Hry everybody sorry about the errord I've ;eft them in to illustrare the problem. I am learning to touch type so i can write code faster. Prob;em is I sucl at it (typimg and codimg haah) does anyome have any tips? this is driving ,e crazt.

Update: That pist toik me five mimutes to write.

*ahem*

Typing of the Dead:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typing_of_the_Dead

Get heavily drunk! It won't improve your typing (or your code!) but at least you won't give a shit!

This post took me fifteen seconds to write because I spelt 'took' wrong.

You could always just not touch type. If you're faster at the "bad" way of typing, do it that way.

You could try what I do: half-touch-type. I start looking at my fingers then look away. Works well for me.

Iam actually pretty good at typing of the dead when i use my patented 'woodpecker' technique. Fingertips of fury.

Fingertips doesnt give me enough access to the symbols keys to code effectively. So I'm trying to learn now before I get used to coding.

You want some tips? Honestly, take typing classes. I can't think of anything else to say.

orifice:
Get heavily drunk! It won't improve your typing (or your code!) but at least you won't give a shit!

http://xkcd.com/323/

Decoy Doctorpus:
Hry everybody sorry about the errord I've ;eft them in to illustrare the problem. I am learning to touch type so i can write code faster. Prob;em is I sucl at it (typimg and codimg haah) does anyome have any tips? this is driving ,e crazt.

Okay, I'm now going to tye this entire post without looking at the keyboard or the screen/. Touch typing is a practiced thing that really just needs to be learned and practiced for it to realy sink in. I, personally, have been doing this since Primary/Elementary school because my school required it.

It's a very natural once you have the hang of it, so just learn the key locations, the home row, and how you're supposed to go about hitting the keys with which fingers, etc. and you'll do fine with it, given enough practice.

So, good luck my very sexy Decoy friend, and don't disappoint me. I believe in you!

Okay, looking at the screen and keyboard again so I can do quotes after this point.

nilcypher:
You want some tips? Honestly, take typing classes. I can't think of anything else to say.

nilcypher covers the rough of it. While classes aren't exactly necessary, they can help, but tutorials for learning the home row are really all classes like these are good for. Otherwise, it's a function of practice. If you do want to learn, play 'Typing of the Dead' while limiting yourself to the home row and touch typing. While it's not perfect, it's the sort of repetitive practice that will help you out in the long run.

Decoy Doctorpus:
Iam actually pretty good at typing of the dead when i use my patented 'woodpecker' technique. Fingertips of fury.

Fingertips doesnt give me enough access to the symbols keys to code effectively. So I'm trying to learn now before I get used to coding.

Symbol keys are still a pain for me, actually, but I do know where they are, so maybe it'll help you out. Or maybe I didn't practice them enough when I learned typing.

Simple. Years of porn... Sometimes I type out specific sites without even realising it. <.<;;;

Also as horrible as it sounds (and believe me, it is) Chatting on shit like irc helps. Typing games are shit. Just pratice in every day shit.

I googled touch-typing and was pretty disappointed to find out it was basically typing without looking at the keyboard... Unless I missed something or Wikipedia lied... I kinda expected it to be something... More exotic... Coming from the Doc and all...

..I really don't see what's difficult about it, I've been typing without looking at my keyboard for years, or with my eyes closed, or typing one thing and watching TV/talking to someone... I dunno...It's all about knowing where the keys are. Best I can recommend is something I do sometimes as a joke, type things in thin-air or on a table, without a keyboard, pretending it's a real keyboard with all the keys there.

Note: This post was entirely written without looking at the keyboard once. lawl.

Try playing a mmorpgr for a while and forcing yourself not to look at the keyboard. I'm OK at touch typing, but I get flummoxed when I change keyboards for a while, but it eventually irons itself out. I tend to make small mistakes like getting adjacent keys pressed or hitting caps lock by accident, but I managed this whole post without looking at the keyboard. You can to Decoy! I believe in you!

fish food carl:
It took me so very long, but I managed to touch type this post. I'm awful at it, and can't get the hang of it. This took me about ten minutes!

Okay, this is typed with my eyes closed, this is quite hard because I can;t check as I go along how the spelling and punctuation is etc....

Try typing with your euyes closed carl, or not watching the screen. It doesn't matter how long it takes, but it forces you to think about the keys rather than the letters on screen.

Looking now, I'm surprised I only made one typing error

Two, but well within acceptable margins.

I'm not really sure how i learnt, it just happened of its own accord one day. I was sitting there typing away on MSN and checking out one of the girls in the library at uni.

I actually can't think of a better use for touch typing really.

To be honest, there are a few online things you can do that help you to learn to type, i can pretty much consistently knock out 75wpm if i know what i'm on about with almost no mistakes. It just comes with time, and too much time using computers really.

I only really use 6 fingers, thumb for space. My right hand is only uses 3 fingers, the little and one to the left aren't used for anything, use the one next to the little finger on the left hand for stuff like s depending on how far across the keyboard i am and how many letters i've got to spam in the area.

Danny Ocean:

fish food carl:
It took me so very long, but I managed to touch type this post. I'm awful at it, and can't get the hang of it. This took me about ten minutes!

Okay, this is typed with my eyes closed, this is quite hard because I can;t check as I go along how the spelling and punctuation is etc....

Try typing with your euyes closed carl, or not watching the screen. It doesn't matter how long it takes, but it forces you to think about the keys rather than the letters on screen.

Looking now, I'm surprised I only made one typing error

You made two :)
But I must say very impressive, I sure wouldn't be able to do it.

I can type in the dark, while looking at the clock on the wall behind me AND talking to someone at the same time, not a tip, I just felt like boasting about it.

In fact that's how I typed this post.

Caliostro:
I googled touch-typing and was pretty disappointed to find out it was basically typing without looking at the keyboard... Unless I missed something or Wikipedia lied... I kinda expected it to be something... More exotic... Coming from the Doc and all...

..I really don't see what's difficult about it, I've been typing without looking at my keyboard for years, or with my eyes closed, or typing one thing and watching TV/talking to someone... I dunno...It's all about knowing where the keys are. Best I can recommend is something I do sometimes as a joke, type things in thin-air or on a table, without a keyboard, pretending it's a real keyboard with all the keys there.

Note: This post was entirely written without looking at the keyboard once. lawl.

It's not the 'not looking at the keyboard part' that's a problem. I usually type without looking at the screen. It's the correct finger placement that foxes me.

Decoy Doctorpus:

Caliostro:
I googled touch-typing and was pretty disappointed to find out it was basically typing without looking at the keyboard... Unless I missed something or Wikipedia lied... I kinda expected it to be something... More exotic... Coming from the Doc and all...

..I really don't see what's difficult about it, I've been typing without looking at my keyboard for years, or with my eyes closed, or typing one thing and watching TV/talking to someone... I dunno...It's all about knowing where the keys are. Best I can recommend is something I do sometimes as a joke, type things in thin-air or on a table, without a keyboard, pretending it's a real keyboard with all the keys there.

Note: This post was entirely written without looking at the keyboard once. lawl.

It's not the 'not looking at the keyboard part' that's a problem. I usually type without looking at the screen. It's the correct finger placement that foxes me.

How so?

You mean, hands clear off, then put them on and re-start typing without looking where your fingers are?

Well, peripheral vision should take care of that, no?

Yeah, I'm kinda lost here, I admit it's the first time I hear the expression "touch typing".

Caliostro:

Decoy Doctorpus:

Caliostro:
I googled touch-typing and was pretty disappointed to find out it was basically typing without looking at the keyboard... Unless I missed something or Wikipedia lied... I kinda expected it to be something... More exotic... Coming from the Doc and all...

..I really don't see what's difficult about it, I've been typing without looking at my keyboard for years, or with my eyes closed, or typing one thing and watching TV/talking to someone... I dunno...It's all about knowing where the keys are. Best I can recommend is something I do sometimes as a joke, type things in thin-air or on a table, without a keyboard, pretending it's a real keyboard with all the keys there.

Note: This post was entirely written without looking at the keyboard once. lawl.

It's not the 'not looking at the keyboard part' that's a problem. I usually type without looking at the screen. It's the correct finger placement that foxes me.

How so?

You mean, hands clear off, then put them on and re-start typing without looking where your fingers are?

Well, peripheral vision should take care of that, no?

Yeah, I'm kinda lost here, I admit it's the first time I hear the expression "touch typing".

Traditional typist have their hands placed so every finger rests on a key. It's a very efficent way of typing. I type using only my forefingers.

This is me typing with me eyes closed using my fingertips.

TIS IS ME TYPKMG WOTH PROPER TECHNIQUE,

See.

Decoy Doctorpus:

Caliostro:

Decoy Doctorpus:

Caliostro:
I googled touch-typing and was pretty disappointed to find out it was basically typing without looking at the keyboard... Unless I missed something or Wikipedia lied... I kinda expected it to be something... More exotic... Coming from the Doc and all...

..I really don't see what's difficult about it, I've been typing without looking at my keyboard for years, or with my eyes closed, or typing one thing and watching TV/talking to someone... I dunno...It's all about knowing where the keys are. Best I can recommend is something I do sometimes as a joke, type things in thin-air or on a table, without a keyboard, pretending it's a real keyboard with all the keys there.

Note: This post was entirely written without looking at the keyboard once. lawl.

It's not the 'not looking at the keyboard part' that's a problem. I usually type without looking at the screen. It's the correct finger placement that foxes me.

How so?

You mean, hands clear off, then put them on and re-start typing without looking where your fingers are?

Well, peripheral vision should take care of that, no?

Yeah, I'm kinda lost here, I admit it's the first time I hear the expression "touch typing".

Traditional typist have their hands placed so every finger rests on a key. It's a very efficent way of typing. I type using only my forefingers.

Ok, I just did what I should have done from the start and youtubed "touch typing"... I don't get what the fuss is all about to be honest...

I admit I use mostly 4 fingers (the index and middle from both hands) but I use all fingers really... I suppose it's because I type fast enough and to me 2 fingers are enough to cover about half the keyboard, so I rarely have the need to use my ring fingers.

Oh well, goodluck.

Well... I suppose it's technically more efficient to use home row and all that, but I took a typing class in junior high and quickly realized that I was more effective, faster, and made less errors if I was only using my patented hunt-and-peck method. As it stands right now, I very rarely look down at the keyboard when I type and I'm clocking around 75 WPM, if my previous place of employment is to be believed. I use whatever finger happens to be in an ideal place on the keyboard at the time. I'm not sure if there's a rhyme or reason behind it, but it works well for me because I can do... well, thing of it like a musical progression. Every finger is in a place for me that I'm faster and more efficient, and I have greater range of movement, whereas using the "proper" technique slows me down and screws me up, as well as restricts my mobility.

Of course, the way I described all that sounds like the reasoning behind using touch-type (I too have never heard that term), and I suppose if I used the correct method I wouldn't type so damn loud, but I'm quick and I spell correctly, so I'll be damned if I'm going to change now.

It's just a way of using as many fingers as possible without concentrating on the keyboard. That's it, it's nothing that receptionists and the like haven't been doing for years. Just faster typing, and allows you to read from a text without having to look back down onto the keyboard to work out how you are going to type it. After a while you just know where the keys are in relation to one another and keep going from there. It just becomes a habit after a while. Even going back to correct things in a sentence. The most scary thing is you know sometimes without even reading the text that you have typed something wrong and that you need to go back and correct it (i've actually written this entire last paragraph without actually looking at the post window)

As i say, i read as i type it, i haven't looked down on the keyboard in years. It just comes with time. It's something that's not really hard to learn, but it doesn't really make a difference, specially with things like coding. You tend to have to think a bit more than you do have to actually worry about the speed of coding. I know coders that can only type at what, 30 wpm.

Though scarily, i've worn a fair few keys to almost mirror shine on this keyboard and hit the enter button in almost exactly the same place.

But then i've been told i type scarily fast. This post can't have taken me much more than 45 seconds, including thinking.

bkd69:
*ahem*

Typing of the Dead:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typing_of_the_Dead

Must. Purchase. Copy. Now.

A little advice that I can offer is to use the little bumps on the F and J keys if you have them, which you can use to find your fingers back on the home row.

What I did was learn the keys that each finger could reach and then divide the keyboard into sections with my mind. Getting the numbers at the top still confuses me though, however I use the numpad most of the time.

EDIT: Another way to improve might be practicing your typing while playing a mmorpurger. Most often you will need to type quickly without looking at your keyboard which will help you improve, or

i nede gld pls

okay, i;ll try typing with my eyes shut, see where i go. i dunno how i learned to touvh type/ too much internet probably. When you're on chatrooms and come up with a witty retort it's important to type it fast, i suppose.

(a little ham-handed, but hey, better than most)

i;, p[retty good at toucj typing. I wish O was better though.

Diring my first yeae of high schiil, a majoeity of comoiter class was ytping skills.

And I am definitely out of practice.

*crack*
Yes, I even wrote the crack while touch-typing. To be honest, you can thank World Of Warcraft for that, due to raiding and stuff you generally don't have the time to look down at what you're typing. But generally the excessive amounts of time I spend on the pc can also account for it.

I find a pretty good way of learning to touchtype is simply to write a lot, all the time. Start a novel, write up a scathing article for a local newspaper or perhaps a letter to a friend. Will yourself to pay attention to the screen and not the keyboard. Though I don't like to admit it, I feel that my school's touch typing lessons may have helped me somewhat. I only look at the keyboard for a few symbols now, generally those on shift+numbers as I can never remember which is %, which is $ and which is &. Everything else is automatic.

I had Typing of the Dead too. Mixing touchtyping with zombie murder!

Madnezz:
A little advice that I can offer is to use the little bumps on the F and J keys if you have them, which you can use to find your fingers back on the home row.

[/quote]

Good advice. F and J are where my respective index fingers rest.