About the Shift and Capital Letters lesson
This lesson introduces the Shift key and capital letters. Hold the Shift key on the opposite side to the letter you are typing — right Shift for a left-hand letter, left Shift for a right-hand letter — so the reach stays balanced across both hands. Once you can finish all 3 drills above 95% accuracy, move on to Apostrophes and Quotes.
Keys in this lesson: Shift
How to practise capital letters
- Use the opposite-hand Shift. Reaching for the near Shift twists your wrist and slows you down.
- Hold Shift down, press the letter, then release both. Do not tap Shift first and hope it sticks.
- Your little finger does the work on Shift, and the rest of the hand stays anchored to the home row.
- Caps Lock is not a substitute — it is slower for single capitals and you will forget to turn it off.
Where this fits
This is lesson 19 of 41 in the free FastFingers touch typing course. The next lesson is Apostrophes and Quotes. When you want to measure your speed on real text instead of drills, take a free typing test.
Frequently Asked Questions
The one on the opposite side to the letter. For a capital J, typed with your right hand, hold the left Shift. For a capital F, hold the right Shift.
Caps Lock is fine for a whole word in capitals, but for a single capital at the start of a sentence it costs two extra keystrokes and breaks your rhythm.