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Learning to Touch Type Again

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Re: Learning to Touch Type Again

#21

Post by PopAlongKid »

I wonder how words per minute (WPM) is actually measured. For example, an illustration in the article seems to indicate that the speed of 1 minute of typing with 12 errors is a valid data point.

I learned touch typing on a manual typewriter using Gregg book[0] (summer school prior to freshman year of high school), and seem to recall that the official WPM test involved something like 5 minutes of transcribing a provided text, and nothing you typed after the fifth error counted at all. So obviously a much stricter standard. My best at the end of the class was something like 42 WPM, and I haven't tested it since then, but I do think I'm pretty fast and with good accuracy.

The errors mattered a lot more on a manual typewriter due to time needed to correct (or start over). And of course most typing nowadays is probably to generate original content rather than to transcribe an existing text.

[0]https://archive.org/details/greggtyping191se00rowe/page/n9/m...

Re: Learning to Touch Type Again

#22

Post by masters3d »

JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B wrote: post #17
mattrighetti wrote: post #8

I started touch typing with keybr too, took almost two months to get to my usual 90 wpm. I remember practicing for an hour a day, it is fun after you nail the first 4 letters so don’t give up too early. Now I am using a Corne v3 which I built myself and I am considering investing more time switching to another keyboard layout like dvorak or colemark, can anyone recommend it? Was it worth it?

Both Dvorak and Colemak seem better than QWERTY but it’s difficult to choose between those alternatives. I started using Colemak a few days ago because it’s more modern than Dvorak (whatever that means) but I’m still not sure if it’s the best choice. One bonus of Colemak is that it has the same location for the keys XCV used for cut, copy, and paste.

I am learning a new layout that does not have xcv in the same place but I fix this by using a layer that keeps the same positions for xcv when holding down cmd/ctrl

Re: Learning to Touch Type Again

#23

Post by Zambyte »

A few years ago I also got a split + columnar keyboard (ZSA moonlander). When I made the switch, I also switched to Dvorak from QWERTY. It was a brutal first month grinding typing practice, but I'm really glad I did it. My posture has felt much better with the split keyboard, and my hands have felt much less strained with the columnar + Dvorak.

I don't think I type much faster than I did before switching (maybe from like 80 WPM to 90 WPM), but I feel much more comfortable typing as fast as I can for much longer.

Re: Learning to Touch Type Again

#24

Post by kortex »

dietrichepp wrote: post #12
melling wrote: post #7

“As someone who easily spends more than 60 hours a week at the keyboard gaming, coding, working, and writing, I am no stranger to wrist pain. Particularly the part where my thumb and wrist meet on my right hand.” Patient: “Doctor, doctor, it hurts when I do this.” Doctor: “Then don’t do that!” Perhaps it would be a good idea to reduce typing in general? We’ve got voice input that’s getting much better. We had this a…

> We’ve got voice input that’s getting much better. Voice input for tasks like writing has been “solved” for at least twenty years now, you just need to get your software set up to use it. As I understand it, the improvements to speech recognition these days are making it easier to handle noisy environments, different accents, more languages, that sort of thing, but if you just care about accuracy and productivity in…

>> keyboard gaming

> We’ve got voice input that’s getting much better

I have this hilarious mental image of someone playing Diablo by yelling "Double-you Double-you Double-you aye aye dee dee dee dee"

Jokes aside,

> If you can do a portion of your 60 hours using voice, I recommend it. Take some load off your hands.

is great advice. Much of preventing repetitive stress injuries is reducing repetitive motion. I definitely ought to use more voice input, but there's an inertia aspect to it I need to overcome.

Re: Learning to Touch Type Again

#26

Post by brenainn »

throw1234651234 wrote: post #20
mellosouls wrote: post #3

Another upvote for keybr here, a couple of weeks last year half an hour a day got me touch typing. Also recommended: typelit.io, where you type books out. For a small subscription you can upload your own books, convenient for bookclub/typing practice killing-two-birds efforts. https://www.typelit.io/

Typing books is half the battle for programmers (if you are one). I bet your wpm drops in half once you start needing common-code characters: http://wpm-test.com/programming-typing-test/ The one thing I struggle with is arrow keys and/or ctrl+arrow to go the end of the word or needing home/end to go to the end of the line. I don't want a non-standard programmed keyboard/layout, but it really slows things down when wr…

https://typing.io/ is a good one for practice

Re: Learning to Touch Type Again

#28

Post by 1MachineElf »

Zambyte wrote: post #23

A few years ago I also got a split + columnar keyboard (ZSA moonlander). When I made the switch, I also switched to Dvorak from QWERTY. It was a brutal first month grinding typing practice, but I'm really glad I did it. My posture has felt much better with the split keyboard, and my hands have felt much less strained with the columnar + Dvorak. I don't think I type much faster than I did before switching (maybe from…

I'm also a happy Dvorak convert. Yes, it's tough at first. Switches back to Qwerty also take some getting used to.*

I believe there is a universal benefit of learning a non-QWERTY layout. Many people learn QWERTY first when they are young, and as a side-effect, they carry with themselves the baggage of bad typing habits. While making an intentional effort to touch type with QWERTY can help significantly, I believe it can't compare to the benefits of starting from fresh with something new.

*I think I was lucky to have a job where I needed to make those switches often, so I gained proficiency quickly.

Re: Learning to Touch Type Again

#29

Post by throw1234651234 »

brenainn wrote: post #26
throw1234651234 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typing books is half the battle for programmers (if you are one). I bet your wpm drops in half once you start needing common-code characters: http://wpm-test.com/programming-typing-test/ The one thing I struggle with is arrow keys and/or ctrl+arrow to go the end of the word or needing home/end to go to the end of the line. I don't want a non-standard programmed keyboard/layout, but it really slows things down when wr…

https://typing.io/ is a good one for practice

Definitely, I was even going to pay for it, but I feel like I need to dedicate at least 30m to an hour a day for a month, and I just can't be bothered.
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