TIPP10: become an expert touch typist with this free typing tutor app

I’m a complete beginner in touch-typing and this software looks really great. I wouldn’t use it in its current version, though, because of the lack of Azerty keyboards layouts. As I live in Belgium and use only Azerty keyboards, becoming and expert with a Qwerty keyboard isn’t really useful in my case, and it is very disturbing as from the first training lesson.

I’m looking forward to seeing more keyboard layouts included in the program.

JPR

From the article: “…a lot of information that this program tracks seems to fall under the “True But Useless” category. Will it really make me a better touch typist if I knew the error rates of my individual fingers, the error rate of each particular character, or to see all my mistyped characters marked in red?”

My response: Your ignorance (which I don’t mean to be insulting since ignorance is not the same as stupidity, and merely means the lack of certain knowledge or information) of the professional life of persons who rely on typing for their very livings is exhibiting itself.

Persons who have taken professional typing courses have had the need for both speed and accuracy — without ever looking at the keys or fingers — drilled into their heads. Secretaries cannot keep their jobs if they can’t type at LEAST 60 words per minute (WPM) (preferably closer to 80 or 90 WPM) with nearly 100% accuracy. Professional keypunch operators (who key-in data from handwritten postcards and forms and whatnot) must MINIMALLY maintain a prolonged rate of 12,000 keystrokes-per-hour, with nearly 100% accuracy, just to keep their jobs.

To keep them from looking down at the keyboard and/or their fingers (rather than at that from which they’re typing), the professional typing courses where people develop such skills use practice keyboards with no letters, numbers, punctuation or symbols on the keys.

Every typist — and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE — has a handful of keys or keystroke combinations which, for whatever reason, give them trouble. Maybe the key’s just in a place which the brain and finger have a little trouble making the reach without missing the key more than other keys are typically missed. Or maybe they just don’t have, at least initially, the dexterity to hit the troubling key without missing whatever key comes after it. The reasons are typically many and varied; but EVERY typist has a few.

Without software like this to tell them which keys or keystroke combinations are their trouble — the equivalent of what golfers call “a hitch in their swing” — then how can they know what to practice to make better? Troubling keys slow down typing, and cause errors… neither of which are tolerated in the real world of professional typists and keypunch operators.

You’ve obviously never been in the presence of someone who’s truly a professional typist… and I’m talking, now, about someone who can maintain 90 or so WPM with 99% accuracy for eight solid hours per day. It’s a sight to see, I tell you! Watching it, you wonder why smoke’s not rising off the keyboard; and also how they keep their fingers from just flying off their hands. Seriously. It’s absolutely remarkable to witness.

I’d begin this next sentence with “those of us who don’t type that fast, and who hunt-and-peck around our keyboards,” however, my mom made me take not only the typing course in high school that even some boys took (so they’d be able to type in college), but also the second course which pretty much only girls took (remember, it was almost 40 years ago, so sexist thinking about boys and girls and what they’d each likely be doing for a living still existed, so give me a break). Consequently, today, at age 54, after typing almost every single day of my life for almost 40 years since those typing courses, I now type over 90 WPM with about 96% accuracy; and I can keep it up for hours and hours all day and into the night. That’s partly how I’m able to compose in my head, and then type something like what you’re reading now without it taking-up too much of my day (the other part being that I developed, years ago, the ability to pretty much think it and type it at the same time, and have it come out pretty okay without my having to go back and edit too much, if at all).

So, instead, I’ll begin the sentence: Those who hunt-and-peck around their keyboards often don’t appreciate that typing, itself, is an art… a skill, at the very least; and one in entirely its own right, to boot!

Typing programs like this one tell them where is the hitch in their swing so they can remedy the problem. Really GOOD typing programs do not only that, but also devise custom exercises, on the fly, which help them work through the problem, while still hounding them to maintain both speed and accuracy.

So, YES, it positively WILL make you a better touch typist if you know the error rates of your individual fingers, the error rate of each particular character, and see all your mistyped characters marked in red. If the program could slap your wrist with a ruler, too, it would be all the better! It most definitely, quite positively, absolutely, incontrovertibly will help. Make no mistake (as you’ve done, here) about that.

And anyone who’s actually a PROFESSIONAL typist would laugh at the notion that it wouldn’t.

Therefore, I humbly request that you amend your article to indicate that while knowing those things doesn’t seem particularly valuable to YOU, you now realize that professional typists need to know such things so that keys which trouble them, for whatever reason, will not impede their overall both speed and accuracy, thereby allowing them to meet the minimum speed and accuracy standards of whatever are their jobs.

Hope that helps!

__________________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com

Unusable for me, as the program only supports
- German QWERTZ
- American QWERTY

I’m on an AZERTY keyboard and have no wish to learn typing these other layouts

Great whenever also AZERTY is supported

can’t use it : AZERTY keyboard !! it’s a pity because it looks nice.

Nice program. Another one (free) is Stamina Typing Tutor.
Greg, seriously, other than showing us your passion for typing, what’s the point of bringing up professionals? Anyone who’s job depends on typing would have been professionally trained, as you were. For those who simply want to learn touch typing, the error rate of each finger couldn’t matter less. Still, a nice little program for beginners, or those looking to brush up their skills. Sorry, typing is not a form of art.