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# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/15/2008 10:43 PM Nicola

What about a dictating software like ibm via voice ? My wife has been happily using it for a while..
Best wishes!
Nicola

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/15/2008 10:54 PM David

Ugh, you have my sympathy. I just recovered from a basketball-related broken finger (needed a bolt through it as it fractured at the joint). Very annoying.

I only needed a splint, so was still able to type with two fingers on that hand, and adjusted pretty quickly. Maybe you can get them to put the cast on so you still can use one finger on your damaged hand?

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/15/2008 11:36 PM Glyn

I have a similar issue - after 2 weeks of resting, i'm back at work but the left hand is terribly slow also.

Can't dictate in a shared office (if I was ordered to work at home, then perhaps it is pssible), but i'm not sure how easy it is using Visual Studio.

A standard keyboard is not bad (the curve of the natural makes thing much harder) and its all at one level (no raised center) which helps.

I'm trying to use Alt- sequences where possible to help.

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/15/2008 11:38 PM Dan F

Yeah... don't :-)

I busted my wrist pretty badly 12 months ago. I'm sure a hand splint is a bit different to the wrist splint I was in, but I found a few things helped:
* Put the keyboard at an angle to maximise the amount of keys my bodgy hand could reach
* Push the mouse and mouse pad further in from the edge of the desk. This allowed me to wrest my elbow on the desk and concentrate on "palming" the mouse. All the movement came from my elbow and forearm, I couldn't move my wrist more than a couple of degrees. To start off with I was left clicking with my thumb, and rolling my hand to the right to right click. Once I got a bit of mobility back, right clicking and gripping the mouse were easier. I still work with the mouse further in, I got fairly used to it.
* I boned up on keyboard shortcuts, especially ones involving my left hand.
* I typed slower, with a bit more thought. This minimised the amount of times I had to reach for the backspace key, miss, swear, miss, swear some more, try again :)
* Regular breaks. It's amazing how much I took my wrist for granted! Having to move a different way reintroduced me to long dead muscles.

Good luck with the healing dude!

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/15/2008 11:51 PM Barry Kelly

Dvorak does indeed have single-handed variants - check your Windows key layouts. Depending on how long you're one-handed, it might be worth learning. (I speak as a normal Dvorak user.)

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/16/2008 3:57 AM Zack Jones

Can you wedge a pencil between the cast and your hand? You could use the eraser part of it to hunt and peck on the keyboard.

Hope you heal quickly.

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/16/2008 5:33 AM Rob C

I've broken my left wrist three times.. Each time, I've had a cast on that made it impossible to use my left hand for typing.

I bought a FrogPad (http://www.frogpad.com) and it worked better than typing one handed on a normal keyboard. I didn't stick with the frogpad after my wrist healed, but it was pretty quick to learn, and less frustrating for me to use than a normal keyboard.

Good luck. I hope you heal quickly.

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/16/2008 7:28 AM Dick Kusleika

First, put those mouse buttons back the old way. I switched to left handed mouse after a shoulder injury and the best advice I got was to keep the mouse buttons the same. It only takes a few days to retrain yourself and you'll be able to use *any* computer just by moving the mouse.

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/16/2008 7:30 AM Mike Murray

A coworker pointed me toward this guys blog (and especially this video post):

http://cddoj.blogspot.com/2008/04/one-handed-typing-options.html

To me, it would seem difficult to learn how to type with just one hand across a full keyboard. However, I don't know much about Dvorak keyboard layouts, other than the confirmation in the above blog post that there is a left-handed configuration. I imagine Dvorak would be difficult to get used to as well.

As for a voice recognition software, it may do the trick, but how good are they for actual coding. It seems it would be cumbersome with all the syntax required when programming. For your blog postings and email, it could do the trick quite nicely though.

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/16/2008 8:54 AM Tyrone

Ah give it a break. I'm sure you can go 4-6 weeks without contributing to the community like you lol. Hire a temporary personal assistant for your writing or a jr. programmer to help you code.

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/16/2008 9:11 AM Jason

Use the voice recognition built into MS Office or Windows Vista. I know it won't help you code, but at least you can keep productive on your writing.

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/16/2008 1:42 PM John Bickerstaff

I'd suggest NOT swapping your mouse buttons and simply learning to use it left-handed in its default setup. I did this a few years ago and am now "mouse ambi-dextrous". this is a really handy skill to have after you recover.

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/17/2008 9:20 AM Luciano Evaristo Guerche (Gorše)

If you are using Windows Vista, I'd recommend giving Windows Vista Speech Recognition a try.

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/17/2008 10:09 AM Steve Ewart

>If you are using Windows Vista, I'd recommend giving Windows Vista Speech Recognition a try.

I can just hear you now: "Open Parenthesis" "Open Parenthesis ", "Space" "Letter I", "Plus sign", "Plus sign", "Semi Colon", "Close Parenthesis", etc :)

Steve

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/17/2008 10:26 AM Bill

I'd try the Frogpad IMHO.

Or stop playing basketball.:)

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 7/17/2008 1:30 PM Mischa Kroon

dragon dictate nat speeking :)

# Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7/19/2008 7:49 PM Scott on Writing

# Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7/19/2008 8:21 PM ASPInsiders

Earlier this week I broke my right hand playing basketball . I currently have a splint on, which renders

# re: Suggestions for a broken hand? 8/11/2008 7:47 AM Colin Bowern

I fracture/dislocated a finger on my left hand and it was out of action for six weeks plus earlier this year (in a car accident on the way to speak at the Toronto Code Camp no less!). It will be amazing how quickly you will begin to compensate with your left hand. The real challenge will be to get the right hand back into the swing of things after the splint comes off. The one piece of advice I can give is that you want to really stay on top of the physio after you are out of the splint to get back up and running faster. I also found for my left trying to pick up the guitar again helped me get the movement back a little faster.

# The Cast is Off - Back to Having Two Hands! 8/18/2008 5:25 PM Scott on Writing

# The Cast is Off! I've Got Two Functional Hands Again! 8/18/2008 5:40 PM Community Blogs

On July 15th I broke my right hand playing basketball, which resulted in a cast that severely limited

# The Cast is Off! I've Got Two Functional Hands Again! 8/18/2008 5:48 PM BusinessRx Reading List

On July 15th I broke my right hand playing basketball, which resulted in a cast that severely limited

# The Cast is Off! I've Got Two Functional Hands Again! 8/18/2008 7:29 PM Readed By Wrocław NUG members

On July 15th I broke my right hand playing basketball, which resulted in a cast that severely limited

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