To pause data entry press Ctrl+P; click on the toolbar; or from the Mode menu select Pause.

Whenever you are in Add, Modify, or Verify mode, a timer is running. This timer is used to generate the operator statistics for the data entry session. Pause (Ctrl+P) stops the timer until you either resume typing or press Ctrl+P again.

The timer affects the calculation of keystrokes/hour. If you need to leave the computer for a few minutes, but are in the middle of a session, you should pause data entry so that time will not be counted against you.