Touch-typing

[dr_mabeuse]

Is it ever too late to learn how to touch-type? I taught myself to type as a kid and it's a modified two-finger technique. I'm pretty fast but I make a hell of a lot of errors and I just have to look at the keyboard. I just worry that it's so ingrained that I wouldn't be able to learn to touch type now.

Has anyone else learned to touch type as an adult? The thought of having to do all those exercises just makes me kind of nauseous.

---dr.M.

 

[oggbashan]

Is it ever too late to learn how to touch-type? I taught myself to type as a kid and it's a modified two-finger technique. I'm pretty fast but I make a hell of a lot of errors and I just have to look at the keyboard. I just worry that it's so ingrained that I wouldn't be able to learn to touch type now.

Has anyone else learned to touch type as an adult? The thought of having to do all those exercises just makes me kind of nauseous.

---dr.M.

No. It's never too late. My father started to learn touch typing at the age of 70. He did have an advantage. He had been a telegraphist in the 1920s.

However, you can't avoid the exercises. At least you wont have to learn on a manual typewriter and bang hard and accurately.

Mavis Beacon is a good typing course but there are shareware courses as well.

Og (who started to learn and then found that he had a physical problem with his fingers. It was rather like finding out that you are actually dyslexic in your 40s. I can't use more than four fingers at once. Now I know why I couldn't learn to play the violin. If I'd known I'd have saved my parents the cost of the wasted lessons.)

PS. My father learnt touch typing so that he could type his essays for the degree course he wanted to start when he retired. Then he didn't retire until 75, stayed on working part-time, and finally retired at 80. He got his degree but decided at 87 he was too old to start his Master's and PhD. He kept typing his memoirs until about 6 months before his death aged 96.

 

[gauchecritic]

I'm a self taught touch typist Doc. Learned from a book (RSA Text) and managed grade 3 dist. Never started 'til I was 30 something or other. Still can't do the numbers without looking though.

Can't remember what it's like to type with only two fingers.

Gauche

 

[Alex De Kok]

Do those of you who learned late consider it worthwhile? I'm quite fast, but like the good Dr. need to look at the keyboard while I'm working. My wife is trained and on our old typewriter - pre word processor days - sounded like a machine gun! It would certainly be useful for NaNoWriMo but is two weeks enough, I wonder?

Alex

 

[Guest]

 

[gauchecritic]

Do those of you who learned late consider it worthwhile? I'm quite fast, but like the good Dr. need to look at the keyboard while I'm working. My wife is trained and on our old typewriter - pre word processor days - sounded like a machine gun! It would certainly be useful for NaNoWriMo but is two weeks enough, I wonder?

Alex

Alex, 2 weeks would be enough, I think, if you can put in 10 hours a day.

I'd say it's definitely worthwhile, and when you stop and think about what you're actually doing when you're touchtyping, it's quite amazing really.

Gauche

 

[Guest]

Alex, I'm glad Gauche spoke up, I didn't want to be solely to blame in case you start this and it ruins your life for two weeks.

I learned the basics of touch-typing in h.s. from a senile fat nun. I hated it of course and nearly failed the class, but slow as I was I could type w/o looking at the keyboard (manual). I wrote short papers in college due more to my typing skills and procrastination so it wasn't until I was in my late 30s and a single mom that I needed to type for a living. While looking for a secretarial position I spent an hour a night simply typing to improve my speed, didn't take long at all.

I still cannot do the numbers and any punctuation other then the comma and period w/o looking. I say that because in the two week's time, if you choose, you can simply concentrate on the letters (and believe me, you want to be able to type the commas and periods w/o looking).

Once you start the novel, typing it will go hand-in-hand with improving your speed and proficiency.

always the best to you, Alex,

Perdita

 

[MWG]

What everyone else said was accurate, but I noticed they missed one point that is among the most important - touch typing, oddly, helps improve posture and guards against carpal tunnel syndrome. Properly touch typing, with the wrists up, is the difference between writers/heavy internet users suffering CTS and evading it. And CTS is definitely one of those things that doesn't really sound so bad until you have it.

You basically will have to re-invent the way you sit at your desk. However, the improvement on speed, accuracy, and posture will be well worth it. It's simply much more efficient and will allow you greater concentration on your work if you're not focused on which key to hit next.

I'm not sure what we used in high school, but I've heard that TypingTutor is the best. Also, see if you can find a solid black keyboard cover with which to practise, so that you can cover up the letters on the keyboard and won't be tempted to look while you're practising.

Good luck!

 

[Alex De Kok]

And another question

Thanks for the advice, guys and gals. I may leave it until after NaNo but I think I will give it a go.

The other question? At the moment I have one of those Microsoft keyboards which is sort of split in the middle and bent into a shallow 'V'. My wife hates it and insists on using her own - straight-keyboard - PC if she's typing anything for me. I'm thinking of replacing the keyboard, but do I get another so-called 'natural' keyboard or just a plain straight one?

Alex

 

[Guest]

Alex, I have the middle-V (ergonomic) keyboard and love it. I resisted for the longest time until I broke my wrist (about a year ago) and had difficulty with the recovery. It only took a day to adjust to the new board and I wouldn't go back for anything.

Not knowing your wife I don't know what to say. You can tell her it's better for one's health and it only took me a day to switch over (and I was 55!)

Perdita

 

[Alex De Kok]

Perdita, mi amiga, you make a good point. BUT. If I persuade my dearly-beloved I'll have to buy two new keyboards.

Jokingly,

Alex

 

[oggbashan]

Perdita, mi amiga, you make a good point. BUT. If I persuade my dearly-beloved I'll have to buy two new keyboards.

Jokingly,

Alex

Why not? They are not very expensive especially at Computer Fairs. I have several keyboards including a French one which has all the accents and the key order starts AZERTY.

My keyboards get mucky because I use them so much (and one of the cats thinks the keyboard is a convenient sleeping place). I unplug it, plug another one on and clean the first one.

Og

 

[SlaveMasterUK]

I have no idea what proper touch-typing actually involves, but I learnt where all the keys were when I was about 13 years old. I began writing a sci-fi story and spent most of my lonely evenings working on it. It wasn't until my fingers began twitching along with my inner monologue that I realised I could touch-type.

I virtually never look at the keys now, and I don't suffer from carpel tunnel (or RSI as we call it i the UK) as bad as I used to in my teens (I'm 23 now) although my wrists still makes lots of clicking sounds when I move them around. I know where most of the puntuation and symbols are, although I still make the odd mistake. when I used Mavis Beacon at college I was hitting about 80wpm, although I expect I could go a bit higher now...

Working as a software developer during the day obviously helps, as there's a lot of symbols in to use and odd words to type when writing code. Although I still make far more mistakes on my work computer than I do at home; I think my desk is a little high there.

I'm not sure about those ergo keyboards, when I've used them I've adjusted very quickly but I wouldn't buy one for home because I'm often darting around from machine to machine at work and wouldn't want to have to continually re-adjust or keep unplugging keyboards all the time.

ax

 

[deliciously_naughty]

Never too late and it's a very useful skill. I've been giving thanks for learning in high school for years now. I can actually type faster than I can write and as about as fast as I can think. Not to mention, it's a hell of a lot cleaner...if I'm writing quickly, I can't always read what I wrote at a later date.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Take a plain sheet of typing paper and use it to cover your hands on the keyboard. Most desks have the slide out keyboard tray so this is actually pretty easy to do these days just by taping the paper to the desk.

Helpful hints from Mr. Bosselman's 8th grade business typing class.

 

[McKenna]

.

 

[raphy]

I learnt it late (mid 20s) - And didn't use any courses. I just spent far too long in mIRC chat rooms, and on IM type chat deals, and talkers, and MUSHes and MUDs, and all sorts of internet communication media..... and after you've caught yourself trying to have 8 different conversations at once, you eventually learn how to touch type. At last check, I think I was 85-90 wpm or so, without looking at the keyboard, reading an unfamiliar text, If I'm chatting, or writing a story of course, that number goes up, because I don't have to read and process before I type.

I can't do the numbers though

Raph, who has memories of typing on two keyboards at the same time, having different conversations on two computers to two different people.

 

[Guest]

Raphy, I am so like you, in how I learnt my way quickly around a keyboard. ICQ, MSN and Yahoo did it for me. You have to be on your toes, when trying to hold eight conversations at once. It was fun for a while, but I soon got exhausted. It quickly got me using all my fingers to type, except when I was trying to do it one handed.

I don't do that now, the novelty soon wore off. I prefer to have deep and meaningful conversations with one person these days.

I've been able to do the numbers extremely fast, without looking, for years. When I left school I worked in the Branch Office of a supermarket. I did all the ordering, cashing up, etc. The ordering consisted of pages and pages of six digit codes, followed by the quantity. They had to be input into a little handset, and transfered to the computer at the end of the day. I could be taking a phone call, or chatting to the Securicor guy, and still be pounding out the orders on the handset. I miss that.

Lou

 

[Stefan_J]

I think any writer shoud know how to touch-type, if you're looking at the keyboard then a part of your mind isn't focused on the task at hand - writing, and if that hasn't got your full attention then you may not be able to write as well as you could. Besides, touch-typing is faster, it's a fact, so if you can write as fast as your thoughts carry you then you don't end up forgetting an idea because you were too busy hunting for the keys.

 

[Madame Manga]

Like some of you, I never learned to touch-type until I started using email in my late twenties. I took a class in high school and so had the basics, but didn't use them too well. I remember begging my hallmates to help me type up a paper that was due in two hours--I was slogging along at fifteen WPM with lots of mistakes and had three or four pages to go. So the paper went in on time, but in three different fonts.

MM

 

[Alex De Kok]

So the paper went in on time, but in three different fonts.

MM

Sounds like some of the first year student assignments I mark!

Alex