Steinway heavy touch

[Conrad Hoffsommer]

RicB,

At 12:00 6/17/2003 +0200, you wrote:
>Good advice Tom
>
>Its interesting to note that RIS was never a big problem for typists .... 
>until the advent of the very light touch computer keyboard. For the very 
>simple reason that this light touch led so very many to allow themselves a 
>bit of laziness in resting the heel of their hands on the table just in 
>front of the keyboard, which further makes all to easy to slouch into a 
>poor sitting posture. Typing away on these light keys with the hands and 
>body so constrained is a recipe for RIS, especially when the <<player>> 
>doesn't have the good sense ( or permission) to get up and move around a 
>bit from time to time..  Mouse movement and actuation has the same kind of 
>pitfall. If you keep your hand elevated off the table to use the mouse.. 
>you will have far less problems.  Proper technique is more involved then 
>just this certainly... but this illustrates the root problem well enough.
>
>RicB


The electric typewriter and the computer do not require a wide range of motion.

I have, and occasionally still use, a 1910 vintage Underwood Standard w/18" 
carriage (designed to accomodate accounting ledgers).  Allow me to use the 
old beastie as an example.

Formerly, with a manual typewriter, you had to put paper in the top, turn 
knob on the end of the roller to bring paper around to the front, align 
target area for typing, lock in that alignment, type the line, at the end 
of the line you reached up and snagged the carriage return lever and 
returned the platen to the left margin while it simultaneously moved the 
paper up to the next line.  Repeat the process until the document is finished.

Need tabs?  Stand up, lean over and move them to the desired location 
(indexed to a scale on the front) and lock them in place.  Want to change 
margins?  Same sort of thing.   Different font?  Take the page to a 
different machine...

If you made a missteak you had to roll up the paper, erase or whiteout the 
error, roll the paper back and hope it almost lined up, then retype.  Want 
to add a paragraph??  Retype the entire page...   Want a copy for your 
records?  Before you started you should have placed carbon paper between 
original and all copies - and three is about the maximum and still be able 
to read the bottom copy (if it is fresh carbon paper), if not, do it now 
and start over.

Spel chekker?  It's that big book on the desk, next to the candle ;-}

All these things required a wide range of action. In a way they were 
built-in stretching excercises.

Computer use immobilizes you. Your hands never leave the "home key" 
position except to move the mouse.





Conrad Hoffsommer, Decorah, IA

If nobody knows the troubles you've seen, then you don't live in a small town.