How To Make Fast Speed In Typing

[Monica Okane]

Mostif not all, careers involve some computer-based work and require strong typing skills. Information technology professionals, for example, must be efficient typists in order to write code for computer and software programs. Accuracy is equally as important as speed, as a simple typo could result in a system-wide error.

However, without proper training and practice, many individuals resort to hunt-and-peck typing, or looking down at the keyboard to select the right keys one-by-one. Mobile technology, such as tablets and smartphones, have also increased reliance on hunt-and-peck strategies.

The preferred typing method is known as touch-type, or typing without looking at the screen. This is much more efficient than hunt-and-peck; the average person types at an average of 40 words per minute, but a person who relies on the touch-type method can exceed 75 words per minute, allowing them to complete their work much more quickly and with minimal errors.

These conventions are meant to help you familiarize yourself with the keyboard. As you become more experienced, you can experiment with different variations of this starting position to find the placement that is most comfortable and natural for you.

Sitting in an upright position is going to make it easier to type faster. If you are used to slouching in your chair or working from the couch, try moving to a straight-backed chair or working at your desk.

The wrong hand placement can make it uncomfortable to type for extended periods of time. The space bar of your keyboard should be centered with your body, so that you are not reading your screen or typing from an angle. As you type, rest your elbows on the table and keep your wrists slightly elevated. You should never bend or angle your wrists dramatically.

* Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics 2023 / Occupational Outlook Handbook 2022. BLS estimates do not represent entry-level wages and/or salaries. Multiple factors, including prior experience, age, geography market in which you want to work and degree field, will affect career outcomes and earnings. Herzing neither represents that its graduates will earn the average salaries calculated by BLS for a particular job nor guarantees that graduation from its program will result in a job, promotion, salary increase or other career growth.

We have typing lessons for everybody. The first warm ups and finger exercises, learning new keys, and typing words which really matter in your language. In addition as registered user you can create up to 10 custom typing lessons to focus on your individual needs.

The typing lessons of TypeLift are not just static content. Every time you start a typing practice the lessons are assembled dynamically to increase your learning effect and to avoid memorizing frequently practiced exercises. On top of that our smart error analysis repeats frequent mistakes while you practice to make your individual training even more efficient.

Curve your fingers a little and put them on the ASDF and JKL; keys which are located in the middle row of the letter keys. This row is called HOME ROW because you always start from these keys and always return to them.

This method may seem inconvenient at first, but do not stop, eventually, you'll find out that you are typing quickly, easily, and conveniently. To achieve the maximum result, choose a touch typing course for your keyboard layout and in the desired language.

Limit your hand and finger movement only to what is necessary to press a specific key. Keep your hands and fingers close to the base position. This improves typing speed and reduces stress on the hands.

I currently type on average (according to type racer) around 122WPM, I peak at about 155WPM - using the QWERTY layout. Will I see any real speed improvement or benefit by switching to Colemak?

(Note: I use a special blend of touch typing that uses fingers at different times than other traditional styles, all are used however).

If speed is all you're after, I doubt it will be worth your while. You never know, but that's my feeling. Colemak offers comfort and style for sure, but any speed benefits are not proved. There are fast Colemak typists (such as Ryan Heise and Micah Wine) but there are of course faster QWERTY typists still given how many typists have been using that layout since early childhood.

You could learn to type pretty fast with Colemak given your current QWERTY speed, since much of your speed is typing technique not layout. But relearning all your tricks and adaptations fully would take a while.

Yes, if you switch you might exceed your old speed, but you might not. As DreymaR says, if speed is what you're after, a switch might not be worthwhile for you.

If you're looking for a different typing experience (generally much less flying around of fingers and hands), or have any concerns about your hands' health, you could give it a try. It's definitely a good brain exercise.

Oh, you'll most definitely end up typing faster if you persist! Thing is though, it's hard to prove whether that's mostly because of layout benefits or because of the effort you have to put in to learn Colemak! I think if you spent all that effort on QWERTY speed training you could possibly get the same increase. It might be hard to do that right though unless you have a typing sensei. ;)

I've switched from 55 WPM QWERTY to 60 WPM Dvorak (after a lot of work) to 70 WPM Colemak (after using it since 2006). I'm a deliberate person in my forties so I may not get all that much faster but I still see a steady increase in both speed and comfort. It's not a fast progress but it's still nice. If I train for a while I see better results of course.

If you depend on your typing every day you could switch gradually with Tarmak (see my signature) and not lose much speed at any point. (Or rather, you'd lose speed but pick it up again within a day or so for each step I think.) Not many have done it but I firmly believe it's worth a try if you're interested.

This is exactly my question. Only in my case, I used to average around 140 wpm on qwerty, give or take on, typeracer along with peaks of 180-210 wpm.

I've stopped using keyboard of late (been too involved in real life), so my speed has dropped of to like around the high 120s now (last week I checked this on typeracer). Anyways, I'm fascinated by how some people like Sean Wrona can maintain an average of 170 wpm, I would surely like to attain that some day! Maybe not right now, like I said, I don't have the time off to practice typing like I used to, but maybe someday later when I finally get around to training my speed. I mean using the qwerty layout, it really does seem that I have kind of hit my peak speed. A while back I used to do the speedtest.10-fast-fingers-site and my fingers would virtually be flying on those easy word combinations, hardly I felt there was any room for improvement and the best I could get was around the high 140s and low 150s, take away the mistakes and my peak would be around the 160s, yet I'm sure people like Wrona could get around 180s-190s any day. I'm really obsessed with the idea of becoming one of the fastest typists of all time. I know my level right now (well, maybe not right now, as I've taken some time off, but if I care to get back into shape) is probably beyond most of the average typists around the world, maybe some would call me superfast (as people usually do when they see me type), but I so dearly want to be one of the best if not the best, and I don't think qwerty is going to help me get to that level. I'm looking for other options.. I wonder if colemak layout, combined with my finger dexterity would help me achieve that.

I don't really get the obsession around ultra-fast typing speed (I dream of effortlessness), the keyboard is such an archaic odd instrument it has practically no allure whatsoever for me - but each to their own...

If you're curious the good news is I've never heard of anyone getting ruined by a layout change! If you lose a little QWERTY speed after you change to Colemak it'll a) be easy to regain should you wish to (people usually don't bother to because they love typing in Colemak) and b) usually mean that your Colemak speed now surpasses your previous QWERTY speed.

Mostly the effort to learn Colemak is worth it, since the comfort it provides is so evident and healthy that you temporarily forget about the need for speed. You simply enjoy typing, your work, and your life in general.

That's a fair point guys, speed isn't everything.

Also it's encouraging to see that you all feel that switching to Colemak will help me to get to and maybe even surpass my previous qwerty speed, also even if that doesn't happen what with the comfort benefit and all I'm more inclined to change than ever.

But, I still have a problem in that Colemak is a niche typing layout.... what should I do if I have to type on other people's computers or my office computer which doesn't support it?. As I earn my bread and butter as a computer engineer, this is something that might be the clinching factor in making my decision. So does colemak have any portable software (preferably of low size) which I can carry around me which makes switching back and forth between the two layouts relatively easily, possible?.

@dark-side, portability was a big factor for me (I swap machines a lot) and as such selected Dvorak as it had wide-spread support. The good news is that it feels easier to swap and use alternative layouts than in the past. However it's not painless. Those times I have to fall back to Qwerty I struggle, and can look like an inept fool.

Maltron. But that is a keyboard, not a layout. Arensito shifts all the keys up a row, so Shift is effectively the home row position of the left thumb, which is damn hard to beat on a standard keyboard (aka, it won't help you on a tablet). Workman has an interesting proposal about key difficulty(which is vaguely related, as he doesn't consider the qwerty gh to be homerow positions), Dvorak tries to reduce Left Hand usage (I suspect due to the keys being angled wrong), the Mathematical Multicore guy has a layout that supposedly optimizes for rolls, BVoFRAK, CarpalX (y and z), etc. The Qwerty home row itself isn't horrible, if you L.Shift and can contort your hands to use ASET Space(L.Thumb) N(R.Thumb) HIOP. After that, it is more or less text dependent. For example, Colemak probably isn't going to win many awards for efficiency in Sanskrit.

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