Two-finger typing vs. Touch typing

[DanielScocco]

How many of you use two fingers to type, and how many use all the fingers with the touch typing method (without looking at the keyboard)?

I am still migrating to touch typing (I use around 3 fingers from each hand). I am pretty fast with it anyway, but I am definitely looking forward to learn touch typing.

Here is a website where you can go to test your typing speed:

http://speedtest.10-fast-fingers.com/

My record so far is 359 points, which translates into 476 characters per minute.

[InternetG33k]

How about another option for the poll -

"A combo of the two"

Because that would be my answer. :)

BTW, nice link - I just scored 269 characters or 47 words per minute (201 points).

[Farfield]

I learned to type with ten fingers and without looking at highschool. I didn't know that was called 'touch typing' in English :)

Back than I really didn't know if I would ever need it but now I am so happy that I took that course. I just don't think about the typing anymore, and I can look at something else than the keyboard (like, well, the screen for instance)

[Klepto]

Actually, I use all my fingers while looking down. But I guess it counts as touch typing. XD
On my first try I got 253 points, 59 words a minute.

I guess that's good. *shrugs*

[Bob]

321 points, 410 characters per minute, 74 words per minute :P

But that's offtopic. I think I'd manage better with touch typing. I ROFL (Rolling On Floor Laughing) when my father starts typing with two fingers :D

[Ramoney]

And bringing up the rear with 233 characters per minute is - Me! :D

[Who?]

I've been touch typing since middle school, when I was addicted to Warcraft III's online play. I had to get my words out quickly while watching the screen, or I wouldn't be able to taunt and micromanage a battle at the same time!

I'm almost ashamed of why I learend to type the way I do. Before my several years of instruction at the hands of video games, I typed with two fingers and my gaze flitting nervously between the monitor and the keyboard.

I'm scoring consistently in the high 90s on that test. The biggest thing holding me back, in this case, is that I have to think abotu what I want to type to toss in the box there. I keep getting words out of order because they make more sense in grammatical terms. But that doesn't matter to the machine, nor does it matter when you get an entre line of words wrong because, apparently, it didn't pick up the space between two words and you don't notice until they're all already red.

Ah, well. Practice would make perfect, but somehow, practicing just to get a high score on that seems...off. My best was 2900-something and I'm happy enough with that.

[DanielScocco]

Guess I am with the minority.

Well I don't really just use 2 fingers, more like 3 from each hand, so I guess I am half way through.

[Ali]

On my first try I got:

368 points
You type 463 characters per minute (86 words per minute)
You have 86 correct words and
you have 0 wrong words

I do touch type, though like Who? this is not due to any dedicated attempt to learn to do so properly, but instead the natural result of a wasted youth on online games ;-) I used to be very into a small online text-based game (a MUD for those who know what one is) and ended up able to touch type after a few years of playing that...

Ali

[Nigel Harrison]

I touch type, but the critical measure is the speed of typing compared with thinking. I believe the average thinking speed is around 40 wpm, so if you type at least that fast, you're keeping up with your brain.

[sky]

Is there any free & full version of touch typing system/software. I wish to improve my typing skills.

[shankarganesh]

277 points. I type 414 characters per minute.

I found this game pretty cool: http://play.typeracer.com/ It's addicting though.

[Vismay]

I only use two fingers to type!! On my first attempt I got 102 points or could type 22 words in a minute!! Got to increase my typing speed, I know!! Daniel that link was good.

[susabelle]

Back in my day, we learned to touch-type on manual typewriters. By the time I started working in the early 80's, there were electric typewriters, and then computers. I have always touch-typed, and last time I was tested typed around 120 wpm.

I wouldn't go back to hunt and peck typing for anything. I get a lot more done typing by touch.

[susabelle]

277 points. I type 414 characters per minute.

I found this game pretty cool: http://play.typeracer.com/ It's addicting though.

Yeah, but it can't keep up with anyone typing over, say, 80 wpm. It kept telling me that I wasn't hitting the space bar. I very very rarely type words together the way it was recording me typing them together without spaces. The tool could use a bit of tweaking, I think, but cool nonetheless.

[--Deb]

Touch typing! Not only am I grateful that my parents insisted I take "Personal Typing" in high school, I bought a rudimentary computer program in college to re-learn the proper method. SO helpful--and at the time, who knew that typing was going to take over the world? (grin)

[DanielScocco]

Yeah, but it can't keep up with anyone typing over, say, 80 wpm. It kept telling me that I wasn't hitting the space bar. I very very rarely type words together the way it was recording me typing them together without spaces. The tool could use a bit of tweaking, I think, but cool nonetheless.

You are a monster what can I say :).

[susabelle]

I touch type, but the critical measure is the speed of typing compared with thinking. I believe the average thinking speed is around 40 wpm, so if you type at least that fast, you're keeping up with your brain.

Oh, no, you THINK at about 250 words per minute. You could never type fast enough to keep up if you were trying to type verbatim what you are thinking.

[michael420ts]

When I get over 100ish wpm I start to get out of sync. I also become dyslexic when going that fast it seems. :P

[Genuine]

You type 415 characters per minute
You have 78 correct words and
you have 1 wrong words

I type with two fingers, but I've memorized the keyboard, so I can easily type without looking at the keyboard. My personal favorite trick is closing my eyes and typing and never getting anything wrong. I've also scored higher on this paticular test---something like 700 something characters per minute.

[Michael Sland]

I use all fingers to type words without looking at keyboard. But I can not type fast.

[susabelle]

You are a monster what can I say :).

Har...wait, let me put on my monster costume. There. Better? LOL

Maybe I shouldn't tell you that I've worn off all the letters except w, q, z, x, and p on my laptop, so I HAVE to be able to touch-type or nothing gets typed. I call it a "security feature." Who would want to steal a laptop with no letters on the keys?

LOL

[Alex]

I do touch typing, but I'm not very good at it. However, I also write in different languages, and often need to change the seting of my keyword, and they can be really different! The worst one to get used to is the French keyword setting, where the numerals are typed using the shift key. The 'normal' keys have all the puntuation stuff. And for the German one, you have all the umlauts, plus Z and Y are inversed...

There is a nice keyword I'd love to have. It has keys that are mini diod screens, and they display the current key setting. It is also great for games, because you could assign icons to the keys, or simple words like 'reload', 'attack' and 'save'. It also works with normal applications, like word.

[robincapper]

I'm a mixture of touch and two, three, four finger at 200-300 cpm on the test referenced. While I find typing normal text reasonable much of what I enter in the PC is not "normal language" - commands & distances in a CAD application - which makes touch typing harder to do.

One thing I have found helped is the text substitute function of ActiveWords, a utility I use. While I type at whatever speed it's substituting an additional 15-20% more effectively making me a better typist.

[Maeve]

Of course I had to try too: 344 characters pm, 65 correct, 0 wrong. I found the unrelated words difficult to type. I think it's easier to type sentences.

I learned to type in high school. I've always felt that it was the only truly useful course I took in high school.

[marketeer]

I have thanked my mother over and over again for insisting that I take typing in school. It was a miserable class with a miserable teacher and no air conditioning in the hot weather--HOWEVER--I did learn to touch type and it has served me very well in so many ways!

I am really surprised by how fast non touch typers can type.

Ali--your score is amazing. Zero errors and 86 wpm! Anyone can type fast--but how many errors do you make? Speed doesn't count unless there is also accuracy. I scored 60 wpm with 1 error.

[Roger]

I use two or three fingers, which is great cos i don't have to look, but terrible because I get RSI in my left pinkie (which sticks out at an odd angle cos I never use it). I spose that's a sign to learn touch typing but there's always an excuse!

[Ken]

I tend to use two fingers with occasional input from other digits if they don't happen to be doing anything else at the time. Sometimes my left index finger only operates the shift and a keys while my right does everything else. At the moment they are working together equally. I know that because I'm keeping a close watch on them. ;)

[dust429]

you guys are superb
i got 204 points only
which translates into 313 characters per minute

[m7weilm]

I inadvertently voted 2-finger but have touch typed (also didn't know it had such a formal name) since Typing class in high school. I scored an embarrassing 55 points/minute. At the end of high school class I typed 85 words per minute--on an IBM Selectric! What's more important than how you type is what you do with it. I can no longer compose without typing--which is very bad when the computer goes down. (LOL)

[Alex]

Wow, I'm quite slow :P