Monday, October 15, 2007

How do you type?

Heres a quick question to anyone interested in answering.

When I was in secondary school I was fortunate enough to learn a bit about computers and typing, don't forget this was over 18 years ago, computers were quite rare.

My question to you all is how do you type?

I was taught to type with my fingers in a line starting with my left hand from little finger to the index finger on the letters A, S, D, F and the right hand from index to little finger on the J, K, L, ; with both thumbs being used for the space key. You then were to type with your fingers going up or down to other keys that corresponded to each finger but always end up resting back on the keys mentioned above. Is this making any sense.

I passed the exam with flying colours but I do notice people nowadays ain't got a clue about this rule that was so important if you ever wanted to speedtype. I have even fallen for the one finger typing myself well 3 fingers. I now type with both my index fingers flying about the keyboard the only key I do keep to the rules is my thumb on my right hand been used for space.

So is there anyone out there who continues to use the typing rules???

13 comments:

  1. I'm actually having a look Shan as I type this and I type in a very random stylee using my first two fingers on each hand and, very occasionally, the little fingers too. I'm fairly fast too.

    Fascinating.

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  2. Never learned - I use all my fingers and thumb for the space bar and go quite fast but as you all will have noticed, completely inaccurately, typo city.

    It's on my to-do list.

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  3. I don't know if this is something that others suffer but it's really got on my goat lately. Does anyone else find that you can type like the clappers except when someone is watching.

    I've done this without once looking at the keyboard or making a mistake but if someone was sitting beside me I'd be all over the shop.

    Am I a freak?

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  4. I learned to type on a typewriter 20 years just as you described Shan (the home keys they were called?). But I don't use it, I now use the first two fingers only. I'm quite fast though because of the basic typing training all those years ago.

    If I draw on the computer though I use the keys completely differently, using left hand only for commands and right hand permanently on the mouse. Don't need to look at the keys when I'm drawing.


    Interesting stuff Shan..

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  5. I touch-type with my fingers planted on the home row (asdf jkl;). But to really screw up the poll: I type using the Dvorak keyboard layout. I was pretty fast before, but found my arms and wrists hurt more and more.

    I switched to Dvorak, and it made a world of difference. The most commonly typed characters are all placed such that your fingers move drastically less than with the "normal" layout. (The qwerty layout was originally made with manual typewriters because they found the typebars were becoming entangled with each other once people typed with any real speed.)

    Learning Dvorak is hard, but for me absolutely worth it. I went for about 3 weeks back to hunt-and-peck, doing various free Dvorak practice lessons to help you figure it out.

    No regrets. It also makes people looking over your shoulder think your password is an insane combination of weird letters, like you must be trying to type in Sanskrit.

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  6. My mother decided to teach my brother and I to type when I was 8 and he was 9. This was the beginning of the computer era, and my mother saw the writing on the wall. Of course, she's since raised two computer people (I wonder if it was because she wanted free tech support?).

    Anyway, I learned proper touch type, and actually got an A in high school in Typing class cause I barely had to work. I don't look at the keys unless it's numbers or some strange symbol that Atreus needs me to type. Love it...cause I can type super fast and people always look at me funny.

    Can't do text speak to save my life tho. I'm predictive text all the way, but I love proper spelling of things, so that's okay.

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  7. Its great to see some folk still typing in this manner. Although I do find I can now type much quicker using the index rule, maybe I changed to this way of typing because of shortcuts.

    No matter what program you use on the computer nowadays there are always some 3 key shortcuts you have to use frequently. You cant do that with the old skool typing that easily, just another idea

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  8. I'm on a Mac, so everything I do, I can do with one hand :-). Like to open it's just cmd-O. Or to print, cmd-p. Or to close a window, it's cmd-W, see just like---

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  9. I'm a 4 and a bit finger typer like SL, just picked it up as I went along, have been typing since splash. We had a ZX81, prob in 82/3 and played games were you had to type in. Anyway, I digress, I hate ergonomic cause it really means right-hand-ergonmic and im possible for me. I hate being in foreign countries with the different keyboard layouts. Takes a while to get used to all these things.

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  10. Milan, I'm a leftie too, and I'm totally ergonomic. Have to be, cause I've already had RSI, and it's never really gone away! You just have to learn to do things differently, but not change hands or anything...there are great left-handed mice out there...

    And in other countries, here's a little hack: you can change the keyboard layout to be English on the computer. But if you have to look at your hands, well, you'll be in some trouble.

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  11. Jesus you just cant get away from the mother can you :-D

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  12. I did a pitman course, so I do the proper touch typing method if I am copying something but if I'm just blabbing away I do a kind of weird thing, but the fingers do go back to the correct keys...I only have 35 words per minute btw...crap!

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