Touch typing
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Touch typing is typing using the sense of touch rather than sight to find the keys. Touch typing usually places the eight fingers in a horizontal row along the middle of the keyboard and has them reach for other keys. Most computer keyboards have a raised dot on either the F/J keys or the D/K keys (or the keys in the same position, for non-QWERTY keyboards) so that touch-typists can feel them when their fingertips are over the correct home row.
Touch typing was invented in 1876 by Frank McGurrin, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City who taught typing classes.
On July 25, 1888, McGurrin, who was purportedly the only person using touch typing at the time, won a decisive victory over Louis Taub (champion of the "four finger" method) in a national typing contest held in Cincinnati. The results were splashed on the front pages of many newspapers. McGurrin won $500 and popularized the new typing method. This date can be called the birthday of touch typing, the basis of all typing methods taught today.
The most common other form of typing is "hunt and peck" (or two-fingered typing) which is slower than touch typing because, instead of relying on the memorized position of keys, the typist is required to find each key by sight. Many idiosyncratic styles in between those two exist – for example many people will type blindly, but using only two to five fingers and not always in a systematic way.
Some of the suggested ways of improving typing speeds in touch typing are:
- Ensuring a correct posture
- To exert only the correct amount of force required and not bang on the keys
- Taking frequent breaks helps to relax and improve accuracy
See also
- QWERTY
- Dvorak Simplified Keyboard
- Muscle memory
- The Typing of the Dead (a unique horror game based on typing)
- Typing
External links
- [KTouch] (the open source touch typing tutor)
- [Centre Touch Typing Tutor (produced by The University of Birmingham) - free download]
- [Senselang - free download or for use online]
- [Keyboard Typing Tips] - Avoiding health problems and repetitive strain injury
- [Free touch typing championship.]
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