When did you learn to touch type?

[davkol]

I learned in a 7th grade typing course. I then relearned to touch type with Colemak during finals week one sophomore semester of college. I now type correctly with the exception of never using right shift. I work with plenty of developers who still hunt and peck which blows my mind.

I program statistical analysis in R, and I touch type, but I do not feel that touch typing matters that much for coding, because it is more important to have the right syntax, variables and strcuture, more than type it quickly. At the end the proper editing is key, and most of the time you cannot edit that fast as to need a high WPM.

This is a really good point because while touch typing can help with the flow of thought from mind to computer, high wpm only helps when you can think faster than you can currently type.

Not really.

Raw speed is just one part of the equation, but then there are cognitive factors (like how much does shifting focus break ones workflow, even subconsciously), various kinds of strain etc.

[edb5s]

From typing games in the computer lab in elementary school. Does anyone remember a typing game from the early- to mid-90s where one of the minigames involved an elephant on a diving board where typing the words presented to you would fill up the pool beneath him? Pretty sure this was on a PC but I don't know which operating system as I was only 7-8 years old at the time.

[djchup]

We had daily typing lessons for awhile in the computer lab while I was in elementary school.  I got pretty competitive with it I remember and tried to beat the word per minute rates of my classmates lol.

[SamirD]

I learned in a 7th grade typing course. I then relearned to touch type with Colemak during finals week one sophomore semester of college. I now type correctly with the exception of never using right shift. I work with plenty of developers who still hunt and peck which blows my mind.

I program statistical analysis in R, and I touch type, but I do not feel that touch typing matters that much for coding, because it is more important to have the right syntax, variables and strcuture, more than type it quickly. At the end the proper editing is key, and most of the time you cannot edit that fast as to need a high WPM.

This is a really good point because while touch typing can help with the flow of thought from mind to computer, high wpm only helps when you can think faster than you can currently type.

Not really.

Raw speed is just one part of the equation, but then there are cognitive factors (like how much does shifting focus break ones workflow, even subconsciously), various kinds of strain etc.

Not sure I'm following you...

[Bartlebum]

I had bad insomnia as a kid and to keep my mind from being too active I would go over keyboard layout in my head, finding all the keys and focusing on the ones I couldn't remember. Made it super easy to then type without looking and just using all my fingers.

[gravenshard]

Playing Starcraft and Warcraft III.

[lashiel]

I... mostly touch type? But I'm weird because I don't home row--I've basically evolved hunt and peck with 3-4 fingers, but just have the positions of the keys essentially memorized. I still have to glance down to orient myself very occasionally, and I don't have the symbols memorized (i.e. &%#). It works well enough. I took a  typing course in highschool, but promptly and purposefully forgot what I was taught because... I don't know.

I should probably learn real typing at some point...

[AllegedlyAlienated]

4th grade typing class. I was the fastest typer in my grade  I pride myself on that.

[AuRinBei]

I have a story about this. I learned in 6th grade from some typing game with some kind of futuristic city as the background. There were lessons and tests that you had to do. For some reason, the teacher decided that if you could pass the tests at 30 WPM without doing the lessons, then you didn't have to do the lessons, but if you couldn't pass even one test, you had to go back and do all the lessons you skipped. Why he landed upon this retarded system I will never know, but those were the rules. I decided to try the tests and was flying through and playing games for the rest of the class (you only needed to do one test a class). I probably had 40-60 wpm on everything, even the numbers portion. Then I got to symbols, and my world fell apart. There were probably like 4 more classes left in the year and all of a sudden I had to pass a test that was like 50% symbols and numbers. I would honestly probably have a hard time with it now. Back then, it was totally impossible. I was getting like 7 wpm, and there was no way I could slog through all the lessons. I don't think the class was graded like normal, but I ended up being one of the few people that didn't pass it perfectly, even though I was one of the fastest typers. And the teacher wouldn't cut me any slack. He was just like "Well you should have done the lessons." Why!? Why was that a rule? How does not being able to type symbols quickly make me not a good typer? Never have I ever had to type 9!.>  #* before or since that class. Why couldn't I just do that particular lesson? I'm still salty about that stupid class.

Also, I never understood why no mistakes were allowed in any typing class I took. I make mistakes all the time when typing, but I'm still faster than like 95% of the population. If you can type the required speed, why do they care. Maybe this has changed. I don't know if they even teach touch typing anymore.

[Kirbee]

I played a lot of Maplestory in early middle school. I couldn't pause the game, so I had to learn to type quickly or be killed by surrounding monsters. I guess I learned to touch type out of necessity.

[mstechfreak]

I learned to touch type when I was 6 and I went with my mom to her work. She made me sit by a computer and I learned everything. Some time ago I started using dvorak keyboard layout and then I used help of a touch typing tutor.  I used www.typingstudy.com.
Has anyone used a typing tutor?

[SamirD]

I learned to touch type when I was 6 and I went with my mom to her work. She made me sit by a computer and I learned everything. Some time ago I started using dvorak keyboard layout and then I used help of a touch typing tutor.  I used www.typingstudy.com.
Has anyone used a typing tutor?

I never used a tutor, but I think the various games that people have used would count as a tutor, no?

[bbrotha]

I used to hate typing class back in school, it was mandatory to have a typewriter and we had to take it at each class, from home as it was too big to put it on the locker, sometimes I had to take it on the bus... But here's the story, the teacher was pretty old so he was teaching us like back on the 50's (this was 97' btw), I remember I always had problems with my left pinky as I barely used it, so when he saw me typing wrong, he took is ruler and start smashing my pinky finger, "Use the pinky!" he said... very traumatizing... sooo after that I used to hate everything that had to do with touch typing... until last year that I discover mechanical keyboards and started using them, I was hooked.

I took an online touch typing test and I was at 20wpm, pretty lame, so I began a self learning process to improve using typing.com and some other resources, at the moment I'm typing at 60 wpm and I train almost everyday...

Now I would like to have my old typewriter but probably is at the bottom of the ocean  

[jaffers]

When I was about 13 I really got into the technical side of computers and all of the coding aspects etc, it was about then that I really started to touch type and also around this time because I also started getting big assignments for high school which required a lot of typing to make word counts etc

[Flossed]

I played a lot of Maplestory in early middle school. I couldn't pause the game, so I had to learn to type quickly or be killed by surrounding monsters. I guess I learned to touch type out of necessity.

LOL Can confirm. Still died a lot though...

[beehatch]

elementary school typing classes, sadly i wasn't born gifted

[priyadi]

I had typing class in high school, using REAL mechanical typewriters. Tests involved typing a passage while being closely watched by the teacher. If we were caught 'cheating' (meaning hitting a key with a wrong finger), then there goes our grades. We learned touch typing pretty fast that way .

Hitting A with pinky on those babies were really a *****, though. And we can actually get injured if we missed hitting the actual key and our pinky gets into the gap between keys. So it is common to cheat on the A key when the teacher were not looking .

[dummytim]

I learned to touch type while playing GunZ. It was cuz if you couldn't type fast enough people would just come around and kill your character.

After that, I played a fair bit of Maplestory and touch typing came in handy when you needed to talk to people in game. So I think that games were the main place where I've learned to touch type. It's been a useful skill with writing college essays and all. So I think that the younger generation should game more!

[Tony]

Before graduating from university, I got three months with Typing Tutor 7 software. The program was very good and had two typing games to keep me occupied.

[MagicSauce]

After I got my Das Pro 4 for work I forced myself to learn and started playing typeracer all day.  Over 1500 races now...

[shibataken]

When I played my first mmo: Guild Wars.  Legit could not type to save my life so Guild wars taught me how to type lol

[Infrared]

I learned when I was 13. my speeds have gone up 40 wpm. I type like 50-60 wpm. But I game mostly so typing speed doesnt matter than much. But ya 13.

[Waateva]

I typed at a pretty average speed in middle school and high school, and didn't start realizing the need for touch typing until I started playing Diablo 2: LoD online.  I got a little better playing LoD, but what really forced me to learn was when I started playing WoW and doing instances with my friends and then my guild.  From there, I also used touch typing in a couple different MMOs including but not limited to Age of Conan, Guild Wars, and a little Runescape along with other multiplayer games like DoTA, LoL, SC1 and 2, and Diablo 3.

I feel like being forced to type while in the middle of somewhat active environments helped me immensely, as before I just really didn't care enough to bother learning it.  I also switched to an office job almost 4 years ago, so the time learned in those games has helped me a ton and allows me to sit around 75WPM on average.

[SamirD]

I'm going to attempt to get my 65+ year old parents to learn to touch type--any great (free) online tools for this?

[swimmingbird]

I'm going to attempt to get my 65+ year old parents to learn to touch type--any great (free) online tools for this?

keybr is the one I've seen with the shortest typing samples and is very straightforward to use so I would try that

[alexjd99]

It was basically me trying to impress this girl in my computer class in 6th grade who could type at like 60 WPM

I bet she would be reaaalll impressed with my 110 WPM now ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[SamirD]

I'm going to attempt to get my 65+ year old parents to learn to touch type--any great (free) online tools for this?

keybr is the one I've seen with the shortest typing samples and is very straightforward to use so I would try that

Thank you for the link.  I like that one a lot.  The biggest problem I know they're going to have is reading the letters on the screen.  Even at the largest size it may still be an issue, but I'll definitely give this a shot.

[SamirD]

It was basically me trying to impress this girl in my computer class in 6th grade who could type at like 60 WPM

I bet she would be reaaalll impressed with my 110 WPM now ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Best.  Reason.  Ever.

This is usually the reason I hear for guys getting into cars, but never before for typing.  First time for everything. 

[swimmingbird]

I'm going to attempt to get my 65+ year old parents to learn to touch type--any great (free) online tools for this?

keybr is the one I've seen with the shortest typing samples and is very straightforward to use so I would try that

Thank you for the link.  I like that one a lot.  The biggest problem I know they're going to have is reading the letters on the screen.  Even at the largest size it may still be an issue, but I'll definitely give this a shot.

You can blow it up pretty big - just whack ctrl+"+" to get it to 200% or so

[SamirD]

I'm going to attempt to get my 65+ year old parents to learn to touch type--any great (free) online tools for this?

Ah duh!  I forgot about doing that.  Thank you!

keybr is the one I've seen with the shortest typing samples and is very straightforward to use so I would try that

Thank you for the link.  I like that one a lot.  The biggest problem I know they're going to have is reading the letters on the screen.  Even at the largest size it may still be an issue, but I'll definitely give this a shot.

You can blow it up pretty big - just whack ctrl+"+" to get it to 200% or so

[Waateva]

It was basically me trying to impress this girl in my computer class in 6th grade who could type at like 60 WPM

I bet she would be reaaalll impressed with my 110 WPM now ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Chicks dig high WPM, I'm pretty sure this is a proven fact.

[SamirD]

It was basically me trying to impress this girl in my computer class in 6th grade who could type at like 60 WPM

I bet she would be reaaalll impressed with my 110 WPM now ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Chicks dig high WPM, I'm pretty sure this is a proven fact.

link?

[Waateva]

It was basically me trying to impress this girl in my computer class in 6th grade who could type at like 60 WPM

I bet she would be reaaalll impressed with my 110 WPM now ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Chicks dig high WPM, I'm pretty sure this is a proven fact.

link?

http://imgur.com/M2MlR13

[maladat]

Ah, the joys of text-based online multiplayer games, which I have been playing on and off since middle school (I'm 30 now).

I've never had a keyboard with blank keycaps, but when you're playing a text based game with a ton of text scrolling across the screen telling you about the world, and what other players are saying, and about what might be trying to kill you, your eyes are on the screen, not the keycap legends.

I've never taken a typing class, I've never had a job that was particularly typing-heavy, but I can pretty easily hit 100+ WPM on my Macbook Pro keyboard and a little higher on a mechanical.

On a good day, if I don't slow down to go back and correct the occasional mistake, I can hit 120.

I'm thinking about taking up Colemak now to see if I can push it a bit higher with a little less strain.

[trees]

Im going with the 'buy blanks and deal with it' apporach.

[yogimatt]

4th grade typing class. I was the fastest typer in my grade  I pride myself on that.

Same, but 3rd grade for me. They put these bright orange rubber covers on the keyboards so you couldn't see the legends, they felt awful to type on but they honestly helped a ton.

[SamirD]

It was basically me trying to impress this girl in my computer class in 6th grade who could type at like 60 WPM

I bet she would be reaaalll impressed with my 110 WPM now ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Chicks dig high WPM, I'm pretty sure this is a proven fact.

link?

http://imgur.com/M2MlR13

yeah, but it didn't seem like he got the girl, just proved her wrong, lol.

[Waateva]

It was basically me trying to impress this girl in my computer class in 6th grade who could type at like 60 WPM

I bet she would be reaaalll impressed with my 110 WPM now ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Chicks dig high WPM, I'm pretty sure this is a proven fact.

link?

http://imgur.com/M2MlR13

yeah, but it didn't seem like he got the girl, just proved her wrong, lol.

No, the girl proved the guy wrong about her typing speed and made fun of his "frankly mediocre 85WPM" which makes me sad, because that's around what I type at

[phosphoric]

i want to say that it was because of my basic computer class in sixth grade, but even taking that class bored me because all we did was type. there was one girl in there who sat next to me every day and would turn on caps lock to capitalize a letter and turn it off immediately afterwards, which irritated the living hell out of my little eleven year old body. funnily enough, i now use the caps lock as an fn key on my pok3r and probably use it much more often than she ever did. caps lock is rarely ever necessary now that it's been disabled on my keyboard and i don't know how i managed to live with the standard navigation cluster that required me to lift my hands from the keyboard. 

[phoible]

I learned to touch type when I was in my college and writing for my school newspaper. Up until that point, I had hunted and pecked at about 15-20 wpm, despite having tried Mavis Beacon and the like. Having to submit a lot of stories on deadline motivated me to type a lot more quickly, and I naturally stopped looking at the keys over the course of a year or so.

Then a few years ago I got a Leopold Otaku keyboard, and that got me to stop looking at even the symbols and number keys when I type (and got me up to my current speed). Now I don't look at the keys even when I'm typing on a keyboard with letters on it.

[dummytim]

Im going with the 'buy blanks and deal with it' apporach.

I knew that I could touch type before purchasing some blanks for my Poker 2. The only issue I still sort of have is inputting numbers for passwords, it takes me a while to adjust to where the number keys are being blank and all.

[Zanduby]

Middle school. Had to take a class in typing. My kids are now being taught that in 3rd grade. I'm going to get him a keyboard with some blank keys soon and see how he does with that.

[dummytim]

Middle school. Had to take a class in typing. My kids are now being taught that in 3rd grade. I'm going to get him a keyboard with some blank keys soon and see how he does with that.

Or you could buy something with legends and just mix up all of them!

[Zanduby]

Middle school. Had to take a class in typing. My kids are now being taught that in 3rd grade. I'm going to get him a keyboard with some blank keys soon and see how he does with that.

Or you could buy something with legends and just mix up all of them!

I have an old dell rubber dome they've already done that to. I should make him use that one until he knows how to type.

[dummytim]

Middle school. Had to take a class in typing. My kids are now being taught that in 3rd grade. I'm going to get him a keyboard with some blank keys soon and see how he does with that.

Or you could buy something with legends and just mix up all of them!

I have an old dell rubber dome they've already done that to. I should make him use that one until he knows how to type.

New idea! Change the layout to Dvorak

[Zanduby]

Middle school. Had to take a class in typing. My kids are now being taught that in 3rd grade. I'm going to get him a keyboard with some blank keys soon and see how he does with that.

Or you could buy something with legends and just mix up all of them!

I have an old dell rubber dome they've already done that to. I should make him use that one until he knows how to type.

New idea! Change the layout to Dvorak

Now thats a good idea. I like that one. I'll change the dip switches on my Pok3r and let him try that out.

[jcoffin1981]

In 7th grade there was a mandatory typing course.  When it was finished I was far from an expert,  but got enough practice typing essays and papers.  I type now at 60 wpm which is by no means head turning, but above average. 

[DAVYtm]

I learned to touch type over time from lots and lots of gaming. Have gotten much more accurate as I type more, around 110 WPM at 97% accuracy right now.

[maskey]

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

Oregon Trail ftw!

[BigDov]

In highschool, on a typewriter.... close to 30 years ago now  :/  Had a programming class as well, but that was a lot less typing and way more reading and experimenting.