Typing Tutor

[Armin]

Although I can type quite quickly, I've developed some very bad habits over the years. Share typing tutor programs you've had good experiences with so I won't waste my time guessing what's good.

[Maddi]

What you mean bad habits?

I don't follow any tutor, my hands just roam around the keyboard. I find my way much faster.

My technique:
Place your closest and most comfortable finger where the next key is going to be while you are pressing the current key.

Not:
This finger hits these keys, this finger hits these keys, etc.

I seem to be typing about 130wpm with my way.



I didn't know there were bad typing habits.

[iago]

I definitely have some bad typing habits, all of which stem from my complete non-use of the left-shift key. So, if I have to type, say, "<", (or even the quotation marks themselves), I have to remove my hands from home row.

[Sidoh]

I seem to be typing about 130wpm with my way.

Are you using Dvorak or something?  Barbara Blackburn, who was (is?) the world record holder for highest sustained WPM was only about 170 wpm, and she was using Dvorak, which typically increases typing speeds by about 70%.

[Krazed]

I seem to be typing about 130wpm with my way.

Are you using Dvorak or something?  Barbara Blackburn, who was (is?) the world record holder for highest sustained WPM was only about 170 wpm, and she was using Dvorak, which typically increases typing speeds by about 70%.

I was right at 130wpm in my typing class in high school..

[Sidoh]

I seem to be typing about 130wpm with my way.

Are you using Dvorak or something?  Barbara Blackburn, who was (is?) the world record holder for highest sustained WPM was only about 170 wpm, and she was using Dvorak, which typically increases typing speeds by about 70%.

I was right at 130wpm in my typing class in high school..

For how long and at what accuracy?  "Burst" WPM is kinda meaningless.  The longer you type, the more accurate the measure is.

[iago]

I do ~100wpm on "difficult" text (ie, Shakespearean).

(this site: http://www.typeonline.co.uk/typingspeed.php)

[Maddi]

Are you using Dvorak or something?  Barbara Blackburn, who was (is?) the world record holder for highest sustained WPM was only about 170 wpm, and she was using Dvorak, which typically increases typing speeds by about 70%.

No. I have my own unique typing style with my sexy QWERTY.

I do ~100wpm on "difficult" text (ie, Shakespearean).

(this site: http://www.typeonline.co.uk/typingspeed.php)

Yeah, my highest score on that one is 135 I think.

[deadly7]

Although I can type quite quickly, I've developed some very bad habits over the years. Share typing tutor programs you've had good experiences with so I won't waste my time guessing what's good.

Type To Learn is what we used in elementary school. It's tedious is all hell, and I don't even think it's sold anymore, but it taught me my typing habits, which are for the most part on par with what they're "supposed" to be to be optimal.

[Sidoh]

Are you using Dvorak or something?  Barbara Blackburn, who was (is?) the world record holder for highest sustained WPM was only about 170 wpm, and she was using Dvorak, which typically increases typing speeds by about 70%.

No. I have my own unique typing style with my sexy QWERTY.

The thing is, though, no matter how you use a qwerty keyboard, the keys are still spaced inefficiently.  It was designed to limit typing speeds.  It's impressive that you're able to attain (and hopefully sustain?) 130 WPM using it.

I have a friend who has been using Dvorak since she learned how to type.  I'd like to see what speed she can get to.

I'm only able to get 100-110 using conventional qwerty.  I would really like to switch to Dvorak.

(This is intended for the programmer-types): I've seen "Programmer's Dvorak" layouts.  I assume that this means they place semi-colon, braces, parenthesis, etc closer to homerow than on conventional Dvorak, but I'm not sure.  Have any of you guys tried it out? 

[Maddi]

The thing is, though, no matter how you use a qwerty keyboard, the keys are still spaced inefficiently.  It was designed to limit typing speeds.  It's impressive that you're able to attain (and hopefully sustain?) 130 WPM using it.

I have a friend who has been using Dvorak since she learned how to type.  I'd like to see what speed she can get to.

I'm only able to get 100-110 using conventional qwerty.  I would really like to switch to Dvorak.

(This is intended for the programmer-types): I've seen "Programmer's Dvorak" layouts.  I assume that this means they place semi-colon, braces, parenthesis, etc closer to homerow than on conventional Dvorak, but I'm not sure.  Have any of you guys tried it out? 

Well I don't see how QWERTY would limit typing speeds.
Homerow is highly over-rated.

[iago]

The thing is, though, no matter how you use a qwerty keyboard, the keys are still spaced inefficiently.  It was designed to limit typing speeds.  It's impressive that you're able to attain (and hopefully sustain?) 130 WPM using it.

It's not designed to limit typing speeds, it's designed to put characters that are used in conjunction away from each other.

[Falcon]

I think my typing habit is the worst here, I type mainly with my left hand.

[Sidoh]

The thing is, though, no matter how you use a qwerty keyboard, the keys are still spaced inefficiently.  It was designed to limit typing speeds.  It's impressive that you're able to attain (and hopefully sustain?) 130 WPM using it.

I have a friend who has been using Dvorak since she learned how to type.  I'd like to see what speed she can get to.

I'm only able to get 100-110 using conventional qwerty.  I would really like to switch to Dvorak.

(This is intended for the programmer-types): I've seen "Programmer's Dvorak" layouts.  I assume that this means they place semi-colon, braces, parenthesis, etc closer to homerow than on conventional Dvorak, but I'm not sure.  Have any of you guys tried it out? 

Well I don't see how QWERTY would limit typing speeds.
Homerow is highly over-rated.

It actually has very little to do with using home row.  It's how the commonly used letters are spaced from each other.  In Dvorak, all of the commonly used letters are bunched up, limiting the amount of moving around you have to do.  My understanding is qwerty was purposefully designed without this property.  When typewriters were still the common application of keyboards, the heads would jam up if the typists went too fast, so limiting how fast they could type was an advantage at the time.

The thing is, though, no matter how you use a qwerty keyboard, the keys are still spaced inefficiently.  It was designed to limit typing speeds.  It's impressive that you're able to attain (and hopefully sustain?) 130 WPM using it.

It's not designed to limit typing speeds, it's designed to put characters that are used in conjunction away from each other.

Isn't slower typing speeds a side-effect of this?  If you have to move around the keyboard more often (which you do if you want to satisfy the property you gave), isn't it the case that you'll be typing slower than if you didn't have to move around as much?

I bet there's a simple study you could do to see if this is the case.  The rough frequency of appearances of characters in English is common knowledge.  If you do something to compute the offsets of each key from every other key, then multiply by its frequency and average that, it seems like it'd be a good rough measure of how "efficient" a keyboard layout is.

[Newby]

Yeah, my highest score on that one is 135 I think.

First try on a laptop with a keyboard I'm unfarmilar with (CTRL+BACKSPACE doesn't work like that on a Mac!) in which I took probably close to a second to drag my mousepad to the "stop timer" button. So eh I'm not really impressed. :/

And iago: I never use the right shift key.

[Maddi]

Yeah, my highest score on that one is 135 I think.

First try on a laptop with a keyboard I'm unfarmilar with (CTRL+BACKSPACE doesn't work like that on a Mac!) in which I took probably close to a second to drag my mousepad to the "stop timer" button. So eh I'm not really impressed. :/

And iago: I never use the right shift key.

1 mistake = try again
Has to be perfect.

It's actually really easy to fake your score in this.
Can get like 8000 wpm.

[Rule]

170 wpm is a world record???!  I can sustain about 230 WPM with QWERTY.  And I haven't been trying to break any records...

[Sidoh]

170 wpm is a world record???!  I can sustain about 230 WPM with QWERTY.  And I haven't been trying to break any records...

lol, what the hell?  What do you get on the typing test that someone linked earlier in this thread?

http://www.speedye.com/archives/2004/05/worlds_fastest.html

[Maddi]

170 wpm is a world record???!  I can sustain about 230 WPM with QWERTY.  And I haven't been trying to break any records...

Yeah I'm sure you do.

[Newby]

I honestly thought the record was 150 for an hour straight. But I guess I am misinformed.

Maddi, you miss my point:



How come I could barely get 135 on that last test which took maybe three quarters of a minute, and I take this one for three minutes straight and get nearly 10wpm higher?

Free internet typing tests may make you feel good, but they're in no way, shape or form very accurate or useful as a test of your abilities. What if I type faster when I am thinking of what I am going to type? What if these types of tests (ones where you write what you read) I do poorly at?

[Maddi]

I honestly thought the record was 150 for an hour straight. But I guess I am misinformed.

Maddi, you miss my point:



How come I could barely get 135 on that last test which took maybe three quarters of a minute, and I take this one for three minutes straight and get nearly 10wpm higher?

Free internet typing tests may make you feel good, but they're in no way, shape or form very accurate or useful as a test of your abilities. What if I type faster when I am thinking of what I am going to type? What if these types of tests (ones where you write what you read) I do poorly at?

Yes I'm aware.
I do know that I can type the alphabet abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz in 1.9 seconds.
http://www.addictinggames.com/fingerfrenzy.html

[Sidoh]

sorry guys, but my epeen is still way bigger.

[iago]

Free internet typing tests may make you feel good, but they're in no way, shape or form very accurate or useful as a test of your abilities. What if I type faster when I am thinking of what I am going to type? What if these types of tests (ones where you write what you read) I do poorly at?

There's definitely a huge difference between transcribing and writing. But it's hard to measure how fast you think + type.

[iago]

Isn't slower typing speeds a side-effect of this?  If you have to move around the keyboard more often (which you do if you want to satisfy the property you gave), isn't it the case that you'll be typing slower than if you didn't have to move around as much?

I bet there's a simple study you could do to see if this is the case.  The rough frequency of appearances of characters in English is common knowledge.  If you do something to compute the offsets of each key from every other key, then multiply by its frequency and average that, it seems like it'd be a good rough measure of how "efficient" a keyboard layout is.

It may be a side effect, but it wasn't an intention. The idea that it was intended to slow people down is a common myth/misconception/whatever.

And it's sort of hard to test, because I find that I can type words faster when I switch hands every other letter. So when my left hand is hitting one letter, my right hand has the next one queued up. The downside is that it's a lot easier to get letters out of order.

[Hitmen]

I can type like 10wpm. But this is on my phone. Stupid thing. Btw wtf is home row?

[BigAznDaddy]

I can type like 10wpm. But this is on my phone. Stupid thing. Btw wtf is home row?

i can only write 50 wpm and i am on my laptop. wow you guys are amazing good at typing.

[rabbit]

I just did the orange one and I noticed that I pretty much use only my index finger on my right hand when I type.

[Sidoh]

Isn't slower typing speeds a side-effect of this?  If you have to move around the keyboard more often (which you do if you want to satisfy the property you gave), isn't it the case that you'll be typing slower than if you didn't have to move around as much?

I bet there's a simple study you could do to see if this is the case.  The rough frequency of appearances of characters in English is common knowledge.  If you do something to compute the offsets of each key from every other key, then multiply by its frequency and average that, it seems like it'd be a good rough measure of how "efficient" a keyboard layout is.

It may be a side effect, but it wasn't an intention. The idea that it was intended to slow people down is a common myth/misconception/whatever.

And it's sort of hard to test, because I find that I can type words faster when I switch hands every other letter. So when my left hand is hitting one letter, my right hand has the next one queued up. The downside is that it's a lot easier to get letters out of order.

Oh, that's good to know.  Not that I don't believe you, but do you have a source?

Hehe.  Well, it might be more beneficial to measure the keys' offset from homerow or something, then.  It might also make sense to weight which key on homerow it's closest too, since, for example, pinkies are typically less agile than index fingers.

I can type like 10wpm. But this is on my phone. Stupid thing. Btw wtf is home row?

lol, I bet my sister was up to 30+ WPM on a phone without a qwerty keyboard.  She says she sends like 2000 texts a month though, heh.

I'm not sure if that was a serious question, but home row is the "starting place" for your fingers on the keyboard.  On qwerty, it's asdf jlk;.  On dvorak, it's aoeu dhtn

[Hitmen]

It was a serious question. Ive never heard that before. But i learned how to type with my fingers and a keyboard not in some class or with a weird program

[Camel]

I definitely have some bad typing habits, all of which stem from my complete non-use of the left-shift key. So, if I have to type, say, "<", (or even the quotation marks themselves), I have to remove my hands from home row.

I am the opposite; I don't use the right shift key.

In middle school, we had typing class, and I got a lot of grief for that - but I never broken the habit. Other than that, though, I type "normally."

[Camel]

First try on a laptop with a keyboard I'm unfarmilar with (CTRL+BACKSPACE doesn't work like that on a Mac!) in which I took probably close to a second to drag my mousepad to the "stop timer" button. So eh I'm not really impressed. :/

And iago: I never use the right shift key.

In a traditional typing test, you are not allowed to use the backspace key!

[iago]

Oh, that's good to know.  Not that I don't believe you, but do you have a source?

When I posted that, I looked on Google for like 10 sec to find a source, but couldn't find anything (I really only checked Snopes). So I gave up.

[Sidoh]

Oh, that's good to know.  Not that I don't believe you, but do you have a source?

When I posted that, I looked on Google for like 10 sec to find a source, but couldn't find anything (I really only checked Snopes). So I gave up.

Jerk!

[Maddi]

I am the opposite; I don't use the right shift key.

In middle school, we had typing class, and I got a lot of grief for that - but I never broken the habit. Other than that, though, I type "normally."

I only use the left shift key with my pinky.
If I cleaned my keyboard there'd be a huge amount of dust collected as I went over the right shift key.

[Armin]

I think my typing habit is the worst here, I type mainly with my left hand.

I have the same problem, using only two fingers on my right hand. I also only use the left-shift key, and my fingers like to hit keys other fingers are supposed to hit.

I've decided the best way to fix my habits is to type really slow, being sure every keystroke is perfect. Unfortunately, I now type at ~8 WPM, so nobody should talk to me on AIM for a bit unless they don't mind waiting a minute for every response.

[Camel]

I've decided the best way to fix my habits is to type really slow, being sure every keystroke is perfect. Unfortunately, I now type at ~8 WPM, so nobody should talk to me on AIM for a bit unless they don't mind waiting a minute for every response.

While that may work, I'm sure there's a better way. In my typing class, we did drills - like, we'd start with A and S, and the instructor would tell us to type random combinations of those letters, and then we'd compare our results to the instructions; once we became consistent, we'd go to a different pair of keys, and after that, combine the four. It's also important to do pair drills from one hand to the other, because that's the most common time to introduce finger dyslexia, and it's best to nip that in the butt early, else you'll be hogging the backspace key. When you get toward the end of the keyboard with that method, you end up being much stronger with the left hand than the right, which actually turns out to be good since the most commonly used keys are on the left hand anyways.

There are two things I would recommend:

First, break off your backspace key -- well, maybe not break, but at least pry out the button so you can't easily hit it. This will force you to get in the mindset of typing accurately, and not necessarily fast; don't worry, you'll get fast at it with practice. If you make a typo, just press space and keep trying to write the word until you get it right. When you're done with the sentence, you can go back and remove the typos. This is valuable for several reasons: firstly, you see visually how bad you suck at typing, and also you see where your problem areas are, so that you can work on them.

Optionally, you can just not use the backspace key, but that is pretty much impossible to will yourself in to doing.

Secondly, if you find yourself looking down at the keys, get a piece of paper, and stick it between the number keys and the f-keys so it drapes over your hand. I did this when I was learning to type, and what I found was that I still needed to look down at the keyboard to visualize where some keys were, even though I wasn't reading the keys. I doubt I'd have been able to break the habit without using the paper.

[Maddi]

First, break off your backspace key -- well, maybe not break, but at least pry out the button so you can't easily hit it.

If I don't have a backspace key then I'll get in the habit of doing "<- del" or "shift <-" and retype.

[iago]

Secondly, if you find yourself looking down at the keys, get a piece of paper, and stick it between the number keys and the f-keys so it drapes over your hand. I did this when I was learning to type, and what I found was that I still needed to look down at the keyboard to visualize where some keys were, even though I wasn't reading the keys. I doubt I'd have been able to break the habit without using the paper.

I re-arranged the keys on my keyboard, which is when I discovered when I look at keys -- when I'm doing a key combo (:ew, ctrl-s, etc). I didn't realize I was doing that!