Thread: Do You Touch-Type or Hunt-and-Peck

Since this is a forum where we communicate by typing, and some of the posts are truly voluminous, I was wondering who touch-types and who hunts-and-pecks. If you touch type, how did you learn?

Hunt and peck here.

Typing was a required class for me..think around 1993-1995. Very happy i took that class.

My typing has gone downhill since then, we were not allowed to make spelling mistakes.

I learned to touch type back in elementary school. We used to use Mavis Beacon (or however it's spelled). I also used to type homework assignments, because for me typing real words made things much easier (since that's how I learned common patterns).

In college (I don't remember exactly when), I decided I wanted to switch from QWERTY to Dvorak. I re-learned in pretty much the same way; I found a program that was decent (and free) and used that a bit. The program also had the option to use an external text file, so I used that a fair bit. I'd say I did the bulk of my re-learning in a week (a boring vacation). Talking on AIM and writing papers for school helped too.

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

I learned to touch type back in elementary school. We used to use Mavis Beacon (or however it's spelled). I also used to type homework assignments, because for me typing real words made things much easier (since that's how I learned common patterns).

In college (I don't remember exactly when), I decided I wanted to switch from QWERTY to Dvorak. I re-learned in pretty much the same way; I found a program that was decent (and free) and used that a bit. The program also had the option to use an external text file, so I used that a fair bit. I'd say I did the bulk of my re-learning in a week (a boring vacation). Talking on AIM and writing papers for school helped too.

Wow, a brave man! I've heard that the Dvorak keyboard is much more efficient. What do you think? I never tried because I was afraid that I would run into problems if I had to work on a computer that didn't have the Dvorak keyboard layout.

I forgot to answer my own question. I touch type. I didn't learn in school because back then (the dark ages) it was a girls' thing. Anyway, when I graduated from college I wanted to work as an editor in a publishing house. It didn't work out, but I was offered a job as a typesetter. They said it was a lot of typing and asked me "Did I mind?" I said "no". They didn't ask me if I could type. I asked when did they want me to start and they said two weeks. I went out and bought a book and borrowed a manual typewriter and worked at it eight hours a day for two weeks. When I showed up for work I was typing well enough to pass unnoticed (about 30 wpm) and then I got faster.

Originally Posted by JMS

Hunt and peck here.

Please answer select an answer on the poll page.

I hunt and peck but my hunting is really good.

Still mostly need to look at the keyboard but that is because I am not very accurate at hitting the keys even though I know where they are. I use both hands but finger selection is focused on first two or three fingers of each hand and thumb for space bar -- usually.

I'm a pecker....er, rather, I hunt and peck. Drives nmy wife nuts, but I'm actually remarkably fast with my method.

Originally Posted by Chimensch

Please answer select an answer on the poll page.

Done, done, done!