You may have never noticed it, but the F and J keys on computer keyboards are not the same as the others. They indeed have a very discreet particularity which owes nothing to chance. And which is very practical.
Like many Internet users, you use your computer every day, whether to work, communicate or simply browse the Web. HAS strength, you know the location of the keys on the keyboard by heart and no longer need to look at it to write at full speed, your fingers flying from letter to letter. However, you may have missed an intriguing detail! If you look closely at the F and J keys, you will notice a small raised line, just below the letters. It is the same on key 5 of the numeric keypad, whatever the brand of keyboard. But yes, look carefully! But then, what purpose can this trait be used for?
These little features have a very specific origin and purpose. Keyboards, especially those used for intensive text entry, are designed to maximize typing efficiency and speed. When it comes to typing without looking at the keyboard, correct finger positioning is crucial. However, the arrangement of letters on AZERTY keyboards – or QWERTY for English speakers – is neither natural nor optimal. It is inherited from old mechanical typewriters. On these devices, when two adjacent keys were pressed at or near the same time, their stems could collide and even get stuck. To resolve this problem, manufacturers have therefore decided to move away from the letters that are most likely to follow one another in words, even if it means making certain keys more difficult to access. In addition, to make things easier for users, they had the ingenious idea of adding tactile markers, in the form of bumps or grooves, on the most used keys. If, today, the problem of stems no longer exists with computers, the arrangement of letters on keyboards has not been modified for a matter of habit, and manufacturers have kept the little typing trick of placing a line on the F and J keys.
The J and F keys were chosen as key landmarks due to their central location on the standard QWERTY or AZERTY keyboard. These keys are the starting point for positioning your fingers, which should naturally rest on the keys in the middle row, with the left index finger on the F key and the right index finger on the J key. As a result, the stroke touch screen simply allows you, even if you are not necessarily aware of it, to quickly find the correct position of the letters without looking at the keyboard. By feeling it under your fingers, you can quickly readjust the position of your hands on the keyboard without having to look at them. These little tactile cues are obviously valuable if you use all your fingers, in typing mode. But they’re also useful if you only type with two fingers!
So don’t forget that, to write effectively with an AZERTY keyboard, you must position your fingers as follows:
- left index finger on F
- left middle finger on D
- left ring finger on S
- left little finger on Q
- right index finger J
- right middle finger on K
- right ring finger on L
- right little finger on M
The next time you put your fingers on the keyboard, remember that this little stroke was designed to make your typing more fluid and efficient. A tiny detail that is important!