Typewriter Talk / Typewriter quirks

**Posted by ztyper** 19-10-2014 20:02:54

This is sorta typewriter related, in the sense that I always think I'm typing on a typewriter. I am always reaching for the '8' key to press shift and then get an apostrophe and then '2' for quotation marks. And I slam my fingers onto the delicate, plastic, and overall cheap feeling computer keyboard. Does anybody else do this?

**Posted by Uwe** 19-10-2014 22:32:53

I'm not sure what you're describing. Are you saying that when you use a computer keyboard that you forget that's what it is, and you end up typing with it as if it was a typewriter?

I can't say that I do that, but probably only because I use both too often to mix them up. If I ever make any crossover mistakes it's hitting keys on a typewriter thinking they're in the same place as a computer keyboard. It doesn't help that I have so many typewriters and the layouts of their keys can vary a lot.

**Posted by ztyper** 20-10-2014 19:56:16

Well I guess that's what I mean. I normally only use my SM-9 beacuse it's the center of my small collection. So I am used to its keyboard layout. However, I never seem to think a typewriter layout is a computer keboard layout, which is strange because I've used a computer before I could even spell my name correctly. But, I guess it just goes under strange things I do. Oh well.

**Posted by KatLondon** 23-1-2015 06:39:05

Hi ztyper. It is taking me weeks to work all through this giant forum! Here's what I did. I spent ages with that amazing 1944 US Navy video on typing - it's on YouTube - and really concentrated and practiced. You can have the video on the computer and be typing in front of it on a typewriter. Then I found some online touch typing websites where you type directly into their interactive practice session. I'm still not a touch typist but only because I don't force myself not to look often enough. But the thing is, by doing it this way on both machines, you kind of get used to it as one thing in two ways... I do love the typewriter but my typing for work has improved exponentially - I was fast before but made hundreds of mistakes. Now I only make dozens of mistakes ;)

Also, I love having typewriters with different keys; the one thing I cannot get with, though, is when the margin release and backspace key are reversed!!

**Posted by TypewriterKing** 20-2-2016 20:08:37

I guess it's all in what you get used to. I remember back in the Mesozoic era when I was in tenth grade in high school, I had a morning typing class. We used 1981 IBM selectrics. After banging away on one of those, at about lunchtime, I would go into another room and drag out my trusty 1955 Underwood 150 manual typewriter and start typing stuff for the coaches. I did this a whole year, and earned a full letterjacket for it. But I got used to both the soft feel of a selectric and the more rugged feel of an Underwood. When you use multiple kinds of keyboards, it all starts to get easier.