Ask Lemmy

I don't use all the right fingers but can type 80+ wpm, so you can be plenty efficient with enough practice.

Dvorak at work, QWERTY away from work. I occasionally start typing Dvorak at home, but it doesn't take much to reset the brain to QWERTY. I learned touch typing in high school in the 80s on a mechanical typewriter.

I don't recall much of my process learning touch typing on qwerty but the process was frustrating at first learning dvorak because the qwerty muscle memory kept getting in the way. But I made myself use it in IRC and kept a diagram of the layout on my 2nd monitor. I also played some typing games. Then, over time, I got better and better with it and started moving other programs over until it was my main layout. Now the first thing I do on a new to me PC is go looking for keyboard layout options (and holy fuck MS has moved that shit all over the place).

Wayland (or something in KDE) has the best handling I've seen yet. Gaming was always kinda annoying as different games have different levels of support for alternate layouts.

On windows, some would just work, remapping the default keybinds to the layout (because moving isn't about hitting wasd specifically, but the keys in those places) and text types as expected. Some I'd go into options and remap to dvorak. Some I'd just switch the layout and be annoyed any time I had to type text instead of hitting keybinds.

On Linux, Fedora Cinnamon, it was just random whether the layout would work like I wanted or do something else, like reverse (where even switching layouts keeps the incorrect dvorak layout), or sometimes it just ignored the system layout entirely. I had to remap and reset to defaults a lot.

But then I switched to Fedora KDE and it's perfect. Only "issue" is I had to set the default to qwerty, but then it uses that layout to remap the bindings for other layouts and both bidings and typing just works all the time now.

Yes. You have no other choice when you’re blind. I prefer unlabeled keyboards.

Yes. Custom layout so I was forced to learn touch typing. I'm way faster now than I was with with qwerty after years of programming because I would always find myself looking at the keyboard. So, I guess with qwerty, the same could be accomplished by taking the characters off.

No. I have become very fast at the two-finger hunt and peck method after years of use.

The ONE class from High School that taught me something I literally use every single day.

Typing.

I graduated High School in 1988 and have used a keyboard almost every single day and can touch type with alacrity. As far as what layout, QWERTY.

While Dvorak is supposed to be faster and more efficient, I'm an old IT guy and not a typist. While some of my work does include writing presentations and reports, I'm doing more punching commands and using short cuts. It's just not worth the effort to learn another layout.

I can touch type, but not with proper form. I use a really fast "hunt and peck" method with my two index fingers and my other fingers for specific keys such as backspace, shift, space, ctrl, etc. I can typically type between 70 - 80 wpm with high accuracy.

No. And I've been programming for the past 20 years.

No. I depress the keys with telekinesis.

Yes qwerty. I'm just a nerd. Lots of angry instant messaging arguments with iamsosmart boys growing up. Probably the best form of practice if you really want to get better (active instant messaging). It also helps to have a real keyboard, and not a laptop. They can get kinda spendy if you go mechanical. But, once you find an ergonomic layout that you like and the keys that you like with the features that you like, and you've improved a lot, it's hard to not, in the same way it's good to invest in good shoes and mattress.

Yes, but not in a standard way. I do things my own self taught way and didn't care to adopt anything my schools taught. They did teach how to type all through grade school where I grew up. It's just that I was usually the fastest in the class doing my own weird thing already and that never changed even in high school where I got bonus credits for typing above 80WPM.

I’m probably not as efficient as I could be.

Same here, my average WPM definitely suffers harshly or strangely thrives in weird ways depending on what repetitive keys I need to press I noticed in the Final Sentence typing battle royale demo on Steam that would be solved by typing properly.

I was like, wait, what's "touch typing"? Oh writing without looking?

Yeah, been doing that a couple of decades prolly. I even do it on my phone most of the time. That's why I typo quite a lot unless I proofread. I do usually use the suggestions and glimpse at the kb from time to time and you can half see it anyway but yeah.

With a computer I don't really ever look at the keyboard. My speed has been measured a couple of times I think but can't recall anything except getting the highest grade. And I think those tests limit my speed as I don't copy things as fast as when I'm heatedly constructing and argument myself. Feels like I've got much better flow then than when reading a word and then having to output it at the same time.

I need to see whether I can measure my own speed sometime when I get into a nice argument and have good flow again.

I thought myself to touch type a few years ago. It was also never part of my formal education even though it would have helped a lot ! I was using a mix of AZERTY, QWERTZ ans QWERTY and now I exclusively use International QWERTY, it's a standard layout with accents and special characters with ALT modifier.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Yeah, ever since we learned it in middle school. QWERTZ

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.

Been touch typing Dvorak for about 25 years, qwerty for about 10 years before that. My hands used to feel tired at the end of the day, when I broke my wrist the occupational nurse suggested Dvorak, so when it healed I taught myself to type Dvorak. Probably a few weeks to learn, six months to get speed. (The advantage of a cushy government job). I can type all day now without problems. If you’re going to spend any significant time at a keyboard, I personally think it’s worth investing the time to learn to type properly, whatever layout you choose to use.

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

Canary (Angle Mod) layout. Form is quite proper with alternating shift however still learning so only hitting 60 WPM with punctuation on.

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.

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).

Yep.
Went to an all-boys Catholic High School and there were no technical programs (shop, auto, woodworking) bc they couldn't afford the programs, nor the space. Barely had a gym.
Anyhoo, 'options' were typing, bookkeeping, and Latin.
Took typing for 2 years, buddy and I would race-type song lyrics out of our heads (lyrics often weren't included in the liner notes).

Elton John - Razor Face - GO!

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.

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

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.

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, you don't have to really think about the individual letters anymore and the words just appear when you intend them to.

I do touch type, but I don't use the standard finger placement. I had typing class in school, which I'm grateful for, but what really got my typing speed up were ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger.

I learned to touch type on QWERTY in middle school. I do it mostly conventionally except for some reason I never really used the right shift key. That locked in, amd I still don't. I just spread my fingers wide to capitalize letters on the left side.

For a data entry job I was taught to 10-key as well. It doesn't take long to learn, but it can save a ton of time.

I recommend learning proper touch typing with the 'correct' finger position. Its benefit is that there's proper movement for every finger for every key, which is mostly symmetric and very regular, and it gets ingrained in muscle memory. Hence typing anything is quick even if it's not fast overall. The fingers 'know' what they must do for any letter, and it's often faster to let them do their thing than to e.g. reach for the mouse. You can actually feel when you press a wrong key.

In case of a mistake, it's faster to delete a few words and retype them than to move the cursor back and forth. And if you get an app like Alfred (for Mac) or Keypirinha (for Windows), you can invoke it with a shortcut and type a few letters faster than you open an app or click on some widget with the mouse — it's often quicker to switch apps via Alfred than via cmd-tab. Likewise, when you use a keyboard-heavy app like Emacs, calling its commands becomes a breeze.

I'd like to use Dvorak or at least Colemak, but I'm concerned that all shortcuts would be messed up. Especially since I'm a user of Vim-style movements and commands.

Also, TIPP10 app is pretty nice for learning. No fluff, no extra stuff. Initially took me about a month to learn with half an hour or so a day, and about a year to fully get used to it and develop the speed.

Yes with one quirk. I don't use the right shift, just the left. Not sure why I've ended up this way, or if it's a common variation.

EDIT: looked it up. It's very common

A little, I guess.