How's Your Typing?
Apr 16, 2017 15:42:49 #
Doddy wrote:
I can use all eight fingers and both my thumbs at speed..unfortunately it comes out on the screen completely unreadable, however..when I revert back to my middle fingers and type slowly it makes sense!!
As they say, "Whatever works."
Apr 16, 2017 15:43:56 #
jimneotech wrote:
Any one use Dragon Naturally Speaking? It's getting pretty good these days.
I tried it decades ago, but I found it unnecessary.
Apr 16, 2017 15:45:09 #
Ralloh wrote:
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?
Apr 16, 2017 15:45:52 #
markngolf wrote:
I'm a carbon copy of you, Jerry.
Mark
Mark
Come on! I have much more hair than you do.
Apr 16, 2017 15:46:59 #
teranz wrote:
There's lots of software out there to teach yourself to type.
Two terms come to min: old dog; new tricks.
Apr 16, 2017 15:49:18 #
Szalajj wrote:
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...
When I was in high school, I worked in a supermarket, and I was so fast on the register that I was faster than it was. I could have gone faster, but I had to wait for it to catch up - and I wasn't looking at the keys. The customers didn't like that, though.
Apr 16, 2017 15:50:52 #
warrior wrote:
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs back testing 1234567890
Ah, yes!
Apr 16, 2017 15:52:31 #
rmorrison1116 wrote:
I took two semesters of typing in high school. Was never really any good at touch typing but I always remember the home keys and basically where all the rest of the keys are on a standard qwerty keyboard.
And what happened to the Dvorak keyboard? You can still buy them, but I never read about them anymore.
Apr 16, 2017 15:57:03 #
I wonder what my life would have been like without my highschool-learned typing ability.
First, I signed up for an elective class in typing during my highschool time. I was the only male in a class of twenty-or-so females students. I enjoyed the class, passed the course with reasonable speeds on the tests. Also, I enjoyed, and excelled in, english classes, particularly spelling, grammar and vocabuary. All of which helped me later on along life's highway.
Drafted late in WWII, I listed typing as one of my skills, and promptly received a military MOS of clerk typist. Stationed at Camp Fannin, TX, I was later grabbed out of basic training and given the job of clerk-typist in the military messhall, where I ordered food supplies, kept military records of all the GIs who worked in the messhall, etc.
WWII finally ended with the surrender of Japan, and I was due to be discharged. With no future plans in mind, I accepted a 30 day home leave, some money (in the hundred dollar range) and the choice of three or four world areas in which to be stationed...all in exchange for signing up for another year of military service.
Fortunately, my choice of ETO (Europe Theater of Operations) was given me, and I ended up as a clerk-typist in a then 15th Constabulary unit in a small town near both Heidelberg and Mannheim, Germany. That I then met my later-to-be German War Bride, and after two years returned to America, and that we will soon celebrate our 69th wedding anniversary is another story.
Having returned to America, and with only typing as a marketable skill, I searched for jobs. The unemployment office in Portland, Oregon, my then home, gave me some tests, and based on a high score in the manual dexterity test, it was suggested I accept work as a teletype operator. Finally, I decided to become a lawyer, and attended night law school while working as a bank teller in the daytime.
Along came the Korean War, and I was recalled to military service, and stationed at the 6th Army Headquarters at the Presidio of San Francisco in the legal section (JAG). There I met another fellow who, like I had been, was recalled to military service. He was a Stenograph Court Reporter and worked in Los Angeles courts. He recorded courts martial proceedings for the JAG section.
Interested in his skill of writing shorthand on a Stenograph machine, I started night school in downtown San Francisco, taking to the craft of machine stenography like a duck to water. After discharge from the Korean War, I continued day schooling learning machine stenography, eventually finishing the two-year course in a little over six months.
Eventually, I passed the California Certified Shorthand test, gaining a CSR (Certified Shorthand Reporter) classification in the State. Jobs came quickly and easily: first, as a freelance reporter with a Los Angeles, CA firm; later as a CSR in Federal Court in downtown Los Angeles, from which I retired in '83.
Machine stenography speedwise, I passed the National Court Reporters Association Merit Award test, recording testimony-type Q and A at 260 words per minute; Judge's Instructions To The Jury at 240 words per minute, and Literary matter at 200 words per minute.
This story encompasses the years from 1945 to 1983, when I finally retired as a federal employee of the Federal Judiciary Branch of the United States.
All, because I took an elective course in typing in highschool.
First, I signed up for an elective class in typing during my highschool time. I was the only male in a class of twenty-or-so females students. I enjoyed the class, passed the course with reasonable speeds on the tests. Also, I enjoyed, and excelled in, english classes, particularly spelling, grammar and vocabuary. All of which helped me later on along life's highway.
Drafted late in WWII, I listed typing as one of my skills, and promptly received a military MOS of clerk typist. Stationed at Camp Fannin, TX, I was later grabbed out of basic training and given the job of clerk-typist in the military messhall, where I ordered food supplies, kept military records of all the GIs who worked in the messhall, etc.
WWII finally ended with the surrender of Japan, and I was due to be discharged. With no future plans in mind, I accepted a 30 day home leave, some money (in the hundred dollar range) and the choice of three or four world areas in which to be stationed...all in exchange for signing up for another year of military service.
Fortunately, my choice of ETO (Europe Theater of Operations) was given me, and I ended up as a clerk-typist in a then 15th Constabulary unit in a small town near both Heidelberg and Mannheim, Germany. That I then met my later-to-be German War Bride, and after two years returned to America, and that we will soon celebrate our 69th wedding anniversary is another story.
Having returned to America, and with only typing as a marketable skill, I searched for jobs. The unemployment office in Portland, Oregon, my then home, gave me some tests, and based on a high score in the manual dexterity test, it was suggested I accept work as a teletype operator. Finally, I decided to become a lawyer, and attended night law school while working as a bank teller in the daytime.
Along came the Korean War, and I was recalled to military service, and stationed at the 6th Army Headquarters at the Presidio of San Francisco in the legal section (JAG). There I met another fellow who, like I had been, was recalled to military service. He was a Stenograph Court Reporter and worked in Los Angeles courts. He recorded courts martial proceedings for the JAG section.
Interested in his skill of writing shorthand on a Stenograph machine, I started night school in downtown San Francisco, taking to the craft of machine stenography like a duck to water. After discharge from the Korean War, I continued day schooling learning machine stenography, eventually finishing the two-year course in a little over six months.
Eventually, I passed the California Certified Shorthand test, gaining a CSR (Certified Shorthand Reporter) classification in the State. Jobs came quickly and easily: first, as a freelance reporter with a Los Angeles, CA firm; later as a CSR in Federal Court in downtown Los Angeles, from which I retired in '83.
Machine stenography speedwise, I passed the National Court Reporters Association Merit Award test, recording testimony-type Q and A at 260 words per minute; Judge's Instructions To The Jury at 240 words per minute, and Literary matter at 200 words per minute.
This story encompasses the years from 1945 to 1983, when I finally retired as a federal employee of the Federal Judiciary Branch of the United States.
All, because I took an elective course in typing in highschool.
Apr 16, 2017 17:45:47 #
(Not looking as I type) Took typing in 1968, the teacher had to call my mom for a conference, asking is he sure this is the class he wants? During this time it was considered a "young lady's class". 130wpm/0 errors on a manual Underwood. Who is a nerd now, foresight!! Oh by the way I also was a cheerleader that year?? Basketball team, bus. Cheerleaders, station wagon!! It was a very good year.
Apr 16, 2017 17:59:02 #
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'm not fast, pretty slow ( maybe 60 a min), but I do not have to look!
Apr 16, 2017 18:53:27 #
Learning to type was a requirement in my high school (graduated '73). Older manual machines with maybe one electric model in the room. I think I topped out at 40 wpm.
Apr 16, 2017 19:36:20 #
BlackRipleyDog wrote:
Learning to type was a requirement in my high school (graduated '73). Older manual machines with maybe one electric model in the room. I think I topped out at 40 wpm.
Same at my high school (Class of '67). I forget how they decided who was the lucky student who got to use the electric model. I was thrilled when my parents got me a portable electric typewriter when I went off to college.
Apr 16, 2017 20:58:56 #
JohnSwanda wrote:
Same at my high school (Class of '67). I forget how they decided who was the lucky student who got to use the electric model. I was thrilled when my parents got me a portable electric typewriter when I went off to college.
I got a slightly used Red Royal manual one. Still have it.
Apr 16, 2017 21:39:44 #
I learned typing in tenth grade in 1975. I was the only male in the class. The next year, I was into computers. The year after that, I became a hacker.
Some parts of high school were fun.
Some parts of high school were fun.
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.