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Do you touch-type or hunt-and-peck?

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Shades:
And the typewriters that were used by the Spanish Inquisition...they were made of gold and transported by the Spanish Armada, I assume?    :P

Paul Keith:
skwire: true, but see this: the more they type, the better people get at touch-typing.-jgpaiva (September 14, 2009, 09:52 AM)
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No, the more hunt-and-peckers type, the better they get at hunt-and-pecking. They'll never become touchtypers without a concerted effort.

Typing was one of the most valuable classes I took in high school, and has helped me considerably through my career.

If you ever saw my handwriting, you'd be glad that I type everything. But so am I -- I can type much faster than anyone can write longhand, or h&p.  I am much more efficient this way.

On the downside, I'm almost completely incapable of using nonstandard keyboards, either with odd keyplacement (who decided to move the home/end keys?!) or in sizing. Notebook computers give me fits.
-CWuestefeld (September 15, 2009, 11:41 AM)
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No. I started out as a hunt and pecker and then one day just unconsciously became a pseudo-touch typist.

I'm not saying it's a case of practicing though. It's just that the more you need to utilize a program, the more you just "get" the convenience.

I started similarly with Remember the Milk's keyboard shortcut.

I hated it, hated it, hated it until one day I just need to put in a task and I found it so annoying and then when I was looking for a replacement online to-do list, I just "got" RTM's system even if ironically enough, when I tried Todoist, I just couldn't get settled on using their keyboard shortcut settings despite it being only the second time I used RTM.

J-Mac:
More like "Hunt & Pound" method here. Especially if I am not getting the Google results I want or something similar. I go through keyboards as if they are consumables.  :o

Jim

f0dder:
Autodidact touch typist here. I started writing on my dad's electrical typewriter many many moons ago, and fortunately computer keyboards turned out to have the same QWERTY layout (well, you could say unfortunately because the layout sucks, but...)

I honestly don't know how useful touch typing is to the majority of people, though. Both when programming and writing reports for school, I spend much more time thinking&planning than on actual typing. Sure, hunt-and-peck would be a serious slowdown, but it's not super often I go full-speed WPM bonanza.

JoTo:
Hi,

typing classes were mandantory in my school while i was about 15-18. So i had to learn it and today i thank god that it was this way..

I am now at approx. 278 cps, corrected to 268 cps for 2 typos i made in the last test i did (Online-Test, typing a given very long regular text, typing for 3 min. as far as you can get). I think i am faster when i don't have to read the text i have to type (this slows me down a lot for my bad eyesight) and if the text wasn't in english - german words are more practical to me.

And as a 10 finger touch typer, i am able to type blind without looking at the keyboard. Keeping my eyes on the screen and noticing my typos immediately and so i can correct them. Mostly no need for later proofreading again the whole text. That saves time as well.

(Possible typos in this message results a) from my not native english tongue, b) my bad eyesight and c) of not doing proofreading of course *LOOOOL* :D :D :D )

If i'd were a boss, i'd pay someone 10% less if he can't touch type with all 10 fingers, as he is slower for sure as everyone else doing hunt and pecking.

But it also depends on what you have to do. I, as a programmer, profit from my typing skills only, if i write regular text (like in manuals, comments, mails and forum posts). I can't get the speed advantage while typing program code with all the brackets, parenthese and other special characters and strange character order you need to type in code.

So my summary:
YES, they should learn it for our nowadays modern world, indeed! And it should be mandantory for sure!

Greetings
JoTo

PS:
What about a DC speed typing contest? :D
Here is the URL of the online speed typing test i did (The company sells type learning software, but the test is free for everyone - they tell you afterwards that you can get faster if you purchase their software :) ).

   http://www.typingtest.com

I start the contest with my following results :) :

Test Time:      3 min.
Selected Text: Astronauts
Typing Speed:  278 CPM
Accuracy:       97 %
NET SPEED:     268 CPM

Hey! And DON'T CHEAT! :D :D :D

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