h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I actually did a post-graduate secretarial course just so I could learn to type and get a grant at the same time. We used electronic typewriters at that time (blimey I'm old!).

My mac keyboard is much better

I sort of touch type, mainly self taught, it would be better if the e h letters were swopped around as I waste so much time editing teh

Whilst on holiday in the US, I wanted to keep in touch with home and emailed from local libraries, only a few keys are different on a US keyboard, the @ symbol is over the 3 or 4, I think instead of over the '. Anyway, it completely threw me, it was as if the entire keyboard was skewiff and I wasted precious seconds of alloted time trying to make sense out of all my typos.

Driving on the other side of the road had the same effect and I kept getting my lefts and rights confused, even though those hadn't changed, of course

I got a typing tutor on a floppy disk on the front of a computer mag. But it wasn't the full version of the program - it only did about two thirds of the letters, so I had to busk it from there based on what I had learnt.

I don't think it helped that I was using an antique laptop at the time, either.

Blimey - am I the only person here who learned to type on a typewriter?

I went to one of those schools that taught the 'dumb' girls touch typing, and I had to put in a certain amount of effort to get them to teach me. We used keyboards with blank keys, and typed things like "a lass's salad" which uses only keys which are on the middle row.

I can now type without looking at the keyboard, which disconcerts people who interrupt me: I look up at them, but continue typing. My accuracy goes down when I am tired and / or drunk.

A couple of weeks ago I got banned from a set of meetings for taking verbatim notes. And I do mean verbatim - let me get a few lines:

db – have us sit down and arrange another meeting – or do it today – one issue hoping to have proper feedback from both vendors – but we will have to make a call
dh – don’t need to go into to deep a level
db – tell them what they need to deliver
k – integration spec is one thing, list of functionality is another
dh – we need everything – need to know scope of what they will deliver
db – work it out after this meeting

It is an incredibly useful skill - I was once in conference call with about 10 people, and simultaniously in a chat session to one of them. We checked out responses to things people had said, agreed what questions we were going to ask, and who would ask them.

a touch typist called Ben

Well, we got to go back to the very beginning on how I learned to type... First, my mother had an old typewriter I got seriously interested in when I was about 5 - 6, and I could sit hours just banging on the keys Then, with great difficulty, I learned how to type my name (although I often forgot the E in Tilde, which I still do, I'm afraid ) some years later we got a computer and I, very slowly, learned to type (it started out with that whole only-index-fingers method)

I can only touch-type to a certain degree, but I know I'm going to have a class on it at school next year

My sister was taking a typing class, and I looked in her book long enough to find out what the home keys were. I did the first few exercises from her book, and then I made up exercises for myself, like typing my name w/out looking, and trying sentences like "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs" and "now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country." Switching to computers was pretty easy; you have to look down for the extra keys at first, but you get used to them. I do a lot of correcting as I type, but I can get around 70 WPM.

Without using home keys, I couldn't imagine touch typing. I doubt I use the correct finger for every other letter (mostly 'b') but I don't care, either.

GTB

Ben - I learned on a typewriter, too. Those things are unforgiving.

I didn't.I was at a secondary modern where just the B stream did typing.Us A stream just did GCE's and CSE's.However I always wished I had been 'allowed' as it's a damned useful skill.

Incog. Don't ask about the C stream as they appeared to have been abandoned to the far corner of the campus.Poor souls.Nowadays the C stream are called Special Needs and quite a bit of effort is directed towards them.I'm wondering who on earth can say education was so wonderful 30/40 years ago.It's a lot better these days.Never mind I digress.

I think everyone should be taught typing... preferably on a Dvorak keyboard, they're reputed to be far better. Of course, that could cause problems when they emerge into the world and discover a sea of QWERTY keyboards spread out before them... oh well!

I'm not sure at all what my actual typing speed, but most of the time I can do what agcB does and type without looking at the keyboard or the screen. This is of course very useful for copy-typing, which I've had to do at various jobs on occasion, but it's also great when my housemates pop into my room and ask me something and I can look at them and continue to chat at the same time. I'm actually writing this post while staring at a particularly uininteresting top corner of my bedroom, just so see if I can. From what I can tell by the feel of things, my speed's gone down a little over my usual, and It hink I've made a few typos as well, but perhaps not all that many. I'm still going quite fast enough to staisfy me though