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Sites or Software for a Budding Typist?
less touch, more typing asks: "Over the years I have worked with a number of IT professionals and software developers. Many of them have had excellent typing skills. Others, like me, have not. While I type passably with my own roguish style of finding the right keys, I would like to teach myself to type correctly. Too many syntax errors over the years are do to my lack of this basic skill. What software or web site would you recommend to learn to type? Is there something free or inexpensive that can turn someone with a lot of bad typing habits into a typing guru?"
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
Get The Typing of The Dead. It's like The House of The Dead. But instead of a lightgun, you have to write words to kill zombies...
In my experience, the best way to improve your typing skills is to just practice everday typing. Whether it's posting on a messageboard, IMing (except using abbreviations and shortcuts defeats the purpose), or keeping a diary/journal on your computer just for the sake of practicing typing, the act of typing becomes more and more natural as time goes on.
Programs like Mavis Beacon can be helpful, but once you've spent enough time in front of a keyboard, it becomes second nature to know where the keys are, regardless of whether you use proper style or not. It's a cliche, but in this case, practice makes perfect.
LOL - I must have a touch of dyslexia, because I thought at first you were a typing Buddhist... :-)
Actually, the typing tutors that are available are hit and miss. One that I find works for the non-typist is Popcap Games's Typing Shark You'll keep at it because it's actually fun to practice.
Find a game that requires typing. I learned how to type by plaing a game that was kind of like Space Invaders but where letters came down instead of aliens. You had to type the letter. They had easy (only home row), medium (all letters), hard (all keys) and expert (all keys with shift too). After you can beat expert, you're a great typist.
Sadly, I can't remember the name of the game, as it was about 2 decades ago that I played it.
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Im convinced that kids can type now due almost entirely to AIM and MSN. If you ever need someone to type "LOL!1" at 3000wpm, get a 13 year old.
Brain(s): 0.0% user, 1.3% system, 0.1% nice, 98.6% idle
I've been typing away at a keyboard since I was 7 years old and, as I discovered in Highschool, I type extremely fast. In grade 9, we had to take "typing class," and I finished the entire semester's work in two periods. People would literally crowd around me to watch me type.
:D
Thing is, I don't type "correctly" and I'm sure many fast typists would agree that typing correctly isn't necessarily the best way to type.
I don't make many typo's (unless I've spent 12 hours straight coding and start doubting the correct spelling of words) and found that I can out-type any "correct" typist.
Here's what I suggest to improve your typing speed and accuracy: Find out what your problem is.
Do your fingers not align properly?
That means you have to rework your typing style. "Correct" typing is a good solution for this, as it presents which fingers "should" be hitting which keys. But you should eventually work out your own style to suit the shape of your hands and fingers.
Do you find yourself looking for specific keys?
That means you need to get more familiar with the keyboard, which means more practice. My hands are so comfortable with the keyboard, that I can recite the keys with my eyes closed just by imagining where my fingers would go for a particular letter.
Are you just slow?
This could mean lack of confidence, which implies practice. Or it could mean that you have poor coordination or reflex. Musical instruments are great for improving your finger coordination and strength (piano did it for me, but most instruments that involve your fingers would be fine).
Good luck!
- shazow
"Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor" worked well for me for learning Dvorak (they do Querty too). Honesty, give Dvorak a chance if you do a lot of typing. It's a lot easier on your hands, and reduces the risk of RSI. Also, learning Dvorak on a Querty keyboard really encourages touch (no peeking) typing. The Mac makes Dvorak easier with a Querty-when-the -Command-is-pressed keyboard, so all of the copy, paste shortcuts are in their original one-handed spots. I have to use a lot of other keyboards at work (sys/net admin) that are Querty, but it's an easy enough trade off to have to watch my fingers for fast Querty typing when I need to. (15% of my typing time).
Everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts.
>Too many syntax
"Syntax" is a noun, but you are using it to modify another noun, so the adjective "syntactical" would be better.
>errors over the years are
Since you are describing an action that occurred habitually in the past, "have been" should replace "are."
>do to my lack of this basic skill.
This should read "due to my lack."
You can buy all the software you want but it will all boil down to practice, practice, and practice. I would just get a good, cheap book on typing from your local library, memorize the skills, and then practice it often.
It's sad but today's education de-emphasizes practice and memorization and over-emphasizes deduction and reasoning. There is a place for both. Once you deduce some information, it's time to memorize or practice it until it is second nature.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
When I was 23, I had taught myself to type at around 400 cpm (I think that's 80 wpm), indeed, just by practicing. (OK, I confess, at some point I played with a DOS-based typing tutor to practice the independent movement of the fingers). Then I made the step to Slackware Linux with kernel 1.2 and discovered that I could edit my undergrad thesis in LaTeX, do calculations, and create plots, thanks to multitasking.
Three weeks later the thesis was finished and I was suffering from an unpleasant RSI because I had taught myself a few bad habits regarding hand posture. I basically had pain in my hands during any keyboard activity during the next 6 months. (I think I couldn't type at all during the first month). That was when I taught myself about Dvorak keyboards, chairs with armrests, and wrist supports. The RSI (or whatever you call it) still haunts me every now and then when I type too much LaTeX or Perl (why is the damn backslash not in the middle of the keyboard?), but I know how to recognize the signals these days.
Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
Make it a point to write out proper full sentences. For example, say you're IMing someone, instead of typing: "wassup" or "hi" type: "What's up?" or "Hi." so that you're always used to using proper sentence structure and then whenever you're typing away at a report or an email, your writing is a lot more pleasant to read. To stick to the question, I suggest that if it's too difficult to change your habits, you should at least put your fingers on these keys: asdf;lkj where the f and the j are your index fingers, your thumbs are on your space bar, and L-ctrl is sort of with the palm of your hand right below the pinky (for quick access).
I'm afraid that to fix my typing, I need some aversion therapy. *looks down at keyboard* ZZZZZT!! Augh!
You have too much time on your hands.
You could be in need of a semi-taxing job.
You could be in need of social intercourse.
Do you have friends who have, perhaps, commented on your nitpicking habits? You could see somebody about this... I hear that there have been all sorts of interesting methods of therapy developed in recent years.
How about writing a book? I think a suitable title might go along the lines of: "Why the world needs grammatical nitpickers - agree or die!"
Funny - this nitpicking thing DOES seem to have therapeutic qualities. I feel better now - thanks!
---- I was woken up this morning by a face full of fur. Damn cat thought my head made a good pillow.
Give Midgaard my best.
Speak truth to power.
... but you could try typera.tk. It is not a typing tutor, rather a typing tester, but I found it very exciting. And the texts are very, very, very funny. I sometimes cannot type because I can't stop laughing.
You can defy gravity... for a short time
If you're typing out full words while coding then you're doing something wrong. Any modern IDE has the ability to do code completion. Its just like using tab-complete in a bash shell. Type a letter, then ctrl+space or whatever your IDE uses and it will either provide a list of options or autocomplete your word if there is only one option. Additionally, most IDE's will close braces, paranthesis and do other nice things for you. You can make code templates so a ctrl+j inserts a for loop for you. Once these things become second nature to you your productivity will soar. Code smarter, not typing faster!
mp3's are only for those with bad memories
He clearly admitted to sucking at typing. :)
Perhaps his errors were intentional.
Best regards, A.C.
Just log in to 35 active IRC channels simultaneously and start chatting on each one... after a week of that, if you can't type, give up.
See the Pictures of the Flood of '08
Go to Wal-Mart and grab the $9.99 knockoff of Mavis. That will teach you which fingers type which keys. After that, download any instant messaging program and talk to (at minimum) 3 people at a time. Once you can keep up with these conversations, you'll get a lot faster. Someone suggested somewhere up there that it's also important to always type correctly. I tend to do this, even in IM windows. Also, focus on frequently used words. It's rare that I type "teh" in anything anymore because I've developed a pattern that is comfortable for me and is accurate.
Windows isn't the answer... it's the question. NO is the answer!
I have been typing for some 22 years, nearly every day since I was 10 years old. Usually 10-16 hours every day, 7 days a week (yes, even as a teenager). I use the "rogue" style. I have no idea how fast I type, but it's pretty fast.
I have never, ever, not once had any inkling of a repetitive stress injury. Now that's a crapload of typing to never have any problems. I chalk it up to using the rogue typing style which causes my hands and fingers to move around into different and sometimes bizarre positions (eg. I often don't hit the same keys with the same fingers).
and I don't think it's due to superior genes or somesuch because I also do 3D work and if I use the mouse for more than a couple hours at a time over the course of a couple of days then my tendons and hand will start to hurt like a sonuvabitch (I switch hands, don't use the mouse so much, and wait for it to heal when this happens).
The ratio of people to cake is too big
I'm trying to achieve enlightenment, but I can't seem to get my WPMs up there. Is there any software or bodhisattvas that I can get that will help me out with this?
How about getting a book and re-typing it, then punishing yourself for mistakes.
.5 % error rate.
Perhaps a hot ember on the back of your hand if you have more then a
If you surpass 1%, you might as well just off yourself, as you are too stupid to stay here with the rest of us and simply wasting MY air.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Golly, is that how they reproduce?
Software for a Tyding Buddist
http://www.tenthumbstypingtutor.com/
Well, this is certainly a quandry you have here. Back when I was trying to break the AOLer speak habit I binded my hands with copper wire and used a Microsoft Comic Chat hack to deliver a strong electric shock to my hands whenever I made a typo.
I was also wearing a chastity belt at that time but it was unrelated to my typing problem.
Lots of love,
Paul McCartney
I personally use Dvorak, and my typing speed has increased a lot in a very short amount of time. A good typing tutorial for Dvorak is: http://www.gigliwood.com/abcd/abcd.html it is very simple but effective. I have a friend who can type 165 wpm, and he just did Mavis Beacon for 3 years straight as a kid for 2 hours a day. I switched to Dvorak so that I wouldn't get some stress disorder when I got older, and if you have the time I'd recommend the switch. While it may or may not improve speed (mine improved) it does prevent injury when typing.
"Man, I am so unbelievably stupid."
No substitute for practice. The typing tutor softwares just present novel forms of practice. If you really want to get better, just hop on #debian or #gentoo on FreeNode and start answering questions. At 800+ users, the flow of text within the channel tends to be about a screen's full of independent conversations. Or you could just bittorrent mario teaches typing, but it throws so much useless punctuation that you'll never use in real conversations ;).
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Open Source Sysadmin
``Too many syntax errors over the years are do to my lack of this basic skill.''
"Do to"? Are you sure the issue isn't spelling skills?
8^)
[I can spell, but can't type worth beans; the twi are not always distinguishable.]
"Twi". Speaking of irony... Let's try "two".
Print a small picture of the keyboard layout of your choice and tape it above your monitor. Never look down at the key board.
I learned to type with the Dvorak layout this way but not looking at the keyboard was what took me the farthest.
"Are you just slow?
This could mean lack of confidence, which implies practice. Or it could mean that you have poor coordination or reflex. Musical instruments are great for improving your finger coordination and strength (piano did it for me, but most instruments that involve your fingers would be fine)."
Or you do lots of word transposition. Which means you have a disease.
I need more sleep, I thought that the thread was about Buddhist typists ...
This is what I've installed for my mother for her to work on her typing and it has help a bunch. It's ncurses based and there are also binaries available for different OSs.
http://www.gnu.org/software/gtypist/gtypist.htmlTypespeed might be what you are looking for.
it was highschool when I first started getting into computers, having never been at a keyboard before, I took a typing class. I remember that, when I started the class, I was typing about 2wpm. We used some sort of typing software, I can't remember the name of it at the moment. Anyway, at the end of the semester, I could type about 12wpm. Sure it was an improvement, but it was still horribly slow.
The semester after that, I started a programming class, I also got a computer at home. At the time, since we started out writing pretty simple programs (hello world, etc) my coding speed was really limited by my typing speed. I found that when I used my own typing style, I could type about twice as fast as if I typed properly, however, I decided to force myself to type properly anyway. Amazingly, pretty soon, I found that I could actually type around 60wpm.
Now, after a lot of experience coding, using IRC, and playing games online, I find that I can type about 110wpm with almost perfect accuracy. I still type almost properly, the only major thing that I do as opposed to a lot of the typests I've seen is that I have a tendency to move my entire hand instead of simply just moving my fingers.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
My kids learned from Disney's Adventures in Typing with Timon & Pumbaa. Taught the correct hand positions and all, but made it fun too.
Looks like it's out of print now, but available at Amazon from their used & new section.
My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
get a 'typing 101 drills' course book. yeah, its low-tech. yes, it still works. it'll be the one thats filled with lines and lines of words like this:
look like free word wood bring
same save share state wear &etc.
i type 120wpm. i wouldn't be this way if i hadn't drilled, drilled, drilled. all i can say is: drill, drill, drill.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
I love this program. http://typefaster.sourceforge.net/
Simple, clean, big, clear, and easy to use.
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"you just misspelled qwerty... sad because that is probably the easiest word to type on a keyboard
"
Not if he was typing it with a dvorak layout. I have a friend who referred to it as the Kevorkian layout.
"Correct" typing style will give you carpal tunnel and slow you down if you try to do any coding. I have absolutely no evidence or sources to back this up though. Typing speed is such a small part of the software development process.
I attribute my lack of any wrist problems to never having learned to type "correctly" .. I can manage a very respectable speed, even with my poison of choice {} mixed in.
:(
Interestingly enough I honestly have no idea where or what keys are where. I don't even think about it anymore. Do you think about how you speak? I've been using a keyboard since I was 9, maybe even sooner than that - it's almost an extension of my arms. Fingers go to the keyboard and words appear. What's interesting is that I seem to relocate my hands left or right of the home keys to increase speed.. but thinking about it too much messes me all up.
All I ask is good tactile feedback. My SO has long sense banished my IBM monster.
..don't panic
Are your grammar mistakes also do to your lack of typing skills? Otherwise, an easy solution is to unplug the mouse for a week, and use only keyboard shortcuts, or play games (with the mouse) where there are many combinations to be had. FPS will only teach you a few around the left side of your keyboard, so read through the manuals for keyboard shortcuts to the most common functions, and even the not so common. It'll make you aware of the key layout. Or also try to type in the dark, so you have to guess where the keys are, that's mostly how I did it, but not to learn myself how to type, so I wouldn't keep my roommate awake.
---- I am certain of only one thing : I know nothing else.
My Mum learned to type for her first job as a secretary on a typewriter with blank keys. Sure helped her with touch-typing. She soon got used to not looking at the keyboard and remembering where the keys are.
b3 4phr41d 0f my 4bov3-4v3r4g3 c0mpu73r kn0wI3dg3!
MadDwarf
I always get confused when people say their typing is slowing down their programming. I spend about 95% of my programming time thinking. Typing is just the final part of the job.
Too many syntax errors over the years are do to my lack of this basic skill
Umm, sintax shure isent youre ownley problam bud.
Start playing online interactive MUDs or some such. Play those for about 3 hours aday and soon you will be typing faster then you could have dreamed.. (Its all about familiarity)
Kingdom Of Loathing (not an advert) even has a literacy test before you are allowed in to the chat.
Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) Addicted is me
What are the options? I've never found a linux typing program that teaches accented letters.
Start playing on a MUD. It's how I learned. Sure it doesn't give feedback like a typing program, but I think it works just as well. It is more the neural network approach: you know your character dying is bad, and you know typing faster can help save him. After many hours of mudding and letting your real life fall by the wayside you will emerge an excellent typist.
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I haven't gone through the learn2type.org tutorials in their entirety, but I have taken a look at them to get an idea of the correct hand positions. I picked up touch typing through frequent computer use. My speed isn't all that impressive -- it ranges from 60 to 80 wpm depending on the day and the exercise. I find that I type faster when I'm typing something I've composed myself in my head rather than when retyping something that has already been written out on paper or onscreen.