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Has anyone been in my situation and managed to learn how to do it properly? Would I be able to change? What should I do?
I went from a key poker to a key stroker by simply having some dicipline. I used to stare at the keyboard and poke at the keys using only about four fingers.
One day I placed my hands over the keyboard and started to use all my fingers - and I stopped looking at the board. As awkward as it was in the beginning, I soon became a pretty good typist.
At work we teach people to type using the Mavis Beacon software - apparently it really does work.
Would I be able to change?
Yes. You can teach an old dog new tricks in this instance. ;)
What should I do?
Take an online typing class. It's all about repetition. I took typing for three years while in 6th, 7th and 8th grade, had a severe crush on my typing teacher, she was HOT! Only class I ever received straight A's in. :)
Remember, everything revolves around the "home row".
asdfghjkl;
You'll start your basic typing class doing simple keystrokes using specific finger combinations. First round will be...
fjfjfj
dkdkdk
slslsl
a;a;a;
If you are going to relearn typing dump the qwerty keyboard.
Why? Doesn't the QWERTY keyboard represent 95%+ of the users out there? Also, I don't recall seeing anything other than QWERTY keyboards when shopping for electronics. I would assume that anything other than QWERTY will be something you need to order online or at a specialty store?
I only spent a few hours using the MB software - I lost interest in it pretty quickly - but it has made a difference.
I've got a far, far greater problem.
My handwriting has always been bad. Even my sister can't understand it (and she's training to be a doctor). I have trouble understanding it.
And I have a tablet pc.
So now I need to look over my handwritten tablet pc notes and try to guess what I've written. I've actually started to use the handwriting-to-text (as oppossed to just keeping it all in handwriting format) to try to teach myself to write better.
I recently got rid of an antique Smith-Corona typewriter that had no "shift action" - it had separate keys for upper- and lower-case letters. imagine learning to type on that!
it looked kind of like this one:
(image link) [en.wikipedia.org...]
Imagine learning to type on that!
lol! My first year of typing was on something in the same range. Second and third years we moved up to IBM Selectrics [en.wikipedia.org].
During my second year I reached 70 WPM. At one point, I was breaking the typing balls used in the Selectrics. Damn thing was spinning so fast that I'd literally spin it off its spindle while breaking the plastic locking mechanism. Those were the good ole' days. :)
I had a huge collection of those balls too! Prestige Elite, Orator, Courier, Times, etc. There was a different ball for each primary font. They were a metallic plastic with a black top. You'd pull up the plastic lever, put the ball on the spindle, and then lock the lever down.
No need to buy a new keyboard (as this writer [slate.com] found). That 95% of the world uses querty is irrelevant. We're not talking MS Word - they don't have to convert your docs to querty!
[edited by: oddsod at 5:06 pm (utc) on Sep. 13, 2006]
The future might be promising for Dvorak
It isn't. But that's not the OP's question. He's looking to improve his typing productivity. I offered him a suggestion that's pertinent at this crossroad. If he discovers dvorak 10 years from now and likes it he may regret having to learn typing yet again.
I was (okay, okay, still sort of...) in the same boat. My handwriting was so atrocious everyone thought I was a doctor. :)
I finally got a handwriting coach for several weeks. She really helped quite a bit! A lot of it was just rote practicing the correct way to write letters again, very slowly. Another big factor is how you hold your pen/pencil/crayon/whatever. And yet another factor is the specific instrument (and the media that you're writing on) you use- there really is a huge difference it pens.
"In the economics literature on standards, the popular real-world example of this market failure is the standard Qwerty typewriter keyboard and its competition with the rival Dvorak keyboard. This example is noted frequently in newspaper and magazine reports, seems to be generally accepted as true, and was brought to economists' attention by the papers of Paul David. According to the popular story, the keyboard invented by August Dvorak, a professor of education at the University of Washington, is vastly superior to the Qwerty keyboard developed by Christopher Sholes that is now in common use. We are to believe that, although the Dvorak keyboard is vastly superior to Qwerty, virtually no one trains on Dvorak because there are too few Dvorak machines, and there are virtually no Dvorak machines because there are too few Dvorak typists."
"This article examines the history, economics, and ergonomics of the typewriter keyboard. We show that David's version of the history of the market's rejection of Dvorak does not report the true history, and we present evidence that the continued use of Qwerty is efficient given the current understanding of keyboard design. We conclude that the example of the Dvorak keyboard is what beehives and lighthouses were for earlier market-failure fables. It is an example of market failure that will not withstand rigorous examination of the historical record."
After examining the history, Liebowitz and Margolis conclude the opposite of what we have all heard so often:
"The consistent finding in the ergonomic studies is that the results imply no clear advantage for Dvorak."
Interestingly, the coming of "electronic typewriters" (that is, personal computers) has made it much easier to try a Dvorak keyboard—just unplug one and plug in the other, but even so you almost never see one.
Has anyone been in my situation and managed to learn how to do it properly? Would I be able to change? What should I do?
OH MAN Bee, YES YES! :-( I have hunted and pecked for years, was at about 60 WPM. Ironic being a programmer. :-( Last year I commited to learn to type, and it is HARDER TO QUIT THAN SMOKING!
The problem is you try to change and normal keystroking is like being stuck in a box, you begin to suffocate. You want to get the task done and keep breaking out of the "box" and back to your learned method. It's soooo difficult.
The only way is to download a proggie and practice daily. I'm still struggling. But you must make time for it and do it.
I'm sure a link here will get snuffed, so Google for TypeFaster by David Le Roux, excellent free program. If you can't find it you know where my sticky is. :-)
Of the 10 most common letters in English text, only A,S,D and H are on the home row. A, S, D fall under the weakest fingers of the left hand, and H is not in the rest position.
Requiring the typing fingers to move out of the rest position allowed time for the hammers to rise to the ribbon and then fall back out of the way without causing jams.
QWERTY survives out of habit.
As far as learning to type better - just start practicing. I taught myself to touch type. I am not great, but can do 45 words a minute.
WBF
Of the 10 most common letters in English text, only A,S,D and H are on the home row. A, S, D fall under the weakest fingers of the left hand, and H is not in the rest position.
Someone new to English could reasonably surmise, based on its location, that "j" is our most used letter ;)
Liebowitz and Margolis conclude the opposite of what we have all heard so often:"The consistent finding in the ergonomic studies is that the results imply no clear advantage for dvorak."
I'd like to say that I switched over to Dvorak this summer and I am happy to report that it really is a great way to type, way easier. No more hand gymnastics, words flow effortlessly. Just needed to order some keyboard stickers and switched the input language through the Control Panel.
I did this after reading in "Guns, Germs & Steel" how difficult it was for societies to change over to better systems. It was a challenge I couldn't resist.
Going down to 0 wpm made things difficult for a spell. In hindsight I would rather have restrained this impulse till after the end of my busy season, not the start. ha
I still have a ways to go before reaching 60wpm but it is within easy reach now.
Typing of the dead is very very fun, though in terms of learning it is not as great as the games made by Mavis.
[en.wikipedia.org...]
I used to have to stare at the keyboard to poke on each key and it took just a few weeks to get to a respectable speed by playing games and hangout out in IRC. I can now reach up to 75 wmp if the text is my industry related.
[edited by: Raymond at 6:19 am (utc) on Oct. 14, 2006]
It is an azamnig fcat taht mnay poplee fnid it qiute esay to raed smoetnihg even if all the leertts isdnie the wdors are jmuelbd up. Porvdeid taht the fsrit and lsat letetrs of ecah wrod are cerroct, and all the lttrees are icnledud, the biran semes to be caaplbe of sintrog tnihgs out wohtiut too mcuh dfifictluy - see!
National Dyslexia Association.
He bought a Warehouse...
It is an azamnig fcat taht mnay poplee fnid it qiute esay to raed smoetnihg even if all the leertts isdnie the wdors are jmuelbd up. Porvdeid taht the fsrit and lsat letetrs of ecah wrod are cerroct, and all the lttrees are icnledud, the biran semes to be caaplbe of sintrog tnihgs out wohtiut too mcuh dfifictluy - see!
When digitalghost did this, the readability was waaay different. :)
