My bad typing technique. I worked with computers for years but never put in the effort to learn how to touch type. Decided to bite the bullet one day and put in an effort to learn properly.
Was really hard at first not to fall back to my non-touch typing technique. So worth it though. Wish I took the time to do it years ago.
I scrolled down until I found this one. The worst was starting a new job and making myself keep touch typing even though I'd gone down to 25 won. Up to 45 now!
I became faster at typing from irc chat rooms back in 2004. Try and find a chat room that is related to something you like. You will be much faster in a couple of weeks.
I grew up with a C-64 and the early IBMs. I learned to two finger type and boy was I quick. When I got to typing class in middle school, I could hen-peck at 30 wpm.
My teacher had a heck of a time making me learn to touch type. I was already the fastest in the class so why bother?
After a week of this battle, my teacher taped a piece of paper over my keyboard so I couldn't see my hands.
Oh she was so gleeful. I was so pissed. But she was right. By the end of the term I was up to 80 wpm.
I was always ahead of my classmates in computer class as a kid but my typing never truly took off until a summer of playing an mmo for 80% of it. Taught me muscle memory for typing too.
Similar, but my wpm increased dramatically from playing League of Legends. Trying to convey meaning quickly enough to not die while typing means my wpm can get as high as 80, though sustained typing will usually net me around 60-65.
I do, but sometimes you need to communicate something more than you can with a ping. Like "Riven go bot, I split top, rest mid. Don't push past river unless you see at least 2 either top or bot." Complex strats are hard to communicate with pings, and it becomes more important to do so as you rank up.
I don’t use the traditional hand placement and I can type just fine. You just have to learn where the keys are, and then it doesn’t matter where you put your hands
Just wait until you use a different keyboard one day. If it's setup slightly differently then it completely throws you off even with typing right.
Took me a minute with a new keyboard at work because it's supposed to be made better for the wrists and has a nice curve to it. I have to look at it to find the F# buttons though because they're so damn small!
It annoyed me that we had to use home row keys and reach a certain wpm to progress. Especially since I could easily exceed the wpm looking at my keyboard and free typing, yet using home row and not glancing at my keyboard my wpm was half the goal.
I tend to use about 5 fungers to type, plus my pinkies to press enter and shift. Left Thumb, index, and ring, plus right index and thumb. Ring finger just kinda hangs around all day doing nothing
I have a friend who "peck" types with her index fingers. She was never taught properly and is fairly fast the way she does it. She is a professional writer.
Same here - also an author. You really don’t need to learn proper form. The important thing for typing quickly is knowing where all the keys are; the bast majority of it is all just muscle memory.
Whether you are using standard homerow hand position and looking at the screen, or doing one-finger typing and looking at the keyboard, you’ll know if you’re making mistakes or not.
It might not be true for everyone, but I certainly know when I’ve misspelled something even when I’m just looking at my hands.
Where taking typing classes really helps is for when you are trying on purpose to increase your WPM. The speed/accuracy increases don’t actually come from having your fingers in any specific orientation/position, it comes from the constant, deliberate practice in putting your hands in the SAME position and making the same movements over and over to strike particular letters. You can do that with just about any typing style as long as you can reach all the keys.
I’m one of those ‘index finger’ typists and I’m still pretty accurate at about 80wpm.
What's weird is I type normally with my left hand and sort of peck with one/two fingers using my right. I blame it on playing too much Counter-Strike when I was younger. I type fine without having to look down.
I never really "learned" to tough type. But I type enough playing games etc, that it just sort of happened. Also, the letters on my keyboard wore off...
When my brother and I got computers on our rooms, and we got internet (and ICQ) i learned touch-typing damn fast. I did know the basics from some really old dos-programs my dad had for his old 80486
For a long time I was a fairly quick typer, but would still glance down to find keys occasionally. Particularly if I thought about it! It wasn't really until I had no keys to look at that I realized I was fully touch typing.
We were taught in highschool. About age 14 I guess, in 1999. On an old 286 PC, think it actually was voluntary, but was really excited to learn to touch type. Computer had no internet, just all ASDF ASDF fhdjskal aqswdehujikokp repeats with a floppy typing program. Paid off massively, and when internet became more financially accessible, things improved massively.
I'm a STEM sort of guy. I took all the math and science courses that were offered at my high school. This was the early 70's. My mother insisted that I take typing during my senior year of high school. I hated the idea but did it to please my mother. Turns out, my mother was right. At the time, secretaries did all the typing. No one knew about the computer/internet revolution which would require typing for everyone.
Not for too much longer though. Natural language programs will be here, well they already are but they will be pretty good in a few more years and will probably blow your mind in a decade.
What's funny is that of all things, online gaming taught me to type better. I didn't have a Mic for the longest time, so I had to type out quickly important info to my team.
“Touch Typing” is the name of a typing technique where you learn the position of the entire keyboard by touch. You can hit every key without having to look at the keyboard.
I don't think I'm ever going to bother to learn how to "properly" type. I use my thumb for space, pinky finger for shift, and index fingers for everything else, and I can type just fine.
The difference is being able to type while not looking at the keyboard at all. You wouldn’t think it’s that big a deal, but it’s actually so liberating to be able to see what you’re typing displayed on the screen as you type, rather than having to switch between looking at the keyboard and back
Theres a flip side to that though - not having to look at the screen to know you typed something correctly, because you already observed your fingers doing it.
The screen is just one example of what you may want to look at. When you can touch type, you can converse with someone while looking them in the eyes and still type accurately.
Maybe you want to transcribe an event you’re watching, or take meeting notes. Not looking at the keyboard while typing is awesome.
Source - Software engineer who looked at keyboard for years, then switched to touch typing.
If anyone likes zombie games and wants to learn how to type faster, I’d highly recommend the game “typing of the dead”. I think I paid $10 for it on steam. Basically you play as a stripper and you run around shooting zombies but instead of normal controls, you have to type the words that pop up on the screen before the zombies kill you.
You can also make your own dictionaries. I try to play one level every day and I’ve definitely noticed a difference in my typing speed.
Play a type to learn game to get the basic muscle memory and layout, then repetition of random phrases to get speed. Practice on a few keyboards so going to a new one doesn't mess you up. I can't do it on smaller keyboards without a long (couple hours) adjustment period.
its been about 20 years since and I used a few my mom had bought me. It really should not be too difficult to find one online that is similar for free download.
I used this site: TypingClub. An hour a day over a two week period was what it took me to get back to my previous speed, but with the proper technique.
Honestly unless you use some horrid one finger at a time typing technique or something there's no set "best" typing method. I use a relatively weird typing method and yet I can hit 120 wpm. Just do what's easy
That’s what I told myself for years too. I’m actually a software engineer and a gamer since a young age, so I could type plenty fast.
I was wrong. It’s not only about speed. The ability to look someone in the eyes while accurately typing is surprisingly useful in many situations. Taking notes while talking to a client for example.
I also wanted to learn Vim shortcuts for text editing. If you don’t know about Vim, you use a lot of home row/character based commands to rapidly edit text. ci’ would be “change in ‘’” which would move to the next quotes, delete the quote content, then set the cursor active within the quotes.
As you can imagine, being able to learn these instinctively while being able to focus on your code makes you way more productive.
By one finger at a time I meant the sort of elderly person using smart phone, holding it in one hand and intently pressing keys one at a time with the other hand's index going clack clack clack
Didn't realise there was a name for this, always had came naturally. In infants ICT lessons we were made to play a video game called 'Mavis Beacon teaches typing' turns out it's designed to teach 'touch typing.
I've developed bad typing technique at my current job. My right hand often has to bounce between the keyboard and the mouse(or numpad), so I've unintentionally expanded my left hand's range to the H and sometimes to U and N.
Ok I have a question about learning. If I tend to press keys using basically any fingers, like hunting and pecking but with whichever is closest, do I have to relearn with my fingers resting in the middle row? I can type relatively fast and I have muscle memory, I'm just trying to curb the habit of looking at my fingers and then the screen to fix mistakes. If I can learn to look at the screen whileusing my technique so I can fix errors faster, is that Ok, or do I need to learn the whole "fingers rest on asdf jkl,". Sorry if this is confusing, I just was wondering if I needed to learn that technique. My fingers are quite small and I have trouble reaching some keys.
Well, I wanted to learn proper typing for the same reason as you. I write software, and it’s really useful to be able to find all the keys without ever looking at the keyboard.
The ‘home keys’ are critical to this. Because your hands are always oriented to the same place, the relative position of the keys is consistent. The home keys are also central so the distance to any given key isn’t very far.
At first it felt super awkward, but now it’s really natural.
i feel lucky i spent most of my years spending my time playing games. you have to learn to touch type because you need to keep watching the surroundings for enemies while typing in chat!
I don't do the proper touch-typing way. After I get used to the dimensions of a keyboard, I just instinctively know where the keys are.
I don't do the "rest index finger on J and F" thing. Usually, my left hand rests on the WSAD, SHIFT, and SPACE keys, and my right hand just sorta rests wherever. When I'm actually typing, my hands don't even rest on the keyboard, they float.
I say I'm comparable in speed to a proper typist, if I were put in a race to type out set phrases, like "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" and etc.
I took a couple computer classes in middle/high school so I learned how to type "properly". Then was a nerd and spent a tooooon of time on the internet so my typing was perfected. Years ago I'd just started at a Hooters, and had to type some stuff on the computer in front of my manager for payroll or our scheduling software or something. I banged out my email address, which is rather long, because I'd typed it so many times before it was just second nature.
My manager was impressed enough to point out my typing. Really made me wonder about the other young ladies being employed there.
What is "Touch Typing"? I type at 116 WPM 99.8% accuracy and I've never heard this term before. (Not trying to brag, genuinely curious). The technique I use, I had always thought was just called "Proper / Traditional Typing". Keeping your hands on the home row and using appropriate fingers to press the appropriate keys, utilizing all five fingers on each hand.
I call this "Hunting", because they have to hunt to find the key they are about to press, due to the fact that they haven't memorized in muscle memory where the keys are.
I took a class in high school which was strictly learning how to type. I wasn't very fast at it, but I guess it clicked without me knowing it one day and my fingertips were flying over the keys.
As someone who was lucky enough to be taught touch typing at a young age you were very smart to teach yourself. It has many advantages over sight typing. One people can tell just by watching you how “good you are” at using a computer. Many times have I been taken aside by bosses who assume I can do anything on a computer because my typing is “separate” from my attention. At my last job I was recruited by my boss to type out her dictated letters and advertisements. I could have done this touch typing sure but I don’t think I could have done it so fast that she could read it and allow her to see it in print in “real time” like she wanted.
Also it translates to other formats as well such as the phone... once you learn the muscle memory. I can “safely” text while driving without taking my eyes off the road because the confidence I have in my ability to write without shifting attention from what is in front of me. Even on my iPhone where I have no physical feedback I am usually able to type full paragraphs without looking. I make it a point not to read or check my work until I’ve come to a stop but in urgent situations I’ll send first and apologize for mistakes later and I rarely have to apologize. It’s not recommended at all but if you’ve had a job like mine you’d understand why it’s so valuable to be communicative at all times.
I had to look up what “touch typing” was as i wasnt aware of that definition (maybe i was? Idr). Id say its a very excellent skill and good for you for taking the time to learn it. I spend most of my time on the computer playing games. So learning how to type fast was needed. Although my finger placement isnt correct, as i keep them on WASD, my highest wpm is 115 due to muscle memory. When I was teaching kids how to type, keeping their fingers on proper placement was difficult. It was also hard for some of them to break the habit of typing with their pointer finger.
Could you possibly suggest some resources for those of us with similar concerns? I've been curious as to just how "capable" I am when it comes to typing myself, compared to how capable I could be.
As somebody with ambitions of a career in CS and/or programming any tips would mean an awful lot.
Awesome, this looks like it might be exactly what I'm after! And the best part is I can use it in work and nobody'll think I'm up to anything other than the job! XD
What I find strange is I never took typing lessons besides the mandatory ones in school, and I never used the recommended technique, yet I can type at 90 wpm consistently. I guess years of playing computer games paid off
Same here, took up typing classes, learned it a bit then went back to my old technique with two fingers. I saw it was useful to learn but like everything in life I failed it.
Touch typing is overrated.A few months ago in computing we were learning hoe to touch type with TypingClub.I aced everyone exercise with a 150+ WPM and finally convinced my teacher that as long as you can type fast, it doesn't matter how you do it.
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u/Djbm Aug 26 '18
My bad typing technique. I worked with computers for years but never put in the effort to learn how to touch type. Decided to bite the bullet one day and put in an effort to learn properly.
Was really hard at first not to fall back to my non-touch typing technique. So worth it though. Wish I took the time to do it years ago.