Touch Typists

[kontiki99]

We’ve been talking about training lately and I’ve begun wondering about the number of people doing ALL of their work on a PC, that are two finger typists.

As I got older and my vision started to drift I picked up a typing tutor and worked through it on my lunch breaks.

Ultimately it’s saved me time and I’m certain I make fewer mistakes because I can spent more time looking at the screen.

I’m just wondering how many folks out there would buy into this sort of idea.

If your company fielded a typing tutor app on your PC installation and rewarded the achievement some milestone typing speed with a trinket, (time off or free lunch or something) would you bother? Think it would be valuable?

 

[Latexman]

I've been a hunt and peck typist for 30 years. I really wish I had taken typing in high school! I fear if I learn to type now, I'll regress back to hunt and peck once done with the course having done it so long. Any one in a similar situation been thru this care to share?

Good luck,
Latexman

 

[Latexman]

My kids are taking "keyboarding". What's the difference between this and "typing"? Less WPM?

Good luck,
Latexman

 

[casseopeia]

Typing’ has an association with old-fashioned typewriters not generally in use anymore. Keyboarding is the current term that includes not only typing skills, but also effectively using shortcut keys or key combinations for computers. (like 'command' C for 'copy' for Mac users like me.

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[HgTX]

Back to the mouses: the more comfortable you get with touch typing, the less interested you are likely to be in taking your hand off the keyboard to do something with the mouse.

My officemate is now in the process of learning keyboard shortcuts ever since she made the groundbreaking discovery that they are faster.

I miss the 10-function keyboards where one could do function key combinations with one hand.

Hg

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[drawoh]

HgTX,

On my Linux box at home, my favorite text editor is vi. I can sit my fingers on the home row, and do practically everything with it. Reaching for the mouse is a distraction.

JHG

 

[Mr168]

I'm a product of the internet generation. I've been able to type without looking at frantic pace for as long as I can remember now.

Just don't ask me to use the shift key on the right side of the keyboard, my right pinky, or to try and type fast on these damn cell phones.

 

[swearingen]

I learned how to type twice!

The first time was in high school. I had fiddled with the budding computers (Tandy TRS-80 anyone?) and new it was the way to go.

Unfortunately, I have fat fingers and my hands got sore quickly, so I never got much over 40 WPM.

Then I subscribed to an online newsletter (

http://www.thisistrue.com)

in 1996 and got wind of the Dvorak keyboard from the proprietor, Randy Cassingham. After researching it, I decided to take the plunge. It took me about a month to learn the keys (I used stickers; by the time one wore off, I had memorized that key), 3 more months to pass my old speed of 40 WPM, and about 3 additional months to level out at my current 60 to 65 WPM. No, it's not fast, but it is much faster than I was before and I can type page after page without pain in my hands.

The neat thing is that almost every computer comes with the layout built into the operating system (Macs too!) so wherever I go, it's not a problem. Macs are even smart enough to keep the keyboard shortcuts for cut, copy and paste in the same place, even when you switch to Dvorak. Bill's boys haven't done that yet.

You can read about the layout here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard

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[rmw]

I took typing as a sophomore in High School in the late '50's and it was a mixed class; boys typically took it too. There were no electric typewriters to be found. Do it wrong and you spent a lot of time unjamming letter keys. My homeroom one year was a typing classroom and you were allowed to practice. It didn't make me a typist, but later when I went into the Navy they tried to make a radioman out of me for a while. The method of receiving Morse code messages (yes, that was still in vogue then too) was to listen to the transmission over a headset and type the code one letter at a time on a typewriter. I think that is what really taught me how to type accurately.

Back when we did have secretaries, I would from time to time sit at their desk and type something out, usually something personal that I didn't want to ask them to type and they would usually be pretty amazed at my speed. It kind of helped keep them on their toes knowing that I could type faster than they could.

The wife walked by me typing on the computer a few years ago and she thought I was just playing around pounding keys at a rapid pace until she looked over my shoulder and saw that I was actually typing a real letter. It was an angry letter to someone and I was all fired up so I was typing at warp speed. She was quite surprised as she hadn't known before that that I could type that well or fast.

Now when I got my first Blackberry I really had problems for a while because I wasn't a hunt'n peck typist and didn't know how to do it with two fingers much less two thumbs. I soon learned, however. My last manager at my last place of employment was a two finger typist and I was pretty amazed at how fast he could get around that keyboard.

Now the typing classroom as a homeroom for a bunch of sophomore or junior boys.... Very bad idea. The typing teacher, a male, and not a candidate for any of the sports teams if you get my drift, knew to send the student who used the Royal typewriter where I sat at homeroom to my first period class and look in the trashcan in that classroom for the roll out of that Royal. A ritual repeated every morning of the year. I still don't remember how I got out the door with it. We did all kinds of other types of sabotage on those poor machines. I think the next year that room was used as a homeroom for girls.

rmw

 

[swearingen]

My girlfriend in college (now my wife) laughed at me when she found out I could type. It still wasn't very common for boys in high school and she hadn't taken it either.

She was much sweeter three weeks later when she had to have a typed paper turned in...


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[PLukacovic]

I'm also a product of the internet generation. Frantic typing in AIM conversations has boosted my WPM up fairly high. I haven't noticed typing being much of an issue since computers have become a necessity in the workplace.

 

[nuche1973]

In high school I took a business class to meet my vocational credits. We learned typeing and 10-key, by touch. I can say that I have used both skills ever since (can't say that for shorthand. The only thing I noticed is that I have difficulty writing letters by hand.

 

[HgTX]

I saw an ad recently for some snazzy new tablet computer where the big thrill was you could take out your stylus and *write*!

Jeez, to me that's like going back to clay tablets.

Hg

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[swearingen]

HgTX - that thought crossed my mind when tablet computers first touted the stylus writing capability.

I can see it now - I'll be telling one of my grandkids, "You know, we used to actually talk to each other on cell phones."


If you "heard" it on the internet, it's guilty until proven innocent. - DCS

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[HgTX]

Somewhere, somewhen, I forget if it was a cartoon or a science fiction story, but there was a chronicle of going from purely oral communication, to writing developed with a trained group of scribes doing it, to everyone writing, typing, to word processing, to voice-activated word processing, and back around to purely oral communication (albeit electronic) with no one but a trained group of scribes knowing how to write (or maybe it was type).

Hg

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[GregLocock]

Very slight tangent... most of my writing these days is sums, or numbers. Have you found that your written numbers have deteriorated as much as your alphabetic writing?

When I was in highschool I abandoned my unreadable (but academically acceptable) cursive style for print, when I started doing serious exams. I've never been inclined to start cursive again.



Cheers

Greg Locock

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[debodine]

I find that I share some traits with several of the posters here. First, I gave up cursive right out of high school. All my hand printing (which is as little as I can get away with) is in capital block style letters so that there is some hope of people (including myself) being able to read it later. Second, I took typing classes in USA high school (I graduated in 1973) but I did it only because my dad INSISTED that I needed to know because if I went to college, I would HAVE to be able to type if I wanted to succeed. Since at that time I was leaning towards aircraft maintenance and I assumed I would NEVER need typing, I argued to the best of my ability. That is the ONLY class he demanded I take (he gave me the option on all others) and since I have left high school and went to college and now have entered the computer age, it is the high school training I probably use most often every day more than any other except the ability to spell and use grammar properly to communicate. And believe me over the years before I lost my dad I thanked him over and over and over again for his unwillingness to budge!

 

[wutzu]

I learned by talking to girls on instant messenger. For some reason, most of my peers find it amazing that I can type almost as quickly as I can talk.