The way I learned to type is by dividing my laptop screen into a left side, where I read, like the news, or Kindle, or some website I like, and a smaller right side that I don’t look at, where I type into Word, or simply Notepad. I went from zero to 60 words a minute fairly quickly. I’m so used to it now that I like to type the books I read. It helps me also because I’m a diagonal reader. Typing what I read forces me to slow down and assimilate more of what I’m reading.
Mavis beacon
When I was in high school I was playing WoW when Wrath came out. I was doing a lot of PUGs so there wasn’t any coordinated voice chat so I HAD to type in order to communicate, so that’s when I really learned to touch-type.
this is what we used in the mid 90s. weird but worked.
Good for you. I did not think typing was a skill that would be lost and so quickly. It boggles my mind they don’t teach it in school now.
A cardboard box:
I remember my parents in the 90s using a tea-towel over their hands and keyboard
Learned Colemak there, liked it. Unfortunately, no support for more niche layouts, like regional variants of Colemak.
Shit, I’ve checked it and now I’m thinking about learning a new layout. Thanks. Like I didn’t have enough things to do…
Print out a big image of your keyboard layout and hang it on the wall in your line of sight where you type. Never look at the keyboard, only look at the image on the wall. It won’t take long to build the muscle memory this way.
This sounds like a good idea. How about getting a cheap projector to project a keyboard visualizer for immediate feedback and practicing?
Personally, I don’t think its needed. You can look at the screen for immediate feedback of what you typed and there are typing practice games which certainly help with good practice.
Every time you type a wrong key, hit that finger with a hammer. You’ll only need to do it once or twice before you’ve terrified all the fingers into only ever pressing the right keys.
In the 80’s we had games to learn touch typing that were very helpful and also quite fun, compared to old school methods.
Here’s a site that claims to have that sort of games:
https://www.typing.com/student/gamesWarning I have no idea if these are good, it’s just a random site a search came up with.
https://www.keybr.com/ is a free 20 minutes a day practice tool that i tey to use daily. starts easy, then slowly ramps up to new letters for you to practice.
And put stickers on your keyboard. Start with a few on the home row and gradually expand once you don’t have to think about the location of the keys anymore.
TypingMaster for PC was what I learned multiple keyboard formats. Now i use one on mobile and another for touch typing!
You can probably torrent it or just buy it but it has everything you’ll need, you just need to do it everyday for 10-20 mins for a while. Helps to say the letters in you head maybe as you’re typing. Like simultaneously mentally speak the letters as you press them
It gets easier as you move on to actual words and you learn to naturally chunk them together as you gain proficiency and fluency
Honestly, just type a lot and try to get it done quickly. I never did anything specifically to try and learn, it just happened naturally following that for me.
I’ve heard people have a lot of success with various typing games, there’s a few on steam now if that’s your jam. Glyphica and The Typing of the Dead are the ones that immediately jump to mind
