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Let all the fingers do the work

We live in an age when millions use computers and spend hours learning how to use computer programs. But little attention is paid to learning the skill of touch typing. Most people use only two or three fingers typing at between 15 and 35 words per minute. Touch typists can type at between 65 and 100 words per minute more accurately and with less strain. This compares with handwriting speed usually around 25 words per minute.

There are many reasons why this skill, invented in 1876, is so neglected. But the most important are that people who have never learnt to touch type think it will take them too long to learn or that they cannot learn it properly without going on a course.

In fact touch typing can be learnt by downloading some free software, like the typingbytouch program available from this site, and doing some regular practice for between half an hour and an hour a day four or five times a week. (Trying to learn more quickly by spending several hours a day practising will not help because of the way the human mind works. The fingers learn at an unconscious level which cannot be hurried.)

Individuals learn at different rates but as a guide it will probably take you three or four weeks of practice to better your present two finger typing speed and a few months to reach 60 to 100 words per minute. Why not try it yourself and send me a email telling me how long it takes you. Download from address below:

http://www.typingbytouch.co.uk/type/tbt2.zip

http://www.typingbytouch.com/guide.doc

For those who want to learn more quickly there is a faster way. The QWERTY keyboard layout , which is engraved on your computer keys, was invented to suit the needs of typewriters in 1868. The Dvorak keyboard layout can be learnt in one third of the time it takes to learn QWERTY. And it is already on your computer. You can find it by following the instructions on the next page.

█ The Dvorak Way shows you how to adjust your computer so that you can type in Dvorak and others using your computer can continue to use Qwerty.

█ Typing History is a brief account of how the two keyboard layouts developed and the men who invented them.

█ Blog on Qwerty is the first post I wrote about touch typing on my blog which is http://www.thedailynovel.com. The Daily Novel covers Journalism, Business, Politics, Education, Religion, Blogging and Manic Depression, as well as touch typing.

█ Manic Blog is the first extract from my Manic Depressive Diary. Some of my shorter blogs will be incorporated in future versions of the typing tutorial.

For those who are interested in the QWERTY/Dvorak debate and better design for keyboards it is worth visiting the alternative keyboard group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/altkeyboards/

Qwerty was the best layout for this 1904 Remington. But it is no better for the computer keyboard than the quill pen is for writing.

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Click below to download free copy of beta typing program:

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