In Hand Web Resources

Typing Problems

By Lynne Hand

I'm a touch typist, and so I don't look at the keyboard when I'm typing, and I can type pretty fast, with reasonable accuracy. So, when I got a laptop you can imagine my surprise when my typing went to pot. All of a sudden what was coming out of the ends of my fingers was complete gobbledygook. At first I thought - Oh it's a new keyboard, I'll get used to it, but that didn't happen. So, I started to actually pay attention to what I was typing, and realised the cursor was hopping and skipping and jumping all over the place, sometimes whole sections of text I'd typed would disappear and function boxes would appear that I hadn't asked for. My immediate, panicked thought was "I've got a virus", and in my more paranoid moments "Someone is controlling my computer!"

Of course when you have a problem, your first port of call is the internet, but what to search for? "Typing problems" just took me to websites promising to improve my typing skills - Hah! I spent years honing these digits. "Typing bug" and I got offers of virtual assistants. I did find something about "keyboard virus", but I'd already run my virus checker and it was clean. Then, one day, the text I was working on enlarged and I noticed I had lightly brushed the touchpad on my laptop with my thumb, and it all came clear. I have a mouse, a keyboard and a touchpad, and it was the touchpad that was causing all the problems. As a touch typist I rest my wrists on the keyboard, on my main computer this is just not a problem, but on the laptop keyboard, I was always in danger of touching it inadvertently.

So, no keyboard virus, no malicious remote control, and a simple solution - switch off the touchpad - result - solved. Any mistakes in this text are purely my own fault.

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About the author: Lynne Hand is a crazy English teacher, who gives away far too much stuff on the net.