How did you learn to type?

[EscapeVelocity]

I took an actual class in high school. Typing I which was a prerequisite for Computer I (where we had Apple IIe's  ) ). We typed on some form of IBM Selectric.  Now those beasts were loud.  Not this clicky ****.  LOL! 

[EscapeVelocity]

We're Your Type - IBM

Correct with a touch of a button.

[Blaise170]

Typing was a requirement to pass our Computer Applications class in high school, but this was well after any Apple I, II, IIe, etc. I used a cheap Dell still running WinXP. I actually learned to type by playing games online when I was a kid, notably Runescape. By the time I was in high school, I was a consistent 50+ WPM typer and now that I'm in college I can type around 90-100 WPM.

[Mad_Maxx]

Hunted and pecked for a while, just learned by doing. Was never fast, but wasn't slow either.

Then one day I was bored at my summer job last year, and decided that I needed to learn to touch type. Found some online course/game that I completed, and then just practiced through doing. I still wasn't very fast, ~40WPM, but at the end of the spring semester, it felt like I was finally getting to the point were I was typing without thinking about it, and about to make a breakthrough improvement. So of course I got out of school, and switched cold-turkey to colemak, which I'm trying to learn the same way. Pretty frustrating to be in this stage again, but I'm improving much faster than I did originally learning to touch type.

Maybe one day I will be able to type fast 

[smknjoe]

I spent my whole life "hunting and pecking" quite efficiently until I decided to learn how to type. Following the course below I was able to teach myself within ~5-7 weeks only spending 15-30 minutes a day every other day. I also used a blank keyboard which I think helped force me to not look, which is key (not looking).

http://www.typing-lessons.org/preliminaries_1.html


...we had to take typing in school too, but I think I just skipped that class.

[Evo_Spec]

I honestly have no idea where i learnt to type but i imagine that years of gaming and typing to my friends online had something to do with it.

[flamf]

I remember at some point just getting conscious about not looking, that did it for me. I imagine blank keycaps would be very helpful.

[oledome]

I grew up using computers, the only time I was learning to type was when I was about 10 playing a typing game where wpm was linked to mph in a driving game.

[blastoid]

Numerous typing activities in school, and I even did some on my own to try to make myself learn, but I would always just fall back to my trusty hunt-and-peck.

But then I switched to Dvorak in 2006 and I love never looking at the keyboard any more!

[EscapeVelocity]

I think that they changed the name from Typing I & II to Keyboarding at some point. LOL!

[Evo_Spec]

I remember at some point just getting conscious about not looking, that did it for me. I imagine blank keycaps would be very helpful.

I have blanks and it's kind of funny, i still look at the board even though it does nothing and then i just kind of press the key i imagine it is. Most of the time i'm right but sometimes not but i think it was worse when i first put blanks on since i think i always looked down for symbols and numbers (i normally moved my hand over to the num-pad for numbers but now i'm using a TKL)

[romevi]

Not sure which version but it was one of these during third and fourth grade. I wasn't completely touch-typing afterward, though. It wasn't until high school when I saw somebody typing correctly without even looking at their screen that I decided to train myself to completely type without looking at my board.
I still have trouble sometimes finding some of the symbols, but I never have to look for the alphanumeric characters.

[greath]

https://archive.org/details/msdos_Mario_Teaches_Typing_1992

[jwaz]

Like a few have already posted it was a combination of Mavis Beacon, Mario Teaches Typing and later IM.

[Evo_Spec]

https://archive.org/details/msdos_Mario_Teaches_Typing_1992

Dude.... i didn't know this was available online! bookmarked!

[switchnollie]

WElcomE, fRom THE fuTuRE

i usEd To bE sTupid and uninfoRmEd so i jusT TypEd wiTH onE HAnd oncE i GoT on A compuTER in likE 3Rd GRAdE oR so.

now I TypE wiTH onE HAnd sTill, sTill sTupid buT i Am wEll infoRmEd now 🤠

[lafnian1990]

WElcomE, fRom THE fuTuRE

i usEd To bE sTupid and uninfoRmEd so i jusT TypEd wiTH onE HAnd oncE i GoT on A compuTER in likE 3Rd GRAdE oR so.

now I TypE wiTH onE HAnd sTill, sTill sTupid buT i Am wEll infoRmEd now 🤠

good site bro but i don't like books and spammers

[Sintpinty]

I took an actual class in high school. Typing I which was a prerequisite for Computer I (where we had Apple IIe's  ) ). We typed on some form of IBM Selectric.  Now those beasts were loud.  Not this clicky ****.  LOL! 

I have practiced over 75 minutes a day of typing and i have still not improved.

I started typing when i was 10 years old, on a Kensington Wireless Keyboard or a HP KU 0316 with rubber domes because they got me an assistive device . I ###ed up my muscle memory and got super fast, now am at 90 wpm for advanced texts and 137 wpm is my record.

It has been 5 years since

[hactar]

There was a required course in HS (9th grade?) where we learned to type properly, as well as 10-key (adding machines), business formats for letters, etc.  We used IBM Selectrics.  Now I type with one hand (yay dain bramage) on Left Hand Dvorak, so the "home row" bit is out the window.

[Maledicted]

I have practiced over 75 minutes a day of typing and i have still not improved.

I started typing when i was 10 years old, on a Kensington Wireless Keyboard or a HP KU 0316 with rubber domes because they got me an assistive device . I ###ed up my muscle memory and got super fast, now am at 90 wpm for advanced texts and 137 wpm is my record.

It has been 5 years since

75 minutes a day is very little in my book, but I basically form a symbiotic connection with computers.

There was a required course in HS (9th grade?) where we learned to type properly, as well as 10-key (adding machines), business formats for letters, etc.  We used IBM Selectrics.  Now I type with one hand (yay dain bramage) on Left Hand Dvorak, so the "home row" bit is out the window.

Funny that it was required then, then (for a time) nobody cared as typewriters faded away. When I was in school, at least at my school, there were no required typing classes. It was an elective I took in middle school. I don't recall whether or not we even had the internet at home at the time, or a computer modern enough to interface with a cable modem anyway, so my typing experiences prior to that were few and far between, in computer labs, so I didn't really have any prior bad habits to break.

[hactar]

When I was in school, at least at my school, there were no required typing classes. It was an elective I took in middle school

When did you graduate HS?  I got out in '90.  I suspect you were later, as the public internet wasn't a thing until I was in college.

[Maledicted]

When did you graduate HS?  I got out in '90.  I suspect you were later, as the public internet wasn't a thing until I was in college.

Yeah, I graduated high school in 2008.

[kchan88]

MSN Messenger and IRC. No joke lol.

[Maledicted]

MSN Messenger and IRC. No joke lol.

That doesn't surprise me in the least. Conversing online, through text, can make one a very fast typist.

[DALExSNAIL]

I was lovingly shamed for my typing speed when joining the hobby  (as we all should be to get better)

So I forced myself to schedule about 15-20 minutes a day to do typing tests for about 3 months. Couldn't touch type before or even hit over 30wpm, but after that I could reliably hit 65-ish while touch typing. Only side effect I had from it was I was using an HHKB, so my new typing habits formed around it, and I can't use backspace or ctrl anywhere but where they are on those haha.

I'm really only sitting at around 70wpm now, with no real desire to improve much further, as I've hit the point that I'm happy with my speeds.

[TheDroidClicks]

In primary school we had a healthy dosage of computer time devoted to the Type to Learn series of games.

Looking back, it was honestly one of the most useful things i remember learning at the time.

[jacethesaltsculptor]

I hunt and pecked until I played Starcraft, the chat back in the day went so fast, that if you wanted to both, play the game and chat, you had to get fast at typing, so I did.

I also had a basic typing class in Elementary school here in the States, but that didn't last long, and I didn't take it very seriously.

I still sort of type like I did during my Starcraft days, always hovering a a hand ready to move the viewing screen, not that I've moved such a thing in years.

[Maledicted]

I hunt and pecked until I played Starcraft, the chat back in the day went so fast, that if you wanted to both, play the game and chat, you had to get fast at typing, so I did.

I also had a basic typing class in Elementary school here in the States, but that didn't last long, and I didn't take it very seriously.

I still sort of type like I did during my Starcraft days, always hovering a a hand ready to move the viewing screen, not that I've moved such a thing in years.

Funny how that works with things. I have played one heck of a lot of RTS games, but I don't think I have ever done that.