- ztyper
- Key Master
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- From: Somewhere in New Jersey
- Registered: 01-10-2014
- Posts: 773
Re: Typing itself
Wow. What are the odds that we'd be into the same game. And I too lost interest once 1.8 came out. I'd hope it would improve, but it didn't. I actually had my own server that hosted me and my friends. It was AWESOME. But anyways, it really did force me to type faster. Now I rival my own parents.
A high schooler with a lot of typewriters. That's pretty much about it.
- Uwe
- Moderator
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,410
Re: Typing itself
ztyper wrote:
Wow. What are the odds that we'd be into the same game.
With over 40 million registered users, and considering its demographics, I'd say the odds were actually pretty good. 
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- KatLondon
- Key Master
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- From: London
- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Typing itself
Hahaha... meanwhile, I just got this in my local secondhand bookshop - actually, he just laughed and said I could have it...
Last edited by KatLondon (13-2-2015 12:10:37)
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Thread Starter- Ektagraphic
- Touch Typist
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- From: Mass.
- Registered: 05-10-2014
- Posts: 146
Re: Typing itself
When I was in middle school, they had us using a program called Mavis Beacon teaches typing. I found it to be excellent. It was on computers and was a tutorial on how to type. I had years of typing lessons through computer class, and while I don't type today exactly how they taught, I still make use of all of my fingers and am able to type more than fast enough to keep me satisfied. I think that the main thing that I got out of the whole thing was that I should never look at my hands when I am typing. That little tip helped me so much to be able to let my fingers do the work. I really wanted to learn how to type at the type because I always wanted to be able to use typewriters well, so I just did it.
I enjoy those Navy videos and have watched before. Would love to watch again. I wonder if typing was taught differently back then overall to accomodate the extra pressure used on a typewriter. I doubt it though. It is very interesting to me that computers have kept the same keyboard layout as the typewriter all of these years later. I am thankful that there is still such a seemless line between using typewriters and computers for typing. Everything down to the "@" symbol for typing out an e-mail address is possible on a typewriter!
- Spazmelda
- Key Master
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- From: Ohio
- Registered: 25-2-2015
- Posts: 830
Re: Typing itself
When I was in 8th grade, about 1988, we learned 'keyboarding', and it was a half semester class. Half of the class used electric typewriters, and the other half used computers. Then for the next class we'd switch. I actually have a copy of the book we used, which was called 'Key In To Keyboarding' because my mom was a teacher and had a copy for her students and then passed it on to me when she retired.
I found it to be a very useful class, and I'm glad I had to take it. It served me well in life to know how to type. I can still do about 80-90 WPM on a computer keyboard, but maybe only 30-50 on a manual typewriter. Someone wondered if they taught it differently back in the time of manuals, and I wonder this too. For the manual typewriters my pinkies are just too weak, and the A, Z, and P in particular give me problems. I find myself unconsciously shifting my hands and using my ring finger for those keys. I always wonder if the typists had to do pinkie exercises.
I took a couple of typewriters into my son's 3rd grade class for a museum they were having. The kids thought they were awesome. I also did up a little notebook with some interesting typewriter facts. One of the facts was a picture comparing an early typewriter keyboard to an iPhone keyboard with a caption explaining why the qwerty keyboard was arranged that way. Many of the kids commented on that, and I had them press a couple of keys at the same time on the manual to see how the typefaces would jam up. They thought it was really interesting that the mechanics of an "ancient" machine still dictate the arrangement of our keyboards today.
On that note, I've always wanted to learn how to type on one of the optimized keyboard layouts, like Dvorak (sp?). I haven't found a keyboard like that in a reasonable price range though.
- beak
- Key Master
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- From: Qld Australia
- Registered: 24-3-2013
- Posts: 912
Re: Typing itself
To my regret, I was never taught to touch-type at school - one of those basic skills we could all do with, but not thought important by educators at the time. That has left me reasonably at home with my three or four-finger home-spun action, which by now has me typing at a fair old lick, but not without looking at my hands most of the time.
Being of mature years, I now realize that what I have needed for a long time is a method to learn better typing skills for someone such as me - the 'ingrained bad habits typer' - the methods taught to those learnign afresh do not seem appropriate, and I never have any luck trying to start from scratch, as they all demand.
So I guess I'm just going to continue as I am...
Sincerely,
beak.
- KatLondon
- Key Master
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- From: London
- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Typing itself
Beak, the tihng that has helped me the most, unbelievably so, is the Us Navy film from 1944 which is on youtube. It has changed my life. Also, a website called keybr.com where you can just tyow in letter combinations without looking andf practive yur speed. Hugely helpful in odd minutes here and there and has made an appreciable difference. Sttill not perfeect and stil regretting not taking it seriously back in the day, but soooo much etter now.
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Thread Starter