What makes a faster typist?

University of Cambridge ^ | 4/5/18

[Hot Tabasco]

The only class I had in high school that was worth anything in life was my typing class.........With that being said, I still have to look at the numbers in order to correctly type them. Arthritis in my fingers has also caused me to make more mistakes these days...

[Hot Tabasco]

I learned to type on the old lever typewriters, with a bottle of white-out in front of me.........LOL!

[Tennessee Conservative]

My fastest time is 103wpm with no errors. I have extremely long fingers and keep my nails short to keep from overreaching. I was typing 60wmp on an old manual typewriter in high school and when electric typewriters came out I made 103wpm. I went back to college in 2013 and consistently typed 80-90wmp accurately on the computer.

[Fresh Wind]

One thing that helped me a lot, was switching from the standard flat keyboard to the slanted ergonomic keyboard made by Microsoft. To this day, it’s the only desktop keyboard I use.

Agreed. They take some getting used to, but once you do, you will realize how bad the conventional keyboard really is.

[snoringbear]

“I began high school in 1969. Back in that time, very few young guys could foresee a future in which they'd need that skill. I wasn't any different, and never thought twice about learning to type. I don't think any of us ever imagined a day would come when everyone on the planet typed. ” Well, I’m a little older than you, graduated from HS 1964. Attended a small rural 1-A school. Anyway, I took typing my senior year along with some other football players because a really cute teacher had been hired the previous year to teach secretarial science. It took I believe, 45 words per minute, don’t recall errors allowed, to pull a C which I did. Btw, boys had to use the manual typewriters and girls got the electrics as they were serious students. Anyway, have put it skills learned almost daily. My three daughters now grown, we’re amazed that I could type, opps, keyboard, lol, without looking at the keys. Anyway, have always been grateful to our superintendent for hiring such a cutie 🤩...

[pa_dweller]

Yes, the DSK

It is faster. There's the problem though of not being easily able to transition between DSK and QWERTY. A muscle memory thing. And, even though these days changing would be just a matter of changing some software, what do you do about the legends on the keys?

A big factor too, is the entrenchedness of QWERTY.

[CommieCutter]

Typing Of The Dead is a great way to learn.

[huldah1776]

Your fingers don’t have to be trained differently it’s just placement of hands. I test the ones on display at the big box stores. :) I do love them but for me, very sensitive hearing, HAVE to have quiet keys.

[sipow]

Dvorak keyboards are available. Just not very popular.

[metmom]

Practice.

[chrisser]

My mother did some secretarial work and strongly encouraged me to take typing.

I finally relented and took it in summer school.

Interestingly, the science department head discouraged students from taking typing and was actively trying to discontinue the class. His reasoning was “we’d be talking to computers soon” and typing would be an unnecessary skill.

I graduated in 1985 and have been grateful to my mother my entire IT career. Seems the humble secretary knew a lot more than the multi-degreed science teacher.

[metmom]

Never caught on.

Too many people were used to the keyboard as it is.

[Shady]

I have been typing since I was 12 years old, have a gimp right index finger from an accident (dont type with it) still look at the keys and I do very well, thank you..

[americas.best.days...]

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I was always in awe of people who could hot 100 wpm with few or no mistakes. My mom was in that league.

I think the best I could muster was about 35 wpm in my HS typing class. I wasn’t a very good pianist, either.

[Fresh Wind]

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

Only if you're a quick brown fox.

[americas.best.days...]

Exposed the weakness of my left ring finger on my mom’s Royal.

[PROCON]

I took typing my senior year, (1969), mainly because the class was made up of mostly girls.

That aside, I'm glad I did take it as I can type reasonably well.

[Ammo Republic 15]

I also took a typing class in high school in the early 70’s.

Me and my buddies sat in the back of the class and typed up the lyrics to Frank Zappa songs during the class most of the time.

[alexander_busek]

I’ve seen a few keyboards from other countries (including Japan and England) but typically the letter layout is fairly consistent.

The standard German keyboard layout resembles the standard U.S. layout - but the "y" and "z" are transposed (for good reason, too!), and then there are also the "ö," "ä," "ü," and "ß" not found on U.S. keyboards.

(According to Kurt Vonnegut Jr. in "Mother Night," some older German typewriters had additional special symbols like a runic double lightning stroke, for some reason.)

Of course, there is virtually no correspondence between Russian keyboards and U.S. ones.

Regards,