Just above the top row of letters on a steno machine are a set of keys (or a single very wide key) called the Number Bar. On your Qwerty keyboard these keys are in the same place as on a steno machine and are represented by the number keys which are just above the top row of letters.

Pressing any of these keys will turn the stroke into a number stroke. This means your steno software will treat the top row of letters as numbers instead. The number 5 and number 0 can be found on the A and O keys respectively.

Here is an illustration of the number keys on the steno keyboard:

In steno, you can type multiple numbers in one stroke when the numbers are in order (from left to right). For example you can write 123456789 in one stroke by pressing STPRAFPLT along with any of the number bar keys.

By pressing the "E" and "U" keys when writing a number stroke you can invert the order of the numbers (right to left). So you can write 41 in one stroke by pressing "S" and "H" along with any of the number bar keys.

By adding the "D" key to a single digit stroke it will double the number. For example "33", "55" etc..

By adding the "Z" key to a single digit stroke it will add two zeroes to the number. For example "300", "500" etc..

Click Next to practice numbers

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