Touch Typing

[EdwardTeach]

I presume most people on this forum touch type?

Did you take lessons at some point? Do you touch type with an orthodox technique or have you just made up your own after years of keyboard use?

I ask because I think I am more the latter. I do touch type but I dont do it in an orthodox manner, and I still need to check the keyboard occasionally.

This became really  apparent when I picked up a Noppoo Chock mini recently. The light fitting in my room has just died, so I am operating in poor light conditions. The Choc mini has discrete letter marking which I couldn't make out in the poor light, and I felt a bit lost when I couldn't check the keys occasionally.

I was thinking that I should maybe learn to touch type properly. I remember doing Mavis Beacon about 20 years ago!

[msiegel]

My mom

mavis beacon is asian??

i haven't learned to "touch type" yet, although i don't look most of the time.

i'll learn colemak as soon as i'm no longer stuck with the bizarre staggering that standard keyboards use XD


ps - she looks great for her age

[msiegel]

lol!
former brotha-- i used to work there but i'm pretty sure it was *before* they published mavis beacon, so i have an excuse XD

[Brian8bit]

I touch type better on my Apple wireless keyboard than I do on either my Filco or Tactile Pro :\

[Dr.Pepper]

Although I can type without looking at the keyboard, it's not a method that you'd call a standard method, I use my right pinky very little, and I press the "Y" key with my left hand instead of my right, and now that I'm learning Dvorak, it's kind of wired to hit "F" with my right hand. ( It's in the same spot as the "Y" in QWERTY )

The fastest I have ever typed was around 140wpm, (80-90 avg) but Dvorak looks promising after only 2 weeks I'm up to about 60ish.

[kill will]

i was supposed to learn in school but my obsession with getting 100s led me to cheat and look at the keyboard and use only like 5-6 fingers.  i so wish i learned the right way.  u only cheat yourself kids.

[Acronym]

Check out Burning Cargo (http://www.burningcargo.com) for learning touch typing in a non-boring way.

[noodles256]

I touch type better on my Apple wireless keyboard than I do on either my Filco or Tactile Pro :\

the only way to not touch type on an Apple wireless is to type through the keyboard

[pm_]

We were taught to touch type either later in grade school or 7th grade.  Our teacher would hold a big envelope over our hands so we couldn't see the keys.  I can go north of 90 wpm when using good posture and positioning, if I want.

My older brother and I are fine when it comes to touch typing, my younger brother has to look at the keyboard, and I do bust his balls about it. But I can do that since he's my brother.

[sawedust]

I started learning how to touch type when I was in second grade.  We had this typing program game thing on the computers at the lab, where you had to type letters quickly in order to make your car race faster.  We also had typing and comprehension exams at that age too.

Some 15 years later, typing just comes naturally to me now.  Don't have to look at the keyboard to type unless I need a symbol or if I'm playing SC2, where I have to check if I have my fingers where I need them to be.

[KosherPieFiasco]

I started learning how to touch type in grade school. We also had a program, though I don't remember what it was called. The main menu had a bunch of futuristic buildings, and each one was dedicated to a different typing skill. Without it, I would be a terrible typer. Stay in school, kids!

[Culinia]

I started learning how to touch type in grade school. Stay in school, kids!

Why didn't we learn anything useful like this in school? That would be something useful and we had plenty Acorn computers to type on!!

I had to learn touch typing the right way the hard way - by myself.

[keyboardlover]

My mom made my sister and I learn one summer.

[Daniel Beaver]

I was given lessons, but it was not until college that I truly learned to touch type. My technique is the very orthodox.

[Moneyless]

I never really learned properly. In grade 7 "computer class" we did a couple of touch typing lessons for maybe the first two classes or so, but that was it. After that my mom bought me this learning program that I must've used  a handful of times at most.

Since then I've sort of just learned on my own, adapting my own sort of eight finger unorthodox touch typing. :tongue: I used to be able to type fairly fast, but in the span of a year I switched between at least a dozen different crappy membrane keyboards... some of them being weird curvy ergo ones -- which sort of hurt my typing speed, and I never really recovered to my previous speed. Now I would say I type sort of average I guess.

I should really learn to touch type the "right" way though. :redface: