Poll: How do you type?

[Flailing Escapist]

Everybody in my Junior High School had to take a typing class in either 7th or 8th year. So ;P

 

[SillyNilly]

I was taught how to type in school and I personally hated using the home row that they made me do. I type much faster without doing that and I don't have as many errors as I would with the "proper" technique. I used to piss off my instructors when I would go back to my style after the typing lesson was over and was much faster than they wanted.

This is how folks should familiarize themselves with a keyboard, by finding their style. Homerow feels so restrictive.

I took a WPM test (This one: http://www.typeonline.co.uk/typingspeed.php ) and found I type at a rate of 47 WPM with 5 mistakes using my current style.

Heh.

I found that I rest my left hand:

-Pinky on A
-Left ring on E
-Left middle on R
-Left index on G
-Left thumb on the left mouse input for this laptop
-Left hand is tilted 45 degrees counterclockwise

And for the right hand:

-Right index on J
-Right middle on I
-Right ring on O
-Right pinky just floating around.
-Right thumb on the touchpad

I notice that I focus more on vowels than consonants. My pacing is slow, but I prefer comfort over efficiency (That's what revisions are for!) coupled with speed any day of the week. Yes, I look at the keyboard for more complex words.

I guess I adapted to a laptop. I used to be much faster, but not anymore. *shrugs*

 

[The Apothecarry]

Screw home row. I place my hands relative to where the keys I want to hit are. Also, as of right now I index poke with my left hand and multi-finger with my right.

I'm starting to realize how wrong that sounded.

Captcha: oral iptionec
Okay, so "oral" was in cursive, but I don't want to know what an "iptionec" is. NO WIKIPEDIA LINKS

 

[twistedmic]

I did take some typing classes in school, but I don't type exactly the way I was taught, though I do sometimes put my fingers on the 'home row'. And I do use most of my fingers when typing

 

[Feralcentaur]

I type with my Left and Right Index finger and my Left Middle Finger.

 

[Auxiliary]

I only use one hand.

 

[Alade]

well I basically use a self-taught style, mostly like the one they teach at schools (no home-row, just index fingers resting on f and j). Basically I think this way of typing is the best because I can type at ridiculous speeds with minimum spelling errors (the spelling errors are usually confirmed by touch so the backspace button gets an automatic click).

Try taking this test for speed typing, I do wonder about the results.

free online typing test [http://speedtest.10-fast-fingers.com]

 

[Toar]

I went to the class and learned the positions, but I taught myself. My spelling is only half-decent and my speed is REALLY REALLY GOOD. I don't know my speed, but I suppose it is pretty good, not the best mind you, but good.

 

[Toar]

I only use one hand.

And the other hand does what, sir?

 

[BoogieManFL]

I had a "computer" class in middle school but it was in the mid 90s and was mostly worthless and I learned prior to this. However, I've been using computers since a TRS-80 was awesome. I suppose I type in the proper way, but because it came natural. I use all 10 fingers and trained myself to type quickly and correctly looking at the screen as a type, since up until I was 15 or so I looked at the keyboard.

Using DOS back in the days helped. You had to type to do everything, unlike today's fancy GUI's and mouse driven operating systems.

 

[SilentCom]

I type with both hands on a qwerty keyboard. I do it proper.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

i use every finger (plus thumb) except my little finger, its such a useless finger!

 

[AngryMongoose]

I don't know, how do you walk?

I type quickly; I know only one person who types faster than me, and they did so professionally. I never took a class, but I certainly don't have to search and poke with one finger. I know the position of the keys by heart, but I generally look down every few words to realign my hands (ie arudd kujw rgua gaoowbs).

 

[sylekage]

I just go with my two index fingers, starting with them, then using my other fingers, I don't use home row or whatever. I then just look where my fingers are gonna go next and I can get pretty fast with it.

 

[Twilight.falls]

I know where every key on the keyboard is without looking. I can easily type without looking relatively quickly with limited errors.

 

[TheBadGamer]

I have more or less I taught myself to type. But I know I have gone from always looking at the keyboard and type really slowly to a quick glans on keyboard and just above average typing speed.

 

[infohippie]

I use all my fingers, fairly fast too. I can't quite touch-type, however, I need to keep glancing down at the keyboard or I start making all kinds of errors.

 

[kabooz18]

Main- index- and ringfingers
also I use the thumb for space and the pinky for return, shift and backspace

 

[Dalek Caan]

Index finger on each hand, or sometimes like right know I will use one finger on my right hand and three on my left.

 

[Anchupom]

I ignore my little fingers a lot but apart from that I use the correct way of typing for QWERTY. Occasionally I use a search and poke method to locate certain letters but after that muscle memory kicks in and I can touch type the remainder of whatever I wanted to put into text.

Never had "typing classes" though. Learning stuff like this has always fascinated me for some reason. I'm now considering using the DVORAK setup, but it seems like a lot of effort to undo about 10 years of perfecting my slap-dash QWERTY style.
(I also want to run Linux, but the same kind of attitude is keeping me from switching from Windows. DAMN YOU MICROSOFT!)