How's Your Typing? Oh, how I wish I had learned touch-typing when I was younger. I envy people whose fingers fly over the keys with them even looking. As it is, I can type fast, but I...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Oh, how I wish I had learned touch-typing when I was younger. I envy people whose fingers fly over the keys with them even looking. As it is, I can type fast, but I have to look, and my fingers often pick up extra letters, so I have to go back and delete them. At least 'spelling correction' helps me to see and correct my errors. So how do you people do at the keyboard?

fourg1b2006 Loc: Long Island New York

Well, i don't type with all my fingers as it should be, I use two fingers to accomplish my goals...but i must say i'm pretty quick. That's the best it's ever going to be for me lol.

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

Believe it or not I learned that in the military. When I came back from overseas I was put on restricted duty and they stuck me in a battalion office. The first thing they did was send me to typing school. It's paid off many times since.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

I kind of learned when work gave me a computer, still look a lot but sometimes the fingers just go, other times when I think about it I really have to look.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Over the years I have advanced from being a "two-finger typist" to a "four-finger typist". These days I guess it should be called "keyboarding" - does anyone under 40 even know what a "typewriter" is? I am amazed that every high school student is not taught this. Anyone in health care should be taught it. I have now seen ads for physicians wanted that list required qualifications, which include "must type 40 words per minute". The hospital in Maine where I was working got in a part-time physician that they fired three days later because he was unable to enter his patient encounters in to the electronic medical record. Many places uses Dragon voice-to-text software, but if you are not at least a little bit computer savvy it can be pretty intimidating. Some offices now employ "medical scribes" who basically sit in the exam room and enter things into the record as they take place.

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

Took typing in High School cuz there were lots of girls in that class. Joined the Army and for communications was sent to 72B (Communications) school at Ft Gordon and typing was important.

Fastest I've ever type was a measured 65-70 wpm but that has slowed down with age. But I do attempt to type without errors and my fingers tell me when I've made a mistake and I go back and correct it.

Sarge69

windshoppe Loc: Arizona

Took typing in junior high. Hated it. One of the best things I've ever learned. Handwriting is so bad that I was required to go to a room and type all essay tests in undergrad school. Type probably 50 words per minute.

tgreenhaw

I've been a computer programmer and I still hunt and peck :-( I know how you feel, my wife and daughter can type 120 wpm and I'm jealous. I worked with a typesetter who was also a pianist years ago and sometimes when she was bored, she typed with the rhythm of music she was learning; it was quite beautiful.

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's tail. 12 seconds, 50 words per minute

Marionsho Loc: Kansas

jerryc41 wrote:

Oh, how I wish I had learned touch-typing when I was younger. I envy people whose fingers fly over the keys with them even looking. As it is, I can type fast, but I have to look, and my fingers often pick up extra letters, so I have to go back and delete them. At least 'spelling correction' helps me to see and correct my errors. So how do you people do at the keyboard?

Jerry, I lucked out and took typing as a freshman in HS. I was in heaven with all the cute upperclass girls, mostly jr. and sr.'s.
Years later, at work, I'd get stuck in a room with nothing to do (typically waiting on construction material) and I'd stand at the keyboard and type the alphabet. I was up to 45 words per minute in school. At least on an electric. Way slower than that now, I'm sure. The teacher figured out that I was just using electrics, and forced my to use manuals for weeks on end. IBM Selectrics were my fav.

Ralloh Loc: Ohio

jerryc41 wrote:

Oh, how I wish I had learned touch-typing when I was younger. I envy people whose fingers fly over the keys with them even looking. As it is, I can type fast, but I have to look, and my fingers often pick up extra letters, so I have to go back and delete them. At least 'spelling correction' helps me to see and correct my errors. So how do you people do at the keyboard?

I learned to type in school back in the 60s. Best thing I ever did. I got to where I could type over 100 words a minute. The fingers aren't quite as fast today, but, I still type fast using all of my fingers and never having to look at the keyboard. Do they even teach typing today in schools?

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

I'm a carbon copy of you, Jerry.
Mark

jerryc41 wrote:

Oh, how I wish I had learned touch-typing when I was younger. I envy people whose fingers fly over the keys with them even looking. As it is, I can type fast, but I have to look, and my fingers often pick up extra letters, so I have to go back and delete them. At least 'spelling correction' helps me to see and correct my errors. So how do you people do at the keyboard?

teranz

I taught myself to touch type in my early 40s when PCs started coming out. It helped a lot at work, and typing these days, as you know, is just a necessity. It was awkward at first, but I got myself some software and practiced a lot, and now I can just sit here and watch my words emerge on the screen, no finger-watching, and I can correct any errors as I go along. Love it.
There's lots of software out there to teach yourself to type. And Apps, too: I just checked at Apple and there's one called Tap Typing - Typing Trainer. Go for it - it's fun!

ghill42 Loc: Colorado

SB is exactly right about high school. Typing should be a mandatory course (I also think that proficiency in a second language should be mandatory). Learning to type was the best thing I ever did in high school and the skill continues to serve me well. And while I'm at it, how about basic English - punctuation, grammar, composition, plain language, etc.? Throw in basic math, basic science, and history also. Last but not least, well paid teachers. Uh oh, better stop now. I'm beginning to lose it over our generally sub standard public school system. My apologies.

berchman Loc: South Central PA

jerryc41 wrote:

Oh, how I wish I had learned touch-typing when I was younger. I envy people whose fingers fly over the keys with them even looking. As it is, I can type fast, but I have to look, and my fingers often pick up extra letters, so I have to go back and delete them. At least 'spelling correction' helps me to see and correct my errors. So how do you people do at the keyboard?

Touch typing was by far the most useful course I ever took in elementary school (grades 1-8).

Szalajj Loc: Salem, NH

I took typing in High School as both a Freshman on manual typewriters, and as a Sophomore on electric typewriters. The were two of the most important classes that I took in High School.

My first real job out of High School was as a typist for a Summer Workshop for teachers in my home town!

I tried Stenography as a Junior, but I had to drop that class, because I just couldn't get the hang of it!

Later, one of my jobs required me to learn the 9 key number pad on the calculator by feel, because I was taking daily changes in a produce office for a major regional grocery chain, where speed and accuracy were needed, so that we could call in the order changes to the buyers to adjust their produce buys.

Since then, I've almost always worked various accounting jobs where these skills have been a valuable asset!