Off topic: Touch typing
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Sander_Marechal Apr 11, 2008 7:13 AM EDT |
Out of curiosity: How many of you know how to touch type? I can't. I can type pretty quickly using 6 fingers or so, but I always look at the keyboard while doing so. I hardly look at the screen at all. I can even see myself making typos without looking at the screen and correct them blindly (without looking at the screen) but it's a far cry from touch typing. I recently installed KTouch and I am trying to learn it but it definitely has an averse effect on my overall productivity. I'm touch typing this post and it's taking me forever :-) So, can you do it? Did you learn it at a very young age or did you learn later on (as I am trying to do now)? Is it worth it? |
| jdixon Apr 11, 2008 7:36 AM EDT |
> I recently installed KTouch and I am trying to learn it but it definitely has an averse effect on my overall productivity. Not surprising. Learning a new method is almost always slower at first than using one you already know. Give it time and you'll eventually speed up and surpass your old speed. > So, can you do it? Yes, though comparatively poorly. 20-30 wpm max, mostly because of errors. > Did you learn it at a very young age or did you learn later on (as I am trying to do now)? I learned in high school. I took the typing course in preparation for college. Whether that's a "young age" or not is debatable. > Is it worth it? Definitely. You might look into learning Dvorak also. My wife swears by it. I already know qwerty, and since I work on other peoples' machines too, it wouldn't be a good idea for me to switch. |
| Sander_Marechal Apr 11, 2008 7:41 AM EDT |
Quoting:Whether that's a "young age" or not is debatable. What I means was: Did you learn touch typing while (or soon after) you learned how to type? Or did you go through a massive re-learning stage as well? Quoting:I already know qwerty, and since I work on other peoples' machines too, it wouldn't be a good idea for me to switch. I work on other people's machines all the time as well, so Dvorak probably isn't a good choice for me either. Besides, I think my girlfriend really wouldn't appreciate it it I suddenly replaced the Qwerty keyboard at home with a Dvorak one :-) |
| tuxchick Apr 11, 2008 7:52 AM EDT |
I took a typing class in high school, but got pretty rusty until I got into computers. But my fingers still remembered most of it, though I'm slow with numbers- I have to look at the keyboard. Every so often I'll fire up GNU Typist for a refresher. If you want to be more productive, touch-typing is the way to go. I've fallen into some bad habits, like not using my little fingers. But I'm fast and accurate, so it works out. You can learn it pretty quickly, for me the trick is to slow down until my accuracy goes up, and then I work on speed. |
| jdixon Apr 11, 2008 8:14 AM EDT |
> Did you learn touch typing while (or soon after) you learned how to type? Oh. We didn't have a typewriter, so my typing course was my first experience with typing. So I learned touch typing at the same time I learned to type. |
| number6x Apr 11, 2008 8:41 AM EDT |
funny TC, I can do numeric entry on a number keypad by touch, but never learned to touch type on qwerty. I used to make money doing data entry at labs in school and got good at it. Cashiers, tellers, and accountants tend to learn the numeric keypad. I should learn, it would be helpful. |
| theboomboomcars Apr 11, 2008 8:45 AM EDT |
I mostly pseudo touch type, I can do the letters pretty well, and punctuation okay, but numbers and other things that are a stretch to get to I need to look for. I learned touch typing almost from the get go, we had a cool typing tutor on the Mac 128 that we had called master type (If I am remembering correctly). It was fun, it was like asteroids, except instead of asteroids letters flew at you, and instead of a spaceship you were a wizard who shot the letters with his magic wand. Looking back makes me sad though, the games on that machine were just as fun, or funner than new games, but it had a 5in black and white screen. |
| techiem2 Apr 11, 2008 8:51 AM EDT |
I took typing in high school after I'd already been using comps for several years, so I've kept my skills fairly decent. Of course, I type quite a bit faster now than I did back then...I guess spending lots of time in IM/IRC/email/forums will do that to ya. :) |
| number6x Apr 11, 2008 9:03 AM EDT |
boomboom, try TuxType. It is more like space invaders than asteroids, but still fun! |
| herzeleid Apr 11, 2008 9:17 AM EDT |
Haha, I had to drop out of typing school - I use the hunt and peck method. (rimshot) I'd guess maybe 10-20 wpm, caffeinated. Luckily, the tab key does most of the work for me in shell sessions... |
| theboomboomcars Apr 11, 2008 11:43 AM EDT |
thannks number6x, I'll look into that. Who knows when, though for some reason I don't have as much time to play with games as much as I used to. |
| Bob_Robertson Apr 11, 2008 11:56 AM EDT |
I learned because of USEnet, email, and that sort of thing. I can touch-type all the letters, but have to look at the numbers (if there is no separate key-pad). On the QWERTY vs. DVORAK thing, how about this: If DVORAK were more efficient, which has been asserted for a long time now, the competition between stenographers would have made it profitable to train their steno-pool on DVORAK and undercut the competition. Yet that never happened, even with decade after decade of "efficiency experts". But it turns out that the layout is much less important than practice. Good at Q, use Q. Good at D, use D. *edit* I didn't take typing in highschool, even though they did have a room of IBM Selectrics. My Mom had an electric typewriter, and taught me the two things I really needed to know: 1) The home line. Always return to where you know. But then, very often my right "middle" finger ends up on J, because that's where the NetHack controls are. 2) Repetition. Pick a word, like "where" or "the", and type it over and over until the word just happens. Then that word is set, try another word. Eventually, it's the letters that come without thinking regardless of the word, and I can watch the screen and notice mistakes quickly. "Backspace" is my favorite key. :^) |
| Scott_Ruecker Apr 11, 2008 12:12 PM EDT |
Been using qwerty for 20 years now so there's no changing for me. I average 30+ words a minute and I look at both the keyboard and the screen depending on how fast I am going. The faster I go the more I look at the keys. I have to admit that even after 20+ years of typing, I still have to pop out the caps lock key on all my keyboards because I can't not hit it going for the a..EVERY TIME!!! AAAHHH!!! |
| azerthoth Apr 11, 2008 12:18 PM EDT |
I guess I use a mix of both depending on how caffeinated I am at the start, and which keyboard I'm on. I touch type 90% of the time when I'm using my wave keyboard, when I'm on a laptop the rate of touch typing drops dramatically, it seems I have to check my fingers at the beginning of every new word or two, repetitively enforced habit I guess. |
| tuxchick Apr 11, 2008 12:25 PM EDT |
Caps lock must die. |
| techiem2 Apr 11, 2008 2:05 PM EDT |
I used Dvorak for a bit during college and loved it.
But a couple factors come into play:
1. You have to get really comfortable switching between dvorak and qwerty since most machines you work on don't have it.
2. It's hard to find good yet reasonably priced hardware-switchable dvorak/qwerty keyboards. I have a first gen typematrix that I used for quite a bit then gave to my sister for a while. Great keyboards, but it's hard to play games without a proper numpad...(and no, usb numpads don't cut it). |
| Scott_Ruecker Apr 11, 2008 2:27 PM EDT |
A friend of mine types in ALL CAPS AND AFTER ABOUT TWO SENTENCES I FEEL LIKE REACHING THROUGH THE E-MAIL AND KILLING HIM! ..I feel better now.. |
| jezuch Apr 11, 2008 3:11 PM EDT |
I sorta-touch-type. I never learned it "formally", but I'm slowly transitioning to a weird hybrid of every possible style imaginable ;) As for speed, I have a slow start, but can sometimes speed up significantly... at least for a while ;) |
| gus3 Apr 11, 2008 9:12 PM EDT |
I learned touch-typing in high school. After a few more years, I managed to reach about 55+ wpm. Then I got a Microsoft Natural Keyboard. Just for comparison, I found an online typing speed test. I did about 60 wpm on the original keyboard. After ten minutes on the Natural, it jumped to 77. Split kb's are a huge help for me. Plus, the MS Naturals are built like tanks. I've been known to get violent with mine, even reaching my hand a couple inches over the keyboard before POUNDING the Enter key. With the Microsoft Natural Keyboard and the Logitech Marble Trackball, I have the world at my fingertips. |
| tracyanne Apr 12, 2008 1:26 AM EDT |
I taught myself to type a long time ago on a mechanical type writer, I used to type about 30 to 40 words a minute, but over time I learned bad typing habits, when programming, like holding a pen or a pencil in my right hand and typing with my left hand plus one or two fingers on my right hand, or holding a piece of paper in one hand and typing while standing, I can actually type about 20 words a minute one handed. |
| jdixon Apr 12, 2008 3:43 AM EDT |
> With the Microsoft Natural Keyboard and the Logitech Marble Trackball, I have the world at my fingertips. While I love my Logitech Marble Trackball, I've never been able to use a split keyboard. To each his own. |
| nikkels Apr 12, 2008 6:27 AM EDT |
I learned to type in the army ( some 45 years ago ). We had a 3 month course... 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. There were no letters on the keyboard. Just ONE big layout in front of the classroom. I think I made about 80 words a minute, just enough to get a weekend pass. Right now, I get to 40 a minute.( microsoft keyboard ) With standard keyboard I get a nervous breakdown. |
| Scott_Ruecker Apr 12, 2008 10:54 AM EDT |
Split keyboards have saved my wrists. I have played the drum-kit for 22 years now and bending my wrists on a regular keyboard for more than twenty minutes hurts like all get out. Not to mention I am a faster typer on them as well, I cheat lot less because its a lot further to reach. |
| techiem2 Apr 12, 2008 11:15 AM EDT |
I think I was faster on the typematrix than I am on a normal keyboard. http://www.typematrix.com/ I used a split for a while before that and they were quite nice too. Of course, the typematrix takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do it's great. Except for the lack of a proper numpad. hehe. |
| Scott_Ruecker Apr 12, 2008 11:41 AM EDT |
I gotta have a number pad, its not having a number pad on my laptop that kills me! |
| softwarejanitor Apr 12, 2008 4:01 PM EDT |
Scott -- My Microstar laptop has a number pad... one of the advantages of the 17" widescreen display is the laptop is wide enough to allow a pretty much full width keyboard. |
| Sander_Marechal Apr 13, 2008 1:29 AM EDT |
40 wpm, 55 wpm. That's not terribly fast. That is, if those numbers are standard "word parts" instead of whole words. I asked this question on another forum as well (http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=4...) and someone posted an online typing test after which everyone started posting their scores. The test is: http://www.typeonline.co.uk/typingspeed.php? I get 45 wpm using my old method on that, with 5 errors. Typing original work I'm quite a bit faster. Around 70-80 wpm I think. Quite a lot of people on that other forum get 100+ wpm using touch typing. Not that I think you're bad typists really. Your "wpm" measure is probably different from the wpm used by that program (see the "What's wpm" header on that typing test). |
| jezuch Apr 13, 2008 2:51 AM EDT |
"WPM" also depends on the language. Some languages have shamelessly long words :) |
| Sander_Marechal Apr 13, 2008 3:49 AM EDT |
That's why the test I linked to defines wpm as "word parts" and not whole words. It should make cross-language comparison of wpm possible. Or so they say... |
| jdixon Apr 13, 2008 7:32 AM EDT |
> Your "wpm" measure is probably different from the wpm used by that program... When I was in school, wpm was defined with a word being 5 characters. |
| gus3 Apr 13, 2008 7:47 AM EDT |
When I was in school, the term of choice was "GWAM": Gross Words A Minute. And a word was at least 5 characters. |
| tuxtom Apr 14, 2008 9:16 PM EDT |
I use a hybrid technique like Scott. Switching to an ergonomic keyboard a few years ago improved my comfort dramatically and my typing speed probably doubled to a consistent 30-35 WPM. I still have to hunt for some infrequent characters and numbers, but I get things done. I don't ever plan on becoming a legal secretary, thank you very much. Thanks for the insight, Sander...I'm apt'in KTouch right now...I really need to improve my touch accuracy more so than speed. |
| Sander_Marechal Apr 14, 2008 9:45 PM EDT |
Good luck tuxtom! Be warned though that the automatically generated lessons in KTouch can contain some profanity. If you have young kids then you may want to set it to one of the manually created lessons. |
| Bob_Robertson Apr 15, 2008 11:58 AM EDT |
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| techiem2 Apr 15, 2008 12:07 PM EDT |
lol. And this bot wasn't even on topic... |
| Sander_Marechal Apr 15, 2008 1:35 PM EDT |
Note: To get spam killed fast, e-mail a warning to the editors@ address. More editors are getting that passively than we're actively browsing all the threads. It gets killed faster that way. Besides that, not all editors have the divine power of forum moderation. Apparently Bob has a ban hammer of spam smiting +1 ;-) |
| Bob_Robertson Apr 15, 2008 2:00 PM EDT |
Naa, I was just getting a giggle. The spam rate on LXer is gloriously low. Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you! |
| Scott_Ruecker Apr 15, 2008 2:41 PM EDT |
Got the spam, BAM! edit: I have a Sword of Spam Destroying +2 that Bob gave me..very useful little thing I gotta tell ya. |
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