
Just got this nice review from one of Keyboarding students…
Just got this nice review from one of Keyboarding students…
DELETE, BACKSPACE, and Cut: What Are the Differences?
DELETE, BACKSPACE, and Cut are three editing tools you’ll use often to delete text from a document. Knowing the differences between them will help you understand how to use them correctly. Here are some guidelines:
DELETE: On most extended PC keyboards, the DELETE key’s near the HOME, END, PAGE UP, and PAGE DOWN keys, between the alphanumeric keys and the numeric keypad. If your keyboard has a numeric keypad, you’ll find a DELETE key on it as well.
BACKSPACE: The BACKSPACE key on a PC keyboard is on the same row as the numbers.
Cut: The Cut command has an icon that looks like a pair of scissors. You can usually find Cut on a toolbar or ribbon along with the Copy and Paste commands because they work together. Cut, Copy, and Paste commands are also on Edit menus.
This is an example of one of the topics covered in my six-week online keyboarding class.
Avoiding Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Repetitive wrist motions in activities such as typing can cause a painful condition in the wrists and hands known as carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Every year, thousands of office workers contract CTS, a debilitating injury that costs millions of dollars to employers, as well as the health-if not the livelihoods-of employees.
Although typewriter keyboards have been part of many people’s working lives for over a century, they didn’t cause CTS. Time-saving computer keyboards, ironically, are the source of the problem. Workers may be happy that they don’t need to interrupt their work every few minutes to change ribbons or insert a new piece of paper. But the uninterrupted, repetitive motions that characterize computer keyboard usage (particularly data entry) open the door to trouble. A data entry clerk who types 40 words per minute could perform the same repetitive motion nearly 80,000 times in one workday.
Workers in other industries, such as food packing and automobile assembly, have suffered from repetitive-motion injuries for years. But the condition went largely unreported until recently-perhaps because it now afflicts large numbers of people who work in media.
What causes carpal tunnel syndrome? It happens when the median nerve gets damaged. The median nerve passes through the arm and wrist into the hand, on the palm side. That nerve supplies the thumb, index finger, middle finger, and part of the ring finger with sensation and muscle control. It passes through a narrow space in the underside of the wrist called the carpal tunnel. Damage can cause severe swelling or compression of the nerve, possibly resulting in tingling in your hand, and numbness, or pain beginning at the tips of the thumb, index, or middle finger.
Dealing With the Pain
Symptoms of CTS span from occasionally annoying to frequently excruciating, and in rare cases, to complete disablement of the wrist muscles. If left untreated, CTS can progress from “just a little tingle in the fingers” to severe pain and possibly even numbness in the hands. Some believe that to get CTS, you must be predisposed to it.
Preventive Tips
Many of the things you can do to relieve or prevent CTS-such as taking frequent breaks and performing exercises-cut into productivity, so employers may not want you to do them on company time. However, I know of some employers who encourage employees to take exercise breaks.
To prevent CTS, try to keep repetitive movements to a minimum. Don’t type so quickly, and try to relax a bit, relieving tension and stress on the hand muscles and ligaments. Reducing the speed and force with which you touch the keys on your keyboard can reduce your risk of CTS. Try to take periodic breaks to relax your hands. If you follow these steps daily, you can prevent long-term work loss and medical expenses costing thousands of dollars.
Other things can help too. For instance, by positioning your computer display and keyboard properly, you can reduce the flexing at your wrist as you type.
Here are some guidelines:
Treatment
If you think you have CTS, see your doctor as soon as possible. The condition is progressive, and early treatment can prevent permanent damage or the need for radical measures. If you let it go too long without treatment, you may need surgery to relieve the pain. Your doctor may also recommend devices, such as straps or braces, that relieve the pain and are relatively inexpensive.
Exercises Will Help
You can do several exercises to help prevent CTS. If you sit for long periods typing, here are a few quick routines you can do throughout the day:
Pick one of these exercises and try it right now.
Excerpt from my online Keyboarding class.
A review from a student in my Keyboarding class:
Kathy,
Thank you for teaching this course. Your Tips, Resources and Study
materials were very helpful. I would recommend this course to anyone
seeking to improve accuracy and/ or speed. This course and the program
software is designed for both. For anyone who wishes to type from
reading materials without looking at the fingers, then I would suggest
taking “Touch Typing.” This course really works! From the first
lesson and after many years, I broke that habit. I had fun learning. I will
never look at my fingers again! Take the course. It’s worth every
dollar…Peggy
I love teaching!
Kathy
2educateyou.com