I'm Teaching Myself to Touch Type. Any Hints?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Finally sick of banging away at the keyboard with two fingers, I’ve downloaded a typing tutorial program (EliteTyping 2002 v4.3), and I’m determined to slug it out this time (I tried a couple of years ago, and gave up).

My first hurdle (and no offence to the good folks who produced the program I’m using), is that it’s deadly boring. And frustrating! I’m about as fast as a two-fingered typist can be, I’ve used keyboards for as long as I can remember (had an old non-electric typewriter as a kid), and suddenly I find myself back at the typing equivalent of lurching around a deserted carpark on my learner’s licence, crunching the gears in my dad’s old Ford.

With the above in mind, the main obstacle I face is that it’s very tempting to simply say, “aaar, sod it. It’s too hard”, and go back to typing with two fingers. Feeling like the kid who picks up a guitar for the first time, and is frustrated at his tutor’s insistence that he has to learn the basic stuff for what must seem like an eternity before he can play like Hendrix, I’m pissed off. I’m all thumbs. For example, my brain has this weird aversion to the letter ‘D’ (yes, you typists out there, I’m on my first lesson). ‘F’? No problem. ‘S’? You got it. ‘A’? No worries, mate. But ‘D’? [Homer]Now listen D. you don’t like me, and I don’t like you…[/HOMER]

The program I’m using (in much the same way as most of them, I guess), consists of a series of lessons, starting with the A, S, D, F, and SPACE keys for the left hand, and the J, K, L, :, and SPACE keys for the right, and gradually introduces the others as the lessons progress. A typical drill lasts for a minute or so, and I wind up with an accuracy rate of 98% or so, and a speed of around 30 wpm. Then, it prompts me, “I suggest you try again”. My gut feeling, however, is to not try too many times before progressing to the next lesson. I learn all the keys slowly, and let the speed come later. Should I follow the program’s prompts until it’s satisfied I’m ready to move on, or do I follow my own preferred learning style?
My sister has been a 90+ wpm typist for the last fifteen or so years, and still recoils in horror at the memory of learning to type. So, my fellow dopers - any tips or tricks that you might been told, or have learned the hard way, will be greatly appreciated.

P-o-s-t w-r-i-t-t-e-n c-o-u-r-t-e-s-y o-f m-y t-w-o i-n-d-e-x f-i-n-g-e-r-s.

2

When I started learning how to type (taught mylself!) I looked at the keyboard a lot. When I started the shift over from two finger hunting, I thought about what finger was closest to what key I wanted to hit. I made it a conscious decision to use that finger as much as I could. I didn’t really take any typing classes or programs, it just came. The only problem is I am a backspace bandit and I will lapse into writing words so much that I switch them accidentally. F’rinstance, I went to this store becomes I went to there store. Tricky sometimes.
Good luck!

3

definitely look at the keyboard while you are learning. Remember, the home row is your friend! Really, the fingering they teach you is very very efficient. I learned it in 7th grade, but came out of typing class [manual typewriters!!] being able to type 17wpm. It wasn’t until high school that my speed started to pick up, but that fingering stayed with me, and now I can type a zillion words a minute. I can type faster than I can talk a lot of the time. Stick with it. Look at the keyboard. The important thing is to get your hands used to using the proper fingers for each key. Once you get used to that, you will find that you naturally start going for the keys without looking. Not looking at the keyboard isn’t really that important, it’s getting the right fingers + right keys to be so ingrained that it’s second nature. You’ll get there. You’d be surprised how quickly you pick it up. That isn’t to say that you’ll be typing quickly, but you’ll get the patterns burned into your skull.

I taught my husband how to type about 10 years ago, and he typed miserably slowly–faster with two fingers by far. But when he started typing more and more on computers, he still remembered and used the proper fingering and he types super fast now :slight_smile:

Boy was that rambling or what?? I blame the cold medicine.

4

Practice as much as you can. I took a typing class when I was in highschool. I just realised the other day that I can type without looking at the keyboard at all- I assume it came from typing alot because I know I sucked when i first started :smiley:

5

I learned from chat rooms. If you can find one that interests you and that moves fairly quickly, then you should learn to touch type fairly quickly, just to keep up with the conversation.

I have no idea how fast I am, but I don’t watch my fingers anymore like I did when I first started learning!

6

Practice is the only way. I second the notion of a chat room. It will help as well as make it less boring than just sitting around typing out of a lesson guide. I reached a point rather quickly where I was faster and more accurate if I did not look at the keyboard. Now, if I try to hunt and peck just for fun, it’s a disaster. I have no idea where the keys are and look like a beginning typist. I will never be able to do numbers though by feel. Years of working on it has not helped. Some sort of mental block.

7

I like to read, so way back when, I just grabbed a short story and started plugging away. Took a long time, but it was interesting for me.

once you get beyond looking at your fingers when you type, then the speed will naturally pick up over time.

8

The only real way to do it, IMHO, is to force yourself to use the touchkey system. You don’t necessarily have to go through the mindnumbing lessons (I had to take the classes in high school, so touchtyping became fairly close to second nature for me); the chat room idea is excellent, but you may want to familiarize yourself with the keyboard layout first. Don’t worry about the numbers at the top; no one does those properly. :slight_smile: But use the techniques (not the drills, necessarily, but the techniques) they have in the typing manuals.

When I was in high school, I was a chat room addict, but more important was my BBS madness. :wink: I had to write long, literate, well-spelled posts quickly or I was obsolete and people would get grouchy.

This whole thread reminds me of something we did when I was, I think, in the fourth grade. We were all resisting the idea of learning touch typing, saying we could type just fine with hunt-and-peck. Not so, said our teacher; you will go much more quickly if you touchtype. Prove it, we said.

I was the champion hunter and pecker in the class, having the benefit of a computer at home (this was long before anyone really had computers at home, but Dad was a huge fan of 'em). The teacher made us promise that, if she beat me, we would all have to take the typing lessons. Otherwise, we could skip those and play computer games all day. Then they set me off against our teacher, who beat me twice in a row. No one was really mad at me, they were more impressed with the teacher’s lightning fingers…

9

Before I went to nursing school, I worked as a secretary. I typed 90 wpm with a 95% accuracy. Then I noticed I was making a lot of mistakes and blamed it on the swelling in my middle finger, left hand. I thought I had arthritis or something although it never really hurt. But the swelling was getting larger at an alarming rate so I decided to have the doctor take a look at it.

Would you believe I had a tumor on that finger? Right there between the knuckle and the first joint located on the side between the index and middle finger. Not cancer but a giant cell tumor, whatever that is. After I had surgery to remove it, that finger was paralyzed for a year. Oh shit, there goes my cde3 finger. But at least I got a cool serpentine scar that runs from the very base up 2/3 of my finger.

Gradually, I regained nearly full range of motion of it. There is still some numbness and it react a fraction of a second slower than all the other fingers. It gets aggrevating sometimes because I have to slow down typing quite a bit to allow for the lag. Right hand zips along but left hand is a slacker. Do you have any idea how many times you need the “e” when typing?

Anyway the key is to practice and really learn where the keys are. I find I make more mistakes if I look at the keyboard now so I look at the screen instead.

10

I didn’t take any typing lessons either I just did it myself. The need to write big arse programs is a good incentive :slight_smile:

Anyway, the secret is to type correctly first, using the proper fingers for each key, even when that means slower tying than your former “hunt and peck” method. After awhile your speed will pick up naturally.

11

If the program is really boring, I’d suggest trying Mavis Beacon. After some good lessons, you get to play games, like the undersea submarine one where you have to type quickly and accurately… otherwise a shark comes up and has a submarine sandwich snack. :badump-ump:

12

I would advise that you don’t look at the keys while you type. At least, that’s what I was forced not to do, and I’m at 85 wpm no errors.

I learned typing in high school, in a class laughably called “Computers 1” (That was the new name, the old one called “Keyboarding”, which was a newer name of the same class called “Typing” when the school opened ;)). My teacher would say, “don’t look at the keys, eventually it’ll slow you down.” Uh-huh, we all said, while surruptitiously glancing down at the keyboard, heads towards the monitor.

Then one day he introduced: the keyboard cover. :eek: It was a piece of cardboard with folds in it. The two ends of the piece went under the keyboard, and it would stand up about 6 inches above the keyboard, with a nice long cardboard stripe blocking your view of the keys. Let me tell you, I quickly learned where the backspace key was. :wink:

But it did help. Nowadays, I can’t look at the keyboard, or my fingers get all tied up in knots. I type faster if I’m looking either at the paper I’m typing from or the screen I’m typing to. And if I’m doing enough typing, I get into this zen-like state where I’m not even sure how my fingers know which keys to hit, because they’re actually finishing the word before I finish reading it to process it. :slight_smile:

13

Practice, practice, very boring practice. Type the following words (with correct fingering, of course) about a zillion times:

aqaz aqaz aqaz aqaz aqaz

swsx swsx swsx swsx swsx

dedc dedc dedc dedc dedc

frfv frfv frfv frfv frfv

gtgb gtgb gtgb gtgb gtgb

hyhn hyhn hyhn hyhn hyhn

jujm jujm jujm jujm jujm

kik, kik, kik, kik, kik,

lol. lol. lol. lol. lol.

;p;/ ;p;/ ;p;/ ;p;/ ;p;/

(Are you having fun yet?)

Now try this fun sentence several jillion times:

Dad had half a shad salad.
Dad had half a shad salad.
Dad had half a shad salad.
Dad had half a shad salad.
Dad had half a shad salad.

Poor Dad.

14

The keyboarding classes (they stopped calling it Typing Class) I took in high school were the most boring I’ve ever taken. But also some of the most useful. (I also took a class on ten-key, which turned out to be useful when I worked at a bookstore.)

I don’t know of any shortcuts to learning touch typing except practice, and lots of it.

15

Have you considered learning to touch-type on a Dvorak rather than a QWERTY keyboard? The QWERTYs were invented to slow down typists because humans can type faster than the machinery of the time could keep up with. Dvorak is a more efficient configuration. Just a thought.

As for learning to type on the usual keyboard, stroking and rhythm are essential for proper typing (as with other things :D). Try to keep your fingers typing in a rhythm rather than speeding up and slowing down - type as slowly as you need to keep the rhythm; speed comes with practice, but accuracy comes first. And stroke the keys properly (hitting cleanly with each finger). And, like everyone else says, practice practice practice.

16

The first 10 years of my programming career, I used hunt and peck. Then, I decided that it was time to learn to type. I downloaded Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor. It’s graphics are clearly intended for kids but it worked pretty well for me. The free version only teaches about 10 letters so I had my boss pay the license fee for me. (around $30) It displays a map of the keyboard so you’re not tempted to look at your fingers. They claim that that is the biggest mistake that beginners make.

The sentences that it has you type can be quite humorous. Where else would you hear the phrase, “nasal salad”?

I also use a natural keyboard and find that it is easier on my hands and wrists.

Good luck.

17

Mavis Beacon really is pretty good; it’s what I used to learn, and I’ve got about 60 wpm. Pretty much anything with typing games is probably going to be useful, since it distracts you from the sheer boredom of it all.
I got much better when I played WordRacer on Yahoo Games for a year or so - any game where you’re competing against others for speed really helps your typing. (I probably used to do 70-80 wpm there, but typing here doesn’t really get my adrenaline flowing.)

18

The home row is your friend: asdf jkl;

Keep your fingers there and simply reach up, down, or over to the key nearest the appropriate finger.

I type 85 words per minute, and I’ll tell you how I improved my speed: whenever I’m bored or simply not paying very much attention to the person chattering away at me, I’ll very discreetly type out what they are saying on my thigh. This of course only works when seated where I can hide my hands. I also used to do this in church.

19

The home row is your friend. Or so they say anyway, I could never really figure any of it out. Anyway, the other day I was walking down the road and I saw I great big yellow fountain and it was oh so pretty and I was oh so happy and yay and more!

20

I’m so sorry! I did not mean to send that at all!