Author Topic: Do you use your little fingers to type often?  (Read 34200 times)

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Offline EpomakerKeyboard

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Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« on: Mon, 06 June 2022, 21:20:23 »
When learning to type, I had a proper lesson to train myself rest the certain fingers to certain keys. In this way, I can type without watching the keyboard. But when at work, I met some people who cannot leave their eyes on the keyboard to type, especiall when it comes to the keys that the little fingers can reach. And then I saw some youtubers who do typing tests without using their little fingers, which is unbelievable for me!
So I wonder, how many people use their little fingers when typing?

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #1 on: Mon, 06 June 2022, 22:31:27 »
went from 130wpm to 90wpm on 10fastfingers, no pinky.

I could imagine doing 130 without pinky because on the right it only controls p, on the left q and z isn't used much, "A" is the biggest impact, but it's only a slight change up of 1.5 key, very doable.

Offline sefixmm

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 07 June 2022, 02:32:33 »
I rarely use my little finger... For typing.


Offline Flatiron520

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #3 on: Tue, 07 June 2022, 05:11:18 »
went from 130wpm to 90wpm on 10fastfingers, no pinky.

I could imagine doing 130 without pinky because on the right it only controls p, on the left q and z isn't used much, "A" is the biggest impact, but it's only a slight change up of 1.5 key, very doable.


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Offline kajahtaa

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #4 on: Wed, 06 July 2022, 11:20:50 »
I use pinky on Ortho and split ergo

With big boards hands are always moving so 3 finger typing seems faster

Offline controller-works

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #5 on: Wed, 20 July 2022, 20:51:26 »
I am trying to be more disciplined in my typing technique since switching to a split ortho keyboard (Corne variant). I used to use a full keyboard, and while my typing speed was good, my technique was bad and I moved my hands around a lot.  Now I essentially keep them in place.

Offline butre

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #6 on: Thu, 21 July 2022, 01:28:37 »
left pinky yes, right pinky not so much.  I'll use it for right shift, but not much else.

if I had to lose a finger, it'd be my right pinky.  I can get used to left shift

Offline Tha_Pig

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #7 on: Wed, 17 August 2022, 21:08:53 »
I type mostly with my middle fingers and use the pinkies for the SHIFT keys.
I can type pretty fast like that, only looking down at the keys from time to time.

Offline phinix

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #8 on: Thu, 18 August 2022, 03:04:34 »
I think I don't use it at all. Just realised.
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Offline fortissim2

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #9 on: Fri, 19 August 2022, 14:42:48 »
Alt layout fanboy here, I use my pinkies when typing.

Offline Darthbaggins

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #10 on: Sun, 21 August 2022, 18:02:36 »
I know I use my left pinky the most for L-shift, Ctrl, CPSL (I use CPSL for a hot key for fast weapon swap in games - CSGO & Destiny 2), but other than those few reasons/scenarios left pinky is my primary little finger to use (my strong finger).

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Offline mohawk1367

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #11 on: Thu, 06 October 2022, 08:33:45 »
I actually only use my left pinky to hit A sometimes. I don't think I ever use my right.
« Last Edit: Thu, 06 October 2022, 08:36:53 by mohawk1367 »
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Offline ArchDill

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #12 on: Thu, 06 October 2022, 08:43:55 »
I have been working on training my left pinky and it has been rough.

Still not at the point where I can do it without thinking. Mainly just use it for the "a"

Offline vonk

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #13 on: Thu, 06 October 2022, 08:46:58 »
UK ISO.

I've realised that they don't do much.  In this sentence they did: Both Shifts, Enter, ', and A

I also use my left pinky for z

Q, P and ; are handled by my ring fingers, which I'd never really thought about until now.  ? needs to be my ring finger because I use my right pinky on the Rshift instead of Lshift.

Offline TheWonderBubble

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #14 on: Wed, 12 October 2022, 21:43:28 »
My pinkies actually end up floating usually, but I still use them quite a bit. Shift, QAZ, Tab, P":?[]\, Backspace, and Enter are all relegated to my pinkies...if they haven't been remapped elsewhere. Most my boards put shift/enter/backspace under the thumbs now, for example. Most my fingers actually end up floating, but I still touch type, and usually just have one or two fingers keying off homerow that the rest somehow manage to line up off of. I don't even know how my hands do it, but it works so  :cool: 
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Offline RitzyKraken

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #15 on: Wed, 11 January 2023, 12:22:25 »
I never thought about it before, but I don’t think I ever use my pinky. Weird
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Offline jamster

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #16 on: Wed, 11 January 2023, 21:46:21 »
A, control (remapped caps lock), shifts, enter.

Offline Mandan

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #17 on: Thu, 12 January 2023, 11:21:12 »
Left little finger:
Control, Left Shift, Left Alt

Right little finger:
Enter (sometimes), Right Shift, Right Control, all cursor pad keys

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Offline Retirba

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #18 on: Thu, 19 January 2023, 23:11:34 »
I use left one for q, a, z, and other keys to the left of those alphas.
Right one for p, ;, / and any keys to the right of those.

I can't imagine ever being faster without the little fingers. Less movement = more speed and accuracy imo.

Offline Sintpinty

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #19 on: Wed, 25 January 2023, 11:43:36 »
When learning to type, I had a proper lesson to train myself rest the certain fingers to certain keys. In this way, I can type without watching the keyboard. But when at work, I met some people who cannot leave their eyes on the keyboard to type, especiall when it comes to the keys that the little fingers can reach. And then I saw some youtubers who do typing tests without using their little fingers, which is unbelievable for me!
So I wonder, how many people use their little fingers when typing?

all my fingers are "little fingers" so yes

Offline Findecanor

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #20 on: Wed, 25 January 2023, 15:30:01 »
I'm cowboy-typing. Left pinky for left Shift. Right pinky on right Shift key for some symbols on the far right of the alphanumeric keyboard.
I've trained myself to use the right pinky for P, [ ; and '   (actually P, Å, Ä and Ö in Swedish layout), but in practice I do that only sometimes.
« Last Edit: Wed, 25 January 2023, 15:31:41 by Findecanor »

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #21 on: Thu, 26 January 2023, 10:33:07 »
I'm cowboy-typing. Left pinky for left Shift. Right pinky on right Shift key for some symbols on the far right of the alphanumeric keyboard.
I've trained myself to use the right pinky for P, [ ; and '   (actually P, Å, Ä and Ö in Swedish layout), but in practice I do that only sometimes.

tp4 never uses right shift on flat qwerty board,  ergodox yes, but on flatq, the whole hand kind of has to move.

Offline Sintpinty

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #22 on: Tue, 31 January 2023, 20:03:38 »
When learning to type, I had a proper lesson to train myself rest the certain fingers to certain keys. In this way, I can type without watching the keyboard. But when at work, I met some people who cannot leave their eyes on the keyboard to type, especiall when it comes to the keys that the little fingers can reach. And then I saw some youtubers who do typing tests without using their little fingers, which is unbelievable for me!
So I wonder, how many people use their little fingers when typing?

My little fingers should ideally be replaced with cybernetic ones , i do not use them for typing it feels weird

Offline CyCo

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #23 on: Wed, 15 February 2023, 04:13:38 »
Very handy to hit that enter / Rshift button while gaming!

Offline Pretendo

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #24 on: Sun, 09 April 2023, 10:20:21 »
If I'm "typing typing", as in not just pecking out a word or two but actually sitting at my computer keyboard and writing, then yes I tend to use my pinkies. In cases where I'm only entering a few words I'll tend to not properly position over the keyboard, and not use them as much.

The exception is when I'm using a fully manual typewriter, which I sometimes do for journaling. In that case I won't use my pinkies very much except for the shift keys; with the extra force and long travel of a typewriter key it gets to be a bit uncomfortable over time. Once in awhile I'll use them, maybe for the occasional 'Q' or 'P' that's perfectly positioned and leveraged.
« Last Edit: Sun, 09 April 2023, 10:22:01 by Pretendo »
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Offline djones

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #25 on: Mon, 17 April 2023, 00:42:02 »
One thing while I learned while recovering from RSI was that using the pinky for one-handed-key-combos (including simple capitalized letters) is a sure fire way to aggravate whatever condition you have. Not only are you contorting your hand but also they are the weakest finger on your hands. For around a decade I didn't use my pinkies at all for typing and even now never use them for the modifier keys.

Offline madrone

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #26 on: Sun, 14 May 2023, 01:07:32 »
Always used all my fingers but now I'll never be able to stop thinking about my pinkies when I type, so... thanks for that :p

Offline smarmar

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #27 on: Wed, 17 May 2023, 16:30:13 »
I don't know what I'd do without my littlest piggies!  :))
I learned to touch type with all my fingers, and when I play Fortnite I use my left pinky for no less than 4 actions. I've been touch typing for 37 years, and so far, no problems.
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Offline LavenderB

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #28 on: Fri, 09 June 2023, 12:54:37 »
I'm not a proper touch typist but I do usually use my pinkies while typing.
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Offline mathisart

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Re: Do you use your little fingers to type often?
« Reply #29 on: Thu, 13 July 2023, 22:28:28 »
I use my pinky fingers for the left-most and right-most keys, which includes the last column of character keys and some modifiers keys.