> There's a big difference between a secretary and a typist... we may not
> need
typists but we definitely need our secretary!
Indeed! They're very much the "communication centre" rather than the typist
these days. All the more reason, perhaps, why one is much better than three
of four! But don't ask me how we cope on her holidays...
Returning to keyboards, even Dvoraks emphasize the alternate hand theorem,
it's just that they position the most frequently used keys on the "home row"
where your hands naturally rest. I agree that much of the research related
to old fashioned steeply-raked typewriter keyboards where there was
excessive "hurdling" to reach the top row in particular. This is much less
of an issue with modern flat computer keyboards. I think the latest research
on Dvorak shows it to be no faster than QWERTY but its proponents argue that
it is less tiring, less RSI etc. I suppose I don't type thousands of words
per day (I know some of you will not believe that!) so I don't much care
about the tiring/RSI argument.
AF
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sarah Spencer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 12:24 PM
Subject: Re: Consultant office usage
> On the contrary,
> as any touch typist will vouch, letter combinations that use
> alternate-hand keystrokes are much faster to type than those
> using same-hand keystrokes.
>
> AF
>
> P.S. I learned to touch type in 1975 on an old Remington typewriter!
[Dons 'Pitman-trained secretary' hat (my working life before deciding to go
back to school to be a doc)]... I'm not at all sure that alternate hand
keystrokes are faster to type, let alone *much* faster. There are certainly
some letter combinations that are faster to type than others - I imagine
these depend on frequency of use (so will vary depending on what you type
and how frequently). Typing (or learning to) on a manual typewriter needs
different finger and hand movements and I can imagine that alternate hand
keystrokes are, or were, faster on a manual typewriter... but there aren't a
lot of those around now! Electronic typewriters were more similar to
computer keyboards (though *not* the same!) - I don't think keystroke order
makes a whole heap of difference when one types at ~80 wpm? I don't ask the
deparment secretary (we have one for five consultants) to type anything for
me - it's far quicker to do it myself than to go through the
dictate-correct-correct-correct procedure. I do email stuff to her to be
printed and sent out/distributed - seems to work okay. Within the hospital,
everything is done on email so 'finished output' (as a secretary might call
it) is a bit of a non-issue.
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