I'm  a bit ashamed and embarrassed to say this, but I don't know how to touch-type. When I was in elementary school, they stuck me in front of a computer program and told me to listen to it. And so it told me how to type at 15 wpm, while looking at the keyboard, while hunt-and-pecking. So it wasn't until 6th grade that I had to basically teach myself because I wanted to play a computer game  and it required me to type faster. This got me a bit faster, and I used  all fingers but my pinkies. It wasn't until I started using a typewriter that I started to goet really fast. I rivaled my own mother who went through the whole typing course in high school. However, I still leave out my pinkies an look at the keyboard. It's a habit I am really trying to break because, well, it'd be a lot easier to type. But looking at the keyboard is now just a habit. I don't have too much control over is, but I'm doing pretty well because I typed this sentence without looking. So I'm not too bad, I just don't have too much confidence in myself.

This is interesting to me also. I am dislexic and was never able to learn to type using typing tutors on the computer. Never had typing in school or had to use a keyboard until resopnsibilities at work caused me to have to type memos and reports. It was a mess. I could hunt and peck and still type letters reversed or generally mixed up. Back in the mid 90's I got my Ham Radio license and had to learn to send and receive Morse code.  For this, I used a Morse program on the computer. It started you out with three letters at the time with fingers placed ib the index keys. I did it with my eyes closed and could tell when I made a mistake because a buzzer sounded and you could try again. Worked through the alphabet with relitive ease because there was no visual aspect to the learning. Hear tone with your ear, your finger reaches for a key without thinking about it. In six weeks I was able to pass my 20 work per min. code test for an Extra Class lisence. Now, nearly twenty years later I type better watching the letters go onto the screen rather then looking at the keyboard. I still make a lot of mistakes if I look at the keys. With the typewriter, I try to let my peripheial vision keep my hands located in proper position becaause there are no index bumps on the typewrither. From time to time, my hands drift off to one side or the other and things it looks like I am typing in a foreign language. Recently, I found a typing program online that gives you the top 200 or top 1000 words used in the English language. Great fun and good practic for typewriters but has really oimproved my typing on the laptop. The biggest poblem I see with going from computer to typewriter is that there is no backspace/erace key on the typewriter and misakes are  there to stay.  It has make me really appriciate the skill of the typest of the past who could type without mistakes or nearly so.
Tom

Hmm, I thught this thread might [ull out some of these issues! I think the internet, or games, or whatever - certainly the computer age - got us all either typing or typing faster. But I've been aware for years that the amount of correcting I was doing was a sign that I really wasn't typing well or properly. My sister does 100wpm on a computer, so that was like a little clue... 

I'm reaally now trying to go from scratch and do finger placements and not looking. With mixed success, especially as I have to do so much typing for work, and speed being of the essence there I am tending to be stuck with a Frankenstein cersion - part new, right, good intentions, and part old and wrong but expedient. Whenever I see the new good habits creeping into my typing I can see that they are making it better and faster. I don't have to correct as much these days. (I'm also becoming aware, for the first time ever, of where  my mistakes are. A lot of them I also make in writing. It's more about transposing things, or writing the letter from the NEXT word, or just skipping ahead. So, less typing-related than just slowing down in my head.)

I can't recommend that US Navy video highly enough.

10[b]fastfingers[/b].com/typing-test
Check out this site. You can use the 200 most used englesh words indefinately without joining the website. The thing I like about it is that you can type, look at the screen and not the keyboard. If you hit a wrong key, the word turns red so you can backspace and start over. If I could design a website to teach touch typing, this is how I would do it.  The thing that I would do differently is that it would not be required to hit backspace, That is the kiss of death to the typewriter typest. In my mind, the ideal typing toutor would say the letter audubaly and the typest would type a letter without looking at the keyboard. A mistake would sound a buz and allow the typest to keep trying to hit the correct key until it is hit and then move on.  I believe that the backspace key is the biggest henderance to typing without mistakes when we use a computer keyboard for necessity and the typeweiter for fun and enjoyment.  There have been many great authors, news writers and casual typest who use only two or three fingers to type with. In todays world of computers touch typing makes the most since from a productivity standpoint. It is also a very satisfying way to type. I had a great roll model for this many years ago. There was an executive secretary to the plant manager where I worked who typed from a dictaphone machine while reading novels at the same time. Yes, you read that right, she could read novels while typing and listening to dictated letters and memos.  She proped the book open next to her typewriter,  typed between here ears and fingers and read with her eyes and mind. We are capable of much more then we can imagine. 
Tom

Last edited by Tom Waits (11-2-2015 19:57:10)

ztyper wrote:

JustAnotherGuy, just out of curiosity, may I ask what computer game? Because for me it was Minecraft (highly recommend it for those of you who have creative minds and no outlet for it). If it's the same game... we just be the same person then

Yes! It was Minecraft. I used to play it every day a year ago... I established my own mini empire!. Great game. I think I still have it downloaded on my laptop- I'd have to check, though. I lost interest after some of the more recent updates. Call me a nerd, but I wish they had just stopped updating the game after 1.6.

Ok, that was a little off topic, but anyway having to chat often really sped up my typing. I couldn't hunt and peck fast enough to keep up!