The Alphabet
(a.k.a., "How do you type on this?")
The buttons are operated much like playing chords on a piano (hence the name 'chording'). The chording alphabet appears below. The five circles represent the fingertips of the right hand, palm down. Mnemonic memory jogs, where the shape of the letter resembles the pattern of buttons to be pressed, make the alphabet easy to learn.
For example, the letter "H" has as a prominent feature a horizontal crossbar, which (when drawn very largely over your hand face down) passes right through the first and fifth circles, corresponding to your thumb and pinky fingers. So, the thumb and pinky together form the letter "H".
The letter "T" also has a prominent horizontal line, but when you draw it it appears a little higher -- over the 2nd and 4th fingers. So, the 2nd and 4th fingers together will type the letter "T".
A typical learning curve for the complete alphabet, punctuation, and command set can be measured in hours, as opposed to conventional typing, which can take months. (Or as opposed to the Graffiti language for the Palm, whose learning curve is the same.)
Chords also exist for numbers, punctuation, cursors, and even Control-, Alt-, and Fn prefixes -- anything one can type on a computer keyboard.
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