How did you learn to type

Blah, was making a long post, and pushed some key and it is gone. This has prompted me to again compose a long post in word and then cut and paste that saved down information to the forum. Blah. But then again, this has prompted me to make a short post and not bother with a long and lengthy post about how I learned to type. But still am compelled to write, so leaving this window and making a word document. Be right back, smiling. This annoys me terribly and am just well, not going to make a long post in a window, always now a word document composed. Still don't know what key I hit to make the text in the window disappear, but it does....

Ya, so getting back to where I was....I have a special skill of being to type as quickly as one can speak and with accuracy too (ya I know, said this before and others are probably tiring of hearing this ). I know that so many people can only type with one or two fingers and do perfectly well. My oldest Grandson is a prime example of this. Back in grade school, he was acknowledged by his teacher how quickly he could type, can’t remember the speed clocked, but he was fast. Two fingers only, and still does to this day, I have seen him type and still can’t figure it out. He is fast. So yes, two fingers can be good, but picture if you could use all 10 digits to fly over the keyboard.

I feel comfortable now. I can freely write, as I have saved my work in word, so can do Control S and save down every few seconds. Keyboard shortcuts, amazing things.

Oh well, so here we go. How I learned to type. Back in high school I took a typing course. My Mother was a typist, working for Macmillan and Bloedell. The machine that she worked on was probably as heavy as I was in those days, a monster. And when she left the company, she purchased the machine and took it with her, home. That was where my interest began, hence, the desire to learn in high school. Which I did. Now back in that day, typewriters were very different. All had ribbons that were carbon and the letters would bang on the ribbon and make a mark of letters or symbols on the page. A lever was pushed to slide a part over to begin a new line. Can’t quite remember how this all worked, but it worked. Ya, so being 60 years of age, and learned to type in my 15th year, that is a long time ago. We’ve come a long ways baby.

I remember my Mother, when I was a little older, probably about 20, and had moved out from home, raising my child, went back to school. We lived in Gibsons and she would commute to North Vancouver, to Capilano College. Stay at my Auntie’s house overnight and return home on weekends. She was taking an office course and was learning the newest technology. Word processing. I can still recall how thrilled this woman was about the machine that you typed on and the words magically appeared on a screen, attached to the part that you pushed the pads that had letters on them. Word processing. Imagine that....ya, so with me still banging on the keys that were hard as heck to push, making letters and symbols on the paper, I thought that this must be a better way.

Some years later, when we moved from the Sunshine Coast to Maple Ridge, I took thought it would be cool to learn to word process. Which I did....was a most interesting course. It was after that that I returned to the work force and became a word processor. I worked in Vancouver for a firm that did the most interesting research...hospitality and tourism, along with psychiatric stuff. So I got to type my brains out, for years. And I got good. Yes, I got good and very fast (pardon grammar here, not worrying about that right now). We present proposals, reports and such to companies that paid our company for these services. Our reports were sent to Toronto for perusal and correction before the papers were allowed to go to clients. Got really good about proofreading my own documents. Which lead to a desire to type accurately, smiling. Years and years and years. And after those years and years and years, more years and years and years of typing. On forums, mostly, telling tales of bees, and sun and puppydog tails. And then of course chicken experiences, along with other life experiences I thought others might enjoy. So ya, kept up my typing skills now for over, well, let’s see, about 45 years or so. I do so love to type. And thank my lucky stars that I have all my digits that work well, flying over the keyboard and making cool sounds as I do, smiling. My Husband always comments on what a nice sound it is to hear the clicking of the keys of my laptop. I digress, as usual.

So, what I would really like to know, now that I have borne my soul. How have others learned to type.

Do you type with all the digits on yours hands.

Do you type with only a few fingers.

How do you perform this task of imparting information.

If you took a typing course, which one did you use...and did it work for you?

Uno wants to think about perhaps making a blog. She has told us time and time again that she feels she is challenged when it comes to making her fingers work to impart her beautiful stories. I have suggested that if she wants to make a blog, or something, perhaps an ebook and become a very rich and famous woman, that it might be advisable to learn how to type quickly. These things don’t come easy. Learning new skills is sometimes hard to do. But you can teach an old dog new tricks (and Uno, I am not referring to you as an old dog, but that is just such a common, ol’ saying and I love it).

So, I especially would like anyone that may have taken an online typing course, did it work for you? Let’s help Uno to figure out if she wants to venture down a different path of how to use the computer. If this post is rather long, I apologize, but then, maybe I don’t....I just wanted to set a scene so others can contribute. There, done the post and did not learn one single word, smiling....With these thoughts, have a most awesome day, CynthiaM.

I typed for years and years with both index fingers, and actually got pretty quick in a two fingered frenzy.

As I mentioned, I downloaded ASTyping, and began typing properly. Its a good free program, basically the same as what they use in basic typing classes. My wife, who was a medical receptionist among other things, needed to brush up on her skills once for a different job, used it for a couple of weeks to get her speed up to par.
Anyone wanting to increase their skills should give it a try. Its an easy program that anyone can work with and get results.

.

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Try that one, hard to do, when you are combining to make words

Left to right home keys and the row above and below. Those are only the base ones, then you have to stretch your fingers more to make the outer and upper keys...Makes a whole lotta sense eh? Got pretty good with numerals too. Just some fun I don't use the calculator type numbers that are on the side of some keyboards, I use the original numbers on the top keys. Have an awesome day, CynthiaM.

Interesting CynthiaM.

I took a typing course in high school on the old typewriters. I HATED it! Our teacher used to fall asleep so I don't think we really got much done anyways.

I went on to chose my first career and did that for a few years and then at 24 I went back to college. I then had to take a course on the fancy 'word processors' as well. It was part of the requirements and I was dreading it. It turns out I actually really liked it. The method suited me. They taught us to not look at the words but to say each letter in our heads that we were copying. So you would say to yourself ' t h e (space) c a t (space) r a n ' It really made sense to me and I learned easily to type properly. It was mainly for copying materials.

After so many years I can type a bit more by word, that is how my Mom has always done it, but still go back to letter by letter if I have a long thing to recopy. You get in a rhythm and can go faster I think (I am not that fast but consistent). I only have to look at the key board for the odd numbers. I never really took the time to get the numbers down pat.

I often don't even look at the keyboard to put my hands down, just find the little markers and away we go.

Hillbilly, I will have to have a look for that. It might be fun to have a refresher.

RRoo, I am a very noisy typist too. I like to call it animated, not noisy.

I am reasonably accurate, but not super fast. I get fat fingers sometimes and I am just to lazy to correct it, and then there are times I am just a bad speller or ain't gonna use proper English if I don't have to.

I'm a nine finger typer as I don't use my left thumb. I was forced to take typing in grade 7. At the time typing ranked very high on my list of completely useless skills. I'm not fast and always have to watch the keyboard as I can't remember where the letters are without looking. In university all our papers had to be typed and often retyped because of errors or I need to add something on page 2 and now need to retype the other 6 pages. That useless grade 7 skill has sure come in handy with the popularity of computers

A two week summer course on an electric computer I think the last year of high school. VERY strict old style teacher so you'd better believe I type "correctly" It was one of the most boring two weeks of my life. But I think I was the only person in my class NOT going on to secretarial school and looking what they had ahead of them I was REALLY motivated to find a different career!

I took typing in high school which I completely failed because why would a rancher need to type? Lol. I then went to business college where I took accounting tech and business management, and Aldo threw in a secretary course for good measure and guess what? I had to learn to type. They were old school where we were blind folded and had to take dictation. We had too type perfectly (we could have two errors on a one page report, but lost 10 percent per error) or had to redo it. It was NOT fun!! In the computer classes if we were caught looking at the keyboard or not typing with proper firm we got our fingers rapped with a meter stick, or if we looked at the screen too often we were rapped on the top of the head. I don't know if they were trying to knock our brains in or out!! Lol

I am a 10 finger typist but I have to look at the keys. I took Typing 10 in 1979 on an old manual typewriter and earned 3 credits for it. Keyboards sure have changed. I am typing this on an iPad which is surprisingly easy considering its size. However that autocomplete always throws me for a loop.

Two fingers.

I have to look for the letters I want. (see, had to stop already and correct that sentence) Problem is, I get the letters I need all lined up and then hit them in the wrong order. I have all the right letters in a word, just mixed up. Or I randomly add spaces. I also don't get my finger off the shift key fast enough and end up with a word that has two CApital letters at the front.

Also, I think my keyboard sits too high for good typing. Traditionally keyboards sit lowish, don't they? WHen I am seated at the computer, the keyboard is above the level of my bent elbow. I reach up to type. I think this limits my wrist mobility. It's all in the wrist. Wait. That's fly fishing. Never mind.

I remember typing in school - on a computer, mind you - with a tea towel over my hands so I couldn't see the keys. We had to get a minimum words per minute ... 40 maybe? ... before we could pass, and I could barely make it.

After high school, the internet "happened" and I spent a lot of time online. And typing typing typing. My job, for most of the last 13 years, has involved a lot of data entry. More typing typing typing! The last few years, my new hobby is writing fiction - WAY a lot of typing! Last time I tried one of those typing programs I was over 70 words per minute.

Random thought regarding typewriters - used to be, at work, there were some forms that we filled out on a typewriter, so that you could do all the carbon copies. I learned very quickly how much I rely on my backspace key! Much admiration to those of you who can type accurately on a typewriter!

I've played computer video games for years and started typing in MUD games.

"Look left."

You see a torch and a key.

"Take key, remove torch, use as light"

It just progressed from there -- I ended upplaying online video games (Starcraft, Warcraft 1) and chat rooms were part of that. You learn to type quickly I don't have the correct stance and rarely care about home row when positioning my hands unless I end up one row up, of course

I am a self taught typist. I started when I was around 8 on my dad's business type writer. I would just take something written and copy it. I would keep typing it until I could do it without making any mistakes. I also recall that I think my mom had a How To Teach Yourself Typing book that I would also practive with.

I can type with most of my fingers and can hit some of the keys without looking. But when I want to type fast, I need to look at the keys then I can blaze. I also took a typing course as an adult when I needed the extra credit for my advance dip because I knew it would be an easy pass, which it was.

I type with 10 fingers having taking a secretarial course in college and learning to type there. I never went on to do secretarial work but did use typing a lot through my other college years and during my teaching years. I love to type but do find that although my typing speed is much improved from my college years, my accuracy lacks somewhat. I have to keep correcting but can do so quickly without looking at the keyboard. I don't use a lot of other skills from my secretarial course but have always thought it was worth it just to have learned to type.

I also took typing in school, easy credit. I am a 10 finger typist that doesn't look at the keys....until it comes to the numbers, then i have to peek

Ha, now this has pulled my giggle chain. I keep hearing people saying "10 finger typist" and then I wonder, what, we have 10 of them on the hand? Ya, kind of, well 8 fingers and two thumbs. Thumbs up. Yes, thumbs, fingers, the thumbs too are very useful for things on the keyboard, thumbs up. Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

My Dad owned a business machine company and my mother was a secretary who could type 85 wmp on one of those manual typewriters.
I got my first IBM selectric when I was 7 (early 70's) or so and my first computer when I was 12.
I also took typing in highschool for the easy credit.
I haven't done a typing test in a very long time but last test was around 75wmp. On a numeric pad I think I was around 55 kdpm

I learnt in Grade 8 on a Typewriter. We had to put the paper over the hands, too. Did all the exercises like, aqa, aza, sws, sxs, and such to learn which finger hit which keys. I never did get all the numbers down, though and need to look to sew what to hit for those. I'm not the fastest typer, and sometimes my fingers have minds of their own and hit the word "The" as 'hte' and what not.

Recently since I got the Iphone, I have kinda learned to type with my thumbs though. It's a really long slow process. Much easier to use a keyboard.

As for typing tests... I can probably type what I want to say from my head faster then I could copying something I was reading. I would probably fail miserably at that.