Learning touch typing with KTouch
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Learning touch typing with KTouch

Here's another screenshot of KTouch in action, this time with a german keyboard and training lecture:


Main screen of KTouch

Even though learning touch typing with KTouch and using the program should be very simple we will look a bit closer@KTouch in the following sections.

Getting started

When you start KTouch you can see the screen shown above. The main program window shows three main sections:

  1. Some typing statistics in info boxes@the top
  2. The text you need to type (in the teacher's line) and the text that you have typed so far (in the student's line)
  3. The keyboard (that hopefully looks like yours)

We look@these sections later again.

Ok, the first time you start KTouch it will open a default lecture and select a default keyboard layout. Before you start typing you should adjust the keyboard layout so that it matches yours. Go to Settings->Keyboard Layouts... and select the country you're in (or some country which uses the same keyboard layout as you). If your keyboard is not included, you can always define your own keyboard (see Creating your own keyboard).

Once you have your keyboard selected, choose your training lecture. The first line in your corrent lecture and level is shown in the teacher's line. You can select any of the default lectures via Training->Default Lectures... or open a user defined lecture file (for example, if your teacher gives you a special lecture to practice on) with File->Open Lecture.... You may even create your own lecture (see Creating your own lecture). When you have selected keyboard and lecture you can start typing.

Place your hand on the keyboard as indicated by the 8 marked finger keys (thumbs over the space bar) and start typing the text shown in the teacher's line. Each key you need to press is highlighted on the keyboard and if you need to move a finger from its resting position the target key and the appropriate finger key is highlighted. Try to move your hands as little as possible and after you typed a character always try to return your fingers to their resting positions.

Tip

The key colors indicate which finger needs to press which key.

While you type you may make mistakes and hit the wrong key. In that case the student's line will change its color (per default to red) and you have to hit Backspace to erase the wrong character (or characters) again.

When you have successfully completed a line of text you need to press the Enter key to advance to the next line.

Lectures and levels

As already mentioned above you need to select a training lecture which contains all the text you want to practice. Usually the difficulty of the text is gradually increasing and so most lectures contain various difficulty levels. However, some lectures may just contain a single level and text (for example, a newspaper article to test your skills).

In the info boxes@top of the KTouch main window you see the current level@the left. The small buttons to the right allow you to manually switch levels. Normally this happens automatically (more about this in the section Training Options). The right info box shows a brief information text about the level. Usually it gives you a list of characters that are new in this level. The middle two info boxes show your current typing speed (in characters per minute) and your correctness. These values are Level Statistics and whenever you start a new level these values are resetted. However, the program still remembers your previous statistics (see section Statistics in KTouch).

Starting and stopping a training session

While you type the text of a training lecture you are in a practice session. You can start a new practice session using Training->Start New Session or the appropriate button in the toolbar. Level changes (automatic or manual) do not change your training session. You stay in this training session until you start a new training session, select a new lecture (which automatically starts a new training session) or quit the program.

If you open any dialog in KTouch while you are in a training session the training is paused and the timer is stopped until you hit the next key. You can manually pause the session using Training->Pause Session or the appropriate button in the toolbar.

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