Touch-typing requires placing the four fingers of each hand on the "home keys", that is, the keys A S D F for the left hand and J K L ; for the right hand. The fingers rest on these keys and move away from them when they are required to tap another key. Most of the time, the fingers move within three rows, the home row, the row above it and the row below it.



In the TACTUS Keyboard, these three rows are enclosed by the "walls" formed by the ridges and the fingers operate as if they were in a frame. Each finger moves from its position on the home key, one row up and one row down. For instance, the left middle finger, when required to tap the key E, moves from its position on the home key D, up one row to the key E and is stopped from overshooting the key E by the ridge on the top edge of the key. Likewise, when wanting to tap the key C, the finger moves down and is stopped from overshooting the key C by the ridge on the bottom edge of the key C. Thus at all times the fingers operate within the four walls of the box, moving outside the box only when required to tap keyso outside the box.
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All Keys Are Next to a Ridge
All alphabetical keys, as well as the most frequently used symbols and function keys, are either inside the box or just outside the wall of the box. Therefore, the fingers always move inside the box or just on the other side the wall of the box and thus always have a reference point. For instance, the index finger, wanting to reach the key G, knows that is has found the key G because this key is located just on the other side of the key A, that is, on the other side of the wall of the box.

The Fingers Always Know Where They Are
The location and shape of the ridges tell the finger its precise position on the keyboard. For instance the key P has two ridges, on the top side and right side. This unequivocally communicates to the finger that the key is a "corner" key, located in the top right corner of the box. In similar fashion, the finger can immediately tell that the key O is a "top middle" key because the key has one ridge only, on the top side of the key. Because of this, the TACTUS ridges make repositioning the fingers on the keyboard, after operating the mouse or the directional arrow keys, much faster than on a normal keyboard.

In Summary
The differences between TACTUS and a standard keyboard can be summarised as follows. In the alphabetical section of a standard keyboard, the typist has only two reference points, a dot on the letters F and J. In the alphabetical section of the TACTUS keyboard, in addition to the standard dots on the letters F and J, there are twenty more reference points, organised into "boxes", which are intuitive and easy to feel, get used to and remember. Likewise, in the numerical section of the TACTUS keyboard, there are eight reference points in addition to the dot on the key 5, whereas a standard keyboard has only the reference point on the key 5.
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