Improving Typing Speed

[enkoujin]

I have a very difficult issue with improving my typing speed which has stayed steadily constant for the last three or four years now.

I currently clock in about 100 words per minute with a standard deviation of +/- 25 (75-125 [and up to 135 one time] WPM) depending on the sentence structure on the traditional QWERTY keyboard layout using a home-row style. The only discrepancies from the standard home-row style I use would be how I use my left index finger to hit the "y" character (this is on a regular/standard keyboard).

I find it difficult, particularly when practicing on typeracer.com, to improve my typing speed. I always make typos every few words of my fingers because of a lack of decent dexterity/coordination. For example, if I were to type out the word, "cat", sometimes, the out put would be "act".

Is there a method or training your typing speed to be higher (average 125 and a max of 150)? I was considering switching to the DVORAK keyboard layout, but I'm hearing mixed arguments on the issue.

Thanks in advance.

[enkoujin]

Scratch that. I type an average of 120 WPM in short and furious bursts now; hitting 141 as my highest.

I'm still going to switch over to DVORAK after I'm done this semester's programming class.

[XanBcoo]

What do you attribute your improvement to?

[enkoujin]

I attribute my improvement by actually trying to type by participating in several races from

http://www.typeracer.com

However, I realized that my tendons are extremely sore from typing at that kind of speed and I'm pretty scared of carpel tunnel syndrome/tendonitis, so I'm going to start typing on my ergonomic keyboard and using DVORAK so there's less stress on my tendons.

In an analytical perspective, my left hand significantly does more of the typing than my right hand (which is the cause of the soreness). If I can get my right hand to type faster, then I think I could increase my typing speed by an extra 10 WPM and like I said before, DVORAK would hypothetically allow me to do this because there are apparently more key consonants on the right hand side than in QWERTY and increase my speed by another 20 or 30 WPM; I could be typing at 140 WPM in my short bursts, be typing at 115 WPM in regular long intervals and hit a peak of 160 if I have a good day.

Currently, I'm in the 99.1-99.5% percentile on typeracer.

[Buffalobiian]

When will you get around to it? I'll be interested to know how this DVORAK layout goes. Regardless of the outcome thing, I doubt I'll give it a go.. just because adoption is so uncommon... unless you retain both the QWERTY and DVORAK skills.

[enkoujin]

April 29th - last day of my exams.

And yes, I do plan to retain QWERTY skills. It's more conventional to know QWERTY because almost no one has DVORAK installed on their computers and the navigational ability of the computer is much more easier on QWERTY than on DVORAK. e.g. ctrl+c and ctrl+v as opposed to ctrl+i and ctrl+(period) for copy and paste respectively.

Also, the reason why many people haven't switched over to more efficient technological processes is likely due to baby duck syndrome - something all people should be aware.

Btw, really feeling the soreness coming in - today was just an average of 105 WPM...

[Buffalobiian]

I never realize my typing potential as I tend to think slower than I type, funny as that may sound.

[enkoujin]

Woohoo, while I was typing a paragraph, I saw myself spike at 175 WPM before I became shocked and then made a typing error, resulting in 132...

[enkoujin]

GIVE UP! I'M DONE! ENOUGH OF THIS QWERTY BULLSHIT!

[enkoujin]

So I'm finally retiring, hitting my peak at 153 WPM at 99.2% accuracy using the QWERTY keyboard layout on my basic Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 v1.0 on Google Chrome (still made a typo on my fastest sentence).

I tried DVORAK one time while talking to a friend and I was so slow that I got very frustrated at the length of time it took me to respond to basic messages through instant messenger (probably ~20 WPM), so I never fully experimented with DVORAK to it see its maximum potential with my fingers.

However, I do see the areas of positive difference for DVORAK than QWERTY. Children who are learning to keyboard should be taught the DVORAK if the average population, using QWERTY, only has an average of ~30-45 WPM.

In conclusion, to those who want to increase their efficiency with typing, do whatever feels "natural" to you and keep on typing random proper sentences everyday. No, typing without punctuation or grammar does not count (I'd be typing an average of 150 WPM if I did). If one were to be serious about this, I do recommend looking into DAS keyboards as they are rumoured to increase your WPM by ~10:

http://www.daskeyboard.com/

[Buffalobiian]

I don't think that's the way you should go about it En. Since you're using the computer daily for entertainment or work productivity, migrating straight to, and solely to DVORAK will set you back so much that all the other shit you'll have to put up with in the meanwhile will just put you off. You should have started with just doing typing exercises on DVORAK on a regular basis (20 minutes a day, for example). I would be surprised if they didn't have exercises on the web that progressively teaches you to get used to it, such as starting off with the "home row" exercises and moving upwards from there.

It's unfortunate that you've had to give up on it. I was really interested in seeing if it made a difference to you (without investing in the time and frustration myself :P )

As for daskeyboard.. I'll definitely not get that. If I didn't want to look at my keyboard... don't look at it. And for first person shooters and stuff when I have my left hand on WASD but need to move from that position to hit M for the map, it would suck to use a trial-and-error method to get it right. All in all, you don't need to look at your keyboard to type, and you can very well learn to touch type with a labelled keyboard. I just won't OPT to have it unlabelled because it sucks when I want need it to be.

[enkoujin]

With your dialogue, you have convinced me to pick DVORAK up again, albeit, not now.

For the daskeyboard, I wasn't talking about the no-letter-labelling-on-the-keyboard model (because anyone can buy a good $40-80 US/CDN Logitech keyboard and manually scratch off the labelling that way), but the labelled or silent models due to their gold plated switches.

German-engineered mechanical key switches:

Das Keyboard compares to the legendary IBM Model M. Its best-in-class mechanical gold-plated key switches provide a tactile and audio click that makes typing a pure joy.

Like I said, it only increases WPM by ~10 by the pure mechanics of the keyboard, but as for the typer him or herself, they will have to find better methods of typing to improve their skills. The unlabelled keyboards do definitely encourage the average typer to not look at their keyboards when they type, though (increasing their WPM).

I think it's disappointing to see how little people are interested in this topic, aside from here, as the ability to type quickly and efficiently will save one days and weeks in time if the person is a proficient computer user who needs to type e-mails, papers, speeches and essays every workday.

For anyone interested in DVORAK, just go to your Language Bar or Keyboard settings in your Control Panel and just install DVORAK in English (US). Here's the tutorial link I'm going to use:

http://gigliwood.com/abcd/lessons/

Pretty basic, but it serves its purpose in getting a user to get familiar with the keys.

[Buffalobiian]

Silent.. keyboard...

I want one of those.

Have you heard one in person to confirm for yourself how quiet it is?

[enkoujin]

Das Keyboard Professional Silent Review

After reading and watching many reviews, it seems like the best keyboards are not the Das Keyboards. The Professional Silent model also looks like it uses two USB ports (or one USB port + 1 PS2 port), which is rather inconvenient.

From the looks of it, the IBM Model M circa 1991 (including its Space Saver variant without the numerical pad) were the best keyboards built due to its sturdiness and its clicking sounds. Its modern equivalent, the Unicomp Space Saver keyboard for the tactile clicking and smooth keys, are almost as good as these old models because Unicomp bought the patent off IBM. There are also the quiet versions available from here (for a lower price than the Das Keyboard):

http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/en104bl.html

My apologies about misleading everyone to think that the Das keyboard are the best keyboards. Here are some more reviews:

Unicomp SpaceSaver Keyboard Review with clicky buckling springs
IBM Model M Clicky Keyboard Review
IBM Model M Space Saver Keyboard

tl;dr

Das Keyboards are not the best (except for its aesthetically sleek design); try to get your hands on the old IBM Model M keyboard or if you can't, try to get the Unicomp Space Saver.

[enkoujin]

I'm at a friend's house right now using a Razer Blackwidow keyboard and man, does the fast clicking ever sound like famous musicians reborn from the dead working with YoYoMa creating music for the Gods.

My speed on the keyboard right now is about 70 WPM, but the sound my hands are making obviously outweigh the 120 WPM I type with on my budget ergonomic keyboard.

I do think that the ergonomic keyboards are better for one's health in the long run, though.

[Buffalobiian]

I do think that the ergonomic keyboards are better for one's health in the long run, though.

How so? I used to have one, though I never thought much of it.

It pissed me off until I learned to type B with my left hand instead of my right.

[Sapphire]

Wat wat. Why would you spend $80 for an old keyboard? Just go to to Goodwill or someone's garage sale.

[enkoujin]

How so? I used to have one, though I never thought much of it.

It pissed me off until I learned to type B with my left hand instead of my right.

It looks like ergonomic keyboards are not scientifically proven to help with one's health.

I, myself, find that typing on my ergonomic keyboard at home is a lot more comfortable for me than to type on a standard keyboard where all the keys are the same size. Most of the times I complained about my wrists and fingers being strained from tendonitis or an incoming onslaught of Carpel Tunnel was when I was typing on my school's keyboards, which were the standard non-ergonomic ones. It's probably from years of adaptive personal preference, though, but like the article said, just find what you're most comfortable with and stick with it - for keyboards and for typing style. I have fairly big fingers myself, so my rubber-dome-switch keyboard will last me for quite a bit (already been five or six years).

Unfortunately, due to the exponential rate of technology innovation these days, I fear that there will be a new system of typing or text input that everyone, in this age, will have to adapt to to become more efficient and productive due to the average populations' typing speed being around 45 +/- 15 WPM (too slow for corporations' liking, I guess).

Wat wat. Why would you spend $80 for an old keyboard? Just go to to Goodwill or someone's garage sale.

If you can find the IBM Model M [Space Saver], then yes, that is the best way to go about it. It's surprising sometimes how people never look into how much their used products are worth before they sell them at a garage/yard sale. I'm just posting an alternative method to obtain one through this method to obtain something similar.

[enkoujin]

I've peaked in the lower bracket of the 100% percentile.

Now, I will start using DVORAK and I think I'll try to get a new keyboard as well.

Thanks for your support, Buffalobiian!