Support for 'two fingered typists'!

[Mr. Mom]

Chars is european, words is for the Americans who have to be different for some reason And I don't think the standard conversion is 5 per word, as all Americans would be typing lightning fast then. At my top of 400cpm most people start glancing at me like I'm on fire *whistles*

Gotcha--European. However, according to Wikipedia, I am right, WPM is standardized at 5 characters to one word: "For the purposes of WPM measurement a word is standardized to five characters or keystrokes." (just search wikipedia for "words per minute"--I can't post URLs on this site, yet!) So 400 cpm is my low end! Yeah, I do type fast. I taught myself to type in 7th grade (12/13 years old.) In 8th grade, I took a typing class, in which we used manual typewriters, and I could already type as fast as (or faster than) the teacher, on the very first day of class. The only reason I took the class was because I knew it'd be an easy "A" and wouldn't have to try. (yep, I'm a lazy student) As senior in high school, I even took another typing class, but this time were were using computers and word processing was also part the class. The rest of the kids looked at me like I was an alien. I scored in the low 80's (wpm) on every test, and that was after subtracting for mistakes. Once, the teacher asked us not to make any corrections--to just continue typing, even after making mistakes--just to see how fast we could type. I was way into the 100's--112 or 120, I think, but made about 10 mistakes. As fast as 400 to 440 characters per minute sounds, that's not even fast enough to get me a job as a typist in a large number of businesses, because they're all requiring 100+ wpm! (500+ cpm)

 

[monkey7]

http://www.typeonline.co.uk/typingspeed.php

Got 90 pwm there, 3 mistakes. Another run: 92pwm, 2 mistakes.

And yes I took a course too, but turned out they didn't give a f<censored> mark for it. I did pass the exam and got proof for it though, so might help me in future job searches.

 

[Diablo13]

Some interesting background info on why the current qwerty keboard was developed and all sounding plausible.

Thanks all for that.

I am not a typist and look at the keyboard all the time as I type. I know where the keys are so I can go straight to them and tap the keys I want. I look at the screen usually after each paragraph and correct any mistakes then. This was obviously not an option for people with a mechanical keyboard and paper. I think my problem then is more coordination? While it gets me by typing on forums or private letters it would be no use in a business enviroment.

I can see the new keyboards being useful for text messaging or people that are just used to mobiles though. I suppose the best alternative is one of the speech and type programs, but they always seem so slow and take a long time to learn your speech patterns?

Has anyone got any experience of using the speech type programs?

 

[VonBlade]

Jeepers. 74 wpm. No mistakes but I did go back and manually correct all mine which probably cost some time. Not helped by the bizarre bit of text we had to copy. Luckily I don't plan on being a typist so I'm good

 

[Diablo]

I'm getting between 58 and 65 wpm with one mistake. I find it quite hard to take these tests that seriously. The one that uses random but commonly used words obviously is slower (because you are typing gibberish) and the posted test seems to have some lesser used words (acquaintances for instance) which I struggle to spell quickly. Does anybody else find that if they are typing up notes or essays, they can type much more quickly (i.e. you know what you are typing before you type it)

 

[VonBlade]

Without question. If I am just typing what I'm thinking I'm easily twice as fast as that test.

 

[monkey7]

Hmm I'm quite at my max. right there. Mainly because I don't think that fast when writing an essay I do notice myself glancing at the strange words for a fraction of a second though, costs me time. And I also hate the fact you have to click the start and end buttons because it costs you a second twice

 

[rrjwilson]

The Dvorak keyboard is the one that is supposed to be a faster system. Incredibly, on one of my other forums, there are actually some people that use Dvorak! Back in Jr. High, my Apple //c used to have Dvorak as an option. QWERTY seems fast enough, though. I don't know, it seems like the keys are all in the right place, when I'm typing.

BTW the fastest keyboard system to ever have been used was known as speedball. It was only used by large printing firms so most here won't have heard of it but its a ball pad with letters basically and typists were kicking out full speech without hitches. It was used in courtrooms in the US for some time in a mini version as they could do it so well.

 

[monkey7]

Wow. I wantz.

Really, that would rock, being able to type that fast. Would probably have to sell a kidney for it though.

 

[TopSecret]

I done that typing test and I got 38 words per minute, which isn't bad when you consider that you guys are hitting 70-90ish with 10 fingers and I am only using 2

 

[Rastalovich]

BTW the fastest keyboard system to ever have been used was known as speedball. It was only used by large printing firms so most here won't have heard of it but its a ball pad with letters basically and typists were kicking out full speech without hitches. It was used in courtrooms in the US for some time in a mini version as they could do it so well.

Wasn't/isn't that a "shorthand" kind of keyboard tho, in the sense that it doesn't do full regular words ?

Just wanted to add that ABC keyboards have been out for decades. Think I got an A1000 manual in the attic that pictures one as an accessory.

 

[FarFarAway]

Hmm this is interesting but as I use about 8 fingers to type it won't be an issue I wouldn't have thought

I can do an even and accurate 80-90 words per minute so it doesn't bother me much.

My Mum can do 200+ words per minute