I should have listgened to my mother
 

WHen I was about 13 years old, my mother told me that I would be wise to take a typing class. I told her she was crazy and there was no way I was goign to sit in a typing class with a bunch of losers and learn how to do something so stupid. Man do I ever wish I had listened to her.

No way! My experience was the opposite. In HS, I wanted to take a typing class.

My mom did not let me, saying that typing, shop, and Home Ec were classes for dummies that were not going to go to college.

Consequently, I never learned to type properly. I graduated HS in 1989. About 6 or 7 years later, along comes this thing called a laptop and the rest is history. Thanks, mom!

I have become quite proficient and the two haded "hunt and peck" method. So much so that in law school, my friends called me The Lobster. They also called me The Lobster because I tended to scream when dipped into hot water and I taste delicious with butter.

TMI, my freind, TMI.

Interesting. I was a complete idiot in HS and my father told me, "Take type and take it seriously, it's one of the most important classes and you'll use it your whole life." I took his advice and I've always said that was some of the best advice he ever gave me.

I took one trimester of typing in the 9th grade, they taught me about the home row, and where the letters are located and how to type properly. The 2nd semester was numbers, punctuation and other functions of the keyboard, i dropped the class before that, so i can type letters and words very fast but i have to stop and look when i am adding numbers and other things.

I just went to typingtest.com and I am at 74 wpm.

I was a total hunt and peck typist until about 6 months before I started law school. I had been told by several people that I need to have decent typing skills for note and test taking, so I downloaded some free type-teaching program, which I used a few times. By the time law school started, I could touch type, but was still kind of slow. By the end of my first year, I was at least an average-speed typist. Now, I can type around 80 wpm (after accounting for errors), which is fast enough for me.

My point is that it is never too late to learn and it does not take that much effort to learn to touch type.

Also, I want to switch to Dvorak. I have an extra keyboard and I am seriously contemplating rearranging the keys thereof. Dvorak is supposed to not only allow for faster typing, but lower incidents of carpal tunnel and fatigue.

I made the switch to Dvorak about four months ago. Speed suffered greatly during the transition. Found I had to totally abandon all QWERTY keyboards in order to regain speed. Not yet as fast as before, but the comfort factor is real. I would give it three stars.

I am just old enough (37) that we actually still used typwriters in typing class. I took it in 8th grade and I can say that I've never put a class to use like I have that one. I can type so fast it draws a crowd.:cool:

Is that 3/4 stars or 3/5? I am considering the switch for a couple of reasons: because I just think it makes sense to use a layout that was purposefully arranged for easier (and potentially) faster typing (as opposed to qwerty, which is much better for left handers and was arranged to prevent mechanical typewriters from sticking).

My second reason is that I have developed some carpal tunnel in my left wrist and I want to see if it gets better with Dvorak. Again, qwerty is biased to use the left hand much more than the right and I hope that Dvorak solves the problem.

While I agree with the general sentiment, I, like most crustaceans, am now a creature of habit. This is all I know....

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...bster_NSRW.jpg

Plus, in all honesty, I cant really think of a situation where I would need to type so quickly. That is what admins are for....