Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by lburton on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @03:28PM (#44173695)

This will depend a bit on the person but for me when I injured my right arm I found that my touch typing muscle memory worked surprisingly well with a toggle key to flip the left side of my keyboard to become a mirrored version of the right side. Each finger was still hitting the same key like it would if I was using my right hand to hit the key but on my left hand. This was fairly easy to accomplish on a QMK firmware keyboard (I was also already typing on a split keyboard so that might be part of the reason it was fairly easy to adjust). See https://docs.qmk.fm/features/swap_hands#swap-hands-action

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by bryanlarsen on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @03:31PM (#44173730)

Yes, I was just going to make this suggestion. If it's a temporary problem, you probably don't want a solution that requires extensive retraining to use. A mirrored keyboard takes advantage of existing brain wiring.

autohotkey layout: https://github.com/hanmindev/mirrorboard

xkb layout: https://blog.xkcd.com/2007/08/14/mirrorboard-a-one-handed-ke...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by jfengel on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @05:45PM (#44175088)

In a quick experiment, I found that utterly baffling. On zero practice, it was much faster for me to type with just my left hand. (Though it requires me to keep looking at the keyboard, because I'm leaving the home position.)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by fouronnes3 on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @04:22PM (#44174289)

I am low key thinking about trying this without any disability, as a way of always keeping the right hand on the mouse.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by bravesoul2 on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @05:40PM (#44175040)

I like the idea. Don't you love those words like "creed" or "scare" that can be typed with one hand!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by Valodim on Wednesday June 04, 2025 @01:36AM (#44177534)

Stewardess ;)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by barbazoo on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @05:37PM (#44175015)

Foot pedal maybe? Or maybe a dedicated mouse button.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by komali2 on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @09:55PM (#44176543)

Does your usual computer activity require a lot of mouse work? Ten years ago I went down this path when my coworker caught me adding bindings to my mouse buttons. He sat me down at his machine and showed me vim wasn't just an old fart text editor and that the bindings can be used in other editors.

Ofc if you're not doing text based work this wouldn't apply.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by ahonhn on Wednesday June 04, 2025 @02:53AM (#44177863)

I stopped using a mouse when I moved from desktop to laptop computer because I found the touchpad is so much more convenient for keeping my hand near the keyboard. However, doing this for over 20 years means I'm now very stuck in my habit of needing touchpads with real buttons. All my attempts to get used to the awful buttonless modern touchpads have been an absolute nightmare so far :-(

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by HenryBemis on Wednesday June 11, 2025 @05:35PM (#44252066)

Doesn't a touch-screen make it easy? When I use my laptop I seldomly use the mouse nowadays. I scroll or tap/move the cursor with my finder on the screen, and I 'fine tune' the location with the arrows.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by faizshah on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @04:28PM (#44174370)

I had the same experience, my typing speed with two hands is 90-120 but with one hand i can still get 50-70. The hard part is punctuation but with AI these days you could try just prompting and let the AI deal with syntax for you.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by haiku2077 on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @07:05PM (#44175732)

Right, you could run your text through an LLM that adds punctuation and then fix up the result manually. Would probably save time + fatigue

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by bravesoul2 on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @05:42PM (#44175061)

That's a fast speed. I practice to get to 60 then said well, that's good enough!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by arjvik on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @04:45PM (#44174528)

Randall Munroe talks about exactly this:

https://blog.xkcd.com/2007/08/14/mirrorboard-a-one-handed-ke...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by idahoduncan on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @05:59PM (#44175237)

I have this set up using kmonad[1], and the following config. Many punctation marks are obviously missing, but I'm sure they could be added with a little thought. The mirrored layout is toggled by holding the space key.

    (defalias
      lhs (tap-next-release spc (layer-toggle ytrewq)))
    
    (deflayer ytrewq
      _    _    _    _    _    _    _    _    _    _    _    _    _    _    _    _
           bspc 0    9    8    7    6    _    _    _    _    _    _    _    _    _
           _    p    o    i    u    y    _    _    _    _    _    _    _         _
           ret  ;    l    k    j    h    _    _    _    _    _    _    _    _    _
           lsft /    .    ,    m    n    _    _    _    _    _    _         _    _
      _    _    _    _              _              _    _              _    _    _)

1. https://github.com/kmonad/kmonad

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by behnamoh on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @06:23PM (#44175426)

kmonad:

    written in Haskell
    config in Lisp

Best of both worlds!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing by idahoduncan on Wednesday June 04, 2025 @04:13AM (#44178371)

It's also apparently cross-platform. Great project!

[ Parent | on HN ]