Typing practice for a UK keyboard, pound sign included
Type by Zaweba starts on UK QWERTY, with the pound sign, @ and # where your keys have them and the L-shaped Enter key drawn to scale.
UK QWERTY is the default layout in Type by Zaweba, so practice for a British keyboard works from the moment you open it. The on-screen keyboard is drawn as an ISO keyboard with the L-shaped Enter key, the pound sign sits where it does on your own keys, @ is on Shift and the apostrophe key, and # is beside Enter. The lessons on numbers and symbols teach all of those in their UK places.
That matters more than it sounds. A lot of typing practice assumes an American keyboard, where @ and the hash live on the number row and Enter is a single flat bar. Practise on the wrong layout and you learn reaches your keyboard doesn't have. Type is free software that runs offline, with no adverts or account, and it was made with the British keyboard as the starting point rather than an afterthought.
Why the layout has to match your keys
Touch typing is muscle memory. Your little finger learns that the apostrophe is one key to the right of the semicolon, and your right hand learns how far Enter is. If the tutor's picture of the keyboard doesn't match the one under your hands, the screen and your fingers disagree, and every symbol becomes a moment of doubt.
Type draws its keyboard to scale, so the shape you see is the shape you touch. Every key is coloured by the finger that should press it, and the key you need next is lit with a bold ring while the others fade back. For capitals and symbols the correct Shift key is lit too, which is a real help on a UK board where @ and the double quote need Shift with keys you may never have used that way.
Where the pound sign comes in
The course reaches the symbols in stages. Lessons 1 to 4 are the home row, 5 to 10 the top row and 11 to 16 the bottom row. Capitals, punctuation and sentences follow in 17 to 19, and numbers and symbols take up lessons 20 to 26. That is where the pound sign, @ and # turn up, alongside the rest of the number row.
Each lesson's text is generated fresh from the keys you have learnt so far, so you won't see a symbol before the lesson that introduces it. Pass each lesson at 90 percent accuracy to open the next. If you already type well and only want symbol practice, the Open every lesson setting in Profile settings lets you start at lesson 20 straight away.
Seeing which finger to use
Some UK symbols sit in awkward spots, and the hand diagram earns its keep here. Turn it on with View, then Show the hands, and two cartoon hands in the same finger colours light the finger to use, with a line underneath such as Next: J (right index finger). Between the ring on the keyboard and the named finger, there is no guessing which Shift to hold or which finger stretches for the hash beside Enter.
Living with UK and US keyboards
Plenty of people type on a UK keyboard at home and a US one somewhere else. Type also offers US QWERTY, so you can practise both, and it has Dvorak and Colemak in the US style, as Windows has them. UK variants of Dvorak and Colemak are not included. Because lessons are written in key positions, the whole course works the same way whichever layout you choose; only the letters on the keys change.
If you want to try Dvorak or Colemak without changing Windows, Translate my keys lets you practise them while Windows is still set to UK or US QWERTY.
Practising on British text
Once the symbols are familiar, put them to work. Practise on your own text pastes in anything you like, such as a letter, a list of prices or notes from work. Curly quotes and dashes are straightened, and characters your layout can't type are left out and listed so you know what was dropped. Characters typed with AltGr, such as accented letters or the euro sign, are not part of any lesson and are left out of pasted text.
For something longer, the practice passages include openings from Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and other classics, all public domain. They are a pleasant way to keep the punctuation keys busy.
Start at lesson 1, follow the lit keys and let the UK layout become second nature. Type by Zaweba keeps the keyboard on screen matched to the one on your desk the whole way.
