i'm going to go out on a limb and say everyone here has probably had at least 3 years of computer experience. i don't know if that makes us POWER USERS but whatever, how many of you type properly?
do you type properly? how did you learn? This topic is about typing.

i'm bringing it up because i used computers for years and had long dealings with DOS long after windows 95 came out and my typing method is barely better than hunt and peck. i got MAVIS BEACON not too long ago to address this and i'm certain proper typing is designed to ruin wrists, maybe i should pick up a goofy microsoft natural keyboard

I have no idea what the proper method for typing is? I use all my fingers and don't need to look at the keyboard, if that's what you mean.

Though I do use my index fingers more than any other fingers by about 400%, I'm sure that's not normal.

i learnt how to type properly but i found out i was much quicker and better typing the way i do now: i use whatever finger is closest to the letter i type. i frequently use the letters y and h with my left hand (big no no) and shiz like that.

i know what you mean about its designed to ruin wrists i've never had trouble with my typing but when i was learning to do it properly my arms always started aching after a while.

plus those microsfot keyboards are terrible. people who use them find they cant use a normal keyboard for shit anymore.

i type properly because we had to learn to do it in elementary/middle school.  That's really all our computer classes were, we'd learn to type for a bit and then we'd play oregon trail or cross country USA.  Well, in middle school we'd learn to type, maybe learn how to USE A SEARCH ENGINE (this was the most boring class ever i knew how to do all of these things) and when we showed the teacher we were done we could use the internet or play games or whatever.  Then in high school I had to take ANOTHER typing class because apparently the Kentucky school system requires it, even though my principal was going to try to get me out of it so I could take something else.  But w/e, we learned to FORMAT DIFFERENT KINDS OF LETTERS and all sorts of other boring shit nobody remembered.  I got 123 wpm on one of our typing exercises in that class.

The only things that I don't do by the book are numbers (I forget which ones but there are some I don't hit with the right finger) and I use the left shift for everything instead of using the shift opposite of the letter you're typing.  But I think that rule is for people that can't hit two buttons at the same time with one hand.  I'm left handed, therefore my left pinky is stronger, therefore the left shift is a lot more comfortable for me to use.  But 99% of the time, yeah I do "proper" touch typing and I never need to look at the keyboard.  I've also never had wrist problems from it, I think it just seems that way if you're not used to doing it.  If you've done it all along it's not really uncomfortable or anything, and it's a lot faster.

yeah i figure i should learn a proper form but i'm dreading the unlearning stage, especially as the keyboard feels really cramped and awkward that way. maybe keyboards were designed for dainty women hands or something

just let mavis beacon show you the way....that is why her name is beacon....because she is a beacon of light in the storm of you being unable to type

I touch type pretty quick but I'm pretty sure I use the wrong fingers for a bunch of letters

im sure a secretary would sneer at my typing skills

I just type how I want. I don't have to look at the keyboard but it's not because I use touch typing-- it's more like I just have good spatial memory because I've been using computers for so long. We had to learn the proper way to type in like 5th grade but I was waaay ahead of everyone else and I just typed my own way. I use my index and middle fingers more than the others and I hardly ever use my pinky finger. I pretty much exclusively use the right shift key. When I find myself in the rare situation where I need to use the far left keys (like caps lock, tab, etc), I just use an index finger to poke it usually.
My typing method is pretty efficient and probably much better for my hands/wrists than touch typing...

dada and i were talking about something similar to this a couple days ago, and that's the hand you use to press the spacebar. i'm right handed and use my left hand to hit it and it had never occurred to me that anyone does anything else. i tried typing while hitting the space with my right hand and i just couldn't type at all. it was awful.

there are correct ways of typing????

really?

I just bludgeon the keyboard with my fingers.

Hmm, I wasn't even aware that I didn't need to look while I typed until about a year or so ago. I guess with all the MMO's and generally always being around/on a computer my mind just learned how to. I'm left handed and not sure what my typing habits are...more or less of, but I also took accounting sometime ago and had to learn the number pad, as well as use that Beacon program which got boring eventually.

dada and i were talking about something similar to this a couple days ago, and that's the hand you use to press the spacebar. i'm right handed and use my left hand to hit it and it had never occurred to me that anyone does anything else. i tried typing while hitting the space with my right hand and i just couldn't type at all. it was awful.

yeah i'm the opposite of this, left handed and use my right thumb for spacebar

when i first started typing i was right handed and used by right thumb for spacebar. then my right thumb got fucked up by a door so i started using my left thumb for space bars and it's been that way ever since.

I used to type properly in middleschool. You know, being aware of the homekeys and using the appropriate fingers and what not. That was in 97 though, about five years before I started using computers regularly and had one in my room/ office. Now I type by memory of placement which is a horrible way to type because it makes adapting to new keyboards a bit of a problem at first. It also lowers my potential words per minute since I also type by habit and not necessarily with the closest finger to the key.

I just slam my head agains the thing ant hoper i hithe righth letterls

My mom taught me how to type before it ever came up in school, so by the time testing came around, my wpm scores were always ridiculous. In middle school, I remember I had to take one of the typing tests three times because the instructor thought that I had found some way to cheat at it.

I annoyed the hell out of people in my first semester composition class. For a while my living situation was screwed up and I didn't have reliable access to a computer off campus, so I was usually working on two or three different essays at the same time. One girl asked if she could swap with someone else because she "couldn't work next to Speedy Gonzales."

My problem is that sometimes when I'm writing a short story or something, I just sort of get lost in the rhythm and don't even pay attention to what I'm typing - I have to go back and read it to know what the hell I was saying. Also, when I'm trying to type correctly, I make more errors then when I don't think about it.

then you leant back on your chair and said "i'm not speedy gonzales, i'm wile e coyote"

This.

Really (and you guys are going to laugh at this), I learned how to type by playing EverQuest enough...I mean, all that communicating, and you've got to learn how to type and to type well. I never use home row, never have any discomfort, and still type on average about 100 wpm with near-perfect accuracy (and if I make a mistake I usually realize it while I'm typing, and just use backspace as if it were another letter in the word).

I don't think I'm any sort of KEYBOARDING PRODIGY, I just think that the more you need to communicate via typing, the faster and more accurate you will be. One really helpful exercise is to type on an "air keyboard." You know, like air guitar...but it's a keyboard. Type sentences on it, and if you can find every letter on the keyboard, you are well on your way to mastering typing. No Mavis Beacon required (although it was kind of fun as a game, back when it was just plain ol' "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, v1.0 lol).

nobody thinks you're a keyboarding prodigy for typing wrong quickly