Keyboard Productivity

With the COVID pandemic virtually destroying business confidence around the world, there have been many calls for workers to "increase their productivity" to keep profits up and to keep workers employed.  My particular interest lies in work which relies on the use of computer keyboards.  How can productivity be increased here?

I learned to type in 1967.  In 1990, after working for several years as a "temp" legal secretary, I trained and was employed as a court reporter in Perth, Western Australia.  This work required me to transcribe audio recordings from various courts and tribunals, interviews, board meetings etc.  In order to achieve this task I had to be able to type at the speed of speech (150-180 wpm) at better than 99.995% accuracy.  In 2022, although I had retired from paid work in this field, I still undertake it on a voluntary basis, transcribing oral history interviews for a large library.

How do I define "productivity"?  Decreasing the number of keystrokes compared to the text appearing on screen.  Doing this in such a fashion that it does not cause injury to my hands and arms.  Transcribing with extreme accuracy to reduce time lost when proofreading and correcting text.

Many years ago, I took my work of a normal month and calculated my average typing speed.  I worked it out that I had performed at 23 wpm, over 8 hours per day 5 days per week.  This time did not include ANY breaks; no lunch, no coffee, no toilet.  But since the calculation was based upon completed work, it perforce included time spent proof reading and correcting.

How was I able to achieve this?  My choice of keyboard and software was essential.

Keyboard
In 1986, I was employed word processing academic work, such as theses and essays, and giving clients a "clean" (draft) copy to take to supervisors for correction, then final printout.  I found myself suffering discomfort in my wrists and arms and after consulting with various people, decided that the problem lay in the keyboard, which was, as was the case then (and now), a standard QWERTY layout.  I was led to a Maltron keyboard, which I purchased and since 1986 I have not seriously used any other keyboard.

https://www.maltron.com/

How does a Maltron differ from other keyboards, even those claimed to be ergonomic?*  As the illustration shows, there are 5 separate keying area, being left hand main, right hand main, left hand navigation, right hand navigation, and a central numeric keypad with some duplicate functions such as navigation.  This split keyboard enables the operator to keep their hands in a straight line with wrists and forearms, dispensing with the inevitable adduction ie, turning the hands outward.  

The keys are formed into a 3D "bowl" with each individual key set at a different angle to ensure a clean strike.

(I have found an incidental benefit when gaming with this layout, as the separate navigation pads mean I can, without moving my hands from the home keys, use my left thumb for move left, move up, and page up, and my right thumb for move right, move down and page down.)

Unlike nearly every keyboard available today, the keys are in straight columns, without the staggering to left or right, first necessitated in early mechanical typewriters.  At the base of the key main key pads there are palm rests (NOT wrist rests, which can slow the hands down, as well putting pressure on the carpal tunnel) so that the operator does not need to "hover" the hands and arms.  This requires the use of major muscles such as extrinsic finger muscles (flexor digitorum superficialis and extensor digitorum communis), shoulder (trapezius) and neck (splenius capitis).  With the palm rests, the operator is merely extending and contracting the fingers in exactly the manner for which they evolved.  This enables to operator to reach every alphabetical key and the majority of numerical keys without lifting.  To reach the F (function) keys a small amount of extra stretching is required.

The patented Malt key distribution (1977), shown below, reduces manifold the amount of travel of the hands, compared to other shapes, including QWERTY, Dvorak and Colemak.  I used a simple metric to determine this, by observing how many words could be entered without moving the hands from the "home row", ie not moving the hands at all.  For a definitive result, I used a "go/no-go" cut off, with even a single letter not being on the home row resulting in removal of that word.  I selected one of several commonly available on-line word lists (International Scrabble Word List) and used the same list for each keyboard.  I chose to include the letters covered by the index fingers.  (It should be noted that the Malt distribution has the "E" key accessed by the left thumb, with the right thumb hitting the space bar.)

The results are shown below:

QWERTY - 198 different words can be typed without taking the fingers from the home row keys.

Dvorak - 3126 different words can be typed without taking the fingers from the home row keys.

Colemak - 5963 different words can be typed without taking the fingers from the home row keys.

Malt - 7639 different words can be typed without taking the fingers from the home row keys.

I note that should a reader attempt to reproduce my results, unless the same initial word list is employed, there may be differences from mine.  However, as long as the same list is used for EACH keyboard, the result should be valid, comparing one to the other.  The actual results I achieved are listed in this link.

https://proword-keyboardlayoutefficiency.blogspot.com/

Software Productivity
Depending upon the type of work being done, the choice of the correct software is crucial.  Whilst MS Word is widely distributed (mainly due to MicroSoft's practice of bundling its MS Office software (or portions thereof) with new MS Windows installation), in my own line of work I have achieved a 30% reduction in the ratio of keystrokes in to on-screen characters out by using WordPerfect.  

The first method is the use of "hot keys" - ie keystroke combinations.  Eg.  If I strike Ctrl "A" the suffix "ation" will immediately appear on-screen, Ctrl B gives "because", etc as I require.  Likewise MS Word can have its keyboard customised, but there is a crucial difference.  In total there are about 500+ combinations available, including Ctrl Key, Alt Key, Alt-Ctrl Key, in both programs.  But whereas in MS Word only a single abbreviation can be shown at a time (with any hot key(s) attached to it), WordPerfect has a "keyboard map", which shows EVERY combination in an on-screen list, so not only can the operator see which key combination contains what text/ function/ macro at the same time, but also shows which combinations are vacant, with MS Word needing a "suck it and see" as to which vacancies there are.  WP's approach makes creation of hot keys extremely simple.  

WP has a function called "QuickCorrect", similar to MS Word's "AutoCorrect", which enables the operator to create an "abbreviation" which can be expanded automatically upon certain keys (eg space bar, punctuation etc) being struck.  Eg "yesterday" can be abbreviated to "yst" etc.  I found it irritating to have the expansion occur when I didn't want it to happen, so I set about creating a simple macro which means that I can use an abbreviation without it expanding unless I choose to have it do so.  In its entirety the macro reads:

Application (WordPerfect; "WordPerfect"; Default!; "EN")
QuickCorrect (State: On!)
Type (Text: " ")
QuickCorrect (State: Off!)
DeleteCharPrevious ()

It operates as follows.  I default the automatic expansion to "off" state,  type in the abbreviation, execute the macro which turns the expansion "on" state, types a space, which causes the abbreviation to expand, resets the automatic expansion to "off" state, and deletes the space inserted automatically.  By using the keyboard map, I can assign this macro to any key I choose, so while I can type an abbreviation saving many keystrokes, I can execute the expansion instantly and smoothly.  (As long as I select the correct abbreviation, this function reduces the chances of a "typing error" to virtually zero.)

Lastly, there has been no evidence of the "out of memory error" which sometimes occurs when creating large numbers of AutoCorrect abbreviations in MS Word.  Presently my WP QuickCorrect file is 0.439 MB in size, and the list contains close to 8,000 abbreviations.  I have yet to see anybody claim to have an abbreviation list like this in MS Word.

NOTE:   In order to prevent automatic expansion of abbreviations which are "real" words, it is ESSENTIAL that in the WP spelling Checker the option to "Prompt before Auto Replacement" be selected.  This is a "once only" setting unless the operator goes to another machine or re-installs the package.

Previously I said that I achieved a 30% reduction in keystrokes in to characters out.  I give my example below.


****************************

HIS WORSHIP: Yes, thank you?

MR MONITOR: May it please the court, my name is Monitor, I appear on behalf of the first and second plaintiffs.

MS FEATHERN: May it please you sir, Ms Feathern for the defendant.

HIS WORSHIP: Yes, thank you.

MR FRANKLE: May it please you your Worship, I appear for the third party.

HIS WORSHIP: Yes, thank you. Mr Monitor?

MR MONITOR: If your Worship pleases, this is a copyright case involving an action by the plaintiffs as against the defendant, Richard Keith Haute. The case arises as a consequence of the second plaintiff, Homestead Holdings Pty Ltd, otherwise trading as Anthem Homes, being a builder that designed a set of drawings for a house to be built for the defendant, a Mr Richard Keith Haute. The - - I'll call them - - instead of calling them the second plaintiff, I'll call the second plaintiff Anthem Homes, if that pleases the court, the third party, Beeswing Holdings Pty Ltd, that company trades as Machard Homes, so we have Anthem Homes and Beeswing Homes. Gregory Thomas Ching, he is the owner of the copyright, the original architectural design, of a particular design of house, and he licensed the use of that to Anthem Homes. For the purpose of these proceedings, your Worship should have an amended particulars of claim, particulars of amended defence, amended statement of claim against the third party, and a re-amended particulars of defence by the third party.

What I propose to do is take you through the particulars of claim to start with. The first plaintiff is a building designer. He will give evidence to tell the court of his background and experience. The second plaintiff is a company that is incorporated. On the amended defence there is a denial of the Anthem Homes or Homestead Holdings Pty Ltd being an incorporated company. That denial is now withdrawn.

MR FRANKLE: Can I just rise, and I do apologise to my learned friend for interrupting him, but there's a minor housekeeping matter that should be dealt with at this early stage.

HIS WORSHIP: Yes.

MR FRANKLE: And that is for the third party. I simply seek a direction, that we haven't had one the past, although the case has been run that way, and the direction I seek is the direction that the third party's liability to the defendant be determined at this trial.


****************************************


Above is the published transcript. Below is what I actually keyed in. It looks a bit of a mish-mash but I'll try and explain my "code". Where you see an asterisk "*" followed by a letter, this is a key stroke combination. Eg *t means I pressed Ctrl (Or Alt) T to get the text string "the". However where you see a text string followed by a hash "#", this is a QuickCorrect expansion. Eg Yh# means I've typed "yh" and hit my expansion key to get "Your Honour".

As you can see there is a considerable saving in keystroking, an even greater saving when you take into account the "invisible" savings created by reduction in typing errors. An example is my proclivity to key the word "the" by typing t-e-h- [backspace] [backspace] h-e. So using the keystroke Ctrl T actually saves me typing more than one extra keystroke.

If this text appears to "jammed up" this is because when there is a change in speaker, the new paragraph spacing is included in the keystroke combo, as described above.

##################################

*1Yes, *k? *3Miplc#, my name is Monitor, I ape# obhfo# *t ft# and sec# ptf#s. *4Mipl# y* sir, Ms Feathern for *t dft#.*1Yes, t*k. *5Mipl# y* yw#, I ape4# *t 3pty#. *1Yes, t*k. Mr Monitor? *3If yw* pl*s, this is a copyright case ivog# an acn# by *t ptf#s as ais# *t dft#, Richard Keith Haute. *t case arises as a cnsq# of *t sec# ptf#, Homestead Holdings Pty Ltd, otw# trading as Anthem Homes, be*i a bldr# *h designed a set of draw*is for a house to be built for *t dft#, a Mr Richard Keith Haute. *t - - I'll call *tm - - instead of calling *tm *t sec# ptf#, I'll call *t sec# ptf# Anthem Homes, if *h pl#s *t crt#, *t 3pty#, Beeswing Holdings Pty Ltd, *h coy# trades as Machard Homes, so we hv# Anthem Homes and Beeswing Homes. Gregory Thomas Ching, he is *t owner of *t copyright, *t orgl# archtl# design, of a pt# design of house, and he lcs#d *t use of *h to Anthem Homes. For *t pu# of *tse pcdg#s, yw# sh*o hv# an amdd# pt#s of claim, pt#s of amdd# dfc#, amdd# stm# of cl# ais# *t 3pty#, and a re-amdd# pt#s of dfc# by the 3pty#. *W I pps# to do is ty# thr*g *t pt#s of cl# to start with. *t ft# ptf# is a bldg# designer. He will give ev# to tell *t crt# of his bakg# and xpc#. *t sec# ptf# is a coy# ie# inc#d. On the amd# dfc# th# is a denial of *t Anthem Homes or Homestead Holdings Pty Ltd be*i an inc#d coy#. *h denial is now wdwn#. *5Can I *j rise, and I do apols# to mlf# for interrupting him, but th#e's a minor hskpgm# *h sh*o be dtw# this early stage. *1Yes. *5And *h is for *t 3pty#. I simply seek a drn#, *h we hvn# had one *t past, alth*g *t case has been run *h way, and *t drn# I seek is *t drn# *h *t 3pty#'s lbly# to *t dft# be dtm#d at this trial.

**********************************

This link will take you a much more detailed description of how I achieved what I achieved.

https://proword-transcription.blogspot.com/

You will also find other links within the body of the document explaining further.

Almost forgot.  The mouse!  I use a Logitech trackball which (a) requires absolutely no lifting and (b) has the buttons on the sides which can be reversed via the Windows settings for either left or right hand.



Been using for 20 years or so.  Beautiful. 

*I get  a bit of a chuckle when I read on-line reviews of "ergonomic" keyboards and the awards given out.  These reviews seldom go to anything other than QWERTY keyboards, and never seem to mention Maltron, which began production in the late 1970s, and has garnered the following awards:

https://www.maltron.com/awards.html

Millennium Product
Maltron Keyboards have been selected as a Millennium Product by the Design Council. Andrew Summers, Chief Executive, says, "I am delighted that the Maltron ergonomically designed keyboard has been announced as a Millennium Product and is going to be part of our collection of the most innovative products in Britain for the new Millennium"



2001
North West Today
Health & Safety Product of the Year



1999
Journal Publishing Company
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE FOR INNOVATION AND DESIGN

"A keyboard from PCD Maltron has earned the company selection for the JPC Award for Excellence for Innovation and Design for its ability to provide relief against the symptoms of repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), so enabling sufferers of the injury to resume their careers"



1999
Yes Magazine
Special Achievement Award for recognising and being positive towards the needs of disabled people



1997
Journal Publishing Company
AWARD OF MERIT FOR HEALTH & SAFETY



1997
South East Invention of the Year Competition
Finalist certificate presented by Professor Heinz Wolff



1996
MacUser Award
5 Mouse Rating
MacUser Magazine
Certificate awarded for Product Excellence on the basis of comprehensive tests conducted by MacUser. 5 Mouse Rating (see reports of experience). "The Maltron Keyboard is perfect for those suffering from or trying to elude RSI"



1994
Royal Society For The Prevention Of Accidents
COMMENDATION FOR THE MALTRON KEYBOARD'S "particularly outstanding innovative design and excellence in the field of health"



1991
South Of England Invention Of The Year Competition
Bronze Medal Awarded



1984
Institution Of Electrical Engineers Prize For Helping Disabled People
"in recognition of the contribution made to helping disabled people and for the high standard of entry