Type by Touch

[DarthTofu]

I'm kind of interested in seeing who here can type by touch- you can look at the computer monitor or, in my case, at something totally unrelated to the computer, and still type out perfectly coherent messages with few to no errors.

 

I'm apparently the only one in my family who can do as much, probably because I type up more fiction on the computer than anyone else in my direct family. I make the occasional error with my eyes closed or focused on something else, such as a double letter or two, but other than that, I'm good to go regardless of where I'm looking. How is everyone else at typing?

[Defender_16]

I have a method a of rapidly glancing back and forth between the keyboard and the screen, though I do tend to spend a little more time looking at the keyboard.

 

I added my vote to "Not quite."

 

EDIT: Geh, Tofu with that avatar I keep mistaking you for Tex

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

I went with the first one, though there are some limitations. Music tends to distract me when I'm typing something school related, but typing on the forums or in an IM isn't affected. Also, if I'm typing from rough written notes I have to have the notes somewhere in front of me. If they're to the side it throws me off for some reason.

 

My typing skill used to be terrible, but after spending insane periods of time on a computer for school they've developed quite a bit. Granted I can't do five things at once, but I'm working on it.

[BadSamaritan]

For the longest time, I was a chicken pecker. In other words, I had to look around at the keyboard to find the keys I wanted to hit. But these days I stare at the screen most of the time, but my rate of typing is rather slow most of the time. But I am getting better for not being able to use the so-called 'home row' of keys.

[Mad78]

I have a decent rate of type but I do have to glance at the keyboard from time to time.

[JediHunter]

I very rarely look at the screen or the keyboard... if i make a mistake I generally know it just by where my fingers have hit... Typing was drilled into me though by both my school and my parents, from a very early age. So.. it was a simple transition to computers..

[Darth_Rob]

I can do type without looking at the keyboard pretty well, though I have to look at the monitor because I am mistake-prone.

[Mad78]

I learnt to type by joining these forums.

[Evaders99]

I type way too much. Sometimes I can get in the groove, I'm probably going over 100 WPM... mostly, the limiting factor is thinking what to type.

 

I do make mistakes, but I can do a quick backspace. Also, I never stay with the standard "home" keys like they teach you in typing classes... I hate it that way.

[Moribundus]

I have a nasty habit of glancing at the keyboard at the beginning of each word, although I can type quite well without it (if I focus on not looking at the keyboard). Also changing the place of my right hand during typing (characters <--> arrows/mouse) and typing special characters (hashes, dollars, etc. and my language specific chars) forces me to look at the keyboard.

 

 

So "not quite"...

[Eagle]

I´m able to type now for over 20 years and so I´m able to do other things. Even when I´m typing in a foreign language.

[DarthTofu]

I should probably have included something about typing in native languages and such. Persons such as yourself and Mad might be quicker in German or French, Eagle.

 

Alright, subcategory: Do you type more proficiently in your native tongue than in a foreign one, oh bi/tri/omnilingual members of the forums?

[Mad78]

Doesn't change that much for me but i must say i have more "reflexes" about typing in english than typing in french. But i doubt my speed changes that much.

[Eagle]

The same here. I don´t type faster when typing in german. And that´s not just because of newer rules for german grammar, where I have to think about first if I have to write a word using two or three F.

[DarthTex]

I do lots of typing and have been for years. Heck, I can remember when typewriters were a novelty

 

[Mad78]

But do people still use typewriters these days?

[Darth_Rob]

I would be very afraid of having to use a typewriter. No backspace is a very bad thing.

[budious]

I have the strange habit of the more I concentrate on the screen or thought of what I am typing the more error prone I become. When I sit down and begin just hammering out a thoughtless rant it just comes so naturally.

[DarthTofu]

We've noticed, Budious...

 

I've actually used a typewriter before for some application stuff (My handwriting is and always has been really bad) and it isn't that hard to use without making mistakes. There's this miracle thing called "liquid paper" that they came out with a while back, some lady invented it, so that you can actually go over any errors that you make and it'll look just like the paper before you typed your error on it. On the downside, it's hard to proofread, but hey, it works, I guess.

 

Computers are still a lot better for writing, though, in my opinion.

[Eagle]

But do people still use typewriters these days?

I started with and had one of these until I threw it away someday, because it seemed to be broken, I dunno why. Maybe it had could been fixed again. Anyway, about a year ago we had a small energy-collapse for several hours. When this happened I became aware of how much you depend on things which need electricity to run. I first wasn´t sure what happened. Maybe some kind of asteroid came across our orbit and we´ve been hit by an EMP-Pulse or something like that, which disabled all electricity on earth. Luckily it was just a small accident in our nearby power-plant, which could be fixed after a couple of hours. But all in all it was disturbing.

[budious]

There's nothing like the cold hard snap of a Singer typewriter. Then, in the late 80's was the error of the digital word processor, a bastardized PC with the sole purpose of word processing... and I miss my brick phone

[turtle]

I"m pretty bad on the typing front and need to look at what I'm doing and even then wind up making imstakes!