How Do You Type?

[Something Amyss]

I guess this only really applies if you're typing on a physical keyboard.

People occasionally remark at how fast I type with just a few fingers. My hands mirror each other, so I can't do the standard four fingers on each hand on the home row sort of deal for typing. The more fingers I add, the less I can mitigate the "mirroring."

So, generally speaking, I type with at most five fingers. I know my way around the keyboard well enough that I don't need to look, and I can usually type 80 wpm as a minimum while remaining above 90% accuracy. I can type both one handed, which leads to some annoying stretches even for my big hands, or usually with a hybrid of fingers on either hand. A lot of my posts are made by typing with little more than two fingers and a thumb, save for CAPS or similar.

Turns out, that mandatory typing class from school that was going to ruin me didn't.

But, as I indicate above, I'm not normal. I have a motor development issue and had to adapt. I'm curious as to whether people hunt and peck, touch type, use proper form, whatever. Because I doubt I'm the only person in the world who has cast aside the formal way of typing. In fact, I know I'm not. I'm not even the only person who's done it for this particular reason.

SIDE NOTE: I talk about accuracy, and then make like 42,000 mistakes in this post. Figures. I'm glad I wasn't filming myself.

 

[Zontar]

I type with all my fingers, since, well, that's just how I roll. In actuality it's because because when I was in 7th grade one of my classes was a computer science one which over the course of a semester gives you the basics for a few systems that a lot of programs use, as well as how to type using all your fingers without ever needing to look at the keys you're typing. My brother and I (as well as most of the people who took the class) can type between 100 and 180 wpp, depending on the person, to this day, and we really love how freaked out our parents are that we can 1) type that fast at all, and 2) do so without ever taking a glance at the keyboard (the "f"/"j" indents are all I need to know where everything is relative to everything else, after all).

 

[Evonisia]

I mostly rely on my left hand to type, using the rightmost three fingers. For my right hand I use the two leftmost fingers for convenience sake. Use my left little finger for caps Lock and my right little finger to press the arrow keys in case of errors. I know how to use one relatively quickly without looking (especially so if copying down something as I'm looking at the thing in question) but I wouldn't know my WPM unless I actually tried timing it.

My six billion errors in every single one of my posts are usually grammatical ones, but I do often misspell in spite of knowing where all the letters are. That little Devil will be my opposing force for all my life.

Captcha: that's it.

Yeah Captcha, I'm not good at explaining stuff.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I took a typing class in my Freshman year of high school to learn how to type properly. I was already pretty decent at it, self-taught through multiplayer gaming necessity. I picked it up easily and aced the class, but over time I've eased back into what feels comfortable to me.

Besides gaming, I work in an office setting, so I spend a lot of time at a keyboard. I use both hands, don't typically use the home row as a guide (once I've got a good feel for a keyboard, the F/J knobs aren't really necessary for me anymore to know where the keys are), and don't need to look at the keyboard. I'm usually around 80 to 90 words per minute, though I can type much faster than that if needed.

I never quite did get a good feel for typing the number keys without looking at the keyboard, but a brief stint as a cashier at Best Buy got me pretty good at using the numpad on a keyboard without looking.

 

[Artina89]

I tend to use all of my fingers on both hands to type (I don't use my thumbs though), and I don't really have to look at the keyboard either. I must say though, I didn't really pay any attention to how I type until you asked about it.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

I use two fingers, one on each hand. Three when holding the shift key. With that said I type pretty fast with them.

I usually don't pay attention to how I type. Looking at my hands now, I apparently have my left thumb pressing against the bottom of the keyboard, locking one hand in place, and my right hand hovering above the keyboard.

We did learn to type with all our fingers in school, but I never got used to it so I just stuck with two.

 

[sky14kemea]

Carefully.

Weirdly I type mostly with my left hand, even thought I'm right handed. I only use my thumb and index/middle on my right hand, with occasionally the pinky for the enter key when I'm feeling fancy. I use pretty much all of my left hand though.

I also can touch type, but I prefer to look at the keyboard anyway. Just out of habit I guess.

 

[Barbas]

With all of my fingers, employing the thumbs only for the space bar. Come to think of it, I don't think I use any other digits for the space bar except one of my index fingers. At school we played lots of typing games. There was one with mice in it. These were way back on old Acorn computers with the boxy grey CRT monitors. Good times.

 

[Fappy]

I have no idea how I do it. At this point whenever I think about it (like I am doing right now) I slow down significantly. From what I gather I type with about 4-5 fingers across both hands, but favor my pointers above all else. Basically I type totally incorrectly, but know the keyboard like the back of my hand and rarely need to look down at it. For how poor my technique is I type fairly quickly and with high accuracy. I do occasionally look at the keyboard, but that's more out of habit than anything else. If I force myself I can type near-perfectly with two fingers only and my eyes glued to the screen.

 

[Elfgore]

I use every finger on my left hand besides my pinki and everything but my pinki and thumb on my right. I primarily use my index fingers and make use of the others as needed. I'm pretty damn fast too.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

With my left hand and my right hand's index finger.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

By dictation. Actually touching a keyboard is for plebes.

Blah, blah, blah, droning noise, blah, blah, bl

Oh wait, he's looking towards the screen. Meaningless words you can't read from there you near-sighted jerk.

Anyway, it's the only way to go.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

Both hands and every finger except the thumbs on each. I'm not too quick but I'd like to think I'm alright, at least.

 

[Queen Michael]

I use my index finger, middle finger and occasionaly my pinky. I type quickly, though, because I've had a lot of training.

 

[Fijiman]

I use the first three fingers on both hands and do a kind of hunt and peck thing. Despite taking a keyboarding class three different times I could just never get the hang of it to the point where it was faster/more efficient than how I normally do it.

 

[Ravenbom]

A lifetime of trying to be a part of the PC gamer Master Race means I only ever use
LEFT SHIFT
LEFT (THUMB) SPACE
LEFT CTRL
LEFT ALT

When I was writing my book I got much better at typing but even so I preferred to take notes in college by hand. In part typing out my notes was just my way of studying without thinking of it as studying.

My typing is kind of a mess now, much slower than I used to be, which was never all that fast to begin with. I Marty McFly'd my left hand and for a while could only type by using the tip of my left middle finger because that's what stuck out of my splint I had to wear for weeks and months between surgery and physical therapy.
I later modified the keypad on a wireless keyboard so I could play Portal 2 and Skyrim with my ring/middle/pointer fingers on the 8456 like it would be WASD.

 

[Ravenbom]

EDIT (Double Post)

 

[Aerosteam]

I use all of my fingers except my pinkies, I never use my right thumb and I only use my left thumb for the space bar but sometimes use my right index finger at random times, I didn't know I did that until now.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Left hand thumb: Spacebar
Left pinky : Shift
Remaining three used for typing.

Right hand pinky: Backspace
Right hand ring finger/middle finger/pinky: Enter
Right hand index finger and middle finger also used for typing.

Right hand thumb feels left out..

I spent a lot of time playing Typing of the Dead in my youth so I type pretty fast.