Typing performance improvement - your best advice

[CeeSA]

I try to improve my typing performance.
I use QWERTY layout and type slow.

Sometimes I think, typing without wrist wrest and holding the hands in the air, could be better for me.
But I fall back and use the wrest...
One problem is, I don't come back to the home fast ennough.
And I have a lot of mistakes during typing.

I use typingweb.com and Tipp10 (typing interesting news articles).

So my question is:

Do you remember what improves your typing most?
Change position of hands, special program, layout changes, not bottom out, exercise and patience etc.?

This thread is not for posting any WPM numbers etc., thank you.
I would like to know your best tips for faster and more accurate typing.

[abhibeckert]

Change to a different keyboard layout (doesn't matter which - but I like dvorak) without changing your keyboard.

This will force you to learn where they keys are without looking down, since looking down won't tell you what key to press. Instead open up a webpage with the keyboard layout on it, and use that to find the correct keys as you type. Pretty soon you won't need the webpage anymore.

While learning the new layout, pay special attention to which finger you are using to press which key. Make sure you are using the finger that is closest to the key you're trying to press.

I was able to triple my typing speed by this method.

[kbdfr]

Hi CeeSA,

My experience:

• I never rest my wrists when typing.
• I hold my hands in quite always the same position over the keyboard with my fingers at an angle of ~90 degrees (which implies short fingernails).
• My fingers hit the home row caps vertically and for the two other alpha rows I do not move my hands, but just change the angle of my fingers.
• Leaving the home position (for the number row or keys which are beyond reach of my fingers) involves a slight movement of the whole arm, which facilitates instinctively returning to the home position.
• Do not try to type fast, but to type with a steady rhythm (i.e. with a regular time interval for each character or keypress), speed will come naturally.
• And of course: practice.

Good luck!

[ne0phyte]

I used to type with 6.5 fingers. Then I got blank caps and forced myself to learn to type properly.

I used typingweb as well and trained around 20h in total. After that I always tried to type extra slow to ensure that I use the right fingers. By now I type with the same speed as before but with (almost) proper finger placement and with much less errors.

The slow typing was annoying as hell but helped a lot in learning the proper finger positions.

PS: I always (like since my first keyboard) rested my elbows on the table and hovered over the keyboard with my hands. My wrists don't touch the table and I can type on my HHKB or even higher profile keyboards for hours without any fatigue.

[suka]

During my experiments with custom layouts and keyboards I have identified at least three distinctive improvements that helped me a lot to not only become a more proficient and fast typist, but also stay relaxed in arms and shoulders even after long sessions of heavy coding:

#1 Different layout: I tried out many over the last two years, but any of them (Neo, NordTast, AdNW or BU-Teck) was way more comfortable than plain Qwerty. As abhibeckert mentioned, the process of (re)learning to touch-type properly helps a lot in typing "correctly" and also made me quite a bit faster. If you need a somewhat well-supported layout Colemak is supposed to be well designed for English text with no major issues in German. Should you be willing to use custom drivers (or an entirely custom controller) I can only recommend AdNW.

#2 Split keyboard: Equally beneficial in my case, it has helped me to find a relaxed position for both hands that makes typing easier and also improved my accuracy.

#3 Custom keyboard: Using thumb keys extensively makes reaching out for modifiers a thing of the past and thus enables me to essentially stay on the homerow since all fingers operate only on 3 keys with exception of the index fingers, which have an additional 3. Also, using a matrix style layout with only vertical offsets between few columns aids in staying on the correct location as your hands do not have to move laterally. Reducing the number of keys drastically also helps in that regard: 2 sides with 18 regular keys and a few spares mapped to duplicate modifiers (to make Ctrl-Shift-Backspace and similar combinations easier) is all I need regularly.

#4 Exercise: In order to get used to the new layouts I tried, I exercised at least 3x15min each day with a custom typetrainer to get accustomed to the new positions. After less than a month I then switched my main keyboard at work over and improved simply by utilizing it daily.

I try not bottoming out, hovering my hands over the board or typing with a steady rhythm from time to time, but fall back to my usual style quite fast most of the time. While advised on some typing related sites, typing without wristrest for longer periods also seems to put additional strain on your neck and shoulders - as usual with ergonomics, it is advisable to switch between multiple postures to prevent any singular excessive stress.

[ماء]

hey,suka
Did you ever use a split keyboard? but in addition to your custom keyboard

[suka]

Did you ever use a split keyboard? but in addition to your custom keyboard

All but one of my custom keyboards are split and I would not want to miss their advantages any more, even though building a single piece keyboard is a lot easier as you don't have to worry about the connection, cable routing and fixating or portability due to their rectangular shape.

[cookie]

My biggest improvement was learning the 10 finger system, before I start to type correctly, I used only my index, middle and ring finger. With this system it was impossible to touchtype. After I was able to touchtype my typingspeed incerased over time. I doubled my speed since then.

Speed comes with time a constatnt speed and avoiding errors, the less errors you make the faster is your speed.

[Kurk]

What abhibeckert says.
My biggest improvement came from deciding to learn how to touch type and at the same time switching to Dvorak (without having Dvorak keycaps).

[RC-1140]

I'll chime in with the others. Learning a different layout from ground up, without being able to look at the keys helped me a lot. My typing isn't what some here might consider really fast (80 WPM), but it has definitely improved a lot since I switched to Neo. I feel uncomfortable when typing QWERTZ/QWERTY fast, as I have to move my hand much more than on an ergonomic layout.

[cookie]

80 wpm is verry decent tbh!
I am at a simmilar speed, a little faster but I don't thing that a faster typing speed could improve my work speed much more so I am verry happy with how it is atm.

[BillyK]

I think the biggest thing for me was changing keyboard. I used to just use old membrane keyboards that felt slow and "squidgy", Until I bought the keyboard that I am using now.

After that, my typing speed didn't just magically improve. It just helped to know when the key had been pressed, and it kind of teaches you to hold your hands higher in the air.

Once I had gotten used to typing with a more elevated hand position, I covered up the letters on my keyboard using little colored dots, to stop me looking down. I don't have them there anymore and i do still look down once in a while but i think my typing speed is up to around 90 when I am typing reports and such directly from thought so I don't feel that I need the stickers

[czarek]

Over the years since I started using computers (since late 80s, I was born 1984) I developed 8 finger typing technique which worked for me pretty well, I was typing around 60 WPM but with quite high error rate. About 4 years ago I started thinking about improving it.
First thing to do was learning proper touch typing technique using 10 fingers. Then to help learning (and stop looking at the keys) I got myself Filco Otaku and this allowed me to bump my speed significantly.
Then as all of us I was looking for the best switch for myself. I was using pretty much everything, BS (Model F, Model M, Unicomp), all kinds of cherries (Brown, Blue, Red, Black, Clear, MY), Alps (Black and Cream), Space Invaders (linear white and yellow), Topre (HHKB and Realforce 45 Uniform) and Acer switches that look like Alps but feel more similar to MX Blue.
Now I know which switches I like most (BS feels totally best overall, Topre feels like sex and MX Red is nice and relaxing) and on which switches I am fastest and most accurate (MX Blue) - 105 WPM with 100% accuracy.
So I think the most crucial things to improve speed and accuracy is to learn 10 finger touch typing (blank keyboards help a lot), then find a keyboard that works best for you. And by works I mean actual performance not the feel. I like feel of all the keyboards I keep (and that's plenty of them) but I am currently using Filco with MX Blue (and blank PBT keycaps) as my daily driver, even though it's not my favourite switch.

[bakteria]

I highly recommend TypingWeb. It has helped me a lot on my quest to learn the 10 finger technique.
Use it everyday still to keep my fingers warm.

[czarek]

Well as for typing tutorial, nothing beats GNU Typist

[ماء]

Well as for typing tutorial, nothing beats GNU Typist

i'm interest GNU Typist
But,how to download GNU typist, I'm confused :(they seem cimplicated http://www.gnu.org/software/gtypist/

[Muirium]

GNU software, complicated? Ain't that the truth.

[Vierax]

On GNU, you can try Klavaro witch is a very complete type-learning program (different lessons, evolution chart) it is available in official repository of common GNU/Linux distributions. (Klavaro means keyboard in esperanto, there is no KDE affiliation and no Qt dependencies)

For a minimalist web interface in Firefox, there is XUL Typist made by an early bépo user. The app is even downloadable for an offline use.
Just have to add to Firefox the remote-xul-manager add-on and add the domain name in the white list (path in FireFox menu : Tools>Developpers>XUL)

[czarek]

Well as for typing tutorial, nothing beats GNU Typist

It's just few clicks away: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gtypist/w32_bina ... .8-w32.exe

[Kristoffer]

I learned to use 10 fingers with TypingMaster(and a blank keyboard), really good program, but a little overpriced.

[ماء]

It's just few clicks away: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gtypist/w32_bina ... .8-w32.exe

Thanks czarek,it's easy