Home Position and Guide Keys

Module 3

Learning Outcomes:
• Apply the home position.
• Apply the highlighting techniques in editing
using the arrow keys.

HOME-ROW POSITION

1. Drop your hands to your side. Allow your fingers to

curve naturally. Maintain this curve as you key.
2. Lightly place your left fingers over the a s d f and the
right fingers over the j k l ;. You will feel a raised
element on the f and j keys, which will help you keep
your fingers on the home position. You are now in
home-row position.

SPACE BAR AND ENTER

Tap the Space Bar, located at the bottom of the keyboard, with
a down-and-in motion of the right thumb to space between words.
Enter Reach with the fourth (little) finger
of the right hand to ENTER. Tap it to return
the insertion point to the left margin. This
action creates a hard return. Use a hard
return at the end of all drill lines. Quickly return to home position
(over ;).
Key these lines
a s d f SPACE j k l ; ENTER
a s d f SPACE j k l ; ENTER

PROCEDURES FOR LEARNING NEW KEYS

1. Find the new key on the illustrated keyboard. Then find it on your keyboard.
2. Watch your finger make the reach to the new key a few times. Keep other fingers
curved in home position. For an upward reach, straighten the finger slightly; for a
downward
reach, curve
the finger a bit
more.
3. Repeat the drill
until you can
key it fluently.

OA2 Keyboarding and Document Processing Mary Rose E. Balili

Home Row
1. The Word Processor should be open.
2. Key lines 1–9 once. Tap ENTER once at the end of each line and twice to double-
space (DS) between 2-line groups.
3. Keep the document on your screen.

ARROW KEYS
Alternatively called cursor keys, direction keys,
and navigation keys, the arrow keys are usually located
between the standard section and the numeric pad on
computer keyboards. It is made up of four keys: left arrow
(back arrow), up arrow, down arrow, and the right arrow
(forward arrow).

Where are my arrow keys?

The arrow keys are found between the keyboard and the keypad on a desktop
keyboard. For smaller keyboards and many laptop keyboards, the arrow keys may be
moved below Enter and the right Shift. Also, some compact keyboards may move the
arrow keys to the keypad and switch between the keypad and arrow keys by pressing the
Num Lock key.

How are arrow keys used?

Below are the most common reasons someone may use the arrow keys on their
keyboard.
Move the text cursor on the screen to insert or remove text.
Tip: If you hold down Ctrl and press ← (left) or → (right), it moves the cursor
one word at a time instead of one character.

OA2 Keyboarding and Document Processing Mary Rose E. Balili

 Move from one cell to another cell in a spreadsheet. Use the right and left arrow
keys to move between columns and the up and down arrow keys to move between
rows.
Use in combination with other keys for keyboard shortcuts. For example, pressing
Alt and ← (left) in all Internet browsers takes you back one page. If you've gone
back, pressing Alt and → (right) goes forward a page.
Move a character in a computer game.
Select text. For example, hold down Shift and press the arrow key in the direction
you want to highlight text.
Move the mouse pointer using the keyboard instead of the mouse.

Make an Arrow in Windows

You can make an arrow using a keyboard shortcut on Windows, but you’ll need
either a numeric keypad or the NumLock key.
The NumLock key can typically be found on the upper right of the keyboard or
attached to a Function key depending on your keyboard.
1. In the document you want an arrow: Hold the Alt key and enter one of the following
number combinations depending on the arrow you want:
↑ Up arrow: 24
↓ Down arrow: 25
→ Right arrow: 26
← Left arrow: 27
2. Release the Alt key after you enter the number, and you’ll then see your arrow in
your document.

3. The arrows can be copied and pasted like regular text into any document that
accepts text.

HOW TO HIGHLIGHT TEXT USING YOUR KEYBOARD

To highlight with the keyboard, move to the starting location using the arrow keys.
Then, hold down Shift, and press the arrow key in the direction you want to highlight.
Once everything you want is highlighted, let go of Shift.

OA2 Keyboarding and Document Processing Mary Rose E. Balili

 ✓ Tip: To highlight one word at a time, press Ctrl while holding down Shift, and then
press ← or → arrow keys.
✓ Tip: To highlight a whole line of text, move your cursor to the start of the line, hold
Shift, and then press ↓. You may also use the keyboard shortcut key combination
Shift+End.
✓ Tip: To highlight all text (the entire page), press the keyboard shortcut key Ctrl+A.

Note: If you are not working with text that can be edited (e.g., this paragraph), you cannot
highlight text using these methods. However, they work in word processor documents,
text documents, and any text field.

References:
VanHuss, et.al. Keyboarding & Word Processing, Complete Course, Lessons 1–120,
Eighteenth Edition
How to Highlight or Select Text (computerhope.com):
https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001669.htm#keyboard
What Are Arrow Keys? (computerhope.com):
https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/a/arrowkey.htm

OA2 Keyboarding and Document Processing Mary Rose E. Balili