Steve Yegge recently posted about touch-typing; I have basics down, but what about the rest?

Question

Steve mentioned that even after he learned touch-typing, he still didn't know how to touch-type the number keys. That's kind of where I am now. I can kind of touch type them, but I make too many mistakes. Most of the touch typing stuff I've found on the internet completely neglects the other keys. Some charts I've found show 2 belonging to the same row as q,a,z (the left pinky), while others show it belonging to w,s,x (the left ring finger). Also, the Windows and Alt keys are seldom mentioned. Should I push them with my pinky and ring finger, or just bend my thumb inward?

Any one know of good, definitive resources on the net that explain the lesser-covered aspects of touch typing? I'm not looking for a program, just info on what fingers go where.

Answer 1

Personally, I hit the number 2 with my left ring finger, alt with my thumb and the window key with my pinky, but you should do whatever works for you. This is probably going to vary from person to person (and perhaps keyboard to keyboard).

Answer 2

The best thing I ever did was practice with towel covering my hand.

For the keypad stuff, set up a column in a spreadsheet, and then follow down the list and try and type in the numbers you see. I remember learning the keypad just out of necessity when doing data entry for experimental data many years back.

Answer 3

If you get a split or ergonomic keyboard, you'll definitely see which keys go with which hands, at least, and if you don't want to buy one you can always find a picture online. As you practice more and do more typing you'll find your fingers becoming more reliable on numbers and other keys, and over time you'll come up with your own system that works for you.

Answer 4

The Das Keyboard Ultimate might be a good one to force discipline when typing. That or some black tape for the keys ;).

Answer 5

It may be an extreme learning method, but you could try the Das Keyboard!

Answer 6

The typing zones on the touch-typing Wikipedia page (taken from KTouch) can be considered definitive. It matches what I was taught when I learned touch-typing at school (on a mechanical typewriter, believe it or not).

Regarding [Ctrl], [Alt], etc... there is no standard answer. You have to move your fingers to far from the "home row" to hit them, which makes it awkward.

One trick (for vim users) is to map [Caps Lock] to [Escape], allowing entry into command mode without leaving the home row. It goes without saying that you'd be navigating a file using j/k/h/l.

Answer 7

Learn to play the piano. It will improve your typing skills dramatically (although it takes a couple of years, I must admit :-) ).

I seem to have come up with (evolved) my own scheme for which fingers go with which keys over the years - it isn't the standard one, yet it is quite reliable and if I know what I want to type far enough ahead (about a sentence seems to do the trick), it's comparable with touch-type speeds too.

Don't put the 2 with the ring finger, the pinky will be quicker (turning your hand is quicker than moving, moving takes your fingers off their rest keys too). In fact, I wouldn't give the ring finger a number key at all. Bear in mind I'm not a touch typist...

Answer 8

As far as what finger goes on what key, don't be too stiff about it. I personally use a Qwerty keyboard and use the a,d,f,v keys as the home row for my left hand and the n,j,k,; keys from my right. This tends to rotate my hands in. That and anything between about the f and the j keys is fair game for either hand. At one point I started looking at dvorak and tried it with the "correct" home row and within 5 min my hands were hurting.

It should also be noted that I don't touch type well, so your mileage will vary

Answer 9

thanks for the answers. Jason mentioned KTouch and the wikipedia entry, but if you go to the KTouch website (http://ktouch.sourceforge.net/), they have a different keymap than than the one on the wikipedia page.

Answer 10

www.typeonline.co.uk

Took me from using just my index/middle fingers and looking at the keyboard to 70wpm at 96%. Covers the numbers, and it's free.

Answer 11

Just found new touch typing online learning site in Internet at www.typingstudy.com

Answer 12

here is a good site for practicing touch typing.

Klava