How to learn to type (right)?

[Ekaros]

So now I got my board, but I am still an imperfect typer. How should I improve my typing? Or learn the 10-sytem...

[Daniel Beaver]

The Typing Of The Dead

Actually a fairly good typing teacher. It won't teach you technique, though.

[frvrngn]

That actually looks like it could be fun to kill time with!  Any idea if they make a PC game like that?

[Co-Op]

Is that a HHKB?

[Ekaros]

I have that one somewhere, it just doesn't support local layout too well. Also it's good training not learning

[frvrngn]

I am going to have to check ebay out!

ripster - do you own the game?  I am trying to figure out how you post all those crazy LEGO pictures so quickly!

[Co-Op]

Ripster has lego pictures for every conceivable situation ever encountered on Internet forums... Just a matter of having a good archiving retrieval system.

[Necroleachate]

I have that one somewhere, it just doesn't support local layout too well. Also it's good training not learning

It is good for learning. It has a nice tutorial mode. I learned to touch type with that game.

[patrickgeekhack]

You could force yourself to use your ten fingers. This was what I did:

I started to learn which finger type which letters. Then I started to type everything the right way, even if I had to look at what I was typing at the beginning. After a while, I stopped looking at the keyboard even if I was going slowly and was making mistakes. Then it was down to practice. The more you practice, the better you'll become.

There will come a time where you won't touch type but you would have lost some of you old typing habit. This was the most frustrating time for me.

[Konrad]

You pick up technique by progressing your focus on only a few keys at a time.  Trying to force yourself to coordinate too many new motions at once will actually slow you down.  Expect several weeks to "know" the keyboard, then focus on speed.

[Co-Op]

http://www.typeracer.com is a good way to practice.

[Arc'xer]

http://www.typingweb.com/

Gets a bit boring after a while but keep it up for a few days to a week and you should pretty much do fine.

Try and learn with the tactile bump of your keyboard, so you assimilate to using it.

[Konrad]

I don't want to threadjack this one, so my questions about that are here.

[Daniel Beaver]

For learning proper touch-typing, I would initially suggest you work on accuracy over speed. Really force yourself to use the proper fingers, especially for the central keys (B, Y and others). That step can be accomplished fairly quickly, within a week or so. Increasing your speed is a much, much longer process. Your goal is to reach a point where typing becomes effortless and accurate; words will pour fourth onto your screen simply by willing it.

It pains me to see how badly most people type, and it is really worth the effort to raise your level competence. I'm actually a fan of taking a classroom typing course, since the skill lends itself well to a structured learning environment. See if any local community colleges offer a night course - a few weeks in that sort of environment will improve your typing dramatically.


My suggestion of playing The Typing of the Dead is serious, but only after you build your proficiency in the technique up. Typing games are a great way to improve your speed, but it is easy to "cheat" and use bad technique, which will ultimately set you back.

Here's a $10 buy it now sale for tTotD. I wouldn't really spend more than that.

[jeyoung]

Before you even start to touch type, build some strength in your forearms and get into the habit of letting your hands float over the keyboard rather than having them rest on a support.

Old habits die hard, so don't even get into them

[Konrad]

Agreed.  Wrist supports are for the old, the weak, and the pansy-handed.

[keyboardlover]

Agreed.  Would Chuck Norris use a wrist rest? The white keyboard is kinda girlyman though.

As is that Mac computer. But Chuck Norris intimidates any computer equipment into being awesome, no matter how girlyman it is. He can make a cheap rubber dome feel like a Topre. And if you make fun of his computer equipment, he'll sneeze and cause your brain to hemorrhage.

[Konrad]

Chuck Norris doesn't need a Ctrl key on his computer. Chuck Norris is always in control.

[jeyoung]

Chuck Noris spits Mountain Dew.

[Konrad]

I've never played card games.  But this still says it all, booya

[microsoft windows]

"Trading" card games...the "Piece of cardboard with some dumb Japanese cartoon on it" craze. They're just retarded if you ask me.

[ricercar]

When Chuck Norris uses Microsoft Windows all the bugs are too afraid to appear.

What about the trolls?

[Jack]

Re: Initial learning of typing

http://groups.google.com/group/typeracer/browse_thread/thread/d2e0f7c62320ffef# has an interesting (to me) excerpt from Typewriting Behavior on what to focus on when initially learning typing. The finding, based on high-speed film studies, seems to be that you should focus on making the correct motions primarily; that is, accuracy is also a good thing to focus on but is actually, according to the book, not the first thing to focus on. "Correct motions" seems to mean learning quick strikes to the proper keys as a faster typist would do them, in slower succession, if I understood correctly. After that you build on speed and accuracy comes with it  as a matter of course. One point of the excerpt (or maybe it was elsewhere in the book, can't remember) is that focusing primarily or entirely on accuracy can be crippling as the resulting perfectionism interferes with acquisition of speed and knowledge of the keyboard. Something like that.

[WhiteRice]

I drilled on typingweb until I could type without looking at the keyboard.

Now I play typeracer.com and keyhero.com to improve. I type around 50-60 wpm after about five weeks.

It's annoying though cause the text excerpts start to repeat after awhile :3

[NewbieOneKenobi]

You could force yourself to use your ten fingers. This was what I did:

I started to learn which finger type which letters. Then I started to type everything the right way, even if I had to look at what I was typing at the beginning. After a while, I stopped looking at the keyboard even if I was going slowly and was making mistakes. Then it was down to practice. The more you practice, the better you'll become.

There will come a time where you won't touch type but you would have lost some of you old typing habit. This was the most frustrating time for me.

Elementary school teacher told me to put all ten fingers there, approximately half the alpha keyboard for each, and the rest was practice (especially when finally no longer looking at the monitor). Before, I typed in some strange way. I still hit some keys intermittently, depending on what feels good at the moment (I have considerably longer fingers than most people) and it's possible my split is different from standard.

[SwiftFist]

I learned to type in high school. The best way to learn is to force yourself to not look at the keyboard (putting black electric tape over all your keys), and do typing exercises (there's plenty of online typing training sites) and just drill them until you can type without looking. I occasionally do typeracer and my average WPM is 90.

[NewbieOneKenobi]

I gotta give it a try then. In my case, speed is money (I get paid by page or word). My record so far has been 101 but the text was easy.

[Ekaros]

Have to see, what I can do. I can type now without looking at keyboard, but get some mistakes and mainly use only 8 fingers in it... Somewhat can touch type but I don't have all key locations right...