# Do you touch-type?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-touch-type/616500
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 22, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-touch-type/616500 "2012-03-22T14:17:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@ecseas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ecseas)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2012, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-touch-type/616500/81 "2012-03-24T07:45:44Z")
I touch type. I never ever look at my keyboard. I am a fast typer, but not amazingly so.
I don’t use my pinkies much, especially on my left hand.
I can not stand ‘hunt and peck’ people I just want to grab their hands and force them to do it (more) correctly.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2012, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-touch-type/616500/82 "2012-03-24T08:06:50Z")
I can touch type reasonably well. The problem is that I hardly ever do it.
I write software, so special symbols are extremely common. Even a short Perl script is likely to use _every_ special symbol on a 101-key PC keyboard, and in any given second the odds are at least 50% that I’ll need one of these symbols.
I’m not good enough to hit all of these without looking at the keyboard, and when I do it breaks my stride. It makes it so that even when writing an email or something that doesn’t require special characters, I don’t have the time to ramp up properly if I have spent the rest of the day coding in my normal style.
So I chose “haltingly” even though I’m capable of it under optimal conditions.
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### Author:  [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-touch-type/616500/83 "2012-03-24T17:21:48Z")
32 - touch type very well. I can type upwards of 80WPM without looking in the same general direction as my keyboard (so no cheating with peripheral vision). I can type about 60WPM while having a conversation on a different topic and not looking at the keyboard.
My mother taught me the basics when I was in second grade (1988) and then I played with Mavis Beacon (still my favorite typing program). When I was in 7th grade I was required to take 6 months of typing but I changed schools halfway through the year and ended up taking it for the entire year. Ugh. That was horrible. I typed better than both my teachers.
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