Touch typing?

partyatmygaff

With pretty much every single thing in our lives now involving a computer or keyboard of some sort it's pretty shocking to see that so few people can actually touch type. Even those who think they can touch type get bewildered by the sight of blank keyboards like this.

So the good people of AH, how many of you can actually touch type?

Mr Benevolent

I can touch myself if that counts.

On topic, yes I can touch myself. I mean type.

Biggins

No

I touch - I type. Yes.

Duggy747

That looks like a good trick to pull on someone. :pac:

In my line of techie work I rarely see keyboards like that. Actually, quite the opposite where there's stickers stuck on with the letters enlarged hugely!

CorkMan

No

Yes I can touch type, but I still need to have the keyboard in my view if you know what I mean. I think looking at the screen while still having the keyboard in your view helps.

Richard Hillman

No

I can but i do need to take a look down every few seconds

(I touched typed this :cool:)

SEPT 23 1989

I peck at the keyboard

KeithM89_old

yUp ican touchtyyype perfe ctly.

kylith

No

Yes, I can. I'm constantly surprised that so many people can't. I'm going to teach myself the Dvorak keyboard layout soon

jester77

I've yet to see anyone who can type without touching.... well apart from the dude in Minority Report

srsly78

Get one of those and you will learn pretty fast.

Mars Bar

No

Yep I can touch type. I rarely look at the keyboard only to find odd symbols that I wouldn't use that often.

I type and look at my mam when she's talking to me coz it freaks her out.

I'm on a macbook though so if you put a windows keyboard in front of me, I'll make a ton load of mistakes until I get used to it again.

borderlinemeath

No

I used to be able to type about 50 words per minute. Thanks to a programme on our first home pc about 17 years ago.

Drives me mad when I see my OH trying to type an email with one forefinger and hunched over the keyboard. I usually ask him to dictate the email to me. It like watching teeth being pulled.

phasers

I don't really understand why it's a big deal if you look at the keyboard when you type.


Sometimes I look, sometimes I don't. Takes the same amount of time to type something.

pickarooney

mars bar wrote: »

Yep I can touch type. I rarely look at the keyboard only to find odd symbols that I wouldn't use that often.

I type and look at my mam when she's talking to me coz it freaks her out.

I'm on a macbook though so if you put a windows keyboard in front of me, I'll make a ton load of mistakes until I get used to it again.

What's a Windows keyboard?

bigwormbundoran

No

I can indeed, theres nothing that drives me up the wall more than when I have to use the mothers nerbook with its tiny keypad and I have to tip away at the keys like some retard, this also occurs with laptops that for some reason during the design process they decided to squeeze in the fecking number pad on the right, thus making all the other keys fractionally smaller, and thus impossible to use!

phasers

I typed this without looking to test myself. Seems I can touch type. This is so going on my CV for some reason.

Teyla Emmagan

Thanks to the secretarial course my Daddy sent me on when I left school, at one stage I could touch type about 120wpm (accurately!).

It's one of my few skills, so I enjoy boasting about it to people I don't know on the internet. I know you're all impressed.

osullic

I can't touch type, I can type like 50 wpm which is crap compared to the missus; she can type 120+ wpm..

Oh well, I manage to get by

Guill

Right i set mt fingersd om the kets and srated rypinf abd this is wdar i for.


Right i sey mt fingers on the keys and started typing and this is what i got.

Mr Benevolent

pickarooney wrote: »

What's a Windows keyboard?

It's a keyboard used by Windows users, or normal people you prefer.

Kiera

No

Yes i can touch type. Learn years ago with mevis beacon.

Naikon

No

Yes.

Naikon

No

Confab wrote: »

It's a keyboard used by Windows users, or normal people you prefer.

Does not exist.

borderlinemeath

No

Kiera wrote: »

Yes i can touch type. Learn years ago with mevis beacon.

That's her. She was the cyber lady who taught me too.

jimthemental

I can, but not very well. In my school we had typewriters instead of computers. I'm only 24!

kylith

No

Ladies who type; how long are your fingernails? I have to keep mine short or my typing goes to hell. I have no idea how people manage to type with really long nails.

Teyla Emmagan

kylith wrote: »

Ladies who type; how long are your fingernails? I have to keep mine short or my typing goes to hell. I have no idea how people manage to type with really long nails.

I agree. Also the sound of someone's witch like talons hitting the keyboard also really creeps me out. Really long nails are invariably gross though.

The stimulation provided by typing also makes your nails grow faster. Oh the irony..

kylith

No

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

I agree. Also the sound of someone's witch like talons hitting the keyboard also really creeps me out. Really long nails are invariably gross though.

The stimulation provided by typing also makes your nails grow faster. Oh the irony..

The nail on my right index finger is permanently curved down from the M and N keys.

Teyla Emmagan

kylith wrote: »

The nail on my right index finger is permanently curved down from the M and N keys.

Now that is weird Kylith.

phasers

My nails are super short, I had fake nails on for a while when I was younger though and I could still type fine with them.

Overheal

No

Touch typing blows. Keyboards are wonderful. Long live the keyboard.

Don't get me wrong, Dragon voice recognition has come a long, long way since I last used it 10 years ago, but who wants to yell at their computter? No I.

I just hope iOS5 comes out with a better keyboard

Turtwig

Overheal wrote: »

Touch typing blows. Keyboards are wonderful. Long live the keyboard.

Don't get me wrong, Dragon voice recognition has come a long, long way since I last used it 10 years ago, but who wants to yell at their computter? No I.

I just hope iOS5 comes out with a better keyboard

I actually use Dragon 10. It's greatest use if for saving memos and stuff to a personal recorder and then uploading them later and watching the computer produce the required document in a few seconds. Great memory storage technique. Most of time when I'm on boards tho I just type.

smcgiff

No

Can touch type letters well over 50wpm, but only if there are no numbers never learned to touch type numbers.

Giblet

I think I'm well into the 100 wpm boundary now. I do get caught out on keyboards I haven't used though, if it's in a slightly different style than I'm used to.
Blame IRC for that

Nulty

No

I'm not very fast yet but I touch typed this with 2 mistakes.

I practice with these games:

http://www.phoboslab.org/ztype/

http://games.sense-lang.org/olympia.php

Nulty

No

smcgiff wrote: »

Can touch type letters well over 50wpm, but only if there are no numbers never learned to touch type numbers.

And you moderate Accountancy?

Turtwig

Nulty wrote: »

And you moderate Accountancy?

I know many folks who are pros at numpad typing but when it comes to numbers mixed with letters they suck.

kiersm

No

I would be a touch typist also. I find its easier type no's using a numeric keypad.

I have gel nails & find it harder to type without my nails for some reason.

Kevin Duffy

Guill wrote: »

Right i set mt fingersd om the kets and srated rypinf abd this is wdar i for.


Right i sey mt fingers on the keys and started typing and this is what i got.

Emmmm....which is the before and which is the after??

Interestingly, I touch typed that. I had to touch backspace a lot mind you.

cruiser178

bigwormbundoran wrote: »

I can indeed, theres nothing that drives me up the wall more than when I have to use the mothers nerbook with its tiny keypad and I have to tip away at the keys like some retard, this also occurs with laptops that for some reason during the design process they decided to squeeze in the fecking number pad on the right, thus making all the other keys fractionally smaller, and thus impossible to use!

You should write them a strongly worded letter.

I'd like to be able to touch type but not the case. I started learning to type two months ago(computer course, mavis beacon, late beginner)im up to 25 words a minute but most of the time im looking at the keyboard. If anyone has any tips i'd like to hear them.

freckles1234

No

Everone should watch their spelling. A lot of mispelt words. Laziness on a lot of peoples part

Turtwig

cruiser178 wrote: »

You should write them a strongly worded letter.

I'd like to be able to touch type but not the case. I started learning to type two months ago(computer course, mavis beacon, late beginner)im up to 25 words a minute but most of the time im looking at the keyboard. If anyone has any tips i'd like to hear them.

Take a photograph of your keyboard. Save it to your computer. Each time you make a mistake DON'T look down at your keyboard, try to find the key blindly. Once you find the key, type out the entire sentence again without looking down. (It doesn't matter if you make a mistake, the key thing is that you don't make the same mistake you already made .) If you get really stuck look at the photograph. Touch typing is simply motor learning. As long as you don't look down at the keyboard you are subconsciously learning to touch type. Where Mavis Beacon and other software come in is teaching you the correct finger to place on the correct key for conventional typing.

Wetai

No

I can. But sometimes, I need to "re-callibrate" my hands, i.e. check where certain keys are before I start again, like if I start in the dark I might have my hands off-position to where I normally do, I put on a light, and check where some keys are.

But I'd only be able to type really quickly if I concentrate on it, and not for ages. Otherwise it's just typing at a good speed without looking.

Scuid Mhór

i've been able to touch type since i was ten i think. my dream was to be an author so i was working on a keyboard three hours a day at the minimum on most summer days and trying to get at least two hours in on school days. with that sort of commitment it just came naturally.

bigred100

I can touch type, but if something goes wrong along the way then I get confused and have to start looking at the the keyboard again to get myself back on track.

smcgiff

No

Nulty wrote: »

And you moderate Accountancy?

Busted - where do I hand back my keys to cocaine drawer. And back to having to pay for hookers.

annascott

No

Yes, I touch type and rarely look at the keyboard. There is even a little 'notch' on the central key so that you can feel your way back if your fingers stray!

Snowie

I can just abour touch type

Mars Bar

No

pickarooney wrote: »

What's a Windows keyboard?

Sorry, I just associate the desktop keyboards with windows coz I'm a snobby macbook owner which makes me more important and cooler than most people.



http://blog.tiensivu.com/aaron/uploads/LogitechNetPlayKeyboard.jpg

That's what I'm on about.

Mars Bar

No

Overheal wrote: »

Touch typing blows. Keyboards are wonderful. Long live the keyboard.

Don't get me wrong, Dragon voice recognition has come a long, long way since I last used it 10 years ago, but who wants to yell at their computter? No I.

I just hope iOS5 comes out with a better keyboard

One of us has the wrong meaning of "touch type" and I really hope it's not me.