How did you get faster at typing?

[vimx]

It is all just muscle memory. You learn by doing. You talk about "memorizing" where they keys are, but that is not really how typing works. I do not know where half the keys are. If you show me a blank keyboard and tell me to point at the "T", I will probably point at the wrong one. But my fingers know where they key is. Because when you ask me to type a sentence on that keyboard I can do so without thinking about where the "T" is for even a second.

I think that before you attempt to touch type, you have to learn some of this muscle memory. Free typing software can be a little boring to use, but using it for a couple of weeks every evening gives you enough experience with touch typing for your fingers to kind of know which keys to press most of the time.

My suggestion would be to continue practicing with those until you can type about 25 WPM. I know this is super slow, but at 25 WPM you have a pretty good idea of where keys are on the keyboard. From that point onward, switch cold turkey. This is where your new keyboard comes in handy. It helps you because you can not cheat. At first typing will be slow as hell, and a little annoying. You might even take longer to finish your work/reply to your e-mails and your productivity will suffer a little. Though my estimation is that it will only take the average person about 2 weeks to be back up to around 40 WPM which is probably what most hunt and peckers speed is. Months later, you will probably surpass the previous speed you had.

One thing that people do not often mention, but what I think is important, is that touch typing is not just about being able to type fast. One of the advantages, perhaps even the main advantage is that you are able to type while watching the screen instead of watching the keyboard. This makes typing much more efficient, and allows you to focus on the content of what you are typing while your hands do the rest. I also think that using the computer just becomes a more fluid and easy experience, as you can focus on the screen and do not have to look down all the time.

So much yes.  I started forcing myself to type "properly" and realized that my fingers know how to type better than my brain does!  My fingers do all kinds of stupid things when I let them go, like sliding right or left on the home row, reaching across to other-finger keys, slamming space with the same thumb, etc.  It's like my fingers have in-built macros I need to reprogram.

I am currently forcing myself to stay on home row, and alternate using left vs right space / modifier keys as previous keys suit.  Also mapped caps to ctrl.  It really slows you down at first, but speed quickly picks up again, with the added benefit of being more finger friendly.

[absyrd]

Despite being taught in school early, I didn't really pick up proper speedy typing until I joined a gaming clan and hip-hop forum and was on AIM all day long every day.

[nahka]

Played enough MMOs as a kid I guess.

[kirtmys]

Hi there,

I personally never learned to type properly and i found it really hard to fix the bad habits

This site helped a lot, there is statistics and it's tracking where you miss type and where you need more practice.
And it needs you practice every day to get rid of bad finger typing reflexes so you can type faster with correct fingers.

http://www.keybr.com/

Good luck:)

[midnightmare]

Hi there,

I personally never learned to type properly and i found it really hard to fix the bad habits

This site helped a lot, there is statistics and it's tracking where you miss type and where you need more practice.
And it needs you practice every day to get rid of bad finger typing reflexes so you can type faster with correct fingers.

http://www.keybr.com/

Good luck:)

I'll second that site, the less you have to move your head down to look at your fingers the better.

[vimx]

Oh, neat.   That keybr.com site is pretty great.   But why does it capitalize and punctuate every single "word" when you turn the option on!? 

[kirtmys]

Oh, neat.   That keybr.com site is pretty great.   But why does it capitalize and punctuate every single "word" when you turn the option on!? 

It's made for hardcore practicing i guess xD that's why it capitalize one letter and punctuate every word:)

I'll second that site, the less you have to move your head down to look at your fingers the better.

Yes you are correct, i used  another method to memorize where each finger goes, it's this one :

http://www.typingclub.com/typing-qwerty-en.html

I spent 1 month on typingclub.com and around 3 months with keybr.com , now i fixed the bad typing habits , i can type very fast and i use all fingers

The only problem i still have is with small fingers to type fast  :  a  ,  q ,  z  ,   p  ,   ";"  ,   "/"

[tp4tissue]

you guys can use which ever site to track  speed and accuracy

but make sure to rest your hands on    awef jio;     this helps you relax as it's the natural resting position of your fingers.

DO NOT worry about returning your hand to the home row..  it's not necessary and will only hinder your max speed.

[vimx]

you guys can use which ever site to track  speed and accuracy

but make sure to rest your hands on    awef jio;     this helps you relax as it's the natural resting position of your fingers.

DO NOT worry about returning your hand to the home row..  it's not necessary and will only hinder your max speed.

You keep saying this, but this is not the case for me personally.  When my hands relax, the fingers are slightly curved and I can lay the tips in a straight line on the desk.  The middle finger may be just barely higher, but it is nowhere near the curve of awef!

[davkol]

Depends on your testosterone level. ~_^

The tp4's home position is far from optimal, because of row jumps, especially on layouts that weren't designed for avoidance of mechanical-typewriter jamming; ZSDF JKL/ is arguably better, unless the layout is columnar.

[tp4tissue]

Depends on your testosterone level. ~_^

The tp4's home position is far from optimal, because of row jumps, especially on layouts that weren't designed for avoidance of mechanical-typewriter jamming; ZSDF JKL/ is arguably better, unless the layout is columnar.

Row jumps are NOT hindrances to ultimate speed..

again.. the primary hindrance is parsing speed, which is a muscle memory training limitation..


Is it possible to create a layout that require less jumps.. YES... will it help and increase your max speed?.. NO...

[davkol]

They are. The Bulgarians knew it 107 years ago.

[Laser]

To learn quickly (2 weeks), you need:

1 week practice using a program that teaches you gradually actual touch-typing and shows you keyboard on the monitor ("Mavis Bacon teaches you typing")
1 week play Sega's "Typing of the dead"

In the first week, you learn to look at monitor only, and your fingers learn the keys by themselves.
In the second, your emotional "brain" connects with the fingers and it also learns the keys in emotional-intensive moments (so you hook deeply what you learned)
Best short, intense combo method to learn fast touch typing. Just focus those 2 weeks.

(and yes, if you can't get faster, you probably don't know the proper technique )

[jacobolus]

Row jumps are NOT hindrances to ultimate speed..

If you mean row jumps using the same finger or adjacent fingers (especially middle + ring fingers), then that’s bull****.

If you mean row jumps from one hand to the other, or maybe from the index finger to the pinky, then fine.

On QWERTY, try quickly typing ynynynynynynynyn. Then try typing jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj. Just try typing qzqzqzqzqzqzqzqz at all; it’s hard to manage to even do slowly. Try quickly typing ,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o. Then try typing jkjkjkjkjkjkjkjk.

It’s entirely obvious that some motions are more comfortable and more efficient than others, and row jumps, especially top-to-bottom jumps on the same finger, are maybe the worst.

[PieterGen]

I wrote this little tool http://flopska.github.io/ruby-typing/ to reach higher speeds. The ads and the loading times of the available tools disturbed me.

Nice !

[Eszett]

It’s important how you sit, that is, the relation height of chair and height of desk. I’m pretty tall so most furniture is an ache for me. I bought a desk which is adjustable in height, and an special chair. Now my sitting position and my hands are more relaxed, I can type with more ease. And on the long run faster, because I don’t exhaust. Here I drew a sketch of a seating position I recommend . Most chairs for tall people are too low. And most displays are placed too low (directly on the desk). If you have a back ache get a sloped seating area, it is the best you can do.

[Fragil1ty]

Recently bought a HHKB with no legends so I can force myself to learn how to touch type. I'm finding it super difficult to memorize where which letters/numbers are where. How did you guys learn?

I started typing at the age 11/12, I think it was 12, I'm not sure how long it took me to touch type, but it wasn't overnight of course, you just have to be persistent and be patient.

I'm 24 now and I type at around 100-125WPM depending on how I'm feeling that day, the keyboard that I'm using and so on.

[frosty]

Since I hardly have any work that requires the computer, I force myself to visit 10fastfingers.com everyday and do the standard test. I have been doing this for the past 1 month and I have improved from 48 (yes i was this slow) to 74-78 now.

[mogo]

I had good foundational teaching through grade school for typing, but getting faster... this is what genuinely made me faster.

[RED-404]

Blank keycaps and The Typing of The Dead: Overkill

[ksm123]

Blank keycaps? For me they were necessary to learn rarely used characters (Shift + digit combinations).
They are very helpful if you can type quite fast using hunt and peck method and become frustrated after you learn to touch type all keys, but before you regain speed.

One thing is necessary to remember: accuracy is much more important than raw speed. Increase speed only if your accuracy is over 99%. Otherwise you will learn how to make mistakes and reinforce this patterns at higher speeds. This will be huge hindrance when you will hit 70WPM barrier. After a few months of striving for accuracy, I've managed to break through 80WPM barrier (almost 20 years after I've learned to touchtype for the first time).

[julayyy]

I think there are some typing game that should help you.

In school, we learned how to type and I think I got better at it because I always thought typing was fun and grew up with the whole instant messaging era with AOL messaging and what not.

The best thing you can do are those typing game probably fun and easy to learn

[pnutster]

In the process of polishing up my typing skills, didn't grow up with computers, so was always used to the hunt and peck method. A Kinesis Advantage board forces me into learning how to blind type. Used some typing tools which were very helpful. However the jazzy music starts to become boring, somewhere in this forum I came across z-type: http://phoboslab.org/ztype/.

Think that is a fun way to beef up some skills.

[PieterGen]

Amphetype. https://github.com/webiest/amphetype

Nice program, for any layout

[heedpantsnow]

I need to invest a bit of time to increase my speed. Has anyone tried a variety of these tools?  Which ones work best?

[nahka]

I need to invest a bit of time to increase my speed. Has anyone tried a variety of these tools?  Which ones work best?

It's probably been linked here but I'v been enjoying keybr.com, has nice stats too to show which keys you hit most reliably and such.

[pnutster]

I wrote this little tool http://flopska.github.io/ruby-typing/ to reach higher speeds. The ads and the loading times of the available tools disturbed me.

Higher speeds come with a lot of training and regular typing.

Thanks! As a "former" hunt and pecker... Only a year ago forced to learn blind typing because of using a Kinesis board and still struggling... Any tool is welcome, but this is a really nice one!

[Veridis]

I learned touch typing when I was 18, almost six years ago.
Anyone stuck at 70 to 90wpm?
On 10 fast fingers I consistently get around 92wpm. My highest was 102wpm.

On more realistic text like Typeracer, i get an average of 78wpm.

[ksm123]

Has anyone tried a variety of these tools?  Which ones work best?

First of all try to define your problem.

• What is your current typing speed?
• Can you "blind type"? If you are not sure, then try to cover your keyboard and type. How about punctuation, numbers and shift+number combinations?
• What is your accuracy?

ad. 1: If you can type over 70WPM then ignore my post, you know more than me.

ad. 2: If you cannot type without looking at keys, then get blank keycaps.

ad. 3: If your accuracy is below 98% then slow down, and work on it. Speed without accuracy is wasted.

Amphetype is very good tool, its statistics part has no match. It shows not only mistyped words, but also words where you hesitate.
Unfortunately it looks to be abandoned.

• Its text import feature allows you to read texts with non type-able characters, that leaves you stuck during exercises.
• There is no way to exclude proper names from statistics.

Keyhero gives you some feedback on types of your errors, that is very good.

10fastfingers allows you to exercise on most common words, but do not mistake your 10fastfingers speed with your real typing speed, they can be very different. No feed back on types of mistakes you make.

Typeracer: its competitive, but it does nothing to show you what you are doing wrong.
Keybr: too much fancy graphics, too little feedback.

[appleonama]

Recently bought a HHKB with no legends so I can force myself to learn how to touch type. I'm finding it super difficult to memorize where which letters/numbers are where. How did you guys learn?

A while since you posted but I hope you made progress 
I got my hhkb not too long ago and I had some trouble at first but its becoming muscle memory.

[dusan]

1. A matrix keyboard (see my signature) helped me getting from 60 wpm to 70 wpm (at 100% accuracy) in three days of training.

2. A mechanical keyboard with standard staggered layout (see my signature) helped me getting from 60 wpm to 70 wpm (at 100% accuracy) after about two months of intense training.

Thus, actually, the layout helped me, the training helped me, while the mechanical switches just gave me inspiration.

Given that, I believe that a mechanical matrix keyboard will get me to 80 wpm at 100% accuracy, with zero extra training, at this moment. 

[tp4tissue]

There's Typing and there's Transcription

if you're typing into a software, that's transcription.. 

What your transcription speed does FOR YOU,  is an exercise to harden muscle memory of the words you encounter..


Now, as far as the actual UTILITY of typing...  it's also influenced by ones command of the language..

So here, when we actually use the typing... the training must shift towards an Environmental Necessity.

Because otherwise.. You just wouldn't use it..

[b3nd11]

Loads of practice

Hack Call Of Duty Advanced Warfare

[usno_oj]

Lots and lots of typeracer.

[Grim Fandango]

I think there are two things that go into it:

-By doing it a lot
-By doing it correctly

I think a lot of people limit themselves by not using proper technique and taking shortcuts. Sure, there are those who can type 80 WPM with 4 fingers, but it is not nearly as effortless as it would be if you would just use all fingers instead.

[azhdar]

I'm currently more concerned by my accuracy rather than my speed . What exercice would you use for this ?

[FinancialWar]

Use dvorak, you will triple your speed in two months.