How many of you love to touch type?

[Tinker Tantrum]

This thread is for any touch type enthusiasts.

I have been touch typing for about 2 months now and can't figure out how I got through life without it! I find myself scouring through the forums more; reading any and all that you all have to say now that I don't really need to look at the keyboard anymore (or at least a lot less). Forgive me if I sound like an over enthusiastic noob, but Linux combined with touch type has given me a new fondness for computers.

[hakermania]

Yep! I learned touch typing with the help of Klavaro, and now I not only write faster, but I find myself enjoying too!

I've been touch typing 6 months now, but it's not like I wouldn't be able to live without it :P

[mamamia88]

Yep super easy once you get used to it.

[haqking]

I can touch type, I wouldn't say I love it though, I don't run home frantically eagerly waiting to get my fingers on the home keys ;-)

[Buntu Bunny]

My grandfather used to use only two fingers to type on his old typewriter with only two fingers. Man, was he fast! I learned touch in high school and can't imagine keyboarding any other way. I made my son learn it when he was in high school. He resisted, but it becomes second nature after awhile.

[drawkcab]

I learned basic form in middle school but I was awful. Honestly, there wasn't much need for it back then. In college, I only needed to type out a paper or two so, again, not improvement. By the end of college I really became good, mostly because I needed to keep up with conversations on irc as an op on efnet.

[oldsoundguy]

The US Air Force taught me how to touch type years ago. Used it ever since. That is the big reason that I have a very difficult time using a tiny laptop keyboard .. and a miniature keyboard such as a tablet is out of the question!

[mr john]

I touch type too. I went about 27 years of my life using two fingers and then decided I wanted to improve my WPM. I used Mavis Beacon Teach Typing and it helped me learn pretty quickly. As someone who uses computers alot it was probably a good idea.

And also, it's the main reason why I never use my tablets and hate typing on my touch screen phone. Give me a keyboard any day. Keyboards are much faster, and more accurate.

[Bucky Ball]

I've been touch typing for decades. Second nature and something that just is rather than a love thing. But yea, being able to rattle along while looking out the window thinking is nice ...

(My mother was a telegram supervisor in charge of over a hundred typists and would take me to work sometimes on a Saturday where my amusement was to choose one of a couple of hundred typewriters, not electric, and type 'the quick brown fox jumps over the very lazy dog' a few hundred times using the correct fingering ... that sentence has all the letters of the alphabet and my advice if you want to learn cheaply is learn the correct fingering and away you go. Try not to look at the keyboard ... ;) )

[David D.]

I took typing in High School. Of course, back then it was on a typewriter (I'm dating myself :p) My children also learned to touch type in school, but by then the course was called keyboarding.

[rrnbtter]

Greetings,
I took a typing class in Jr. High back in the 1950's just to have a goof off class. Back in those days mostly the girls took typing. I never knew that class would prove to be as valuable as I later discovered it to be. Once you learn it you never really lose it.

rrnbtter
Life is good! Live it to the Ubuntu-ist!

[malspa]

I took a typing class in Jr. High back in the 1950's just to have a goof off class. Back in those days mostly the girls took typing. I never knew that class would prove to be as valuable as I later discovered it to be. Once you learn it you never really lose it.

Same here, typing class in junior high, but in the '70s. Should be a required course, in my opinion. I hated my typing instructor, but I'd give her a big hug and a kiss if I saw her now, all these years later.

[Copper Bezel]

I've been using a netbook keyboard so long that my right hand acts funky when I type - I don't really use my ring finger and pinkie when I'm supposed to. But I recently got my favorite keyboard ever, and I've got to appreciate that thing where my hands get displaced and a whole line of text comes out shifted one character to the left or right on the keyboard. That's fun. = )

I'm embarrassingly slow at touch-typing - like, 50 words per minute. I never took any classes and learned it by doing it, but that's not an excuse for being bad at it.

[Bölvaður]

Being exposed to affectionate feelings towards typing on a keyboard has never occurred. I do not love it at all, nor do I hate it, but I did feel crippled when I did need to look at the keyboard. Typing in the dark on IRC helped me a lot to get over that feeling of being crippled as a keyboard warrior.

[vasa1]

If I could I would, but I can't so I shan't.

[bcschmerker]

I learned my keyboard techniques on an IBM® Selectric® III 96-character model and actually had a few problems adjusting to the System/51 keyboards, as the buckling spring/capactive keysensors of the Model F felt nothing like the Selectric® beam-spring/dual mode keys. Once used to the Model F, the Model M was little trouble; but most available keyboards for United States-purchased computers (as of 2012) use key spacings inconsistent with ANSI X3.154-1988, so I run into typos.

[1clue]

I'm a professional software developer. I can't tell you how many developers I know who don't touch type. It drives me absolutely up the wall. If you spend 5 hours a week or more on a computer, you should learn to type just to avoid wasting years of your life looking for keys you should know how to find without looking.

Guys/gals, if you type a character every 5 seconds or faster on average you know mostly where your keys are. You just don't TRUST yourself to know where they are. Most of you can do this and you won't waste more than a few hours, which will be paid back a thousand fold.

Get an appropriately sized cardboard box that can cover your keyboard and your entire mouse area. Cut one side out of it so your wrists fit through, put it over your keyboard so you can't see the keys but your hands aren't encumbered and your mouse is still accessible. Go back to work. Don't EVER look under the box. Hunt with your fingers, keep your hands over home row always.

You'll hate it at first, but stick with it.

If you aren't back up to speed by the end of the day, you're not trying. If you're not triple your original speed by the end of a week, then you're also not trying.

[JKyleOKC]

I learned it some 55 years ago, in preparation for becoming a newspaper reporter. At one time, after becoming the "rewrite man" for a large daily newspaper, I could take dictation over the phone from a reporter in the field, at about 120 WPM -- but those days are long behind me.

Today, I'm bothered by getting one hand off the home position and merrily typing away so that "quick brown fox" becomes "qiocl brpwm fpx" so I tend to look at the keyboard while typing just to make sure I'm in the right position.

It sure beats the old two-finger hunt-and-peck technique, still!!!

[3rdalbum]

I was taught how to touch-type back in high school. At first I didn't really like it as I was already pretty fast at two-finger typing.

Now, I can't imagine not typing "properly". Sometimes I meet people and they're amazed at how quickly I can tap out a sentence. It's kinda cool. Also, my fingers aren't the bottleneck - I can type almost as quickly as I think. Almost. Well, not quite, but I feel much more free to think and type at the same time.

The flip-side is that I hate touch-screen keyboards. I'm constantly hitting the wrong keys or having it "autocorrect" me a long way away from what I wanted to say. The touch-screen slows me down to two-finger speeds, and slower since it's registering the key adjacent to the one I meant to press. I feel encumbered and frustrated by the touch-screen.

[BrokenKingpin]

I don't need to look at the keyboard when I type, but probably would not be considered touch typing. For whatever reason I don't have much control over my ring fingers (and to a lesser extent my pinky fingers), so I move my hand around a bit more than most people. I am certainly not fast typer because of this, but I am also not overly slow. I am a computer programmer, so I have had lots of time to perfect my terrible typing methodology.

[coldcritter64]

I learnt to touchtype in high school, but was pretty hopeless and reverted to two finger typing for many years. Only since getting onto a few web forums, have I gotten back into the habit of using both hands and all fingers for typing. I find it much more effective for typing now I've become refamiliarized.

[Tinker Tantrum]

Wow, all of your stories are great.

[lykwydchykyn]

I think at this point in my life, typing is probably more natural than talking. I can't imagine not touch-typing; doing about anything I do online would be just too much of a pain to deal with.

[churchy d]

touch typing is definitely worth learning. of course, i did hunt and peck all the way up until i taught myself dvorak, at that point i didnt really have an option. id recommend to anyone still doing hunt and peck to paint over their keys or cover the letters with electrical tape.

[QIII]

Decades ago, I learned to type on a manual typewriter with the bell and the carriage return lever. One of those huge old black monstrosities it was.

Just loved it when the typebars would get hopelessly jammed and the teacher would rap me on the knuckles with a ruler for the poor technique that made it happen.

I have my great uncle's circa 1930 portable Corona with the original carrying case. That one is a graceful piece of gold-lettered and black-lacquered art. Not a scratch and the original manual is with it.

[haqking]

My mum learnt in the Army to Touch Type back in the 1950's. Today in her ailing 80's with everything that could go wrong has gone wrong apart from arthritis she can still bang out 50 words per minute which is good going, on the other hand she cant eject a DVD from the TV without a weeks worth of instruction or use the Microwave....LOL

[Aaron Christianson]

I learned to touch type by trolling internet forums in dark rooms as a teenager (true story). I still have to look for some of the non-alphanumeric symbols.

[1clue]

touch typing is definitely worth learning. of course, i did hunt and peck all the way up until i taught myself dvorak, at that point i didnt really have an option. id recommend to anyone still doing hunt and peck to paint over their keys or cover the letters with electrical tape.

Interesting. I use dvorak too, but while I've run across fellow forum members who use it, I've never met anyone firsthand who did, and very few who even knew what it was.

Moreover, any of my coworkers, when I have computer problems, tend to suggest that the Dvorak layout is responsible for it. Including network connectivity, wonky database behavior or anything else under the sun which has nothing at all to do with typing. They just don't get it.

[Aaron Christianson]

Interesting. I use dvorak too, but while I've run across fellow forum members who use it, I've never met anyone firsthand who did, and very few who even knew what it was.
Me too. That's why I've never tried it. Portability > Efficiency (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy#Mike_Gancarz:_The_UNIX_Philosophy)

[Mikeb85]

Well, it was pretty much mandatory in high school that we learn to touch-type (we couldn't pass our required Computer Science course without being able to bang out an exercise in 60 words per minute with 98% accuracy).

I couldn't imagine not touch typing, it would be painful. I know it's painful to watch someone peck away at a keyboard.

And for anyone who uses a computer for more than 5 minutes a day, or has to write anything on a computer, etc..., not touch typing is a waste of their day. And nowadays, very little is actually written on paper, with a pen. The only pen and paper writing I've done in the last 5 years is filling out forms.

Touch typing is an essential life skill, not knowing it would be like not knowing basic arithmetic.

[VooDooSyxx]

Meh. I can do 55 WPM with two fingers and the odd thumb. For a sysadmin that's perfectly respectable. It would be great to learn to touch type, but sysadmins are known for be notoriously lazy, and I'm a textbook example.

[1clue]

Meh. I can do 55 WPM with two fingers and the odd thumb. For a sysadmin that's perfectly respectable. It would be great to learn to touch type, but sysadmins are known for be notoriously lazy, and I'm a textbook example.

<rant>
So you're basically saying you'll happily work twice as hard for your entire career to get the same amount done, for the sake of laziness?

I've seen this attitude over and over in IT, both in administration and in programming. It does not make any sense at all to me.

I'm about as lazy as it gets, which is the reason I learned to touch type. Learn to be lazy intelligently.

You're a person who types for a living, and touch typing is the most efficient way to get the text into the computer. Moreover, staring at the keyboard is bad head posture, so you're contributing to back and neck pain and future (or present) health issues associated with it.

IMO the truly lazy sysadmins are the ones who set up a network boot image and administer everything through a central tool, which means they work twice as hard at first so they can be lazy later. Otherwise you're stuck doing the same old thing over and over and over for each computer/user, and when something interesting comes up the boss passes you over because you're busy, instead of having reduced work and cost by setting up the proper tools.

You can't say you haven't thought of all this already.
</rant>

[Roasted]

The only reason I can actually spell anything is if I envision typing it. It's strange because if I disassociate keyboarding from spelling an actual word, I'd struggle even on simpler words. However it's as if my mind is programmed to know the exact hand movement of every single word in the English language. As long as I envision typing it, I'm far, far more accurate when it comes to spelling whatever word is needed.

[Aaron Christianson]

^ I find that fascinating. Your fingers are better at spelling than your brain. I am kind of the opposite. My head is wired around sounds (learn best by hearing, more affected by sounds/music in the background than most, etc.), so most of my typos are not finger errors, but mistakes relating to the sounds in the words, like mixing voiced and voiceless consonants (b for p, k for g) or spelling words phonetically (which I do much more often when touch typing).

I think it would be very interesting to do studies on the brain activity of subjects who are touch typing. I'm quite sure it's not done letter by letter. I think it may be more like reading in reverse.

[1clue]

^ I find that fascinating. Your fingers are better at spelling than your brain. I am kind of the opposite. My head is wired around sounds (learn best by hearing, more affected by sounds/music in the background than most, etc.), so most of my typos are not finger errors, but mistakes relating to the sounds in the words, like mixing voiced and voiceless consonants (b for p, k for g) or spelling words phonetically (which I do much more often when touch typing).

I think it would be very interesting to do studies on the brain activity of subjects who are touch typing. I'm quite sure it's not done letter by letter. I think it may be more like reading in reverse.

I think there's already been a study on that, and personally I think of the sentence and it shows up on the screen. If I try to spell it mentally my typing rate plummets.

[Bucky Ball]

<rant>
So you're basically saying you'll happily work twice as hard for your entire career to get the same amount done ... ?


+1. As for the other comments; the brain becomes hardwired in not much time at all. It's like not being able to remember your ATM pin number without actually hitting the buttons ...

[Tinker Tantrum]

+1. As for the other comments; the brain becomes hardwired in not much time at all. It's like not being able to remember your ATM pin number without actually hitting the buttons ...

That's how touch-typing is becoming for me. I'm at that threshold where I type almost as fast not looking as I do when I'm staring at the keyboard. But I won't be truly happy until the entire keyboard (special characters included) are an extension of my hands.

[1clue]

Speaking from experience, you won't get there for years unless you actively spend time practicing, meaning deliberately exercising with the keys you almost never use.

[KiwiNZ]

Touch typing? Yes I find touching the keyboard useful

[HermanAB]

Touch typing on a tablet doesn't work so well. Two finger hunt and peck is the way of the future...

[JKyleOKC]

I won't be truly happy until the entire keyboard (special characters included) are an extension of my hands.This can happen only for a specific make and model of keyboard, unfortunately. Today's computer keyboards have many different layouts of the special keys. For instance, the "|" character is just to the left of the backspace key on the keyboard I'm using now, but is below the backspace key on the other machine here in my home office. Other keys, also, seem to float around from one piece of hardware to the next. Knowing the alphabet, numbers, and common punctuation is about the best you can do.

And this doesn't even take into account the difference in spacing between keys when going from laptop to desktop and back again, not to mention smart phones...

[Aaron Christianson]

That's how touch-typing is becoming for me. I'm at that threshold where I type almost as fast not looking as I do when I'm staring at the keyboard. But I won't be truly happy until the entire keyboard (special characters included) are an extension of my hands.

If you type faster while looking at the keyboard, you still have some work to do. A touch typist types faster with their eyes on the screen because they can see what they are doing, though they can obviously type looking anywhere else as well (or with eyes closed, which can be nice when you're tired).

As for that final sentence, I have no idea what you are talking about.

edit: I think I get it now. I was thinking about some of those wearable computers, where the keyboard really is an extention of your hand, like keyer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyer) or datahand (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datahand). You meant it simply in the sense that you can type without thinking.

[Mikeb85]

Touch typing on a tablet doesn't work so well. Two finger hunt and peck is the way of the future...

Or tools like Swype, and voice-to-text. I never peck away at a touchscreen...

[sanderella]

I learned touch typing at school, have used it ever since. Mavis Beacon's program is good for refreshing skills. :KS

[KiwiNZ]

for the last 8 years I have been typing one handed but I am getting use of my left hand back slowly so my typing is slowly getting faster.

[lz1dsb]

I learned touch typing at highschool... In fact I believe that was probably the first thing I learned to do on the first computer I had back then. I remember that my brother found a book with exercises for touch typing. It's where I learned it from. I first learned the cyrillic though... after a while I learned to touch type with the English characters. I used to be faster I guess, nowadays I don't care that much about speed. I'm comfortable with my keyboarding.
Learning to touch type was one of the most useful things I ever learned :) I can't imagine how one could normally use a computer without it... but anyway, that's just my opinion.

[orange2k]

for the last 8 years I have been typing one handed but I am getting use of my left hand back slowly so my typing is slowly getting faster.

What happened to your left hand?:(

[orange2k]

As much as I love touch typing, there is a downside that I often type before thinking...8-[

[Bucky Ball]

Practice touch typing for half an hour a day (yes, Mavis Beacon is great) for a week and I would guarantee your speed will improve by 15-20 words a minute, at least.

'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.'

Away you go! That's all you need if you don't have Mavis. Main thing is to use the right fingers on the right keys. Then you're getting somewhere ...

[Kirk Schnable]

I have been touch typing for literally as long as I can remember. My mother thought it was a very important skill, and used to ensure as a child that I started typing the right way...

The result is that I can type probably close to 140 wpm without very much effort, and with an extremely high degree of accuracy. I can even touch type pretty accurately on my iPad, which is sort of ironic since you can't really feel where your keys are.

Maybe I'm very adaptive with this skill because I learned it at such a young age, but I haven't had any exceptional difficulties adapting to different styles of keyboards.

[IsaacJGL]

I actually do like doing touch typing, it gives me a satisfying click every time I type a letter, and it also works a LOT faster than just looking and pressing.

[majabl]

I type by touch/muscle memory but don't touch type in the conventional sense. I use my left thumb for the space bar, left little finger for the shift key, right little finger for enter, and then index to ring fingers on the left hand for the left side of the keyboard, right index finger for the right side of the keyboard, and right ring finger for backspace.

It's a somewhat strange way of typing but I accurately get 80-90 wpm from it. I've tried learning to touch type in the conventional way a few times but from what I read I wonder if it's really worth persevering, as I may not actually get any faster than I am now but will be considerably slower while I'm learning to touch type. In any case, I generally find that the thing that slows me down most is actually my speed of thought so even if I can knock out more words per minute, unless I'm copying something to the computer (which is rare for me), I won't actually do the things I normally do any faster at all!

Has anyone else found themselves in a similar position? What did you do, and has it improved your computing experience?

[Tinker Tantrum]

This can happen only for a specific make and model of keyboard, unfortunately. Today's computer keyboards have many different layouts of the special keys.

After some experimentation, I find you are correct. I like using the Microsoft Ergonomic 4000 because of the soft leather rests and curvature for the natural hand position. And as far as typing speed, I am barely hitting 12 wpm.

[1clue]

For anyone who wants to increase typing speed, here are some pointers:


When you type, lift your wrists so they barely touch the pads. You can't really get fast if your arm weight is crushing your flesh into the tendons in your wrists.
Practice regularly, even if that is mostly forum posting or emailing friends.
Don't ever look at the keyboard unless it's a model you don't plan on using again.
Get the same model of keyboard for all your computers. Even at work.
Look at either the screen, in the case where you are composing as you type or taking audible dictation, or look at the material if you're copying from a paper manuscript.
In the case of copying, read the page as words rather than as letters.
Look up the latest on proper posture for office environments, then follow it. This includes everything from position and height of your monitor to keyboard position to the placement of your feet and the height of your chair. This might not matter much if you only spend a few hours a week in the chair, but if you spend any significant time then it's critical.

[coldcritter64]

For anyone who wants to increase typing speed, here are some pointers:


When you type, lift your wrists so they barely touch the pads. You can't really get fast if your arm weight is crushing your flesh into the tendons in your wrists.
Practice regularly, even if that is mostly forum posting or emailing friends.
Don't ever look at the keyboard unless it's a model you don't plan on using again.
Get the same model of keyboard for all your computers. Even at work.
Look at either the screen, in the case where you are composing as you type or taking audible dictation, or look at the material if you're copying from a paper manuscript.
In the case of copying, read the page as words rather than as letters.
Look up the latest on proper posture for office environments, then follow it. This includes everything from position and height of your monitor to keyboard position to the placement of your feet and the height of your chair. This might not matter much if you only spend a few hours a week in the chair, but if you spend any significant time then it's critical.



Point 1. I had already noted here just on doubled my word rate (keeping accuracy about the same). I still only manage 30-35 wpm (on a good day). I see several points there that will be useful here in future.

Point 6. is interesting, I have "clicked into" that mode of typing on 1 or 2 occasions, rates climb dramatically (45 and up), it actually felt "a bit freaky", when the fingers get a mind of their own :)

Good advice, imo. cheers.

[Bucky Ball]

Practice regularly ...

There are some excellent points there, 1clue, but this is the kicker. As I mentioned, check your speed, then do half an hour a day serious practice and check your speed at the end of the week. Improvement guaranteed ...

[1clue]

Once you get the hang of it, touch typing should be completely automatic and as natural as speaking.

[Adam_Fort]

I touch type too. I learned basic in the middle school, but i still wanna improve my typing skills, so i am using online tutorials:http://www.ratatype.com/, http://www.typingweb.com/ They are very effective in terms of learning.

[1clue]

Holy resurrected thread, batman! This thread is over 8 months old!

[stevesy]

I love touch typing, really enjoy it. It's kinda relaxing/therapeutic. I feel a similar way when playing bass guitar and my fingers just know what to do. Learned how to do it about 10 years ago while doing a computer course with the OU. The program we used was called "Kaz typing tutor" IIRC, it was really good. Plenty of FOSS solutions out there for learning how to touch type I'm sure.. Anyway I thought I'd never get the hang of it at the beginning but after a week of slogging away (and breaking a few keyboards) I was on my way and built up speed over time so I'm pretty decent now. I'm learning how to program at the moment and it's certainly making my life a little easier in that respect. It got me a few data entry jobs here and there also. One of the best things I ever learned I have to say, no regrets.. : ]

[Bucky Ball]

I have said this before, and on these forums too, and will no doubt say it again: type 'the very quick brown fox jumped over the lazy, hairy dog's kennel' (my variation) for twenty minutes a day, everyday for a week, looking at the keyboard as little as possible, then do a comparison of your speeds at the beginning of the week and at the end. I rest my case ... and love being able to type! ;)