The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsAgschmid
(28,749 posts)Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)all tripping over each other
lunatica
(53,410 posts)The left thumb is rarely used. Usually the right thumb is used on the space key.
Moondog
(4,833 posts)Fortunately, my livelihood never was dependent upon my keyboarding skills.
ZombieHorde
(29,047 posts)I generally don't use my right thumb for the space bar.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
whistler162
(11,155 posts)so use two fingers. Buy, after 30 years of computer work from Mainframes to PC's I am fairly fast.
Lisa0825
(14,487 posts)I hunt and peck at 43wpm. Not bad for not doing it right, IMO!
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)at one time it was 4 to 6
talkingmime
(2,173 posts)olddots
(10,237 posts)I've been looking for a typing class and a computer class for 10 years that is within 40 minutes from where we live but its L.A. where it takes 40 minutes to drive 6 miles sometimes.
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)Used to be a touch typist, but nerve damage has reduced me to hunt and peck... Or having Siri type it for me.
Iggo
(47,577 posts)Right index and middle finger, left index finger. I can get ripping pretty good, too. If I'm going at a decent clip, the left middle finger joins in!
EDIT: I forgot. I use my right thumb for zero on the number pad. So 4-5.
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)thumb plus fingers 1 through 3.
That damned pinky sticks itself up in the air all the time.
nolabear
(41,996 posts)Four to six fingers but I'm fast as a mofo. And I can type without looking as long as I don't think about it.
on this computer. It is a tablet. I use the stylus.
mokawanis
(4,453 posts)I don't use my pinkies or thumbs.
MiddleFingerMom
(25,163 posts).
.
.
I used to be a 10-finger touch typist and at one point tested at 55 wpm (I was a "Kelly Girl"
for a while). The examiner DID say that she had never seen anyone during a test with zero
mistakes before (I would correct/edit on-the-fly).
.
Now, I have to look (for much of the process) and go back and edit on-the-fly OFTEN.
.
.
.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Manifestor_of_Light
(21,046 posts)I took one semester of typing in high school, loathed manuals, switched to an IBM b/c my mother was a legal secretary, and never looked back, getting faster.
My land speed record is on a computer test. I jammed IBMs with type bars and selectrics. In 1999 I took a computer test and made a score of 115 words per minute, going back and correcting it so it was perfect!!
My secret? Twelve years of piano lessons.
cbrer
(1,831 posts)Being a man has its advantages...
Multi-tasking while "typing" is easy!
SteveG
(3,109 posts)My parents made me take typing when I was in 9th grade back in the 60's, one of two guys in a classroom full of girls - saved me bundles in college, and made my transition to being a Computer Geek real easy.
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)I had to take typing in 8th grade, and I got to the point I could type without looking....on a manual typewriter no less, but no matter how I tried I never got better than 15 words/minute. Of course I never had to or did need to type for 15 years after that and I completely forgot what I learned.
I can type probably 10 words per minute, but my keyboard makes me back up and fix errors, which slows things down. Biggest problem is a lazy shift key where if I don't hold it for a full second it won't "take" and then I have to go back and re-capitalize everything that I'm supposed to, and a numeric "0" key that needs to be hit with a sharp BANG to make it take.
Sucks to tend toward wordiness when I can't type for shit.................
triguy46
(6,028 posts)The left thumb must be an evolutionary vestige. One thing I've noticed about these computer thingies and how much we use them is how good one's keyboarding skills become. I have learned to do numbers without looking.
On a side note, but definitely related, in 1965 I took "typing" as a one semester class as a 9th grader. The keys on the typewriters were all blank. It was called touch typing. Looking was of no benefit.
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)I type faster than my brain can spell, so I make a lot of mistakes.
I took typing in junior high. It was one of the most useful courses I ever took.
2theleft
(1,136 posts)Nope. It's totally worthless. Just hangs out while all the other fingers and the right thumb do all of the work. I think I remember in typing class that if your last letter of the word was on the right hand you were supposed to space with the left thumb, but evidently that never stuck.
I can type about 90 wpm if I have to type A LOT...Generally, probably around 60 and that includes fixing mistakes.
LeftInTX
(25,608 posts)LiberalFighter
(51,170 posts)Otherwise, just 2 or 3 on the my left hand.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)Incitatus
(5,317 posts)AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)I loved typing class in High School.. It was something I looked forward to.
harmonicon
(12,008 posts)I suppose I don't really think about it too much. I'm pretty sure that I'm not exactly doing it the "right way," though I did learn the right way at some point.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)I don't have to think about spelling, or about hitting any individual letters. Whatever I think, I type and it just flows. It's an amazing phenomenon.
Thank you, high school typing teacher!
ConcernedCanuk
(13,509 posts).
.
.
took typing in high school where the typewriters had NO letters on the keys
ponder that!!
Rhiannon12866
(206,292 posts)In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)And you do it so well!
Rhiannon12866
(206,292 posts)And, unlike the "real" typists I've seen, I rarely make typos...
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)Back in MIRT you were so quick and accurate.
The only edits that I saw were work related. Changing the OP to show consensus.
I wish that PMs still had spell check.
Rhiannon12866
(206,292 posts)On my other computer, some of the letters have worn off, so I do tend to make typos if I use it.
I've missed you, too, am usually asleep by this hour.
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)It is the late night hours that are getting to me.
I usually spend time writing PMs.
I am so glad that my brain was clear enough to post in LBN over the weekend.
I found what I was looking for.
You might want to take a quick look at pages one and two in My Journal.
You'll see what I an talking about.
LWolf
(46,179 posts)Bertha Venation
(21,484 posts)sarge43
(28,946 posts)Two decades as a gov't bureaucrat
goodthanksandyou
(180 posts)Translated, that means "I use my fists".
susanr516
(1,425 posts)I almost never use the left thumb. Learned on a manual computer in high school many years ago--but I still strike the keys much harder than necessary, especially the space bar. People often joke that the space bar must have made me angry.
Demoiselle
(6,787 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Wait Wut
(8,492 posts)Orrex
(63,234 posts)21 if I'm typing in the buff.
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)It seems I use them all except the ring fingers on each hand.
FBaggins
(26,775 posts)they take turns.
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)Still Blue in PDX
(1,999 posts)Neoma
(10,039 posts)I type very fast actually...it's definitely a skill I could get a job with if needed.
4_TN_TITANS
(2,977 posts)Last time I was tested could do about 60 words a minute, I know I've slowed down some.
hunter
(38,337 posts)For some reason I use my left thumb too, but now that I'm thinking about it trying to discern the pattern, my fingers are stumbling all over the place. But both sides of the space key are worn, the right side a little more.
My mom used to be a world-class typist before arthritis slowed her down. I remember her transcribing tapes of radio shows without pausing. As fast as anyone talked, she typed. She knows shorthand too and can transcribe from that as well.
In high school I'd be typing term papers --- plunk, plunk, plunk, late at night --- and it would make her crazy. She'd say, "Oh, let me do that!" then she'd sit down and burrrrrrrrrrrr the paper would be done, just like that, with no mistakes, and much prettier than the cut and paste and liquid paper monstrosities I typed myself in college.
I can type as fast as I think; not very fast at all, actually.
bike man
(620 posts)on the final.
edited add: Cannot get my current age (70)