Touch Typing?

[Car-Guy]

Touch Typing Update?

Just curious, are you a touch typist on a full sized qwerty keyboard (use all ten fingers and never/rarely need to look at the keyboard)? Or are you a hunt and peck typist? Or somewhere in-between?

I never took typing in school so I was a hunt and peck typist all my life. I still am but I'd say I'm really somewhere in-between now since I still need to look at the keyboard "a lot", but not all the time, and I use more than just two fingers.

How are your typing skills on a full sized keyboard? (errors aside)

 

[Qs Laptop]

Just curious, are you a touch typist on a full sized qwerty keyboard (use all ten fingers and never/rarely need to look at the keyboard)? Or are you a hunt and peck typist? Or somewhere in-between?

I never took typing in school so I was a hunt and peck typist all my life. I still am but I'd say I'm really somewhere in-between now since I still need to look at the keyboard "a lot", but not all the time, and I use more than just two fingers.

How are your typing skills on a full sized keyboard? (errors aside)

Touch typist since I took a typing class in high school.

I use a full size Keychron C2 mechanical keyboard. Best keyboard I've ever had.

I can type about 60-65 wpm with very good accuracy according to the online test sites. I do not look at my keyboard.



https://www.typing.com/student/tests

I am not schooled in using the numbers keypad by "touch typing" but through much, much usage I can type numbers accurately without looking.

[Edited to add: I am insanely good at copy-paste and cut-paste using the CTRL-C, CTRL-X, and CTRL-V keys. Also switching between open tabs via the ALT-TAB sequence.]

 

[MRG]

I took typing and worked heads down doing development for over a decade. A peer once told me, "You do type by touch, 3 characters and backspace to fix two of them." He wasn't wrong. I guess that is why I wrote a lot of assembly

 

[jimbee]

Touch typist here. I took a semester of Personal Typing in high school. It came in handy during college, made a little money typing papers for others.

 

[folivier]

I took 2 years of typing in high school, figured I'd need it in college. And all the cute girls were in typing classes.
Still touch-type. Not as fast since fingers don't work as well as they used to. But I'm still much faster on a keyboard than on a darn phone.

 

[easysurfer]

Took a couple of typing classes in high school.

I'm a touch typist except I do have to peek for numbers.

Own two mechanical keyboards. A Unicomp (modeled after the old IBM Model M) keyboard for my main desktop. Love the sound/feel of the buckling springs.

I also have another mechanical keyboard (made in China. Not popular brand but nice) with good, loud blue switches. The louder the better, IMO . This keyboard is for my other desktop.

 

[thod]

Had typing class in middle school (and I think in high school also). It came in handy as I ended up a software developer. The others I worked with could mostly touch type, but a few were just hunt and peck.

However, typing for programming is not like typing for a term paper or something. Programmers frequently have to use a lot of keys beyond just the 26 letter and 10 digits.

Funny story:
Growing up my father was pretty used to the kids easily defeating him in any of our video games. Well, we had just gotten an Atari 800 with a full keyboard and it had a typing 'game' program.

My father finally figured out he had a game that he could beat me at. He challenged me and then took his turn. He was not bad, but not really good either. Well, I sat down and destroyed his time. He could not believe it. He did not know that I had typing classes at school and was pretty good.

 

[Luvdogs]

I taught myself with a book when I was a kid.
Can do about 90% touch typing--still have to look at numbers and some punctuation.

 

[braumeister]

One of the most useful classes I had in high school, and I've always been grateful that I signed up for it.

 

[jollystomper]

Touch typist. I took it in junior high, and kept it up through high school. college (at a time when professors were still fascinated that I turned in papers typed "on a computer" ) and my career. I'm not "pure", Some times I tend to memorize a few words ahead and look at my multiple fingers when typing them. On recent tests I range between 35-50 wpm depending on how much I have to type (the more I type in a session, the more into a "groove" I get and can go faster).

 

[folivier]

Fast forward to when our company put computers in our field offices and everyone had to learn word processors, spreadsheets, timesheets, expenses, etc. on computers. I was the only one who could type and was constantly asked from my co-workers to help them. Got to be a pain after a while. Then one day someone came from corporate to teach the guys how to do the next upgraded spreadsheet. At the first break I took her aside and told her she was wasting her time. "WHAT"? I simply told her these guys could not type and her time would be better spent on teaching a basic typing course. So the rest of the class she spent on helping the guys learn the keyboard. It helped.

 

[OldShooter]

High school typing, touch typist using full size keyboards docked to my Surface tablet. A couple of years out of grad school I brought myself back up to speed by playing a typing game, shooting down bombers, on my Apple II.

 

[aja8888]

Just curious, are you a touch typist on a full sized qwerty keyboard (use all ten fingers and never/rarely need to look at the keyboard)? Or are you a hunt and peck typist? Or somewhere in-between?

I never took typing in school so I was a hunt and peck typist all my life. I still am but I'd say I'm really somewhere in-between now since I still need to look at the keyboard "a lot", but not all the time, and I use more than just two fingers.

How are your typing skills on a full sized keyboard? (errors aside)

Nebver had any opportunity to learn to type in school since reel engineers back then were not desk bound types (and, we had secrateries to do the typing for us). So I hunt and c=pack and make lots of mistakes., Plus, I am getting so old that the letters on the \keys looj the same animore. Thankls fpor asking...go Astros and Texasna!

 

[steelyman]

I took a typing class in high school. Very worthwhile. I do remember the IBM Selectrics as amazing.

 

[Car-Guy]

Like this type face... Cool at the time, wasn't it? I'm not sure it would have helped much with "my" typing skills though.

 

[Surewhitey]

I've always been a touch guy. I still buy laptops with a 10 keypad too. Tablet and phones are tap and SwiftKey for auto type.

 

[easysurfer]

I remember one summer buying a typewriter to bring away to college for those term papers. Most on my dorm floor couldn't type. So, of course I'd get asked if I could help some of the folks there type up their papers. Funny to think about as in today's world, it is pretty much assumed that everyone can type. That is, at least get by hunt and pecking.

I remember those college ads of getting your term paper typed. My brother would do that at times. Pay to get someone type his paper. I could have made a killing with a side hustle .

 

[CaptTom]

Middle school here. My typing teacher was a very tall, stout German lady with six toes on each foot. When she told you not to look at the keyboard, you didn't dare look at the keyboard! I had no choice but to learn to touch type.

Later, I was working at a place owned by an accountant. The books had to balance at the end of the day, or it came out of my pocket. He taught me to use the numeric keypad without looking. That was faster, so it got me home earlier.

Much as I hated learning them, those two skills have been among the most useful I've ever learned.

Later, as an IT support guy, I learned to use odd input devices like left-handed mice and those crazy split ergonomic keyboards. It was easier to help someone if you didn't have to re-configure their workstation, first. The split keyboard was actually easy for a touch typist to pick up. Once your fingers are on the home row keys everything is the same.

 

[Texas Proud]

I am touch typing and have been since middle school... I actually got up to a speed of about 70 wpm but normally did in the 40 to 50 range for more accuracy...


Speaking about the IBM selectric... I actually did an internship with them as a freshman in college... I took typewriters out to customers if they wanted to try them out.. also would go and set them up when delivered... unbox them, take out all stuff and make sure they worked properly...


I cannot remember the sentence we would type to check it out... looked to see what was out there but none was what I used...


BTW, they were expensive typewriters.... the ones with memories were over $5K... once I had 3 in the trunk of my car and I was thinking that if someone hit me from the back they would be surprised in the damage as my car was worth a whopping $500...

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Touch typist since my year of high school typing. We learned on IBM Selectrics, but during the school year, some kids broke into the school and did a large amount of vandalism. Most of the Selectrics were destroyed. We had to switch over to old manual typewriters that came out of storage. That was not fun after using a Selectric.

Mr. Lee was my teacher and he was quite the character. He'd walk behind us with a ruler in his hand. He never hit anyone with it that I remember, but the threat was there and he would definitely hit a desk with it now and then if he detected improper form.

a;sldkfj<space>
a;sldkfj<space>
a;sldkfj<space>

Still a fixture in my memory to this day. I was actually one of the fastest typists in the class.

I never learned the numeric keypad, unfortunately.

 

[Car-Guy]

I am touch typing and have been since middle school... I actually got up to a speed of about 70 wpm but normally did in the 40 to 50 range for more accuracy...


Speaking about the IBM selectric... I actually did an internship with them as a freshman in college... I took typewriters out to customers if they wanted to try them out.. also would go and set them up when delivered... unbox them, take out all stuff and make sure they worked properly...


I cannot remember the sentence we would type to check it out... looked to see what was out there but none was what I used...


BTW, they were expensive typewriters.... the ones with memories were over $5K... once I had 3 in the trunk of my car and I was thinking that if someone hit me from the back they would be surprised in the damage as my car was worth a whopping $500...

Maybe, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"

Uses all the "letters' of the alphabet as I recall.

 

[Texas Proud]

Maybe, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"

No, I saw that when I went looking... I will remember it eventually...


I am not sure if it had all the letters... I was told to use it so I did....

 

[GJW1]

Software developer by
trade, created my own form of touch typing - served me well over the years. Had to go to Germany to do some work and was typing away on their system only to realize half my commands weren’t working. Who knew Germans had a different keyboard layout…

 

[braumeister]

I cannot remember the sentence we would type to check it out... looked to see what was out there but none was what I used.

There are a number of "quick brown fox" type sentences, but my favorite has always been "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs".

 

[Kork13]

I've never really thought much about it, but I definitely touch type. I do remember taking a computer class in middle school that included typing practice, so that almost certainly played a role. But I can't imagine having to henpeck the whole time I type... Writing research papers in school, or even just daily emails at work would be miserable.

Out of curiosity I did the typing speed test linked above a few times, and averaged about 62-65 wpm, 97-98% accuracy. One thing I noticed as I was doing them was that being confident at spelling also plays a significant role in typing efficiency. I definitely slowed down on more complex or awkwardly-spelled words that I couldn't just read and spell accurately without thinking about it.

Funny story: The aircraft that I used to fly once had a keyboard that was laid out A-B-C-D-E .... rather than the now-standard QWERTY. The computer systems were designed in the 1960s, and engineers assumed that most aviators at the time would never have learned to type.

A more interesting question --- Has anyone ever learned to type using a Dvorak keyboard?