When did you learn to touch type?

[jcoffin1981]

I learned in elementary school on an old Apple PC. We had mandatory typing classes, sometime in the mid 90's.

Oregon Trail ftw!

Yes  yes, the Oregon Trail.  This is going back to about 1991 or so.

[KaminKevCrew]

I learned in elementary school on an old Apple PC. We had mandatory typing classes, sometime in the mid 90's.

Oregon Trail ftw!

Yes  yes, the Oregon Trail.  This is going back to about 1991 or so.

My sister played the Oregon Trail when we were kids!

[Roibhilin]

i forced myself to after i was publicly humiliated on OCN for typing at 90 WPM with my two ring fingers

[E3E]

i forced myself to after i was publicly humiliated on OCN for typing at 90 WPM with my two ring fingers

That's an achievement though! 90 wpm with your ring fingers? I mean, really... Who two finger types with their RING fingers?

[KaminKevCrew]

i forced myself to after i was publicly humiliated on OCN for typing at 90 WPM with my two ring fingers

That's an achievement though! 90 wpm with your ring fingers? I mean, really... Who two finger types with their RING fingers?

I mean, yeah... I didn't even know it was possible to type that fast with only two fingers!

[swimmingbird]

i forced myself to after i was publicly humiliated on OCN for typing at 90 WPM with my two ring fingers

That's an achievement though! 90 wpm with your ring fingers? I mean, really... Who two finger types with their RING fingers?

I mean, yeah... I didn't even know it was possible to type that fast with only two fingers!

Before I started touch typing I could hit about 90 wpm with just using index and ring fingers if I looked at the keyboard

[SamirD]

I learned in elementary school on an old Apple PC. We had mandatory typing classes, sometime in the mid 90's.

Oregon Trail ftw!

Yes  yes, the Oregon Trail.  This is going back to about 1991 or so.

I sucked so bad at that game.  I always tried to break out of it and look at the programming as on some of the platforms (Apple?) it was written in basic.  Then I'd change some lines and re-run it for some unsuspecting soul, hehe.

[y11971alex]

So, I'm just wondering when people learned to touch type. For me, it only happened recently, when I put the blank caps on my Daskeyboard 4... Now I'm using a pok3r, and aside from looking down for the FN layer, I can touch type now... It's an amazing feeling, so I thought I would ask when everyone learned... Now I just need to get my speed up, so I can have those crazy type test scores...

I learned proper technique during typing class, but before then I already was using my own naturally developer technique, since I surfed the Internet a lot before I went to primary school.

However, i"m only a touch typist on the alphanumeric section of the keyboard; I can't say the same for function, navigation, or media keys.

[demik]

middle school, on a typewriter. i was pretty ****, and only passed the class because my gf at the time was the TA and just gave me a good grade. teacher didn't really give a ****.

i just got better during AOL days.

[SamirD]

middle school...only passed the class because my gf at the time was the TA...

Someone was a pimp in middle school. 

[fknraiden]

I'm still not a perfect typist.

[GeneralArrow]

For me it just happened naturally after having used the keyboard for so long, and not having to look at the keys, I never really learned how, muscle memory played a big part of it.

[xondat]

About 3 weeks ago, otherwise I've used a few fingers all my life. This is much more satisfying even with the constant mistakes I'm still making, but I know that the switches I am using are way too light which results in lots of accidental presses.

[Nalor]

I learned when I was in elementary school. I have such bad spelling, they wanted me to use a word processor to help write papers.

[Connly33]

Like many here i've been into computers from a really young age, 6 or 7 when i started playing with windows 3.1 then windows 95 machines that would get thrown away when businesses would upgrade ( i'm only 20 now). I've always been interested in hardware more than anything, but anyway i started " touch typing ", more like being able to hunt and peck without looking at the age of 10 or 12, ( i got to the point of typing 60-65 wpm average like that) i did not start correctly touch typing until maybe two years ago, it was really hard for me to break my old typing habits so i ended up failing my middle school and high school computer classes. We had an older teacher that started back when they would tape pins onto the base of typewriters so that you wouldn't be tempted to use improper posture with your wrists.... So no matter the speed and accuracy if your posture was off you wouldn't get a passing grade. 

After my keyboard interests started to grow i got more motivated to start typing correctly.  I'm still only at about 45 WPM average.

[SunTanScanMan]

I can't recall when exactly I learnt to touch type, but I've always enjoyed typing. We had an old and slightly more modern Trigem (I think?) typewriter in the 80s and 90s when I was young. I just like typing on them and used to write little stories. However it meant that my finger placements were not entirely "correct". E.g. I am more used to using my middle fingers when pressing the 'T' and 'H' button.

I have been practicing around 30mins everyday to correct my technique, and succeeding in weaning myself off the old habits. (Using Typing Club and Fast Fingers sites)

I am currently learning to touch type Korean/Hangul with Hancom typing training. I was born in Korea but I've spent the majority of my life in Europe, so my typing speed is atrocious. I am a fluent speaker and reader so it makes it slightly easier. It's been something that I have wanted to address for the longest time.

[xondat]

About 3 weeks ago, otherwise I've used a few fingers all my life. This is much more satisfying even with the constant mistakes I'm still making, but I know that the switches I am using are way too light which results in lots of accidental presses.

Just hit 80WPM highest and I can now average 70+ per run.

[Touch_It]

Freshman year in high school (2002), typing class.  Learned all the basics.  Really put to practice and solidified playing Diablo 2 during all of high school.  If you really wanted to trade/play at a high level, you needed to be able to touch type proficiently.  Also a great way to learn how to spell.

[demik]

middle school...only passed the class because my gf at the time was the TA...

Someone was a pimp in middle school. 

was? still is.

[trizkut]

middle school...only passed the class because my gf at the time was the TA...

Someone was a pimp in middle school. 

was? still is.

dewey got game.

[demik]

middle school...only passed the class because my gf at the time was the TA...

Someone was a pimp in middle school. 

was? still is.

dewey got game.

lean in my cup, gas in my blunt.

[Brammm87]

A good 15 years ago (maybe longer?), on an electric typewriter. My mom made me, even though I hated it. "Computers are the future", she said. "You'll thank me one day".

She was right. I'm not the fastest typer (about 80wpm?) and recently switched from touch typing azerty to qwerty, but so thankful.

[wockytocky]

Freshman year of college, when my then girlfriend made fun of me for hunting and pecking. 4 years later I'm typing in Dvorak on blanks at 100+wpm

[derb2k2]

I learned in the late 90's when I first got my hands on a computer that was bought for the family. I've since become very proficient at touch-typing and can even use the row numbers (also numpad, ofcourse) effectively.  Also, I'm a heavy shortcut user and always try to learn all of them to avoid my hands leaving the keyboard

[DaveW]

High school. There were no computer classes but we had a typing class. The teacher would yell at you if he caught you looking down at the keys. He would then put a folder over your hands so you couldn't see the keys for the rest of the period.

[frogthejam19]

6th grade computer class with a lazy computer teacher who made us do it because he was too lazy to do anything else. I didn't learn then I was like fk this. But after years on the internet I just picked it up subconsciously. But my form isn't the home row. I'm still decently fast  though without the homerow method. I started learning the home row method a few days ago. I've become adept with my left hand but my right hands still give me serious trouble especially punctuation. But with the homerow I can touch type with about 99% accuracy.

[Brammm87]

I learned in the late 90's when I first got my hands on a computer that was bought for the family. I've since become very proficient at touch-typing and can even use the row numbers (also numpad, ofcourse) effectively.  Also, I'm a heavy shortcut user and always try to learn all of them to avoid my hands leaving the keyboard

I bought a TKL to force myself to learn to touch type the number row... Still not very good at it 5 months later and I miss my numpad. I sorta often have to enter lots of numbers and it's a pain.

[wockytocky]

I learned in the late 90's when I first got my hands on a computer that was bought for the family. I've since become very proficient at touch-typing and can even use the row numbers (also numpad, ofcourse) effectively.  Also, I'm a heavy shortcut user and always try to learn all of them to avoid my hands leaving the keyboard

I bought a TKL to force myself to learn to touch type the number row... Still not very good at it 5 months later and I miss my numpad. I sorta often have to enter lots of numbers and it's a pain.

What I do if I know I'm going to need to enter a lot of numbers on a TKL is I'll move my hands up to the number row and use it as a temporary home row. So instead of F and J my new "homing" keys are 4 and 7. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty nice

[phosphoric]

I learned in the late 90's when I first got my hands on a computer that was bought for the family. I've since become very proficient at touch-typing and can even use the row numbers (also numpad, ofcourse) effectively.  Also, I'm a heavy shortcut user and always try to learn all of them to avoid my hands leaving the keyboard

I bought a TKL to force myself to learn to touch type the number row... Still not very good at it 5 months later and I miss my numpad. I sorta often have to enter lots of numbers and it's a pain.

I learned in the late 90's when I first got my hands on a computer that was bought for the family. I've since become very proficient at touch-typing and can even use the row numbers (also numpad, ofcourse) effectively.  Also, I'm a heavy shortcut user and always try to learn all of them to avoid my hands leaving the keyboard

I bought a TKL to force myself to learn to touch type the number row... Still not very good at it 5 months later and I miss my numpad. I sorta often have to enter lots of numbers and it's a pain.

What I do if I know I'm going to need to enter a lot of numbers on a TKL is I'll move my hands up to the number row and use it as a temporary home row. So instead of F and J my new "homing" keys are 4 and 7. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty nice

i've heard this argument so many times, but the number pad is just so much more efficient and ergonomic, especially if you're doing accounting applications, because it's not uncommon to have to type *, /, -, and +. with the number row those keys aren't easily accessible, but the numpad has them there on the base layer.

granted, i prefer typing on a 60% without the number pad (mostly because the fn layer is so much easier to use than having to move my hands for the navigation cluster), but i still miss the number pad quite often. you also have to take into account that you'll have to reorient your hands on the number row and then LOOK at your hands again to make sure they're on the right keys, versus simply moving your hand over to the far right of the keyboard and finding the bump on 5.

[Brammm87]

i've heard this argument so many times, but the number pad is just so much more efficient and ergonomic, especially if you're doing accounting applications, because it's not uncommon to have to type *, /, -, and +. with the number row those keys aren't easily accessible, but the numpad has them there on the base layer.

granted, i prefer typing on a 60% without the number pad (mostly because the fn layer is so much easier to use than having to move my hands for the navigation cluster), but i still miss the number pad quite often. you also have to take into account that you'll have to reorient your hands on the number row and then LOOK at your hands again to make sure they're on the right keys, versus simply moving your hand over to the far right of the keyboard and finding the bump on 5.

What I do if I know I'm going to need to enter a lot of numbers on a TKL is I'll move my hands up to the number row and use it as a temporary home row. So instead of F and J my new "homing" keys are 4 and 7. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty nice

I'm really looking forward to my whitefox and the ability to put a numpad on another layer. Even got the granite dual legends for it. Although I wonder how easy/handy it'll be with the offset matrix (what's the word for that?). If that doesn't work out, I'm trying ortholinear.

[phosphoric]

i've heard this argument so many times, but the number pad is just so much more efficient and ergonomic, especially if you're doing accounting applications, because it's not uncommon to have to type *, /, -, and +. with the number row those keys aren't easily accessible, but the numpad has them there on the base layer.

granted, i prefer typing on a 60% without the number pad (mostly because the fn layer is so much easier to use than having to move my hands for the navigation cluster), but i still miss the number pad quite often. you also have to take into account that you'll have to reorient your hands on the number row and then LOOK at your hands again to make sure they're on the right keys, versus simply moving your hand over to the far right of the keyboard and finding the bump on 5.

What I do if I know I'm going to need to enter a lot of numbers on a TKL is I'll move my hands up to the number row and use it as a temporary home row. So instead of F and J my new "homing" keys are 4 and 7. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty nice

I'm really looking forward to my whitefox and the ability to put a numpad on another layer. Even got the granite dual legends for it. Although I wonder how easy/handy it'll be with the offset matrix (what's the word for that?). If that doesn't work out, I'm trying ortholinear.

i have a number pad layer on my pok3r, but the lack of an ortholinear orientation is so offsetting to me. ymmv though - i know that a ton of people aren't thrown by the layered numberpad and find it fine to use for little bits of data entry, but you're still missing the basic arithmetic symbols.