Keyboarding
Thu., January 6, 09:13 AM
Keyboarding – that’s what they’re calling it now in course lists. When I first learned it, of course, it was typing (without electricity). I required my all my kids to learn to type, recognizing that computers were the wave of the future. Most people expect girls to be able to type, but my son is also a good typist. Even in an IT environment, he’s the one who’s assigned to do correspondence (though it may be via e-mail) because he’s got the training in spelling and grammar. Go figure.
When I began to learn computers myself, there were some new keys: control, escape, alt. Command, if you had a Mac. No mouse; we used the keys. Anyhow, I was having some computer problems last month, which resulted in my being mouseless. While I searched the house for replacements, I remembered that I learned to use a computer long before I had a mouse.
Yeah, I can still use Microsoft applications with keyboard only. It’s a little harder on line, because each page is written by a different designer, so they may navigate differently. It’s a definite improvement when using the Diaryland Buddy List.
It got silly. Son was guiding me, and he would IM “Run netcpl.cpl and click…” Click? I can’t click. Give me a minute, I’ll work this out. And I did. I asked Son, “What do people do who didn’t learn to use the keyboard?” He responded, “They cry.”
Actually, this may do me some good. Instead of leaning on one arm and clicking away, I’m sitting up straight (or as straight as I can get) and using two hands.
As I cleaned house – the Process of On Going Improvement© – I found
- a tailless mouse. I installed it, the computer recognized it and said it was working properly…but it wasn’t. It never worked at all. Then I found
- an old Star Trek mouse. It’s supposed to look like a crewman’s communicator, but it’s bigger than a cell phone, not comfortable to hold. It has lots of bells and whistles that don’t work (I think I need a battery for those) and a right hand button that doesn’t do anything, but at least I could do a little point and click. And then…
- I found a brand new state-of-the-art XP mouse. (You never know what you’ll find in this house.) I’m back in business.
I learned a couple of things, though. I’ll probably be more comfortable physically if I continue to sit up and use two hands. And, of course, nothing you ever learn is wasted. (I ought to copyright that!) I wonder if anyone needs a DOS or UNIX secretary.
