Can you touch type? And when did you learn?

[Riesstiu IV]

I'm missing both hands so I type with my nose. Capitalizing words is a real b*tch.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Heraclitus
This might be something, but I doubt it.

Yeah, I caught that.

[Colon™]

Originally posted by Riesstiu IV
I'm missing both hands so I type with my nose. Capitalizing words is a real b*tch.

Caps Lock

[Kontiki]

nm

[Koyaanisqatsi]

I don't remember ever not being able to touch type.

[Lul Thyme]

I have been using computers since I was a kid but I was also a "pecker" typer until we were forced to learn proper typing in a class in 8th grade.

I was thinking about it the other day and I noticed that my technique is not exactly the proper one.
My left hand does exactly the standard technique (at rest on
"asdf" each finger has the corresponding column except the index has the "g" column also) but my right hand uses a slightly more flexible technique. It does not always go back to the normal rest position, often the index is resting on the "m". My right index ends up doing more then it should, for example I will usually do the punctuation with it. I also mostly use the right shift, rarely the left one although I'm not sure what's the "proper" technique for this.

[Main_Brain]

Mario Teaches Typing

[chequita guevara]

I can type faster than I can write, and sometimes faster than I can think. I took a typing class in high school, but it wasn't until I started playing on AmberMUSH that I really learned how to type with all my fingers without looking at the keyboard, though I sometimes still glance.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I can type faster than I can write, and sometimes faster than I can think.

That would be the problem for far too many people on these boards I'm afraid

[Imran Siddiqui]

I can touch type. I took a school class in like the 5th and 6th grade, but I really learned how to type really quickly by, believe it or not, posting on this forum. All the typing I was doing on here really improved my typing speed a lot... especially in those huge forum debates where you needed to type a lot of stuff in response to others.

[Arrian]

Typing class in highschool. I'm really fast, but also make a fair number of mistakes. Even with the mistakes, I'm pretty fast. I can type w/o looking at the screen or keyboard, but I usually do look.

edit: totally agree with Imran. My typing speed doubled because of 'poly.

-Arrian

[Wezil]

Originally posted by snoopy369


It's an age/generation thing. Lots of people 40+ can't touchtype, even those who work in a business where they type frequently; it wasn't taught (particularly to men) pre-1980s in school, because only secretaries (generally female) typed pre-computer. Once you hit a certain age, it is increasingly more difficult to learn new things.

Yep. I prepare documents on a daily basis but still "peck" at the keyboard. I'm actually not too slow when I get working on something.

[snoopy369]

What's hilarious is my class (circa 1990) was still paired with Home Ec - one semester typing, one semester home ec. You took it if you didn't want to take shop or something to that effect (I forget the specifics). I went to a rather backwards middle school...

[Lorizael]

Typing is more or less my main means of communication. I've been able to touch type for years, but I never received any formal instruction on it. Because of that, I notice that certain fingers do a lot more work than others. I'm not sure if my right pinky finger ever does anything - lazy digit.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Originally posted by LordShiva
Teh overall lack of innuendo in teh above post is unsettling.

If you need a hijacked thread, this one by Wezil should be a fun example of that.

Back on topic, I do think it's a timing issue. The 1980s were when computers were starting to get affordable for household use, and I was born in '80, so I just managed to grow up learning how to use a mouse as a little kid, etc. Prior to that, the only time you'd get to learn to type would be with the actual mechanical typewriters.

Any person in high school now will probably be fluent with using the Internet to research their studies and to communicate with teachers and their peers. None of this was around in a convenient, usable form when I was in high school, so learning to touch type was much more optional back then.

It's a good thing to touch type, but I sometimes wonder whether QWERTY will ever be replaced by something a little more logical, like Dvorak, which I'm also trying to learn.