Archive-name: typing-injury-faq/software Version: 1.8, 7th December 1992  This FAQ is actually maintained by Richard Donkin <richardd@hoskyns.co.uk>. I post it, along with the other FAQ stuff.  If you have questions, you want to send mail to Richard, not me.  -- Dan     		    Software Tools to help with RSI 		    -------------------------------   This file describes tools, primarily software, to help prevent or manage RSI. This version now includes information on such diverse tools as calendar programs and digital watches...   Please let me know if you know any other tools, or if you have information or opinions on these ones, and I will update this FAQ.  I am especially interested in getting reviews of these products from people who have evaluated them or are using them.     Richard Donkin                            Internet mail: richardd@hoskyns.co.uk               Tel: +44 71 814 5708 (direct) Fax: +44 71 251 2853  Changes in this version:       Added information on StressFree, another typing management tool       for Windows.   TYPING MANAGEMENT TOOLS: these aim to help you manage your keyboard use, by warning you to take a break every so often.  The better ones also include advice on exercises, posture and workstation setup.  Some use sound hardware to   warn of a break, others use beeps or screen messages.  Often, RSI appears only after many years of typing, and the pain has a delayed action in the short term too: frequently you can be typing all day with little problem and the pain gets worse in the evening. These tools act as an early warning system: by listening to their warnings and taking breaks with exercises, you don't have to wait for your  body to give you a more serious and painful warning - that is, getting RSI.        Tool: At Your Service (commercial software)     Available from: 	Bright Star 	Tel: +1 (206) 451 3697     Platforms: Mac (System 6.0.4), Windows     Description: 	Provides calendar, keyboard watch, email watch, and system info.  	Warns when to take a break (configurable).  Has a few recommendations 	on posture, and exercises.  Sound-oriented, will probably work best  	with sound card (PC) or with microphone (Mac).  Should be possible 	to record your own messages to warn of break.       Tool: AudioPort (sound card and software)     Available from: 	Media Vision 	Tel: +1 (510) 226 2563     Platforms: PC     Description: 	A sound card to plug into your PC parallel port. 	Includes 'At Your Service'.       Tool: Computer Health Break (commercial software)     Available from: 	Escape Ergonomics, Inc 	1111 W. El Camino Real 	Suite 109 	Mailstop 403 	Sunnyvale, CA 	Tel: +1 (408) 730 8410     Platforms: DOS     Description: 	Aimed at preventing RSI, this program warns you to take 	breaks after a configurable interval, based on clock time, or 	after a set number of keystrokes -- whichever is earlier. 	It gives you 3 exercises to do each time, randomly selected from 	a set of 70.  Exercises are apparently tuned to the type of work 	you do - data entry, word processing, information processing. 	Exercises are illustrated and include quite a lot of text on 	how to do the exercise and on what exactly the exercise does.  	CHB includes hypertext information on RSI that you can use  	to learn more about RSI and how to prevent it.  Other information 	on non-RSI topics can be plugged into this hypertext viewer. 	A full glossary of medical terms and jargon is included.  	CHB can be run in a DOS box under Windows, but does not then 	warn you when to take a break; it does not therefore appear 	useful when used with Windows.  	Cost: $79.95; quantity discounts, site licenses.      Comments: 	The keystroke-counting approach looks good: it seems better 	to measure the activity that is causing you problems than to 	measure clock time or even typing time.  The marketing stuff 	is very good and includes some summaries of research papers, 	as well as lots of arguments you can use to get your company  	to pay up for RSI management tools.        Tool: EyerCise (commercial software)     Available from: 	RAN Enterprises 	One Woodland Park Dr. 	Haverhill, MA  01830, US 	Tel: 800-451-4487 (US only)     Platforms: Windows (3.0/3.1), OS/2 PM (1.3/2.0) [Not DOS]     Description: 	Aimed at preventing RSI and eye strain, this program warns you to take 	breaks after a configurable interval (or at fixed times). Optionally 	displays descriptions and pictures of exercises - pictures are 	animated and program beeps you to help you do exercises at the 	correct rate.  Includes 19 stretches and 4 visual training  	exercises, can configure which are included and how many repetitions 	you do - breaks last from 3 to 7 minutes.  Also includes online help  	on workplace ergonomics.    	Quote from their literature:  	"EyerCise is a Windows program that breaks up your day with periodic 	sets of stretches and visual training exercises.  The stretches work 	all parts of your body, relieving tension and helping to prevent 	Repetitive Strain Injury.  The visual training exercises will improve 	your peripheral vision and help to relieve eye strain.  Together these 	help you to become more relaxed and productive."   	"The package includes the book _Computers & Visual Stress_ by Edward C. 	Godnig, O.D. and John S. Hacunda, which describes the ergonomic setup 	for a computer workstation and provides procedures and exercises to 	promote healthy and efficient computer use.  	 	Cost: $69.95 including shipping and handling, quantity discounts 	for resellers.  Free demo ($5 outside US).       Comments: 	I have a copy of this, and it works as advertised: I would say 	it is better for RSI prevention than RSI management, because it 	does not allow breaks at periods less than 30 minutes.  Also, it 	interrupts you based on clock time rather than typing time, which 	is not so helpful unless you use the keyboard all day.  Worked OK on 	Windows 3.0 though it did occasionally crash with a UAE - not sure 	why. Also refused to work with the space bar on one PC, and has 	one window without window controls.  Very usable though, and does not 	require any sound hardware.      Tool: Lifeguard (commercial software)     Available from: 	Visionary Software 	P.O. Box 69447 	Portland, OR  97201, US 	Tel: +1 (503) 246-6200     Platforms: Mac, DOS (Windows version underway)     Description: 	Aimed at preventing RSI.  Warns you to take a break 	with dialog box and sound.  Includes a list of exercises 	to do during breaks, and information on configuring your 	workstation in an ergonomic manner.  Price: $59; 	quantity discounts and site licenses.  The DOS product is 	bought in from another company, apparently; not sure how 	equivalent this is to the Mac version. 	 	The Mac version got a good review in Desktop Publisher  	Magazine (Feb 1991).  Good marketing stuff with useful  	2-page summaries of RSI problems and solutions, with  	references.       Tool: StressFree (commercial software, free usable demo)     Available from: 	LifeTime Software 	P.O. Box 87522 	Houston 	Texas 77287-7522, US 	Tel: 800-947-2178 (US only) 	Fax: +1 (713) 474-2067 	Mail: 70412.727@compuserve.com  	Demo (working program but reduced functions) available from: 	    Compuserve: Windows Advanced Forum, New Uploads section, or  			Health and Fitness Forum, Issues At Work section.  	    Anon FTP:   ftp.cica.indiana.edu (and mirroring sites)      Platforms: Windows (3.0/3.1) (Mac and DOS versions underway)     Description: 	Aimed at preventing RSI, this program warns you to take 	breaks after a configurable interval (or at fixed times).  	Displays descriptions and pictures of exercises - pictures are 	animated and program paces you to help you do exercises at the 	correct rate.  Quite a few exercises, can configure which ones 	are included to some extent.  Online help.  	Version 2.0 is out soon, Mac and DOS versions will be based 	on this.  	Cost: $29.95 if support via CompuServe or Internet, otherwise $39.95.                 Site license for 3 or more copies is $20.00 each. 	      (NOTE: prices may have gone up for V2.0).       Comments: 	I have had a play with this, and it works OK.  Its user interface 	design is much better in 2.0, though still a bit unusual. 	expensive tool around and it does the job.  It is also the only 	tool with a redistributable demo, so if you do get the demo, post it 	on your local bulletin boards, FTP servers and Bitnet servers! 	Does not include general info on RSI and ergonomics, but it does  	have the ability to step backward in the exercise sequence, 	which is good for repeating the most helpful exercises.      Tool: Typewatch (freeware), version 3.8 (October 1992)     Available from: 	Email to richardd@hoskyns.co.uk 	Anonymous ftp: soda.berkeley.edu:pub/typing-injury/typewatch.shar     Platforms: UNIX (tested on SCO, SunOS, Mach; character and X Window mode)     Description: 	This is a shell script that runs in the background and warns you 	to stop typing, based on how long you have been continuously 	typing.  It does not provide exercises, but it does check 	that you really do take a break, and tells you when you 	can start typing again.    	Typewatch now tells you how many minutes you have been typing 	today, each time it warns you, which is useful so you 	know how much you *really* type.  It also logs information 	to a file that you can analyse or simply print out.    	The warning message appears on your screen (in character mode), 	in a pop-up window (for X Windows), or as a Zephyr message 	(for those with Athena stuff).   Tim Freeman <tsf@cs.cmu.edu>  	has put in a lot of bug fixes, extra features and support for  	X, Zephyr and Mach.  	Not formally supported, but email richardd@hoskyns.co.uk 	(for SCO, SunOS, character mode) or tsf@cs.cmu.edu (for Mach, 	X Window mode, Zephyr) if you have problems or want to give  	feedback.      Tool: Various calendar / batch queue programs     Available from: 	Various sources     Platforms: Various     Description: 	Any calendar/reminder program that warns you of an upcoming 	appointment can be turned into an ad hoc RSI management tool. 	Or, any batch queue submission program that lets you submit 	a program to run at a specific time to display a message to 	the screen.  	Using Windows as an example: create a Calendar file, and 	include this filename in your WIN.INI's 'load=' line so 	you get it on every startup of Windows.  Suppose you 	want to have breaks every 30 minutes, starting from 9 am. 	Press F7 (Special Time...) to enter an appointment, enter 	9:30, hit Enter, and type some text in saying what the break 	is for.  Then press F5 to set an alarm on this entry, and repeat  	for the next appointment.  	By using Windows Recorder, you can record the keystrokes 	that set up breaks throughout a day in a .REC file.  Put this 	file on your 'run=' line, as above, and you will then, with 	a single keypress, be able to set up your daily appointments 	with RSI exercises.  	The above method should be adaptable to most calendar programs.  	An example using batch jobs would be to submit a simple job 	that runs at 9:30 am and warns you to take a break; this will 	depend a lot on your operating system.  	While these approaches are not ideal, they are a good way of forcing  	yourself to take a break if you can't get hold of a suitable RSI  	management tool.  If you are techie enough you might want to 	write a version of Typewatch (see above) for your operating 	system, using batch jobs or whatever fits best.      Tool: Digital watches with count-down timers     Available from: 	Various sources, e.g. Casio BP-100.     Description: 	Many digital watches have timers that count down from a settable 	number of minutes; they usually reset easily to that number, either 	manually or automatically.    	While these are a very basic tool, they are very useful if you 	are writing, reading, driving, or doing anything away from 	a computer which can still cause or aggravate RSI.  The great 	advantage is that they remind you to break from whatever you 	are doing. 	     Comments: 	My own experience was that cutting down a lot on my typing led to 	my writing a lot more, and still reading as much as ever, which 	actually aggravated the RSI in my right arm though the left 	arm improved.  Getting a count-down timer watch has been 	very useful on some occasions where I write a lot in a day.  	I have tried an old fashioned hour-glass type egg timer, but 	these are not much good because they do not give an audible 	warning of the end of the time period!   KEYBOARD REMAPPING TOOLS: these enable you to change your keyboard mapping so you can type one-handedly or with a different two-handed layout.   One-handed typing tools may help, but be VERY careful about how  you use them -- if you keep the same overall typing workload you are simply doubling your hand use for the hand that you use for typing, and may therefore make matters worse.      Tool: hsh (public domain)     Available from: 	Anonymous ftp: soda.berkeley.edu:pub/typing-injury/hsh.shar     Platforms: UNIX (don't know which ones)     Description: 	Allows one-handed typing and other general keyboard remappings. 	Only works through tty's (so, you can use it with a terminal or 	an xterm, but not most X programs).      Tool: Dvorak keyboard tools (various)     Available from: 	Anonymous ftp: soda.berkeley.edu:pub/typing-injury/xdvorak.c 	Also built into Windows 3.x.      Description: 	The Dvorak keyboard apparently uses a more rational layout 	that involves more balanced hand use.   It *may* help prevent 	RSI a bit, but you can also use it if you have RSI, since  	it will slow down your typing a *lot* :-)