Typewriter Use and Typewriter Maintenance for Beginning to Intermediate Typists

Two common questions I hear from those just starting out into the typewriter space are frequently about the basics:

How do I use a typewriter?

How to take care of typewriters or do basic maintenance?

Naturally there is a ton of colloquial advice you’ll receive on these topics from social media and YouTube, but it’s uneven and not very complete. If you’ve just bought your first typewriter, you’re looking for a quick crash course in how to do the basics so you can start punching the keys, but still take care of your machine. With any luck, the resources on this page will get you up and running with your typewriter in no time at all.

Editor’s note: In an upcoming article, I’ll cover the basics for how to find/purchase and install typewriter ribbon in a variety of machines. In the erstwhile, know that Tom Hanks can teach you the basics or you can search YouTube for your make and/or model to see how others have done this or consult the manual for your machine if it’s available.

At the start of World War II, typewriter manufacturers quit making them to focus on war efforts as well as to save precious steel for the war. As a fortunate result of this, being able to use and maintain them became a way to show one’s patriotism for the general effort and the United States Navy was there to help. Thus the Navy made several short films about the basics of typewriter use and maintenance. Though made in 1942 and 1943, these films cover a lot of the basics incredibly well and even extend to later typewriters made into the 1980s, so some of the best advice can be quickly found and consumed in under an hour.

Lots of this advice could or would have been learned in a high school or college-based typing class or in secretarial schools from the mid-century onwards. Sadly a lot of it is now missing from basic keyboarding courses which place all of their focus and practice on touch typing.

Below, I’ve compiled may of the most useful films I could find online for the basics of typing, typing methods, typing techniques and even some advanced methods when using manual typewriters. It’s likely that even the most advanced typists will be shocked and amazed by these films and learn something from watching them.

United States Navy Training Films

Basic Typing

Basic Typing: Methods. Vol. MN-1512a. United States Navy Training Film, 1943.

Basic Typing: Machine Operation. Vol. MN-1512b. United States Navy Training Film, 1943.

Advanced Typing

Advanced Typing: Shortcuts. Vol. MN-1512c. United States Navy Training Film, 1943.

Advanced Typing: Duplicating and Manuscript. Vol. MN-1512d. United States Navy Training Film, 1943.

Typewriter Maintenance

Maintenance Of Office Machines. Vol. MN-1513. United States Navy Training Film, 1943.

Miscellaneous Training Films

Beyond these examples, several manufacturers and entities made instructional and industrial films and even sales films covering some typewriter basics over the years. Some may be machine specific, but their advice is applicable not only to those machines, but a broad array of many others which are all incredibly similar with respect to functionality. For machines that differ from the norm, you can often compare your particular machine and its manual to various others which are available online.

Content warning: Some of these films from the mid-century have outdated gender roles.

Elementary Typing. 16 mm, Instructional film. Moreland-Latchford Productions, Ltd.; Periscope Film, #15494, 1968.

The Secretary: Transcribing. 16 mm, Instructional film. Coronet Instructional Films, 1955.

The Secretary: Transcribing (Second Edition). 16 mm, Instructional film. Coronet Instructional Films, 1966.

Correcting Bad Typing Habits with the Smith-Corona Electric Typewriter. 16 mm, Industrial film. Periscope Film, c. 1952.

Typing Skills: Fields of Typing. 16 mm, Instructional film. Periscope Film, 1972.

Office Etiquette. 16 mm, Industrial. EBF Human Relations Film produced by Encyclopedia Britannica Films Inc. in collaboration with Hamden L. Forkner, Ph.D., Teachers College, Columbia University, 1950.

Successful Secretary Presented by Royal Office Typewriters. A Thomas Craven Film Corporation Production, 1966.

Additional Basics

Of course if you need some additional basics, which aren’t included in some of these, you should know:

Early typewriters conserving on the number of keys and what they were able to type relied on the operator knowing that different characters could be double purposed or superimposed to create new characters. These included:

Using either the lower case “L” key or, less frequently for custom typefaces, the “I” key to type the number “1” which was often excluded from the keyboard.

To make an exclamation point, you would type period “.” followed by a backspace and then an apostrophe ” ‘ “.

Editor’s Note: This is one of a continuing series of articles on typewriters and their use in 19th and 20 century settings. You can find additional information on that page.