Touch or hunt and peck

[Warp Coil]

Learned how to touch type in 9th-grade "Computer Applications" class, which looking back on it, is so ridiculously antiquated. Learning how to type is the only skill I really learned that's still useful today.

 

[TrekkieMonster]

I learned touch typing in school, in seventh grade. On a manual Underwood, just like the ones you see newspaper reporters banging out stories on in old movies.

Yup, same here. I took my first typing course in 8th grade, sort of as a fluke, and learned the old fashioned way on manual typwriters (Underwoods and Olympias, if memory serves) with no letters or numbers on the keys; just blanks. And we had those old fashioned typing books that were bound at the top and have gray cloth covers ..., and our teacher was very strict about sitting up straight and placing your feet properly (with one slightly ahead of the other) and never, Ever, EVER letting your wrists rest on ANYTHING!

She said at the time it would prove to be one of the most valuable classes we ever took and, while I didn't necessarily believe her back then, she really was right. I've gotten many a job merely because I could type 80 wpm over the years.

And then came the interwebz ....

 

[SVD]

I think I got a gift "D" in the keyboarding class that I took in High School. Looking at the lesson and the screen without looking at the keyboard was NOT working. One quarter of that and I was DONE!

 

[John Clark]

I can type with all my fingers and mostly without looking, but it's not something I've consciously learned how to do.

Pretty much the same for me too

I can't keep up with some of the trained typists at work, but I do ok

 

[Geckothan]

I'm a self-taught touchtyper, but I'm lazy and don't use my pinky fingers cause it feels awkward.

 

[Amaris]

I am trying to learn touch typing again, I gave up last time once I realised that until I mastered it my typing speed dropped by quite bit. So if anyone has any tips or tricks I'd be glad to hear them.

I'd recommend Das Keyboard, completely blank keys are a great way to force you to learn touch typing

I just think it's incredible people will pay $129 for an old IBM keyboard painted black and letters removed.

As for myself, I learned how to type on an old Commodore 64, and am a touch typist.

 

[Vulcan Princess]

I worked as a secretary before I got into HR, so I'm a lightning fast touch typist. (90 wpm on a good day.) I used to be able to take dictation, but not anymore.

 

[SPCTRE]

I am trying to learn touch typing again, I gave up last time once I realised that until I mastered it my typing speed dropped by quite bit. So if anyone has any tips or tricks I'd be glad to hear them.

I'd recommend Das Keyboard, completely blank keys are a great way to force you to learn touch typing

I just think it's incredible people will pay $129 for an old IBM keyboard painted black and letters removed.

To be honest, http://www.clickykeyboards.com/ sells the old IBM Model M for 50 bucks. Now that's a keyboard!

 

[Amaris]

I'd recommend Das Keyboard, completely blank keys are a great way to force you to learn touch typing

I just think it's incredible people will pay $129 for an old IBM keyboard painted black and letters removed.

To be honest, http://www.clickykeyboards.com/ sells the old IBM Model M for 50 bucks. Now that's a keyboard!

I used to own about 8 of those. I really, really wish I would have held onto them instead of giving them away.

 

[auntiehill]

I'm more of a hybrid between the two. I don't type as much as I used to, so I sort of lost the good speed I had back when I was young.

I'm about 80% touch and 20% hunt and peck.

 

[bluedana]

I learned to touch type in high school on an IBM Selectric, and practiced at home (and wrote term papers) on a Remington manual. It took a while to stop murdering the keys when I finally moved to the computer, because I was so used to slamming the keyboard with my fingertips.

 

[Amaris]

I learned to touch type in high school on an IBM Selectric, and practiced at home (and wrote term papers) on a Remington manual. It took a while to stop murdering the keys when I finally moved to the computer, because I was so used to slamming the keyboard with my fingertips.

*tap* *tap* *tap-tap* *tap* *tap* *PLIK*

"What was that?"
"The Enter key broke off and flew across the room. Don't worry, I'll find it."

 

[SPCTRE]

See, that's why you need a Model M. You can hammer away at them all you want, they never break

 

[bluedana]

I learned to touch type in high school on an IBM Selectric, and practiced at home (and wrote term papers) on a Remington manual. It took a while to stop murdering the keys when I finally moved to the computer, because I was so used to slamming the keyboard with my fingertips.

*tap* *tap* *tap-tap* *tap* *tap* *PLIK*

"What was that?"
"The Enter key broke off and flew across the room. Don't worry, I'll find it."

The Remington didn't even have an Enter/Return key. It had a long lever-like "carriage return" that you hooked with your pinkie and pulled to the left at the end of the line (once you gauged where the margin should be). I can't tell you how long it took to convince myself that there was no more carriage return.

Typing was kinda violent when I was a kid, now that I think about it.

 

[Bears Discover Fire]

Touch typing was a required course in 7th grade, so I learned on old electric typewriters in the basement of my Jr. High school. IMing taught me to type quickly, and a few months ago, my boss paid for me to attend a speed typing class.

Right now, I can manage 100wpm occasionally, but more typically, I type 85 wpm with an ergonomic keyboard on my lap.

ETA: I developed a life long habit of spacing twice after periods, from learning to type on a keyboard. This foiled me in the speed typing class, whose software read each extra space as an error. Oh well.

 

[Trippy]

I took typing in high school for four years. I got up to 80 wpm (they judge typing speed - errors). I can still type without looking while posting here, and type written work without looking when reproducing it (such as notes from a textbook).

I'm nowhere near 80 wpm now though. I'm not sure of my typing speed anymore. I really don't care now, but in hgh school it helped my grade in typing.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

Touch type. 2 years at school learning 'the quick fast fox jumped over the lazy dog' did it for me. I hated it, but it has worked.
The thing I find most difficult is addapting from Son's laptop keyboard to this new pc one. The buttons are all in the wrong place!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Touch typing was a required course in 7th grade, so I learned on old electric typewriters in the basement of my Jr. High school. IMing taught me to type quickly, and a few months ago, my boss paid for me to attend a speed typing class.

Right now, I can manage 100wpm occasionally, but more typically, I type 85 wpm with an ergonomic keyboard on my lap.

ETA: I developed a life long habit of spacing twice after periods, from learning to type on a keyboard. This foiled me in the speed typing class, whose software read each extra space as an error. Oh well.

I got similarly screwed up because so much of my early typing was meant to go online. I dropped the whole notion of starting a sentence with two spaces pretty quickly--but I also got into the habit of never indenting, as well as hitting Enter twice for all paragraph breaks.

And to think, it's all because HTML could never respect indentation with tabs.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I'm a self-taught touchtyper, but I'm lazy and don't use my pinky fingers cause it feels awkward.

I think the only pinky I use while typing is my right pinky (which I use for the shift key). I can't think of a reason to ever use my left. Your hands can effectively cover all the keys with just four fingers.

 

[Trippy]

In sight typing, the left pinky is for the 'a' key, 'q' key an the 'z' key, as well as caps lock and the control button. The right pinky is for the 'p' key, the ' and the '?' key, as well as shift and enter (and the back space key if you have long fingers like me).