How to B

By Filip Salo; published on May 26, 2006.

Over at SimpleBits, Dan Cederholm lists a couple of words he can easily type with his left hand. Among them are creative bits like "sward" and "zedra". The latter in particular caught my attention. It seems to imply that Dan types his B_s using his _right hand.

I learned to touch-type properly about 14 years ago, in 7th grade. I was the best in my class (even with my eyes closed!) and I swear I never touched the B key with anything but my left index finger.

This is also how my keyboard is arranged - one of those "natural"/"ergonomic" ones, it has the B key left of the split - which means it would take a small act of acrobatics to even try to type my Bs using my right hand these days.

That's exactly what Charles Wright didn't like about his Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro - he clearly wants it the other way around. I wonder how common this is. Research follows.

For more one-handed words, check out Magnus Bodin's word lab.

(Remember, though: too much left-hand typing can make you blind.)