I wish I Had learned to type without looking at the keys !

Toomuchstuff

Toomuchstuff

Member
Location
Wisconsin
I type using a couple fingers - Plus - I have to look at the keys while I'm typing. They offered typing in high school , but I never took it . Now I wish I had.
For the heck of it, I went to a website to learn typing , but my fingers are so old and stiff now that I can't even spread them out on the keyboard the way you're supposed to .

How do you type ? If you type the correct way , where did you learn it ?
 

Toomuchstuff said:
I type using a couple fingers - Plus - I have to look at the keys while I'm typing. They offered typing in high school , but I never took it . Now I wish I had.
For the heck of it, I went to a website to learn typing , but my fingers are so old and stiff now that I can't even spread them out on the keyboard the way you're supposed to .

How do you type ? If you type the correct way , where did you learn it ?
Click to expand...

I didn't take typing either. Big mistake! I tried to take it one time online but it's too late. I hunt and peck very well though!
 
I learned in a college prep high school course. My mother pushed it because she said it was a skill I would be grateful for later. She was right.
 

Toomuchstuff said:
I type using a couple fingers - Plus - I have to look at the keys while I'm typing. They offered typing in high school , but I never took it . Now I wish I had.
For the heck of it, I went to a website to learn typing , but my fingers are so old and stiff now that I can't even spread them out on the keyboard the way you're supposed to .

How do you type ? If you type the correct way , where did you learn it ?
Click to expand...
Be grateful you have 10 fingers. I am a touch typist, learned many years ago. About 12 years ago I sawed off most of the fingers (4) and part of the thumb on my left hand with a table saw. Now I type like you do.
 
I type more or less the "correct" way. My parents got me a typewriter when I started high school, and I bought a book with teach-yourself typing exercises.

I sort of regretted being a good typist, because for a period of my life the only job I could get was "secretary," which I hated. The people who couldn't type all seemed to have better jobs.
 
I learned to type in high school, using all fingers. Works out okay as long as my finger start out on the right keys, or else it's gobbledy gook. I'm not a great typist for sure, and I always have to look at the text to watch for errors. These days I find myself tranposing letters in words as I type, simple things like doubtufl, instead of doubtful. :(
 
I learned in school...I specialised in Business and economics for 3 years which included typing, on an old Underwood where the keys were so hard to push down I always thought I was going to break my little fingers.. I type at around 100wpm...but I still make mistakes if I'm not paying attention and don't proof read.. RA in my fingers slow me down sometimes and when it's bad I use my talk to type Mic...
 
Sunny said:
I type more or less the "correct" way. My parents got me a typewriter when I started high school, and I bought a book with teach-yourself typing exercises.

I sort of regretted being a good typist, because for a period of my life the only job I could get was "secretary," which I hated. The people who couldn't type all seemed to have better jobs.
Click to expand...

Helen Gurley Brown, who was editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine for many years, said women who want good jobs should never admit they know how to type. I always thought that was great advice.
 
I've never had formal typing lessons I've just learned by spending far too many hours in front of keyboards.

A horrible admission for a writer, I know - my deep, dark, secret revealed! :upset:

Still ... I usually hit around 60 words per minute.
 
tnthomas said:
I use the correct fingers to hit the corresponding keys, but i never broke the habit of looking at the keyboard...
Click to expand...

The old manual typewriter I learned on either had the keys covered or they were never there. It's amazing how fast you learn where everything is when you don't accomplish anything by looking.

I used to get cramps in my forearms until those muscles got strong enough for that ancient manual. Later on, I sometimes helped my BIL milk cows and some of them had to be milked by hand. He was always surprised at how easy it was for me, but I figure I earned that forearm strength.
 
I took typing my freshman year in high school. Old stubborn manual machines with blank keys. I thought I was NEVER going to learn but learn I did and turned into a lightning-fast typist.

Did you know that the QWERTY keyboard was invented to slow typists down? Yep, the most-used keys are scattered over the keyboard because no matter how fast you could type, the old machines could only handle so much speed before the typebars got stuck. Remember having to stop and unjam the typebars?

Some years ago (30? 40?), they invented another keyboard that was supposed to revolutionize typing; the most-used keys were all clustered in the middle of the keyboard so you could type very, very fast. Unfortunately, it didn't catch on as people didn't want to learn a new keyboard. Someone also invented a globe-shaped keyboard. That wasn't a big hit, either.

I look back at all the advances in typewriters over the year.....each one was a delight. There was the Selectric - wow! I think that was the one that you could change the "typeball" to different kinds of type, wasn't it? And then the ribbon cartridges that just dropped in place instead of having to thread a ribbon through all the places and get your fingers inky. And then...and then....there was the "lift off" ribbon that had the lift-off tape right in place. Oh, heaven on earth!

I spent part of one summer as a teletype operator. That was not fun, as those old teletypes were the devil to type on. Clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk.....
 
jujube said:
I took typing my freshman year in high school. Old stubborn manual machines with blank keys. I thought I was NEVER going to learn but learn I did and turned into a lightning-fast typist.

Did you know that the QWERTY keyboard was invented to slow typists down? Yep, the most-used keys are scattered over the keyboard because no matter how fast you could type, the old machines could only handle so much speed before the typebars got stuck. Remember having to stop and unjam the typebars?

Some years ago (30? 40?), they invented another keyboard that was supposed to revolutionize typing; the most-used keys were all clustered in the middle of the keyboard so you could type very, very fast. Unfortunately, it didn't catch on as people didn't want to learn a new keyboard. Someone also invented a globe-shaped keyboard. That wasn't a big hit, either.

I look back at all the advances in typewriters over the year.....each one was a delight. There was the Selectric - wow! I think that was the one that you could change the "typeball" to different kinds of type, wasn't it? And then the ribbon cartridges that just dropped in place instead of having to thread a ribbon through all the places and get your fingers inky. And then...and then....there was the "lift off" ribbon that had the lift-off tape right in place. Oh, heaven on earth!

I spent part of one summer as a teletype operator. That was not fun, as those old teletypes were the devil to type on. Clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk.....
Click to expand...

I also learned to type on one of those old stubborn manuals with blank keys, and I thought I'd never learn, too. But I did and became a very fast typist also. The skill, along with the Gregg shorthand I also learned in high school, served me well over the years. I also worked as a teletype operator for a brief time -- yes, those keys were VERY hard to use, and that characteristic clunk and the slow speed you had to work at to get it to work properly drove me nuts.

It's a good thing we have such light touch keyboards nowdays -- I doubt that I could type at all on one of those old Underwoods now with the arthritis in my hands. And yes, I do remember the aggravation of having the typebars pile up. I wonder if youngsters now even know what a typebar is.
 
Smiling Jane said:
Helen Gurley Brown, who was editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine for many years, said women who want good jobs should never admit they know how to type. I always thought that was great advice.
Click to expand...

Nowdays, though, almost everyone has to know how to type. Even lawyers do most of their own typing now (at least first drafts, etc.), and doctors type away on their terminals.
 
I took a typing class in high school. Most in the class were girls which is one reason why I decided to take it as an elective. It's one of the best decisions I made back then.
 
I took shorthand, too. My mother convinced me that it would come in very handy taking notes in college. It didn't.

The only thing I can still do is "Dear Mr. Jones" and "Sincerely Yours", which is fine if I ever want to take a letter to Mr. Jones from someone who sincerely likes him......
 
Butterfly said:
Nowdays, though, almost everyone has to know how to type. Even lawyers do most of their own typing now (at least first drafts, etc.), and doctors type away on their terminals.
Click to expand...

The fast four-fingered typist I mentioned earlier is an M.D./Ph.D. who was always working on his next textbook. He would type the manuscript and have me edit it for him. He said when typing becomes second-nature, it's much easier than dictating and doesn't require transcription.

It's a different world now from when Helen Gurley Brown said that. Back then, if a woman could type she became a secretary even if she had a college degree and very different career goals.
 
I'm a guy. And I started high school in 1960. I asked to take a typing course. They laughed at me. Males couldn't take typing classes. What was I thinking-that's what secretaries are for. I'm also dyslexic. So do you know how long it takes me to type out a sentence!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If there's a hell; those, who wouldn't allow me to learn typing, will be there. And I'll get them.
 
I look at the keys but I am fairly quick.

To practice touch typing, you can put
tape over the letters, we all know where
they are and typing while looking in just
laziness I think.

Mike.
 
I never learned to type. I took the courses in high school that I needed to get into nursing school. I use two fingers and peck away. Now after all these years I wish I had learned.
 

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