Okay, I love typing in Colemak, but the right index reach for J is just too hard. I am tempted to use left index finger, but am not sure if that is proper touch-typing and want to do learn things right, now, so that my speed doesn't suffer later on my Colemak journey. What should I do?
Colemak typist
I'd say that either finger is ok, since it's such a rare letter. Use whatever is most comfortable for you. Keep in mind, though, that if you ever invest in a split keyboard, the J may escape to the wrong end of your universe. :-)
Well, if you decide to use the left index finger, you'll be stretching more than with the right! Maybe practice typing a load of words containing 'J' would help you get used to it.
"It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in." - Earl of Chesterfield
The J should be approximately equidistant to either the left or the right index finger. Why is using the left one more comfortable?
Further, if you use your left hand, you will suffer the following disadvantages:
* Unbalancing the load somewhat to the left index finger
* Creating same-finger between J and the left index finger area, something that Colemak was not designed for. J is rare so I don't off-hand know what the damage would be.
Hope that helps.
Did you touch type QWERTY previously? If so, did you have trouble with the Y then? If you've been touch-typing the QWERTY Y without trouble before then I suggest that your current J problem may be just in your mind and should be simply ignored until it resolves itself.
I'm not saying you should let an error establish itself, but don't overstress it either or the stress itself may become a problem.
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I've gotten a bit used to it, but now it's just difficult for me to type "l" because I confuse the two. I guess I should just practice a bit.
Colemak typist
practice changes what appears to hard into easy. Are you floating enough? using arm movement enough.
I use J a fair bit, not sure how it's considered rare. The distal keys are rare, which I like, but all the central ones get a fair amount of use with me.
It is rare...q, j, x and z are without a bout the rarest letters, and of those I would say that j has to be rarest unless dealing with a lot of names or Christianity! ize makes z pretty common (or all the places in the United States English where they replaced s with z!), words like inquiry and whatnot for q, ex- and whatnot for x, and x and z for key actions, of course. That is why it is great that it is located where it is, in the wost key location on the keyboard!
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I don't make much use of z on account of being in Canada and using British spelling. I find injury comes up a lot for me (which is a fairly common word for anyone looking at more ergonomic typing).
x isn't so bad on account of using the ring finger instead of the pinky.
Perhaps one reason "J" seems worse than "Y" for that key is, many words end in "Y", whereas barely any words end in "J". One tends to get a little "break" at the end of each word (to push the space bar), which gives the right hand extra time to recover, so the stretch up to "Y" on Qwerty doesn't seem quite as bad a lot of the time.
Of course, experience will tend to make the issue disappear. After all, Qwerty has "T", the second most-used character in the English language, on what's arguably the third worst key on the standard keyboard, yet most Qwerty typists get used to that. :)
Speaking of spacebar, I have a habit of only using my right hand for it (which on Colemak seems apropriate as most words I'm typing right now end on the left hand). I'm not sure how many other people have the same habit but that could affect how easy certain letters are.
