I’ve recently started trying to improve my typing speed, which has probably been held back by my somewhat unconventional typing style. Formal touch typing was never a part of my education, and while years of computer use eventually led to me being able to type without looking, I’m probably not as efficient as I could be.

Can you touch type - and with proper form? QWERTY, DVORAK or other layout?

  • Seefra 1@lemmy.zip
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    6 minutes ago

    I can to a basic level, but I type much faster without it.

    I learned with a game.

    I use touch typing when I’m in the dark and the keyboard has no backlight, then I can type at 10wpm.

  • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    55 minutes ago

    Yeah, I took a class in highschool where they just had us play a typing game until we got good enough at it. It really helps to learn the correct form and be using the right fingers for the right keys, once you get it in your muscle memory you don’t have to really think about the individual letters anymore and the words just appear when you intend them to.

  • nullptr@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    My laptops keyboard is completely black, with no letters on it. So even if i look down, its like staring into void lol

    I type azerty

  • AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip
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    4 hours ago

    QWERTY layout. I was never taught teaching in school because I was part of the “you should already know how to type” 2k schooling. I can also type due to muscle memory ( much more easily on a non-flat keyboard ) but it’s not an efficient typing compared to someone my age from the past who was formally taught touch typing.

    Edit:

    It also doesn’t help that I usually use just my thumbs, index, and middle fingers to type usually.

  • Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Yup, I can type about 90-100 wpm on a QWERTY keyboard if it’s normal conversational English. Probably half that if it’s something that contains a lot of long technical words. The thing that got me over the hump with getting good at typing was a game called QWERTY Warriors. It was a Flash-based web game that I was playing like 20 years ago, so I don’t know if it’s around anymore, but it was a tower defense game where you had to defeat enemies by typing the word underneath them. It was a pretty painless way to practice touch-typing.

  • HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Yes, but definitely not proper form, as my left hand rests on WASD+CTRL/Shift+Space.

    I’m around 100 wpm, so maybe it doesn’t matter.

    While I completely understand people who can’t get to 100 wpm (much like people at 110+ completely understand me), I cannot fathom young adults who cannot touch-type (barring disability, obviously).

  • HowlsSophie@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Yes, QWERTY. My dad made my brother and I use Mavis Beacon as kids (SHOUT OUT TO MAVIS BEACON!!!) and I had keyboarding class in middle school. WPM is 70 to 80 depending on what I’m typing.

  • RBWells@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Yes. My kids would laugh at me when I worked from home because I would not stop typing when I looked up to answer something they were asking me. I suck on the phone keyboard but good with QUERTY big keyboard. My fingers can talk on those

    • P1nkman@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      I do the same with my colleagues. Then again, I’m using the Moergo Glove80 tilted at 50° (3D printed stand), so I can’t see what I’m clicking lol.

  • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 hours ago

    I learned “proper” typing form when I was in elementary school. But what really thought me touch typing was trying to chat in games. Not only do you need to stay looking at what’s happening, but you need to type fast so you can get back to playing.

    I’d more or less mastered touch typing by the beginning of middle school. By high school I got to about 100wpm which is where I’ve capped out since then.

    • 3rdXthecharm@lemmy.ml
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      8 hours ago

      Playing WoW

      See message from QT3.14 Dranei boy

      Press numlock, type out ‘sup bb LFR BT?’

      Left and right mouse click to halt and continue killing. The good old days

  • moakley@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    I learned to touch-type QWERTY in late 90s chat rooms. By 2006, I was bragging about my 100 WPM speed in my online dating profile. I met one girl who challenged me to a typing contest. She won, then I won, and then we called it a draw. We’ve been married for 13 years and had our third child last month.

    When I was learning to touch type, I found it helpful to practice in my head even when I was away from the keyboard. Like whatever I’m thinking about, I’m picturing a keyboard in my head and where each letter of each word is. It slows my thoughts down a little, but that’s not always a bad thing.

  • CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.today
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    13 hours ago

    I was never able to touch type up through middle of high school despite typing papers and taking formal typing courses. Once I got into online PC gaming and also programming I got good at touch typing very fast. Is typing a skill you use daily? Natural practice beats forced if you already have the fundamentals down. QWERTY for me.

    • electrotabby@piefed.social
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      7 hours ago

      Same. I tried really hard to learn it but gave up in frustration. 5ish years with plenty of computer use later I suddenly found myself typing without looking.

  • village604@adultswim.fan
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    6 hours ago

    I can touch type in both qwerty and Dvorak. For me I think it was a combo of starting piano when I was in elementary school, AIM chat rooms, and computer lab time at school.

    Back when I was still playing I could type 140wpm with qwerty, but since I’ve stopped it’s dropped to the 100 range.

  • osanna@thebrainbin.org
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    12 hours ago

    I can’t NOT touch type. I need to see what I’m typing to know if I’m typing without mistakes. When I look at the keyboard, I make so many mistakes.

    • [object Object]@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Ironically, with touch typing I know when I make mistakes even if I’m looking elsewhere. It’s just obvious when a finger does a wrong thing.

  • nawa@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    I never managed proper training with the correct hands positioning so my hands are a bit all over the place. But years of Twitter, Reddit and online gaming (yeah, I was that type for some time) helped a lot so now I can type fairly quickly in both QWERTY and ЙЦУКЕН.

    • myrmidex@belgae.social
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      13 hours ago

      QWERTZ

      How to tell us you’re German without telling us you’re German 😄

      As a Belgian, we have AZERTY as standard, which is so much worse. I wish we could’ve followed the German instead of the French influence keyboard-wise.

      • zlatiah@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Oh my god the AZERTY… I naively tried it out for like a week or two and quickly gave up on the idea. The numbers and symbols being the reverse of QWERTY was just way too much of a headache, especially for programming. Unfortunately workplace requires all work computers to have AZERTY so

        • myrmidex@belgae.social
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          8 hours ago

          especially for programming Indeed! I grew up with azerty and still got tired quickly of pressing shift for most of the most basic symbols. Before learning to code, I don’t really remember having issues with azerty.

          workplace requires all work computers to have AZERTY

          dang that’s tough. Usually they ask me what I’m used to, not sure if I could accept a job offer if it came with azerty 😆

      • Sephtis@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        I too live in Belgium and azerty is absolutely the worst, i hace it sometimes at uni. Luckily i grew up using qwertz, later switching to qwerty.

        • myrmidex@belgae.social
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          11 hours ago

          Argh sometimes even, that’s annoying! Luckily the changes are quite limited for non-symbol keys. Still I usually just add the qwerty keyboard layout if not present. This approach costs me the least time.

          • Sephtis@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            Qwerty and qwertz are pretty similar, recently even changed to qwerty full time only using qwertz (blind) for special german characters. Before uni we had mandatory school laptops in azerty, and indeed the best method than was to jusr change it in windows and blind type.

        • myrmidex@belgae.social
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          12 hours ago

          I was under the impression QWERTZ was a German thing, seems it covers a much bigger area than that! Apologies!