Can you type -- correctly? -- and how'd you learn?

[sagegrouse]

I am totally self-taught and can type much of the time without looking at the keys. I make lots of errors.

I just had a disaster. I ordered the extremely lightweight Dell XPS PC, and I can't use the keyboard. The keys don't depress but respond to touch. Frequently, I look up at the screen and see a string of letters with no spacing between words. Duh, I guess the Dell doesn't like my spacing technique. (And if you leave your finger on a key, you can get a string of kkkkkkkkkkkkk.) Dell owes me a service call to see if there is some adjustment or replacement that works.

Pending some fix, I got a Bluetooth keyboard that weighs 15 ounces, which works pretty well. and at my desk I have big keyboard that has luxuoriously large shift keys ... and a terrific space bar.

Kindly, Sage

[Kimist]

My mom was on the staff at the local high school, so I was able to "borrow" a textbook they used for those students taking typing ("business"?) courses. I more or less "self-taught" using a very nice Royal typewriter. For the uninitiated, when you got near the end of a line a bell sounded and you (soon as practical) whacked that big old lever on the left side of the carriage to advance to the left margin of the next line. There was also a technique for not getting all of the eraser stuff in the guts of the typewriter while making any corrections. And don't even ask about making carbon copies. . .

Upon getting ready to attend Duke, I received as a graduation gift a Smith-Corona electric typewriter. I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Since my overall typing skills were pretty good, I could put away essays and term papers in pretty short measure. Those little rolls of white paper were used to make repairs.

I've known folks who later used their "pound the keys" typewriter approach to absolutely destroy computer keyboards. For a while I had to share some computers to do tax work, and I soon learned where NOT to sit. Entering $7.49 might turn into something like $7777.44999 .

For my 2¢ worth, I've always felt better typing on a "responsive" keyboard. The original keyboards that came with the Radio Shack TRS-80 (yeah, I'm old!) were some of the very best for someone with genuine typing skills.

I guess for the two-finger typists, or the iPhone approach where everything is done with the thumbs, that typing skills will soon fade away for the most part.

Now back to 2014. . . .

k

[DU82]

Speaking of typewriter bells, here's Leroy Anderson's classic...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2LJ1i7222c&feature=kp

[Newton_14]

I had a typing class in high school. junior year I believe (Senior year was computer applications). I got up to between 80 and 100 wpm. I worked doing typesetting for the weekly newspaper during the summers after that so I had to be fast and accurate (typed up hand written columns and stories on an old mac classic with the 9 inch screen). I can't use one of the "ergonomic" keyboards because of learning on a typewriter. My form has slipped in the last 25 years, but I still go pretty good.

Similar story as mine. I took a mandatory typing Class my Senior year in High School (1984), having no idea how valuable it would turn out to be down the road. Trust me there are a lot of folks in the office with college degree's that do the one finger (index mostly) including the guy that sits right beside me. It's painful to listen to, to be honest. I would go nuts if that was the only way I could type.

Given the year of course, I learned on a old school, manual type writer. I can still remember my teacher (i loved her, she was great!) walking the aisles chanting "FF JJ FF JJ". That's how we started. One finger on each hand at a time, two letters at a time on each until we had expanded to every letter & finger on that row. She then expanded in similar style to the row above that and then the row below F/J.

I actually had a lot of fun in the class and made good grades despite only getting up to like 48 wpm. I had a male classmate that just blitzed all of us by the end of the year. Dude could type 75 wpm on those old dinosaurs.

Needless to say that class has served me well over the years as we moved forward into computer land.

Great off season thread topic as well, so thanks to the OP for putting this one up.

[Dr. Rosenrosen]

I learned on my Apple IIe. My father had me use a typing "game" 30 minutes a day where you had to hit the keys with the correct finger to destroy the letters falling out of the sky before each hit the ground. Actually worked pretty well.

[gus]

I learned on my Apple IIe. My father had me use a typing "game" 30 minutes a day where you had to hit the keys with the correct finger to destroy the letters falling out of the sky before each hit the ground. Actually worked pretty well.

I learned on a Commodore 64, probably from typing in code* from Compute! magazine and programming books. Knowing that a single typo will ruin several hours of effort helped improve accuracy.



* for the younger crowd: in the 80s we couldn't download apps onto our computers. We could either go to a store and buy software for outrageous amounts of money (like $30), or actually type in programs printed in books and magazines.

[Ggallagher]

In the 10th grade in high school on an old, clunky manual typewriter.

Oh - and here's something that's not too smart, just in case you have kids in a similar situation. We lived just a few houses down the street from my high school. It was really great that I could goof around in the front yard until I heard the first bell ring in the morning. Then I had plenty of time to walk over to school and be in my desk before the second bell rang for the start of the first class period.

Seemed like a wonderful deal at the time, but during the winter when your first class period is typing class, it turns out that's it's actually a little bit harder to type with cold fingers than you might imagine.

I actually type really well now - not so well in my winter time 10th grade classes.