How Do You Type?

Story

Note to self: Prooof reed posts
Sep 4, 2013
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G.O.A.T. said:
Pseudonym said:
People teach you to type in school? When was that?
First, thank you for reminding me that I am in fact a dinosaur. This was waaaaaaaaaaay back in the 1900s! 1987 to be precise. I imagine you young whippersnappers come out of the womb now knowing how to type and a USB port in your spine! NOW GIT OFFA MAH LAWN! *pees a little and shuffles off with my walker*
90s kid here and they did the same for me.
I remember using a typewriter to learn too along with a computer program later in life (middle school so mid-2000s). I think schools will do more of this as time goes on, probably earlier in life.
 

Eterna

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Jul 24, 2015
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I had to type stuff just to see how... never paid attention before! I never even see my keyboard.
I seem to mostly use my left hand, even though I'm right handed. I use all my fingers and even thumbs though, I think. The right hand little finger is used least. I use caps lock for capitals, holding shift down is just too much effort...
 

Xeros

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Aug 13, 2008
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All 4 fingers on my left hand, but only the index and middle on my right. Started as hunt-and-peck, but I gradually started adding more fingers. Not really sure you many words per minute I can type, but I'm fairly quick and accurate, and don't often have to look at the keyboard as I type.
 

FalloutJack

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom
Nov 20, 2008
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I type with index fingers and thumbs, chiefly. I type quickly, so long as what it is I'm typing is in the forefront of my mind. You know...like anybody. There's some debate on whether this is proper or not. I say, what matters is the result. Teachers in high school attempted to get me to use all ten fingers. Awkward, terrible, completely worthless training. I hit 60-80 on these four fingers with a very small margin of error, and 100 when I was really gunning it.
 

Auberon

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Aug 29, 2012
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I took touch typing for a reason. I really don't remember who I did before that... hunt and peck?
 

Trippy Turtle

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May 10, 2010
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I type with one or two fingers on my left hand, pointer mostly, with my middle finger tapping in rarely, and three on my right including the thumb.
No rhyme or reason to what fingers I use for each button. Sometimes the middle finger on my right hand just wants to punch in a H, while others its content to watch my left pointer do it.
My other fingers occasionally chime in, but rarely enough to mention.

I can type without looking on my laptops keyboard, but when I try at others the spacing is all out and I screw up.
Touch typing using the home row just always felt awkward to me.
 

halisme

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Jun 2, 2014
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Mostly with middle and index fingers, though my ring finger on my left hand is used for A Q and W.
 

Dizchu

...brutal
Sep 23, 2014
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I use the innermost fingers on both hands to type letters, I use my right pinky to press the enter key and backspace and I use my left pinky for SHIFT and CAPSLOCK. Right thumb for space.

When I learned to type I was only ever taught to use CAPSLOCK to alternate between uppercase and lowercase, it wasn't until much later that I found out that SHIFT was more commonly used for that. But now it's so embedded into the way I type that I'm used to it.

My WPM hovers around 90-100.
 

Tsun Tzu

Feuer! Sperrfeuer! Los!
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Jul 19, 2010
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Ya know...I hadn't really thought about this.

You've made me actually look down at my hands while I type and- fuck I'm weird.

I use most of my left hand's fingers as well as the thumb which acts as an anchor and remains sort of fastened to the spacebar, but the ring finger? Rarely, if at all. It's practically vestigial.

I only seem to use the first and second finger on the right hand with an extreeeeemely occasional thumb press when the other thumb is busy.

...I'm not sure how to explain this? And I'm right-handed to boot.

Perhaps it's the focus on WASD? I dunno.
 

Poetic Nova

Pulvis Et Umbra Sumus
Jan 24, 2012
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I think it is rather odd how I type.

When I do look at the keyboard I make dozens of spelling mistakes (english grammar notwithstanding since it isn't my first language). But when I type without looking at it, it goes mostly flawless and at a higher tempo aswell.

in either case, I use the index finger on each hand while using my left thumb for the spacebar.
 

Joccaren

Elite Member
Mar 29, 2011
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Instinctively. I don't do the standard touch typing thing of having your hands in a specific position and knowing the locations of each key relative to that and all that bullshittery they tried to teach in school. By that point I'd already been typing for nearly 10 years, and had already adjusted to subconsciously know the keyboard layout.

I am able to use all fingers from my pinky to my thumb on both hands, though in general both hands rest just above they keyboard in slightly offset WASD position due to years of gaming. When typing, I only ever have one or two fingers in contact with the keyboard at any given point of time, as having others on the keyboard simply means I've got to move them when I want them to touch something, or want another finger to tap the key they're on. No idea what my WPM is, but I'm very accurate most of the time - and not slow either.

My hands also kind of fly around the keyboard when typing rather than remaining in a fixed place. Sometimes I'll use my left hand to type k just because I felt like doing so at that point. This also makes it pretty easy to do the same thing and type one handed when I need to, though my accuracy on the non-normal sides of the keyboard for each hand does suffer a little.
 

Kaymish

The Morally Bankrupt Weasel
Sep 10, 2008
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how do i type ... badly
i tend to peck at the keyboard with 1 finger on each hand on occasion i will try to type properly but mostly i fall back to pecking
 

TheYellowCellPhone

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Sep 26, 2009
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I lift a kitchen chair and type on every individual key with a chair leg. It's incredibly arduous and physically demanding, but you would not believe how buff I am.

I once gave someone a high five in public and got charged for assaulting someone with a deadly weapon.
 

Lufia Erim

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Mar 13, 2015
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Well i spent 4 years playing diablo 2. So i kinda self taught my fat ass how to type without looking. While i wouldn't go to a typing competition. I can type in the dark, and pretty fast. Because i used to play diabl 2 a lot at night without light on. And fighting stuff while chatting and picking up loot at the same time before someone else got the loot was a challenge.
 
Dec 10, 2012
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Like a chicken. I peck at each key individually, usually with my pointer fingers, and use my thumbs for the space bar. Peck-peck-peck. I am very slow and inaccurate, for I was never formally taught how to type. Some words I can type quickly without looking, if they are words I use often, but mostly I have to look and it makes me totally arrhithmic and slow.
 

Odbarc

Elite Member
Jun 30, 2010
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I type fast with grammar and spelling and use the typical school taught method. Lots of accidental practice. Most old school games required typing to communicate and in games like Diablo 2, you wanted to get what you wanted to say out fast so you can go back to playing.
But most of my practice was early in those old Sierra Police Quest and Space Quest games where you needed to type the words right (and in very few instances, fast as well).

"What is a 'opin'?"
OPIN DOOR! OPAN DOOR! OPEN DOOR! Heh heh.

The biggest problem I have is that I type some words by reflex and misspell you're with your ALL the time. I know the difference, I intend for the difference and I type it wrong SO often because I'm not entirely watching what I'm typing.

I mostly just think the words and my fingers do the work for me.
 

Ten Foot Bunny

I'm more of a dishwasher girl
Mar 19, 2014
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I use all eight fingers to type the letters and both of my thumbs rest on the space bar; however, I press the space bar exclusively with my left thumb (it always felt more natural since I'm left-handed).

For the shift keys, I use whichever pinky feels the most suitable for the letter or word that I'm typing.

Hands are in the traditional placement, ASDF and JKL;

AWPM is ~100

I never look at the keyboard while typing.

EDIT: If I need to type a number that has more than two digits, I use the number pad because I'm a 10-key speed demon. ;)
 
Sep 14, 2009
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I'm honestly surprised at how many people don't use the "proper" format (for QWERTY style keyboards at least), I know some of you are dinosaurs but it's basically been hammered into me from school on how to type properly.

It's been a long time since I've done any of those speed tests, probably just shy of a decade in fact, so I couldn't tell you what it is now, but I used to average at around 100 wpm with 92% accuracy if I remember right.

back in high school I got a staph infection in my hand and got surgery on that, so I had to type one handed for a solid month or two, and thanks to muscle memory I can still type one handed when I need to at a decent pace (I basically put my left thumb on the spacebar as a pivot point and my other fingers go back and forth just remembering where every key is at).

now a days I might be a bit slower, usually I'm typing on auto-pilot while doing multiple other things so I don't exactly type for speed, but it's rare I even have to look at they keyboard let alone the screen to know if I'm typing things correctly.
 

The Rogue Wolf

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I use all ten fingers, though both thumbs tend to sit on the spacebar. I've never had any sort of training with typing; my skills were self-learned from 30+ years of working on computers. I can hit upwards of 120WPM when I put my mind to it.
 

-Dragmire-

King over my mind
Mar 29, 2011
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All fingers except my little fingers (the left one is used for shift though) and either thumb are for space bar. I don't type particularly fast and I need to glance at the keyboard to reorient my hand placement.