a touch typing class with a bunch of girls back in high school. Do they even teach typing in school any more?
    Anyhoo, the teacher (back in the 70's) was very specific about which hand/finger went with which finger.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by C0R1D4N ( 970153 )
      It was part of my elementary school curriculum (4th-6th grade) from 93-96ish. I can still type about 120wpm thanks to it.

  • Yes (Score:2)

    by dfm3 ( 830843 )
    Yes, I press the 6 key with either my right or left hand. It depends on whichever key I pressed last, and whichever index finger is therefore closest. Unless I'm using a keyboard with a number pad, then it's always the right hand...
  • I use my left hand to hold the left ALT key and then I use my right hand to push 5 and 4 on the numeric keypad.
  • If I am typing numbers exclusively, then it is the right, on the number pad. If I am typing letters interspersed with numbers then it depends where my hands are. I can touch type in a sense, meaning that I don't have to look at the keyboard while I am typing. However, my hands aren't fixed in one position, and which letter I hit with which hand is dependent on the runup of letters preceding and trailing it. My right hand occasionally ventures over and may type B, G, T or 6, while my left hand occasionally v
  • What do you mean? An African or European "6"?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hartree ( 191324 )

      Or is it Caprica 6 or Head 6?

    • No, an Armenian [wikipedia.org] "6". Instead of "6" they simply type Զ [wikipedia.org]

      MD5:67605fb300b7cbf964e2de91831eebb8 SHA1:8e3b0e953be18f4d7fdc8e8b33bb8b9e76521106 SHA256:f4494ce3b4267b6d5f9371188a861e95f95835db23f8038d8b40961a3ab5afc2

  • Why don't split keyboards simply duplicate the border columns on both sides? This is the main reason i haven't bothered to buy one.

  • With finger size ratio [wikipedia.org] being linked to in utero testosterone levels, answering to that one may tell unexpected things about respondent.

  • you insensitive clod!!

  • No, I don't.

  • I use the F5 key all the goddamn time, mostly refresh/rerun/recompile

    F5 is generally the left-most Function key of the second block, separated by a space from the F4 key. I use the F5 way, way more than I do the 6 key (which is over on the numpad).

    I got a wireless Microsoft Sculpt ergo keyboard [amzn.to] and while I love it, it's taken me a while to get used to the fact that the F5 key is not in the middle, I have to look for the F6 key, then go one to the left. After six months or so I'm used to it,

  • French fr_FR Keyboard layout has numbers at upper SHIFT selection.
    You are better using the numeric pad. Guess how it can be an annoyance with laptops.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • i had one - it was arm-rest mounted. there was only one space bar. i touch-type, so it would be like "rattle rattle rattle THUMP arse!.... rattle rattle THUMP".

    no the weirdest thing i found was that because the keyboard was mounted on the arm rests, it was *outside* of my peripheral vision. it took three weeks to get used to, and i realised that at the time i clearly wasn't genuinely a touch-typist... because i had been using my peripheral vision to locate the keys! within three weeks i was back up to s

  • then I look at the keyboard and hit it with my right index finger.

    The '6' key is the one key I, as a touch typist, fark up well over half the time.
  • I learned touch typing in school, but didn't really get to the numbers. I use the number pad as much as I can, but when I use the top row I will use left hand for 5 and below and usually but not always the right hand for higher numbers. The problem is that I never got the positions totally fixed in my muscle memory, so when typing anywhere from 5 to about 8 there's a good chance I'll do a little run up the keyboard till I find it (6, backspace, 7, backspace, 8, got it!).
  • I press 6 with my left hand, but then I also usually press "Y" with my left hand as well.
  • 6676767676767667 Apparently I use my left hand, I keep getting 7 with my right.

  • Left, right (Score:4, Insightful)

    by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Friday August 21, 2015 @08:46PM (#50367367)

    I have a split Microsoft Wireless Natural at home (yes, a huge offense as a Linux-only user) and the 6 is on the left.

    And at work (also Linux-only of course) I have some type of split Logitech and 6 is also on the left.

    I am thinking left is probably right (pun intended).

  • Right hand. And I'm left-handed (if that matters).

  • ... when the BDSM session gets out of hand.

  • Seemingly silly question, but actually a nice one. I'm right-handed, and I guess it depends on which hand is closer, so no preference in particular. Looks like left hand is preferred, though.

  • It depends on the program. The programs I need to input a lot of numbers, my right hand is on the keypad. The programs that need a lot of mouse input, it's the left hand that hits all the numbers.

  • The 6 and 'b' key get hit by my left and right probably equally. I do some "stupid" stuff when typing and that's one of them. Whatever hand is free tends to whack those keys. On the other side of the coin space bar is ONLY ever hit by my right hand. I've tried changing that habit before and I can't seem to shake it. I know it slows me down a bit (I'm at 105wpm usually) but whatever. I can live with it. You can see the wear mark on any keyboard I've had for years and I think it's funny.

    I tend not to u

  • The useless part of the keyboard is the number pad. I want that space so that my arm isn't hanging so far out to reach my pointing device. But I'm not willing to gain more space in that area at the expense of high-usage cursor-movement keys, that's completely unacceptable. So feel free to drop the 6 entirely.

    • The keyboard is the useless part of the keyboard.
      When I was around age 10 I learned to type with one of these.. https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]

      I regret that microwriters never took off. With a weeks practice you could type perfectly fast one handed while drinking coffee with the other.

  • Depends which key came before the 6. Sorry, I learned to play piano years before I saw a typewriter.
    Thank goodness I never had to take keyboarding in school - the teachers would would walk by in programming and say, "my God ... but it's fast."

  • Why not both?!

  • worked as a 10 key operator at a bank long, long ago, in a life far away. I never shook the 10 key for data entry...anyone else here remember checks ?

  • Both the 6 and the B keys belong on both sides of a split keyboard. It couldn't possibly cost more than another $1 and we can get back to fighting over real significant, intractable problems, like the Oxford comma.

  • It depends on which keys I need to press before and after.

  • Right Hand: Hold Alt Key
    Left Hand: Type 54 on numeric keypad

  • I type all keys with left hand in order to be able to keep my right hand on the mouse, really fast!

  • The decision is made for me by my dvorak layout.
    &[{}(=*)+]!#
    %7531902468`

  • ... yeah okay so the picture shows that in their keyboard they're putting the 6 key a couple milometers one way versus the other... but it doesn't matter.

    What is more the statement "in some countries people do X instead of Y"... in regards to pressing the six key with the right or left hand... no one gives a shit. People do either and both.

    It varies very slightly from one keyboard to the next.

    On mine for example... it appears to be so close to the middle that I can't really tell... I've looked at it a few t

  • First, I use the Dvorak layout, but this has no effect on the numbers. (It does affect the two keys between 0 and backspace though.) What really has a substantial impact is that I use a keyboard with no stagger. 6 is directly above F (you'd probably have a Y there unless you have a QWERTZ kezboard), which in turn is directly above D (you'd have H there). It's a right hand key, with no ambiguity whatsoever.

    You might imagine it is difficult to get used to a matrix keyboard, that you'd have years of stagger-tr

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • ..actually touch type numbers in any formal way. It depends on what else I'm doing. Also, when I took typing classes back in high school, numbers were given some exceptions. While you should be reading what you type, small errors can still end up in the final work. When someone else later reads that text, it's easy to guess and correct most small mistakes (natural languages are rather redundant coding schemes, with English having about 1 bit of information per letter). The same won't work with numbers, and

  • I'll take a keyboard that omits Caps Lock wherever they put the 6.

    No one's forcing you to use full caps, and I don't think it's wise to encourage removing it. Why should I have to pay for a special "programming keyboard" just to be able to do SQL?

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