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Correcting Poor Typing Technique?
An anonymous reader writes "When beginning to use keyboards I did not pay much attention to touch typing technique. Instead, I eventually achieved decent rates by simply doing what felt natural to me. These days my qwerty typing speed is in the range of 90-110 WPM, probably more toward the lower end. While this isn't too shabby, I feel some awkwardness in my technique (such as not using my little and ring fingers when I really should). Has anyone been in a similar situation, wanted to fix it, and actually done so? What do you reckon is the best way to fix half-broken typing? Touch training sessions? Should I switch to Dvorak and pretty much learn typing from scratch, but properly this time?"
Is this a medical concern, or are you trying to improve speed?
If you work in a data entry job, I guess it makes sense, but if you're actually spewing out so much code or documentation that typing speed is becoming an issue.. you're either a mad genius or producing some very poor quality code!
I honestly think when it comes to most non-data entry jobs.. quality is generally better than quantity. A few slowly typed but well thought out lines are always going to be better than a page of garbage.
Switch to dvorak, then go back to qwerty. If its still not fast enough, go to azerty and then back to qwerty.
Eventually you'll hit a wall with your non-standard typing, and have to switch. Or start with proper typing, and work your way back up to speed that way.
Should I switch to Dvorak
No. Even if you gain speed on your keyboard, the ability not to suck on other people's laptops is totally worth the 20 WPM decrement or whatever.
I went the Dvorak route. I never bothered switching keyboards or keycaps, so I learnt to touchtype blind. It took me about two weeks of casual use to get up to the speed of my QWERTY keyboarding skills and I improved much beyond that. I do about 80 WPM now. I also didn't forget QWERTY. I can still type QWERTY as well as I ever did, at a sufficient but painful 30 wpm.
My opinion: if you can achieve over 80 wpm with your version of hunt and peck, you're not making many errors, and you don't need to look at the keyboard to keep up with live (typed) chat conversations, then that's really all you need. Higher speeds is just going to stress the tendons. If you are truly held back in pouring your ideas into the computer at this speed, then you should have employees.
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I'm personally fine with my awkward typing technique. I say if you've reached speeds that you're happy with and your typing method is not causing you any issues such as tendinitis, why change? I've never understood the obsession with you must do it "the right way."
But, this is my advice and it's worth what you paid for it.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
As someone who uses dvorak, it's a great deterrent to people who frequently need to borrow other keyboards for a moment...
Not to mention the amusement of watching them type something, look confused, repeat a few times before they say something.
In terms of speed, I don't know about that, but dvorak does leave me a bit more comfy as I leave the home row less.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I messed up my poor type using M$ auto-correct. Things that are left and right, my timing is all off, and it has never corrected itself. I think it is one of the worst features I have ever came across. I feel handicapped now. I think if you type fast enough that is great, but if there is something that is slowing you down, try to fix it.
If you believe the marketing folks, touch typing has never been less important now, than in the entire history of computing.
Everything is going to touch screen non-tactile smartphones, tablets, etc. Touch typing doesn't help much on ipods/iphones.
The idea of typing anything other than "english prose" using a keyboard is dead. All "commands" are given via mice and menus/ribbons. The concept of a "command line" is dead to 99% of the population.
Even worse, "leet txt sms speak" is the wave of the future. If it doesn't fit in 160 characters or whatever it is, then it is literally unthinkable.
Also the tools are dying. I can type pretty well on a clicky Model-M keyboard. Not so well on a mushboard.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
90-110 words per minute is typing really fast. The standard length of a word is five letters and if you measured with that word length you really have nothing to worry about. I couldn't imagine anyone writing faster than that.
I type perfect touch type style. At my best, I do about 90-120 WPM, same as you. I know I'm quite a rapid typist, almost able to keep up with natural-rate speech. If you are matching me, what are you really trying to achieve?
It's pretty obvious that whatever the metric, you are well within the realm of where other factors are far more likely to make a difference than typing speed. Of course, if you want to "touch type" like other "trained" folks, do like anybody else, and force yourself to actually do it.
I recommend any of the many touch-typing software packages out there. You don't even have to pay much, 30 seconds of GIS brought this up and it seems quite serviceable!
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Running firefox under gnome there are many key combinations which do bizarre things like minimising the window, opening bookmarks, etc. If I don't get every keystroke right typing a comment on /. is nearly impossible.
There is one which I get sometimes at work where I run FVWM. It maximises firefox so it fills the screen, removes window decorations and raises it above all other applications. It happens at least once a weak from wild typing. As a result I am slowly improving my typing.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Don't bother with Dvorak. The studies that showed Dvorak to be superior were methodologically suspect, and the reams of anecdotal evidence that Dvorak is superior is largely due to confirmation bias--the people who consciously switched improved largely because they were switching consciously (and trying to improve), and the people who don't see an improvement rarely brag about that.
Instead, a touch-typing program or other class will probably benefit you. A lot of the myths about qwerty keyboards are bogus, and you should see an improvement in your speed because you're spreading the typing load across more fingers and having to move your hands and forearms less than a fast, blind hunt and peck. A little practice on activating your pinkies will probably dovetail nicely with your existing skills, so the improvement will be quick.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
I type fast and am accurate. I look crazy when I type in my strange pecking way but it works and it takes the stress off my wrists that 'correct' typing would cause. Stick to what you're doing and screw what other people think.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
I switched to Dvorak because of wrist pain about 6 or 7 years ago. I too was a touch typist, and didn't use homerow at all, etc... With Dvorak though I did it properly and now use homerow on Dvorak. It wasn't an easy switch, I wasn't working or in school at the time, so it was easy for me to afford the slowdown it took and used an old version of Mavis Beacon to do it. You need some time to use only Dvorak before you go back and forth between the layouts. Before I switched to Dvorak I was at about 90 WPM and it took me about a month to get up to 60 WPM in Dvorak. Later I got the same speed but never ever went past my QWERTY speed. I can still type QWERTY at a fast speed, but it's hard because sometimes the brain switches.
Go voice, you won't regret it. Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all.
I was in this situation many many years ago in that I hadn't learnt to type properly and just did what came natural even though it was fast.
I decided I wanted to type properly anyway though, and just spent a few hours on Mavis Beacon's typing tutor app to get an idea of what the right keys are. After that I just made a concious effort each type I sat down at the keyboard to put my fingers on the correct initial keys. It really just came naturally after that- it wasn't a big deal, again, just a few hours with a typing app was enough to let me figure out how it was supposed to be done.
Switching to Dvorak worked for me. As a life-long Qwerty hunter and pecker, teaching myself to touch-type on Qwerty was too difficult.
Of course, by doing so you will freak-out other people who try to use your keyboard, but I actually enjoy that. Plus, it's easy to switch back and forth.
Whatever you do, avoid discussing whether or not Dvorak or Qwerty is superior to the other. Dead-end conversation. http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/18/210216
Some years ago, I read a study by a woman who looked at the technique of several great pianists (eh, one keyboard's the same as another). She found there were some few things that they all played the exact same way. Her conclusion was that for these few things, they played the same way because there was only one way for the human hand to possibly do it. For the other things, their technique varied drastically. There was no uniformity at all in styles. Her conclusion was that if it works, it is correct.
Thus in your case I suggest that if you feel your fingering method for typing is slowing you down, then try to figure out what exactly is slowing you down and see if you can speed it up. That will be easier than trying to use some arbitrary rules that may or may not make a difference.
This is especially true when we are talking about arbitrary rules taught to beginners, where the teachers are often not experts, and the rules are often formulated to make it easier for beginners to learn, not to make you as fast as possible. Going back to the piano example, beginners are often taught to play with their wrists held high, fingers curved, playing on the finger tips. This is decent advice, but sometimes it's faster and more precise to play with your fingers straight and flat (Horowitz did this on fast black-note passages sometimes).
Actually I can give a ton of examples where the 'rules' weren't necessarily the best, and the people became the greatest in their field by breaking those rules (appropriately), but I'll leave it at, "if it works for you, use it."
Qxe4
Whether Dvorak is superior in terms of speed or number of errors may be a toss-up, but as someone who first did hunt-and-peck, then learned to touch-type QWERTY, then relearned to touch-type Dvorak, my experience is that Dvorak is definitely more comfortable than QWERTY.
Besides, feelings of smug superiority can't be properly quantified in those studies.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
Um... If you want to learn to type a certain way then practice it. Software can help you focus your practice, and make you consciously correct your finger placement etc, but you can do all this without software. Just take the time, put in the concentration, and practice.
Or just stay happy with how it's working for you.
Use Dvorak, and take typing lessons.
If that doesn't work, try voice recognition.
Deleted
I'm always amazed by people around here that claim to type in the 80-120 wpm range and I have to wonder, how were you all tested? Have any of you actually taken professionally administered typing tests? Or are these guesses or scores from those crappy online typing tests (which are very much like online IQ tests -- "Your IQ is 185!!!!!"). I ask because I've worked with people who claim to type ~90-100 wpm before, but in reality it's usually closer to 50-60.
These days my qwerty typing speed is in the range of 90-110 WPM
Hunt and peck maxes out at about 40WPM, with burst speeds of up to 70WPM. I doubt this is a sustained typing speed. And there is no indication of error rates.
Yet another fluff piece by kdawson without a shred of credibility. For all we know, he made this up to fill in for a slow news day.
School
Teacher: Here's a typing test.
Me: OK. (Types.)
Teacher: Your technique is absolutely horrible, you'll never be able to progress like that. If you're going to take typing you'll have to start in the beginner class and relearn from scratch.
Me: No, thanks.
Clerical job interview
Interviewer: Here's a typing test.
Me: OK. (Types.)
Interviewer: 90 WPM, only one error. You pass.
Technical job interview
Interviewer: You've been using computers since the Commodore 64 days and remember DOS. Yeah, we're not going to bother with a typing test. I'm sure you're fine.
My uncle was a journalist who typed with two fingers his entire career. His editor didn't care if he typed them by slamming his face on the keys, as long as the reports were on time and well-written.
So, unless you need to do something for ergonomic reasons or just a mad fit of self-improvement, probably not worth it. Your ring finger will get over the neglect.:)
I second what someone said earlier. If you can get 80 WPM without looking at the keyboard and without making mistakes, then that's spectacular. I took two years of "Word Processing" in high school back in the WordPerfect 5.1 days and 80 WPM is what the teacher could do. I reached that magic point and couldn't really go beyond it. If you're worried about developed carpal tunnel, there isn't much you can do with respect to technique. My advice would be to check out speech recognition. If you're worried about style, hitting the "Y" key with your right hand instead of your left, just do what's most comfortable for you. I've seen some of these stenographers (the court room typists) and they can pull 120 WPM using shorthand. When I moved to a non-English-speaking country, learned the language and had to start typing in it, that was a serious challenge. Keyboards here are QWERTY, but the special vowels are found where the ; ' [ keys are and punctuation is all over the place. It did come after a while, though, and now I'm about as fast in it as I am in English. Nothing like learning a new language and having to type in it to keep your typing skills sharp! Someone else mentioned going to Dworvak and to AZERTY. That's just a bad idea. I spent some time in Belgium and the AZERTY keyboard drove me nuts. It got so annoying, I ended up starting all my emails with: "Hello, just so you know, I'm in Belgium and they use some whacked keyboards here..." and I proceeded to type as I would on a QWERTY keyboard.
Typing program that will shock you whenever you typo a word.
Bonus points if you wear glasses to prevent you from looking at the keyboard, and monitors on each finger to detect what finger presses what key.
If you stray away from the true path of typing, BBZZZZTT.
I cannot understand how people working at the keyboard will not invest a week of their time to learn how to actually use it. Get gtypist.
Several years ago I misused my hands to the point that it was painful to type for any period of time. I switched to dvorak to ease things on me. And although it was a relief, it was mostly due to slowing down and being careful in my movements. It became specially a problem when having to move back to someone else's computer to help. So dvorak helped a bit but it was clear there were other issues.
So still with my problem, I spent time researching and found the very good Cornell Ergonomics site http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/
The two biggest problems I had were my pinky and thumb hurting from trying to use them. In the end, instead of stretching them out like some typists recommend (they seem to forget that stressing weak muscles regularly can cause issues), I adjusted and moved my arm (big strong mucles there) with my hand so my finger would hit the key, avoided twisting my wrist, or used another finger while those two fingers recuperated. Checked my posture frequently and looked at hand strengthening exercises.
This book was actually also a great resource: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1572240393/qid=1055745052/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-9180898-5704857?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
I know this is probably no quite what you asked but if you feel awkward about your typing technique it's definitely worth identifying potential problems and solving them before they become a bigger problem.
In any case if you are at the point of discomfort you should definitely see a doctor.
Also slow down, there's rarely any reason to type so fast that you strain your hands to the point of discomfort/pain/awkwardness. And listen to your body, with the need for deadlines, busy life, etc, we often ignore the little signs of warnings of "don't keep doing that". If you can learn to listen to the signs early you can make adjustments sooner.
.... ... }
int main (void) {
If so, don't bother. That's what makes the huge difference between touch typing and hunt-n-peck typists. With touch typing all your fingers tend to be on the keyboard and you get a feel for where you are while I see most others do write/look/write/look/write/look, it's quite easy to see if you pay attention to their eyes. By keeping your eyes on the paragraph or block of code/query/whatever, you get a lot more mental focus on what you're doing than the mechanics of typing it. I do know the feel of what you're saying though, sometimes the big picture just "snaps" and you've suddenly got more to write than your fingers will keep up with but just get down the few critical ideas/revelations and really there is no such huge hurry in fleshing it out. Normally you then have to think a little more if you're doing it the right way anyway.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I taught myself how to type. The biggest thing that helped me was getting one of those natural keyboards with the hump in the middle. I got one at one of my early jobs because I was afraid of having carpal tunnel issues--and when I first started using it my hands would actually collide in mid air because my fingers were all over the place. I quickly adapted to keeping my hands on their respective sides, and eventually dumped the natural keyboard and my typing is better for it. I type about 100-120 wpm.
After acquiring a consistent twitch in right-hand index finger after 3 years of 9-5 on a normal keyboard, I switched to a Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard, the one where the halves are separated and it looks wavy. Twitch went away and hasn't come back.
It forces some of your fingers to do the work they should because of distance. You try to do it your old way but realize that learning the new way will help you in the end.
It is an absolute pain to get used to an ergonomic but after a few months I'm used to it and it feels quite natural. I also switch between ergo at work and regular at home and now I'm proficient at both.
And as for Logitech, where's your ergo keyboard? I couldn't find one in stores! I always prefer logitech keyboards but I can't fault microsoft for their keyboards, either.
Selah.ca. Pause, and calmly think on that.
The "correct" techniques were developed for keyboards which were basically like this:
Old manual typewriter
Note the huge vertical spacing between the rows. Note the long travel of the keys, and consider the need to strike them consistently (or typing quality suffered). Consider the amount of force it took to strike a key. Is your computer keyboard much like that? I suspect not. So while there may be good techniques for computer keyboards, they're unlikely to be similar to the tried and true "correct" techniques a typing instructor will torture you with. If you're at 110wpm, you're fine for anything but a speed typing contest. Even allowing for some degree of bragging.
I was in exactly this situation about three years ago. I switched to Dvorak. While I remain unconvinced that Dvorak is actually better in general (for starting typists), the change forced me type properly. Now, I don't know if this is better on my wrists, or if I'm actually faster now, but I can tell you for sure that having proper technique has improved my accuracy when typing without looking for long periods of time. I'd encourage you to go for it.
I had the same problem, and I needed to fix it. I was a transcriptionist and got paid per page, so my typing speed directly impacted my pay. Typing properly will make you type faster, so I learned. You should use xletters. It's what I did. Just play the game for 15 minutes a day and do not allow yourself to use the wrong fingers to type. Done.
-knewter
>>Is this a medical concern, or are you trying to improve speed?
I hope its not a medical concern. Touch typing causes carpal tunnel, it doesn't cure it.
I am like the OP - I used to be a hunt and pecker (now I type by touch) and get around 90WPM on a couple online tests (give or take, the online tests vary a bit). I only use my index and ring fingers to type (thumb for the space bar) and so I end up using bigger muscles to type and don't overextend any of my small tendons to type. I once tried to teach myself touch typing, saw immediately how it would fuck up my tendons, and never went back.
Biomechanically speaking, it's not good to overextend a finger (like for an O) over and over. Much better to move the hand instead and keep the fingers in a power position.
Besides, 90WPM is plenty fast. That's faster than almost everybody, so I don't know what the OP is complaining about.
Article tag: goodenough
Not looking at the keyboard is essential. You need to be able to read and correct your typing as you go. Aside from that, I agree with the others that getting another 10wpm matters not.
If you only ever used one keyboard, switching to Dvorak would make sense. These days that's just impossible, even if you're not a computer tech professional.
If you can score a copy. I hear it's big in Japan... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Typing_of_the_Dead
Can you construct some sort of rudimentary lathe?
talking is faster then typeing.
I recommend the Saw film franchise. I'm sure many of Jigsaw's games could, with a little creativity, be adapted to typing skills!
I am the penguin that codes in the night.
90-110 WPM is faster than 95% of the typing-literate population. Unless you're having carpal tunnel issues, in which case you shouldn't just be changing to 'proper' typing style, but rather you should be switching to more ergonomically correct methods and equipment.
I might be mistaken, but all the people I know who don't touch type need to look at the keyboard while typing. Most people I've met don't touch-type. As said by many posters, it might not be that important after all.
I had been programming for five years when I decided to learn to touch type. I spend less time typing now, because I type faster, and because I never have to look at the keyboard. All other arguments taken into consideration, this one still stands. If you actually have to type often enough, just take the time and learn it. It will mean breaking habits and investing time. There is a lot of software to help you do that, just google it.
I think it's interesting how we use standards developed so very long ago, when the negative ramifications of various design decisions on modern technology could never have been predicted during the design process. QWERTY might stand up against Dvorak with a physical keyboard, but it has some significant problems on compact QWERTY (IE the Blackberry Pearl) and touch screen devices.
One of the biggest issues with QWERTY is that the vowels U, I and O are all consecutive in a row. Consider typing the word "HIT". If either letter to the left or right of "I" is hit accidentally then it still results in valid words: "HUT" and "HOT". That is the case in many other instances as well. Both compact QWERTY and touchscreen devices have to make guesses as to what words the user has typed, and they make a lot of mistakes purely because of the layout of the QWERTY keyboard. An optimum layout would prevent commonly interchangeable letters from residing next to one another, particularly the vowels.
I doubt that is something considered in the Dvorak layout either. In fact, the Dvorak placement of the most common letters in a single row (the home row) could exacerbate the problem.
Better known as 318230.
i switched to dvorak around 1999. i haven't looked back. it is just so far superior to qwerty, in terms of comfort, that i couldn't imagine it any other way.
Sure maybe you can jam 100WPM if you're picking the content, but really? I mean on one of the reputable typing tutors that does things like make you use the whole keyboard, all the punctuation and type things like "The forge of the marigolds: Lo! Eleven, thirty-comes early| 35# of sheeps-head costs $87 despite your 11% discount."
Probably I'm just old, despite being a long time geek I learned to type simply because it was an easy class to take in high school. (I already knew how, because my handwriting is awful, so I took lessons young) On the one most of you didn't have to learn to hammer hard enough for a big old Royal manual, on the other hand most of you never knew the pure joy that was the action on the IBM selectric. Seriously, we need those for computers, I'll pay a couple of hundred dollars I don't care, that would be amazing.
When you quote your wpm you are quoting your speed at copying text printed on a page. I can type at about 50 if I think of what I am typing as words and 80 if I don't (just tested it), so I can probably only think around 50 wpm, adding in creating the text while they type, I think 30 wpm is reasonable. BTW, I thought I typed at 30 wpm, and when I was typing, it sounded very slow to me (with many pauses, and backspaces to correct mistakes), so you might want to check what 60 wpm sounds like again.
I would actually recommend slowing down and using far fewer fingers.
A number of computer professional focused RSI books I have read suggest that reducing speed and moving whole hands rather than fingers is far better for your body in the long run.
Then anything you do will slow you down, at least at first. I'm a 2-3 finger typist and I can get to 60. That's respectable and really quite fast enough for me and I cannot imagine wasting any learning time learning to be slower so I can eventually become faster. It's just not worth it. In my experience seeing people switching from a typewriter to a word procerssor, most people get a 50% speed increase. Of course these days, most people typing on keyboards have never typed on a typewriter, so the point may be moot. If you see it as a game or a sport, none of this applies.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
I am also looking to improve my speed, however I am typing at the rather unimpressive 40wpm, if i really try hard I can get to maybe 55. Is typing faster just a case of conciously trying to put words out faster, or will correcting my technique help? I currently only use my right hand shift and only my left hand on the space bar, and I rarely, if ever, use my right hand's pinky finger. Speeds like the mentioned 110 wpm seem unattainable to me.
At those speeds perhaps you've discovered a better method.
Loose lips lose spit.
I don't believe it. Here's an research paper to type up. Let's see how fast you can type this. And when you're done with that one. My buddies here also are incredulous about your speed. You might have to prove to them too. :P
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I don't see any reason to touch type, I hunt and peck fast enough.
Honestly, I do touch-type. Had to learn it in school. But it leads to me often typing faster than thinking, quite frankly not the best thing there is.
Seriously, though. What is there to gain from faster typing speeds? I'd agree that you should speed up if we're talking 10-20wpm. 100 wpm average is quite ok for almost all applications I could possibly think of.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I was once a very good touch typist but over the years I found that I had gotten sloppy. The only way to really get myself back into typing trim was to discipline myself to use the right finger for the right key and I found I had to start with the enter key, of all things. I had to reteach myself not to move my entire hand over to it so that I could use my index finger to hit it. Instead I can shift it ever so slightly and hit it with my pinky. You don't need to wail on todays keyboards at all.
This is my sig.
If you're a programmer (or in any other technical job) the limiting rate to how fast you get stuff from your brain onto a disk is the speed it takes to think of it, do some sort of sanity check, syntax check and keep a running tally of what you think the code will actually do. This is MUCH slower than 90 WPM, probably more like 5 or 10 - depending on how long you make your variable names (and whether you artifically slow yourself down my shiFting ot capiTals for nO veRy gOod reaSon).
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
I really don't get the problem. What is it that you want to achieve? Do you want to enter a typing competition or do you seek a career in live subtexting?
You have a really fast typing speed as it is now. Hey, 90 wpm ought to be enough for anybody. I see only two reasons why you should try to change your technique:
1) You experience pain while typing and want a more ergonomically correct positioning of your fingers.
2) You have an unusual job where it's really important that you type extremely fast.
If neither of these apply to you, you have nothing to worry about. Do something more worthwile with your time than trying to fix something that isn't broken.
As a musician, I confront this problem regularly: each music piece has its own fingering challenges. To play the piece, you must choose a fingering. Until you rehearse that fingering, you can't always be sure it is the best one, especially in relation to what comes before and after. Sometimes you have to go back and revise fingerings long after you know a piece of music. I've successfully replaced fingerings in music pieces that I have known for more than ten years. Persistence is key.
To achieve a fingering change, I have to focus and force myself to use the new fingering when that passage comes up. Since the new fingering is awkward at first, I slow down. Or completely sacrifice the tempo: i.e. come to a halt before the new fingering passage and then play through it slowly. Also, I practice the passage separately, over and over again, including a few notes of surrounding context.
The old fingering is banished; I cease to play it, except by accident.
Eventually the new fingering will set in, replacing the old.
I think if you want to change your typing fingering, you have to do the same. Slow down and force yourself to use the desired fingering. Banish the old one. From now on, don't answer an e-mail, type a command-line or edit program code using the old fingering. Go as slowly as is necessary to place each finger the way you want, even if you are reduced to a snail's pace. If you persist, you will develop speed once again.
Also, maybe get some typing exercises and practice a little bit using the new fingering. Say, 15 to 20 minutes per day.
Good luck.
Way back in the day hustling for temp work, typing speed counted. I used Mavis Beacon for DOS which drills you on touch typing - even using your pinky. Got up to about 70 WPM touch-typing - which means NOT looking at your fingers. (Which is why I'm taking your 90-110 WPM estimate with a grain of salt - MB will tell you what your typing speed is!)
Mavis Beacon's like Tetris - it's been around since 1987 and ported to every platform that counts. And it can teach Dvorak too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mavis_Beacon_Teaches_Typing
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Get yourself a copy of Typing of the Dead
I never learned to touch-type properly either; I've been typing my way for over 30 years now. My speed and accuracy are both reasonably good in spite of my not typing the "right" way. I'll continue to type this way until I can't type any more, or until they invent a neural implant which renders typing obsolete.
Oh, and one more thing... if that neural implant doesn't materialize before I kick the bucket, they'll pry my buckling spring (Unicomp Model M clone) keyboard out of my cold dead hands...
From switching, I learned that I didn't hit the "c" key correctly and that a wider hand stance is vastly more comfortable than conventional keyboards. But in the end I've found that my biggest problem isn't with typing speed, but with thinking speed, and that hasn't improved with a nicer keyboard.
"Typing of the Dead" is a pretty good game and tutorial.
Sounds like a good poll question. Do you type with the 'correct' way?
80 WPM means 6.5 characters per second - bull sh!t.
http://imlocation.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/how-fast-do-people-type/
"Notice that that out of the three thousand four hundred and seventy five applicants, not a single one could manage 120 WPM. And only the top 5% of applicants could manage 70 WPM or higher."
So - this OP is claiming to be in the top 5% of people who work in professional typing jobs?
Someone needs a re-test.
http://tinyurl.com/yb8zf95
Is this a medical concern, or are you trying to improve speed?
If you work in a data entry job, I guess it makes sense, but if you're actually spewing out so much code or documentation that typing speed is becoming an issue.. you're either a mad genius or producing some very poor quality code!
I honestly think when it comes to most non-data entry jobs.. quality is generally better than quantity. A few slowly typed but well thought out lines are always going to be better than a page of garbage.
That's a silly comment - code documentation or whatever, obviously he does a lot of typing. If he increases typing speed by 30% he reduces the time spent on typing by 30% and so can do something more important with that time. If this is only 20 min per day that may still be enough to make improving relevant. I'm pretty much in the same position, I write emails, comments (on /.), papers and various things on the net - it adds up.
I learned the piano as a kid and my typing is really good as a result.
A good piano teacher will focus on making sure you raise your wrists, curl your fingers correctly, and teach you to use all of your fingers learning scales. It will strengthen your little and ring fingers and give you the correct positioning for your hands and fingers. Learning scales is the very first thing a piano teacher will instruct you on. Its very repetative, and you'll start off slow, but the more you practise the faster you get. You'll learn to hit exactly the key your aiming for, lessening the mistakes in your typing.
Really you could learn what you need in a few piano lessens, you can practise on a cheap keyboard from Tandys/Walmart/ whatever. Its all about holding your hands right and moving them up and down the scale without hitting any wrong keys. Same thing as what you are aiming for in improving your typing speed - but on a piano you'll hear the wrong note every time you press the wrong key - helping you know instantly if you are getting things right.
Because I learnt how to hold my hands above a keyboard (piano and computer) and have curved fingers (you imagine holding a tennis ball in your hand to get the correct curve), I can program all day without getting tired or sore hands, and haven't suffered RSI (and expect never to).
I see so many people being lazy and resting their wrists on the desk/keyboard and then complaining about sore tired hands. Or not using all their fingers because they were never taught how.
Touch typing lessons wont give you the accuracy or speed a piano teacher with a ruler will!
(such as not using my little and ring fingers when I really should)
No, that is an error of the layout! Your rind and little finger are weaker. Basically your little finger is just an outreaching touch sensor, and not meant for grabbing. Especially not on such an incredibly convoluted and stupid layout as the default one. And I’m not talking about the position of the letters, but about the shape and layout of the physical keys!
If you want to make it a bit better, I recommend this keyboard (if it’s still sold): http://www.datadesktech.com/desktop_base.html
I had it, and it was the best keyboard I ever had. Like an IBM one, but ergonomic. Not that fake-“ergonomic” style that e.g. Microsoft uses. Look at the upper outside keys (those for the smaller fingers). They are wider, and easier to press. Also the columns are exactly aligned. Not slanted. And you raise the front, not the back. So it’s really nice. (I recommend buying the black USB variant.)
Why do I tell you this? Simple: Because the new layout forces you to re-learn touch-typing. In which case you can learn it properly and comfortably right from the start. :)
But a note: Even those keyboards are not perfect, since you still have to raise your elbows to type in that V shape. (Much better than default keyboards though!) So you will get a bit of strain in your shoulders.
The only way around that, that I know, is using two Datahands, mounted right on the chair. But it looks like they aren’t sold anymore. Also the last time I checked, they were at $700 per hand!
About Dvorak: Go for it! :)
I doesn’t even come close to our German version of an alternative layout (NEO 2.0), which has 6 levels, but it’s still much better than the default one.
I just left the default key stickers on my keyboard when learning NEO. Which made it impossible to look on the keys, and so I learned touch-typing much quicker.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I changed my key caps and switch to the Dvorak layout for a couple of months. After 2 weeks I was up to speed, and found it seamless to switch between QWERTY and Dvorak.
The killer was the shortcut keys. Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V were chosen more for their proximity on the QWERTY keyboard than for the letters they represent. I know the shortcut keys from muscle memory of their locations, not from the underlying letter keys. Even simple cutting and pasting is painful on Dvorak, and more advanced shortcut keys are a nightmare.
We may all lament the lack of foresight when the first IBM PC designers chose to use the stock QWERTY keyboard, but there was another opportunity at the dawn of the GUI. Had the assignment of shortcut keys been made location specific and layout independent, the switch to Dvorak or any other layout would have been a simple personal choice; but that day has come and gone.
I've no doubt your raw WPM will go up after a couple weeks of Dvorak use, but I'll bet your overall productivity goes down. You will either struggle with shortcut keys of find yourself resorting to using the mouse for menu selections.
I reluctantly quit Dvorak and went back to QWERTY.
If you can really type 90-110 wpm using improper technique, you are already typing faster than 99.99% of professional typists. I'd call out just about anyone who claims they can type more than 65 wpm or so.
Oh, and there are plenty of places on the web where you can learn proper technique. After that, it's just practice.
Damn, it took me five minutes to type this and I don't care.
Don't switch unless you feel interested in learning different and want to try to keep you brain fresh. There is no other reason to go though the aggravation.
Now personally, I find my biggest pet peeve is how the bumps on a PC keyboards are not on the D and K keys like they were on my Mac. When I am typing in a dark room, I want to search for the home row with my longest fingers. It causes horrible wrist strain trying to search with your pointer fingers for F and J. It boggles my mind who come up with that. It definitely wasn't a touch typist.
And then of course there is the minor problem with how laptop keyboards have absolutely no spacing for sections of the keyboard... Oh the woe of being a midnight typist!
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
To fix, I simply paid attention to my fingers as I typed. On notice that I typed something in a way that I didn't want, I backed up and typed it the way I did want. my pinky started hitting the 'p' key over time. Now, I'm still not perfect, but still changing, too. Regards.
Your typing skills are sufficient, make something beautiful instead of relearning typing.
Due knot worry about yore typing skills. Soon wheel awl use voice input and jesters!
Throughput will bee increased and spelling airs will disappear.
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
I was in the same boat and made multiple attempts to learn to type the "right way". My last, and successful, attempt involved this www.typingmaster.com software (although any decent alternative would work) and lots of discipline. I made sure I spent at least an hour everyday learning and doing the drills, and then resisted the urge to go back to my old way of typing while not doing the drills. Now I'm doing great in life and gained an extra inch.
>Should I switch to Dvorak and pretty much learn typing from scratch, but properly this time?
Yes. This is what I did.
Since I already had my qwerty technique down cold from childhood, my Dvorak technique was completely different, and easy to separate.
If your goal is to be good at typing, don't waste your time with an outmoded technique. Qwerty is just a variation of alphabetical. Since it's so common, you'll never forget Qwerty. But you'll pick up Dvorak in a couple of weeks.
After a couple months, you'll remember both. The only sticking point is special keys (brackets, parens, quotes, etc.) But whatever.
Dvorak? Heck no.
www.colemak.com
If you want to see a brief presentation on it and why it's better, refer to my youtube video. I gave a speech on it for a class, should be the first result of a youtube search for 'colemak'.
Download Typing of the Dead, (-:
Everybody who want to learn touch typing should use the Kinesis Advantage. I had several unsuccessful attempts, until I tried this keyboard and after 10 minutes (literally!) I touch typed. I hadn't know all keys, only letters, but that is not bad anyway. As I remember it took another month or two to learn each and every numbers and symbols. I think the difference which makes typing much easier is that the keys are in straight lines. If this were not enough, it actually forces you to touch type, the search and peck method is very uncomfortable on its special layout.
Funny, that after many years in the industry I realized a few years ago, that I was doing what you just explained. I was convinced, that the technique was a lot better for working on a terminal (e.g. Unix admin tasks), but as I was coding more and more, typing more and more letters I realized the 6 finger typing was not efficient anymore.
I have to admit (and it is hard), that the last push was a colleague who was barely out of school, who typed violently fast while talking to people, looking at them.
So what did I do? I simply started forcing myself to touch type, and literally in a week I was using all my fingers as I should have before.
If you are pretty fast with your technique, you know where the keys are, now you just have to map it to the right finger and it will work just fine.
Well, I hope it helps ....
BTW I am actually not a fast or good typist, so I try to write short and effective code I never have to touch again ... .yeah right
My mom was a secretary for the military who worked for years on an IBM electric and was rated at 140. I went through a typing program in college and could comfortably do 90. I have massive palms, and short wide fingers, and 95% of my typed output for the past 2 decades has been code, so my my raw throughput has eroded. My youngest took typing in high school and was rated also at 140, and my eldest who never took a formal course is faster than she is. As is common these days, they were both typing when they were just barely out of diapers. The biggest detriment to fast typing these days is crap keyboards with small circular buffers and terrible tactility. If you have one of these, you would be far faster with a good keyboard than you ever would be with switching to Dvorak. That's my 2 cents anyway.
I'm surprised I haven't seen any references to http://play.typeracer.com/. It's pretty cool, you can play alone or race other live players.
In a nutshell, if you want to get faster, challenge yourself and practice, practice, practice.
Learning french doesn't mean you forget english. I've been a full time Dvorak user for six years, except for public terminals at university and public library computers. They all use qwerty, and I type on them nearly as well as in Dvorak (maybe 70 wpm versus 80-90 wpm on Dvorak). I have lost some speed in qwerty, but the comfort and lower chance of RSI is well worth using a non-standard layout. Reaching 70 wpm in qwerty is hardly crippled typing.
The only way to type is with your nose, using your tounge for the spacebar.
No, I will not work for your startup
Is this where we post how we can type a billion WPM with no training whatsoever?
A book (or software program) that covers proper finger positioning and drills you in them is the only you'll learn to properly touch type. I learned from this book on a manual typewriter when I was a teenager and never regretted it. You may not want this specific book--it talks more about running an actual typewriter, a machine you'll likely never use, than you'll ever want to know--but something along those lines is what you want.
Volunteer some time to Project Gutenberg or something.
Sit down with a book or magazine and just type the whole thing in. Stop when you get tired. Do at least a couple of pages every day for a week. Just be sure to finish it.
Like with anything else, practice makes perfect. I guarantee your speed and accuracy will improve!
"Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
Now personally, I find my biggest pet peeve is how the bumps on a PC keyboards are not on the D and K keys like they were on my Mac.
My iBook is at home, can't check that one. I know the bumps are there but I have never learnt to actually use them (though I can type without looking at my keyboard).
However the keyboard I'm typing on now, has the bumps on the F and J keys. Just like a spare keyboard that I have around here.
It apparently varies with the maker where they put them.
They offered typing when I was in high school in 75. Myself and a bunch of my buddies took it for two reasons. 1. Other than the 5 of us, it was FULL of girls. 2. It was full of girls. Who knew there would have been a benefit of learning to type...other than being in a class full of girls.
That phrase sums up the concept of persistence on a behavior, h3ther correct or incorrect. To change something that's grossly overlearned to the point of being automated you have to start to learn a new way, then unlearn the old before the old and new can merge (unlearning being an active process, more than forgetting). The changes of success without some rather extensive practice is very small. And this is apparently for the sake of 'awkwardness'?
I met a journalist from Canada who typed with two index fingers at 100+ WPM. Looked awkward as hell. Looked like he'd gotten over that.
So you don't type the same as everyone else. If you wanted to type better than you do now, it'd be far easier to type the way you do but better than to learn another way. Adaptation is far easier than un-and-relearning. If you just want to stop feeling awkward, get some videos of the Grateful Dead in concert, and look for closeups up Jerry Garcia's guitar playing. He was missing a finger and managed to not look awkward. And he had far more reason to be concerned about what people thought about him, since he was a public performer that depended on his hands. Nobody but you cares about you. That seems the easiest to fix to my mind.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
The bumps on my MacBook Pro are on the F & J. I don't think I've ever seen a keyboard where they weren't.
It's not "broken" typing; it's conformist typing. Min 90 words per minute sounds great. Why do you want to conform to what everybody else does? Why do you need to?
Typing was the ONLY class in high school I got straight A's in. Then I quit school and joined the Army. I was in Signal School and the first day of typing class I exceeded 30wpm so I spent that portion of my AIT doing scut work until time to learn crypto. I ended up doing work on IBM 1401's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1401 , and the "communications" part was transmitting Hollerith card information through what looked like a big keypunch machine connected through a cradle-type modem to the AUTODIN network (early WATS-line type precursor to the ARPANET). It transmitted about 55 cards per minute; less if I was using CIPHONY. This left me lots of time to study, and, since I had an IBM Selectric to practice on, I eventually got my typing speed over 90 WPM.
In the last few years I've been doing a lot of writing, and I found that I could generate about 4000 words per hour if I turned of the monitor. (I wasn't tempted to do corrections in the middle of my flow if I couldn't see them. ) OK, there was a lot of correction to be done, but I was producing OUTPUT and I was happy. Happy, that is, until one day, working for another employer, I found that I was looking at my keyboard while I typed, and my touch-typing skills had deteriorated badly.
I can now confidently TT between 45-60 wpm after lots of practice with some free typing tutors and practice stuff. It's worth the effort.
One of my un-started projects is to get some of the stuff from this "Supreme Learning" guy and see if his keyboarding system is really what it says it is. http://www.supremelearning.com/ The CNN quote on his page says he can type in 27 languages with speeds reaching up to 200 WPM. And, oh, yeah; he plays the piano.
"The mind works quicker than you think!"
When I got my first computer, I realized that I needed to learn to type. I put my fingers on the home keys and made myself use all of them approximately where they should go. After a while, I was typing 35-45 wpm with minimal errors. Good enough to get through the 106,000 word novel referenced in my sig. It helps to be able to type about as fast as you can compose coherent prose.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
That is because those kind of keyboards are mostly a relic of the ADB era of Mac peripherals. Here is an example of one: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Apple_Macintosh_ADB_Keyboard.jpg
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
I learned to type on my own, but it ended up a bit bastardly.
My left hand was kept on: A W E R [SPACE]
And right was on: [NOTHING?]M K L /
I still managed to get around 70-80WPM (90 when I was trying to be cool and score high on those lame WPM tests). doing this method, which sometimes involved crossing across the keyboard instead of using the closer finger.
During one year of high school, I moved to a rural part of the States, and they had a required 'Computer Skills' class which had a typing portion. I got all negative marks due to my hand positioning, posture, etc. so I forced myself to learn how to properly type using the little on-screen program.
Took about two months to fully adjust, but I learned to properly use the Home keys and not type like a lunatic.
Currently I get around 90WPM, and 140WPM on those lame tests. Facebook says 155WPM, but I don't believe that silly test ;).
I don't hunt and peck, but I'm not a home-row nazi. I pay no attention to the little nubs on f and j. My fingers fly over the keyboard with complete freedom; indeed, I often use different fingers to strike any given individual key.
I simply know my keyboard, and know where the keys are. If I switch to a vastly different keyboard (say a laptop or those hideous Microsoft Unnatural monstrosities), it takes a few days for me to 'learn' where things are, but after that, it's all good.
I remember back in the day being yelled at by typing instructors for not using the painful, 'correct' method of typing. They tended to STFU when they determined I was doing ~135+ WPM with zero mistakes, compared to their 60-80.
I am specifically talking about the contoured version. It kind of forces you to start using all your fingers. There is a slight learning curve but you sound like you typed like I used to. Once I changed to one of these I not only learned to type using my full hand, but I probably increased my speed by about 50%.
Besides being faster, you also get less strain on your arms/wrists. This is really a huge thing for me since I program all day.
The following is my personal experience with the Dvorak layout. I've always been a fast qwerty typist, around 120 wpm if I focus on it. In grad school, because of some wrist pain -- and out of curiosity too -- I decided to switch to Dvorak. After a few weeks of consistent practice I was back up to around 80-90 wpm, then gradually got about equivalent to my speed at qwerty. In a nutshell I find the claims that Dvorak is faster than qwerty to be very plausible, if the task is transcribing English text. For English text Dvorak has a more efficient placement of keys, resulting in noticeably less hand movement than when typing with qwerty.
That said, I found Dvorak didn't help much in practice, and in many ways was an annoyance. Three factors primarily limit the "real world" benefit of Dvorak, if the goal is simply speed:
1) If you compose as you type -- rather than transcribe text like a secretary in the 1950s -- then you probably can't compose text at better than 50-60 wpm anyway. If you're faster than this with qwerty, you probably aren't going to see much real benefit with Dvorak, since your composition speed is the limiting factor. (perhaps I'm a slow thinker...)
2) Often the stuff I type isn't vanilla English text, for which Dvorak is optimized. Programming or LaTeX for example have such unusual letter frequencies that there is no discernible difference between qwerty and Dvorak (both are suboptimal for these tasks).
3) Keyboard shortcuts in programs become super-annoying with Dvorak. Ctrl-C, ctrl-x, ctrl-v, shift-zz: All of these were chosen to be quick and easy on a qwerty keyboard. Under Dvorak they get mapped into inconvenient locations. Yes you can define a keymap that maps back to qwerty when you press the control key, but after a while you forget the qwerty layout and you get lost. I never found a good solution to this problem, which was annoying because I found myself using keyboard shortcuts less frequently than I otherwise would.
There may be ergonomic reasons for Dvorak (I don't know), but it sounds like that's not your issue.
I have to say as someone who used to touch type in qwerty and now touch types in dvorak, that dvorak is by far superior. Sure it's a pain in the ass when you first start to learn dvorak. But once you get over that it is definitely more comfortable than trying to type in qwerty.
For any of those who believe dvorak being better than qwerty is just a myth then look into the 1944 study that was conducted by the Department of the Navy, which the results had clearly showed that dvorak is superior. So superior that it would have only taken them a few weeks to re-gain that investment. Also, this was a study that was independent of Dr. Dvorak's work and no way biased by him as he had nothing to do with the study.
When I wanted to correct/improve my typing I purchased a split keyboard. It made me refocus and made it difficult to cross over. I generally realigned everything and found it helpful. Can't guarantee anything, but might be worth a try. Oh, and I got one of those "natural keyboards" that are not merely flat and split, but have the hump in the middle.
I type about 120wpm... with two fingers (and the occasional use of a thumb). My previous job was providing real-time closed captioning for deaf students in college lectures. Obviously, such a job requires fast typing, and the use of shorthand (which, with the software being used, usually bumped a typist up about 50wpm... I was hitting 140-150wpm frequently with the use of shorthand).
My boss heard from some co-workers about my typing techniques, and she didn't like it one bit... I'm guessing she might've been concerned with a worker's compensation claim. Anyhow, she ordered me to do this ridiculous "typing rehabilitation" program - basically, I was required to go through the basic "Mavis Bacon Typing" lessons and tests. Although I started to type in the proper way, my speed went from 120wpm to 30wpm!
After doing this for a couple of weeks to make my boss happy, I gave it up, and resumed typing the way I normally typed. 3 years later, no carpal tunnel, no problems, and all of the students that I worked with over those three years loved me and requested me all of the time.
Typing is so common these days that I don't believe 'proper' technique is a selling point. Speed and accuracy are the important parts.
A few years ago I managed to badly slice the tip of my right index finger. After about a week I was typing near my regular speed (60-80 wpm) with my index finger up in the air, my right middle finger taking over the upper keys and my left index taking over the lower keys. After my finger healed, I had a hard time adjusting to using it again. It was the weirdest sensation - it was hard to do at first, but both ways felt natural after a short period of adjustment.
One thing I've never been able to do is use my right thumb to hit the space bar. I have to stop and think 'right thumb' and by then my left thumb has already hit it.
I was decentish with QWERTY but always wanted to get better, but i found it too hard to break my bad habits. Switched to Dvorak and got a lot better. It feels so much more efficient, when i use Q i find that some words just seem so strange to type, like the whole layout is unbalanced. The only real downside is that many typos (that i make at least) tend to form words whereas on Q they form jibberish and are caught by spellcheck.
As a professional software engineer, I find that typing speed is mostly irrelevant to my job. Autocomplete makes up for any perceived slowness and lack of technique. For me (as an eclipse user) its mostly 4 or 5 characters then crtl-space and BAM! big long disgustingly verbose variable and function names.
Based on your vague description, it sounds like your typing style is similar to mine. I type 100-130wpm (based on http://typera.tk). I do not use my pinkies or my right ring finger. My right hand's home position is shifted one key to the right of the standard home position. I have numerous other quirks as well.
Also, my typing technically has naturally evolved (I never learned "touch typing") to allow me to type certain words faster than I think anybody could touch type them because my finger mappings are not 1:1. For example, I type the word "truth" as truth l2l3r3l2r2 whereas a touch typer would type is as l2l2r2l2r2. If it isn't obvious as to which is more efficient, try it for yourself. My hands know how to quickly rotate and adjust to get very high efficiency for any word, not just the ones that are convenient for touch typing. This is something that touch typing teacher would never stand for, but I swear by it and could probably out type most of them.
So, my style may be "wrong", but my output clearly justifies my style. I've tried learning Dvorak briefly but haven't stuck with it. I think that even if I did take the time to learn it very well, I would not be able to develop the same kind of "first language" tactile mapping I have with qwerty and I doubt that I would be able to improve on my current speed. Barring Dvorak, I'm almost entirely certain that relearning "correct" touch typing could ever help improve my speed (at least not significantly) due to reasons stated above.
Now personally, I find my biggest pet peeve is how the bumps on a PC keyboards are not on the D and K keys like they were on my Mac.
A Macintosh IS a Personal Computer. The vast majority of the industry places the bumps on the f/j keys, regardless what OS or hardware platform is in use, Apple just likes to be "the rebel" sometimes. If it bothers you that much, just use your Apple keyboard on your other systems, or pop the caps off the keys and switch them up.
Besides, the bumps aren't there to position your hands vertically; you find the right row by placing your thumbs on the spacebar and skipping up from there, and after you've used a keyboard for a while your finger should naturally rest on the correct row when you put your thumbs on the spacebar. The bumps help you position your fingers horizontally once you've found the home row.
I'd suggest you take your 90+ WPM and enjoy life... you're typing faster than most folks will ever be able to match. Something to consider though, is that the QWERTY keyboard is DESIGNED to slow the typist down... The early mechanical typewriters had a finite time lag between keypress, the strike of the key against the ribbon and the spring assisted recovery of the mechanical linkage... Putting up several keys at once by typing faster than the mechanism could jam up the typewriter and delay the typist while they untangled the mess... The key assignment in the QWERTY keyboard is designed to put the most commonly used letters EATION SHRDLU in positions that help maintain a good rhythm within those mechanical limitations. The fact that some typists manage in excess of 200 WPM despite that original design criteria is nothing short of amazing... My advice... keep doing what you're doing... the rest of us are lucky if we hit 60 WPM on a good day Best I ever tested was 65.... My cruising speed is more in the 25-35 WPM range when I'm composing as I go...
I learned touch typing a couple of years ago by myself, with the simple technique of just keeping my hands where they were supposed to be and concetrating on which finger to use. I mean, I already knew where all the keys were, so with a bit of discipline I started picking up speed after a couple of days of slow and frustrated typing.
I've noticed a lot of people hold their hands rigidly and stress tiny muscles which are not naturally used often. I would like to develop carpal tunnel syndrome as part of a research project I'm doing; so, could anyone teach me to cause more stress on my hands and wrists?
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
You should play "Typing of the dead".
I never even realized how wrong my technique was, until playing it and failing to reach higher scores/levels.
I believe its also a damn fun way of learning how to type properly.
It's amazing no one's mentioned TuxType so far. Just do 10-15 minutes every day as a rule, and you'll improve your technique in no time.
Even though I know how to touch type, I find that my technique deteriorates, and using Tux Typing for a week or so refreshes my skills, especially if I know I have a lot of typing to do for a given project.
sudo apt-get install tuxtype (or click here from FF to install).
Windows/Mac/BSD/RPM here.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
I'm a self taught typist and I don't really follow the conventional typing styles taught in school. We never had typing classes, and my max. speed is 122 wpm which I was able to achieve just twice, while my average is about 95-110 WPM. Someone here was saying they type at 150 wpm, that's a load of bullshit. 150 wpm is the world record. Secondly if the original poster can type at ~100 wpm I fail to see the need to try go faster because the whole point is most of the time you're not going to hit that upper limit unless you are a data enty operator. Anything >= 80 WPM is more than enough even if you're a programmer/geek/whatever-computer related. Also the keyboard you type in makes a huge difference, I'm almost always slower on the "soft" and laptop keyboards than on the "harder" clickty-clack proper keyboards. They say one gets better with practice but I don't know, I've been trying hard to get past 122wpm and it seems very difficult unless maybe I use the same typing content perhaps which is kind of cheating.
Typeracer is an online typing game that can also report your WPM. It doesn't need anything more than a modernish web browser and you can compete against other people. It's no good for learning the fingerings but it's fine if you just need practice typing text.
That is because those kind of keyboards are mostly a relic of the ADB era of Mac peripherals
The keys on a Macbook Pro are a relic of the ADB era? I don't think so.
... and then they built the supercollider.
In highschool I had typewriting lessons on some old mechanical typewriter, it wasn't funny, but it was useful. Than, later I had blind (touch) typewriting classes on still mechanical but electric typewriters. When this happened I was about 18 yeas old and I already knew the "keyboard" since my parents had a computer. Back than, I thought it was too hard, but than, I got involved as an editor for the highschool's magazine and I started to type with 10 fingers on the computer's keyboard ... this was about 10 years ago. Now, the qwerty keyboards feel like extensions to my fingers. They feel natural and I can type probably faster than some can read ... but that's not the point. The point is you have to exercise and don't give up.
If you don't know the rules of typing with 10 fingers, download some typewriting application or do some free tutorials on the Internet. After you've got the basics, just type as you should for everyday use (chat, browsing, documents etc.) and speed will come in time.
Now, some of you say, if he is already typing 100 wpm, why is he even bothering about typing correctly. I can say to you, that if you type with 10 fingers as you should, and you keep your palms rested in front of the keyboard (or on palm-rest) while you type, it is much much more comfortable and more effortless.
And one more thing, always watch the screen, not the keyboard, and don't get angry when you make mistakes, delete and correct. You may want to also use a spellchecker to underline misspelled words.
Typing lessons may not be the answer you're looking for- if they are anything like the lessons that I've had- lessons that fail to recognize that modern computer keyboards are wider than the typical typewriter.
To be fair, after having had "proper" typing lessons on a typewriter, my typing has improved a bit. I use all fingers of my *left* hand for typing except my thumb- I always press the space bar with the thumb of my right hand. Officially I should be alternating between the left and right thumb.
For the right hand, the "typewriter" model just doesn't work. While the left hand on either typewriter or computer keyboard would cover roughly the same area, the right hand on a computer keyboard covers the usual area PLUS the enter key at PLUS the arrow pad PLUS the numeric keypad- so it can't be static above the keyboard and reach all relevant keys.
As I press then ENTER key with my little finger (and frequently so, when I'm doing anything on the command line), there's no way I can also use that finger for the "P" as I'm supposed to, without moving around my hand unnecessarily. As a result, I end up using only the index finger, little finger and thumb of my right hand (for the space).
The questions you have to ask yourself is, "Does it matter?" and "why do I want to type 'the right way'?"
I'm officially doing it wrong, but I can type blindfolded if I have to, have never had RSI, carpal tunnel syndrome or similar, and still manage to baffle people with my typing speed.
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
It forced me to write "properly" by making a lot of things i had grown accustomed to impossible.
Way to kick someone in the nuts after they went to the work to find an image on google for you so you could see what the keyboards looked like. Please, click the link. Does the image of the keyboard I posted a link to look like a Macbook Pro keyboard? I'm pretty sure they keyboard in the image isn't even a laptop keyboard.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
Does the image of the keyboard I posted a link to look like a Macbook Pro keyboard?
Which is exactly the point. In the context of the discussion, "those kind of keyboards" refers to Macbook Pro keyboards. Which are nothing like the ADB keyboards. So, it's kind of hard to understand what you are trying to say.
... and then they built the supercollider.
Do you seriously need to worry about typing speed? Typing pools are so 1960s.
Seriously, unless you transcribe documents as a major part of your job, you don't need such fast typing speeds, especially when you can do over one word a second already. If it's such a major part of your job, you should look at shorthand/stenography solutions.
Maybe your tools are inadequate. A decent IDE includes autocomplete for example.
On the other hand if you can't type fast whilst not looking at the screen and keyboard - i.e., typing whilst looking at source material, or looking at someone else, then it might be worth putting in some effort.
When I was saying "those kind of keyboards", I was referring to the ones with the nubs on the D and the K. The way you replying to my post obnoxiously, you knew exactly what I was saying. I was trying to be helpful, you don't need to be a jerk.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
To be honest my typing improved tremendously from playing dota and other online games where you need to type quickly in between doing other things. As for the technique, I've never not used my pinky and ring fingers. That's what felt natural to me. But in all honesty, after playing games my typing speed goes up by about 70 wpm. At least.
unless your worried about carpel tunnel syndrome, don't do anything, old habits are hard to break. I had a teacher in 6th grade cover keyboards during typing tests i hated it. by then i had been using a keyboard for most of my life(incorrectly). and i could out type anyone else in the class. at one point i switched to a European keyboard because i had wore out one and was frustrated when writing code, promptly went out and got a new us layout. why there was a UK keyboard sitting in the spare parts blew my mind. no one there was from the UK.
If you are a person switching between computers a lot (like an admin), you should learn QWERTY touch typing. Touch typing is better, because you are less likely to get repetitive strain injury (pain in the hand) when you distribute the typing effort a bit more.
If you are someone like me (application developer) working on a few machines only, then you might want to go for Dvorak. I switched from QWERTY and never regretted it.
Note: retraining muscle reflexes is a relatively hard process. In the beginning you are going to type slow and trying to remember how to reach the keys with the new method. Then comes the real hard part, as you memorize the new method, the old reflexes kick in all the time. Takes a few months until you fully retrained yourself, though you can get up to speed in a few weeks.
Most people can't type in that range. Many people who were properly trained can deliver that performance. But I would say unless you are having difficulty with discomfort or pain, why fix what isn't broken? Most discomfort can be solved simply by not resting your palms on the keyboard, but rather keeping your wrists higher. That takes stress off your forearms and wrists. But in terms of speed retraining yourself to type 10% faster isn't going to make a marketable difference when you can already type faster than the majority of people, or as fast as many touch typists. Is a half page an hour really worth the investment in your time?
The problem with Dvorak is that you'll end up reaching for a "J" more than you would with a QWERTY, and the resultant trips to Betty Ford far outweigh any gains you may have had from using the Dvorak.
The only way to get your typing up to 110 wpm is assiduous practice with a metronome. If you don't have proper technique, I doubt your speed is even half what you claim.
If the speed you have is sufficient for your requirement, it's almost certainly not worth trying to correct a technique developed over a long period of time. If the concern is health, maybe see a good occupational therapist?
I learned to type while playing a mage on Moria. Now that would be a *band game, without using the repeat-key or any macros.
Really, when you have to cast maf maf maa maa mde mde or can't remember which other combination, you get to know pretty fast some of the keys otherwise the game gets a bit long...
First - need to know what your motivation is here - is it just to type faster, to type the way a textbook says you should, or because you are concerned about your hands cramping up and/or future medical conditions?
80-110wpm, if that's accurate, is respectably way above average and up in the range of us "fast typists"... you probably type faster than just about everyone you meet.
If you are concerned about technique from textbooks and matching that - don't do anything other than give it a try - I'm a classical touch-typist, but I certainly don't follow all the rules, and I've adapted to what works for me. The teacher back in high school might have called it wrong, but finishing the 1 hour final exam in 8 minutes and leaving spoke for itself.
If it's speed and/or medical - go for layout, position, - I can use my Model-M clone, to the annoyance of half my co-workers (the other half also have them). and find I can type longer without getting tired - but it's noisy. I'd like to give Dvorak a crack one month when I have the free time.
I also find I can type quite well on those new little apple chicklet keyboards - much to my surprise, I thought I would hate them.
Yes. Bite the bullet, find a copy of Mavis Beacon v5 in the dollar bin somewhere, and learn Dvorak.
There are other tutor programs, but back in '89 when I switched from hunt'n'pecker to Dvorak that was the latest version. It also inexplicably happens to be the last one that offers Dvorak lessons. These days she'll help you with your Spanish, but not Dvorak. I wrote the company some years back but never got a meaningful reply as to why they discriminate in this manner.
If you're on a lot of machines, install it as a separate language so the current state will show up near the tray (I use Swedish, as SV looks a little like DV). That way, when it accidentally gets switched or I forget & leave it that way, the normal user of that machine can see why they're typing gibbering & ALT-LEFT-SHIFT back to Q mode.
A few years ago I experimented with the Kinesis "Advantage" keyboard, trying to alleviate some wrist discomfort I had been experiencing. I never did warm up to that keyboard, but my fingers did travel less than with a standard layout. If you're trying to eke out that extra word or two per minute then it might be worth evaluating. Kinesis keyboards are expensive, but they have a generous 60 day eval policy.
If your workaday typing includes a fair amount of code, then I'd recommend you use a really capable editor - and I'm thinking emacs here. I've yet to master the art of emacs-fu, but I have watched those who have, and it's purely astonishing how much code can appear on a screen so quickly, with so few keystrokes, and no mouse movement. Unobvious and arcane keychords are the name of the game, bolstered by your personal arsenal of editor macros. After your fingers learn the landscape they become buzzsaws.
it was designed to prevent jams
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY
Dvorak studied letter frequencies and the physiology of people’s hands and created a layout to adhere to these principles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard
So qwerty was designed to prevent typing jams (I haven't had a typing jam in over 15 years) while dvorak was designed to match work to tools. Seems highly likely that the tool designed for ease of use would be easier to use than the one designed so that fast users wouldn't break it.
Full disclosure: I have never tried dvorak, but I find it likely that it is better than qwerty based solely on these design principles.
You type between 90 and 110 WPM???. An average typist does between 50 and 70 WPM.. you want to ask people how to type faster???? are you accurate? what is your error rate? Are you a strong backspace user as you type? Anyways, clearly, if you believe you need to be faster, get a typing training tutorial application and go wild. But as far as I'm concerned, you are plenty fast as is, unless you are an actual typist, if you are a coder, you need to be precise, not fast. But you can always go voice.. :) if you need to go faster.. just record and let the PC type it for you :)
Anybody can type 90-110 words per hour. Oh, wait, you weren't talking about texting were you. Texting is really awesome though. Why some of the fastest texters are able to get speeds as high as the average hunt and peck typist.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
At the end of my college career, I noticed my hands and wrists were getting strained, so I spent my last semester switching to Dvorak, Emacs and the Kinesis Ergo Contoured keyboard from qwerty, vi and the Microsoft Natural keyboard.
There's endless debate about these things, and apparently some questions about Dvorak's research methods. There's also new keyboard layouts that are supposedly about as good as Dvorak without sacrificing usability and faster to learn (I'm talking about the Colemak specifically). Ultimately it is very hard to make a strong recommendation for any of these switches based on a solid, unarguably scientific basis.
However, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that most people who switch to Dvorak and the Kinesis keyboard experience some combination of reduced hand strain and faster typing. My personal impression is that the Kinesis does more for strain and Dvorak does more for speed and comfort. I personally had reached a plateau in the 75-90 WPM range with qwerty and now I think I'm in the 110-125 WPM range. I don't think Emacs had anything to do with the changes. The control/alt/etc. keys are hit with the thumbs on the Kinesis, and the escape key is still in Siberia, but in practice I don't think either one has any tangible ergonomic charm once you're using Dvorak.
Lately I have noticed that there are some keys which I type strangely. But I was taught on a typewriter and I learned the classical method--I even continue to find use for the caps lock key, a victim of a lot of unnecessary derision in the programming community. I sometimes hit keys that should be hit with the pinky with my ring fingers. I don't think it's worth worrying about too much if you're not looking at the keyboard, it doesn't feel uncomfortable, and it's not slowing you down. The greatest danger, IMO, is discomfort, followed by speed and accuracy problems. Accuracy is the least of my concerns, really. I can usually feel when I've typed something wrong and I correct it often without looking at it.
If you're looking at the keyboard, you would probably benefit from starting over from scratch, and if you're going to do that, it would probably help to switch keyboard layouts at the same time. It'll prevent you from getting more frustrated at the relearning process.
1. Get a Kinesis Countoured keyboard: http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/contoured.htm
2. Suffer for a couple of weeks since it feels like starting all over again.
3. Enjoy typing a lot faster than before.
I did it. It works, provided you don't give up during step 2.
Installed the Bubblemon yet?
The person who submited the article is bullshiting us all. I use all 10 fingers corecctly (i was tought in class how to properly type) and my typing speed is, after useing it for 7 years is at 45 wpm (I dont practice mush tho)(I tested my selfe on and english site, with english words, even tho this is not my primary language), and claims that he can type twice as fast as me, with out using all of his fingers corectly. I call that über bullshit!
"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." The sentence uses all 26 letters of the alphabet. Type it enough times using the correct fingers and by George, I think you'll get it! You can decide if it's worth the effort.
I'm a right-handed self-taught typist that uses:
left hand: index, middle, ring
right hand: index, thumb (only for spacebar)
My typing style is very much word and letter-combination based. I have muscle-memory for about a zillion different letter combinations (the same key can be pressed by different fingers depending on letter combos), so typing unfamiliar words is an order of magnitude slower than normal.
And yes, believe it or not I can type without looking at the keyboard. Even though my fingers have no reference point before they land on the correct key (not sliding over from a known reference point, like the home row of keys), I know the distances between keys and it "just works".
Just took an online test where I had to copy an awkward block of text: 72wpm. I'm sure I go multiple times faster than that when I'm composing an email and now having to refer to a source doc to copy.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
That's about the dumbest comment I've seen in a while. Learn to pay attention to context!
If it really bothers you that much, why don't you find the bumps with your middle finger, and then move your hands over? Or you can do what I do, put my hands in typing position (so all fingers are equal length, that is equal length from the keyboard) randomly on the keyboard and then move them around until I find the right place. Most of the time typing your fingers all are the same distance from the keyboard anyway, you should probably be used to that by now.
Qxe4
But if you want to get higher typing speeds, why not use a Stenotype device? According to Wikipedia one can easily reach typing speeds of 300 WPM.
I also come to think of alternative typing software for PDAs and smartphones. Texware solutions claim that one can yield faster typing speeds than a regular QWERTY keyboard with their program called Fitaly. So called Dom Perignon Speed Contests are being arranged regularly which are typing contests using different typing software. The winner of the last contest reached a speed of 80.88 WPM using Fitaly. But the contest was arranged by Texware themselves so there could be reason to suspect that this contest may be biased. Another typing software that promises higher typing speeds is MessagEase which is similar to Fitaly.
That's a silly comment - code documentation or whatever, obviously he does a lot of typing. If he increases typing speed by 30% he reduces the time spent on typing by 30% and so can do something more important with that time. If this is only 20 min per day that may still be enough to make improving relevant. I'm pretty much in the same position, I write emails, comments (on /.), papers and various things on the net - it adds up.
This statement presumes that a person can think in a clear and complete manner as fast as 130WPM to take full advantage of the speed increase. I often get in trouble when I think and type too fast, without consideration before I hit the send button.
Quality is much more valuable than quantity where thought is concerned.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
I attempted and actually succeeded at this some years ago.
I was a fast 100+ WPM typist on QWERTY keyboards and, after typing on QWERTY boards for 22 years (started in 7th grade, 1974), I learned to type on a Dvorak board. It was difficult, but finally learned it, could touch type almost as fast as I could on a QWERTY board.
However, that experiment pretty much ended there. Sure, I could use my Dvorak board on my own computer, but refused to lug it to work (or anywhere) where I might need to use a computer that, of course, only had QWERTY boards.
Unfortunately, it's a QWERTY world, and trying to maintain knowing two keyboard layouts by touch, was difficult. Not un-doable, but hard to keep separate when burning up the keyboard typing stuff.
All the keyboard speed records were set on classic manual keyboards AFAIK.
Good keyboard habits make sense for carpal tunnel reasons. Good chair, good posture, good geometry and some variability..... are all important.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
If it really bothers you that much, why don't you find the bumps with your middle finger, and then move your hands over?
That is the crux of the problem. I tend to lose my position when I do that.
Or you can do what I do, put my hands in typing position
To each their own. I find when I do this I can't feel the bumps. My index fingers are much more sensitive than my pointer fingers and it is just plain easier to search with them. On top of that, when you are in typing position the fingers tend to be placed with the fingernail pointed diagonally down, making them less sensitive. And then there is the weird swirly wrist motion you have to do when you keep typing position and are freshly search for the home row in the dark.
Most of the time typing your fingers all are the same distance from the keyboard anyway, you should probably be used to that by now.
Yes when on the home row. When you touch type you are mostly moving your fingers. When you search for the home row, there is a lot more wrist action when makes it difficult for me to find it.
Seriously, D and K just make more sense. I never used anything more comfortable than the old Mac keyboards. The only way it could be worse than it is now is if the bumps were on the A and ; for the pinkies.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
So if he increases the speed of the typing, he will have more time for the thinking.
Use some cloth to cover your hands and keyboard, and continue typing like this. It will force you to memorize where each key is because you don't see the keys.
And use the Force already. Silly rabbit.
I highly doubt that a hunt and peck style typist could ever achieve 90+ adjusted WPM, but eh - prove me wrong and post a video. In any event - given that you do want to change your style, know that there is no magic pill that will allow you to switch over night. This will be a daily thing that you must work on. The best thing to do is to start off, and type however slow you must to have as near as 100% accuracy as you can while typing the "correct" way (in your case, with all fingers instead of just your first two digits). If you can only get 10WPM initially, that's fine. Then, just do this daily, focusing on accuracy first, and your speed will increase naturally as your muscle memory develops and your confidence increases. By the way, your muscle memory develops much faster if you aren't looking at your hands and keyboard.
I went ahead and took the typingtest.com, astronaut, 1 minute, and managed 73 adjusted (75 gross) WPM, which was surprising. The last time I took a test (20 years ago, in a high school typing class), I was around 40'ish adjusted WPM (probably around 45 gross). I'm a sysadmin by trade, so no professional typing in a data entry context, so it is possible to improve over time even without being in a profession that demands fast typing. Good luck!
the people that use alternative key layouts with alternative pointing devices on alternative operating systems.
That's about the dumbest comment I've seen in a while. Learn to pay attention to context!
Perhaps the author could learn to construct a sentence properly? In the context of that sentence, and the thread, my interpretation was correct.
... and then they built the supercollider.
However I have tested myself on a computer, and find I can easily do 50-60 wpm now because I don't have to worry so much about mistakes.
OMG, yeah. I learned how to type on old manual typewriters, without a delete key like the later Selectrics had. Hit the wrong key, and you had to backspace, get out the Liquid Paper (or other correction fluid) and wait 5 minutes for the damned stuff to dry before you dared smack your ribbon against it.
I mourn that today's children and young adults will never know the tactile pleasures of playing music or videos on equipment which makes pleasant snapping and whirring sounds at every command - or potentially losing a fingertip when the reel-to-reel is fast-forwarding through a 20 minute tape - but I sure do envy the word processor as a first typing experience.
OTOH, there is no computer keyboard ever made which feels as satisfying as a well-maintained IBM Selectric. My IBM Type M keyboards are the best I've ever felt (this is being typed on a 1984 Type M) but still don't feel as nice as Selectric III.
Among my obsolete skills, I can also use a sliderule, edit videotape with a razorblade, test a vacuum tube circuit for proper bias, and do a mean A-B roll edit on non-timecoded U-matic VTRs. And I was born in the 1970s! LOL
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
I think the issue is mute. If pure data entry speeds is your primary concern then chances are you are in a very low paid, and easily offshored role.
I'd spend my time improving my skills in a field where the quality of my output is rated much higher than the quantity.
Since a lot of people just deride the OP (without bothering to read or understand his question) here's an actual response.
http://www.df7cb.de/projects/10finger/
I found a map like the above helped me improve my proper touch typing technique (being able to visualize which finger should be doing what). Also a split keyboard can force you to correct finger misuse down the middle (I once discovered I had been typing the "t" or "y" with the opposite hand).
Also Dvorak may or may not help you. I transitioned to Dvorak some five or six year ago and can transition back to Qwerty fairly well. I don't think switching to Dvorak actually helped me with proper typing technique, but when I switched to "Classic Dvorak" that helped a lot with the number/symbol keys. People claim Dvorak improves speed, and the record holding typist types in Dvorak, but I mainly just use it to 1) up the nerd cred, and 2) hopefully reduce repetitive motion issues as it does reduce the amount your fingers need to travel on average.
Oh, and to all the people that think typing 80-100 is super human, get a typing program. Depending on source and keyboard I've been typing at this range (verified with typing programs multiple times) since late high school (in qwerty) and have re-tested in Dvorak.
Cheers!