How do you type?

[KuJoe]

So how many of you use the "home row"? How many of you hunt and peck? How many of you are like me and only type with your index fingers (thumb for space bar and pinky for shift/ctrl/alt though)?

I type around 65-70 WPM which I know is pretty slow compared to all of you kids out there. I always wondered how much better I would be if I learned the home row method of typing but I never bothered learning because I didn't take any actually typing classes until college where I was already set in my ways.

I know a lot of people who do the home row method but I also know plenty of people in IT who have worked with computers for decades and still hunt and peck. I haven't met anybody else who uses just their index fingers like me though so I'm curious if there are others out there. Oddly enough, I can substitute my index fingers for my middle fingers and have roughly the same speed and accuracy.

So how about you?

 

[MartinD]

I've been battering away at a keyboard for as long as I can remember so touch typing for me is second nature. Not sure what 'home row' is though? Is that when you basically hover over the middle row and navigate from there? If so, I guess that's how I type. I actually find it quite difficult to type with just two fingers - takes an age!

 

[Ivan]

Ehh, not too sure what "home row" and "hunt and peck" mean, but I type around 125-135 WPM, and um, the way I type is that I use my right hand's index finger to hit the space bar key.

I rarely use my thumbs for anything. I use my index finger, my middle finger, and my ring finger on my right hand to type (ring finger to hit backspace), and as for my left hand, I also use my index, middle, ring finger and my pinky (mostly for the Shift key). 

As for looking at the keyboard, nope, I never look at the keyboard when I type.

 

[DearLeaderJohn]

I'm not sure how to describe my typing.

I use all the fingers on my left hand but only the index finger for typing characters on my right hand. I use my left thumb for hitting the space key and right pinky for pressing the enter key...

Get's me about 84WPM, not the fastest but I'm happy with it. (I'm right handed too...)

 

[Lee]

Home Row:

You place your left fingers on the asdf keys and your right fingers on the Jkl(x)*  From there you don't look at the keyboard and navigate your fingers around the keyboard based on knowing whey start.

Hunt and Peck:

Basically the opposite, you use two fingers, or more but often looking at the keyboard to find the keys you want.

A lot of people dont actually realise that a lot of keyboards have slightly raised parts on the likes of the 5 key on your number pad, for recognition so that you know without looking what the key is.  Some also have the same on the f&j keys.

*(x) being whatever key your keyboard has, as it's different for many.

 

[KuJoe]

@, now that you mention it, I see my keyboard has the raised line on the F, J, and numpad 5 keys.

I am glad to see there are some unique styles that I've never encountered before. Glad I'm not alone out there in not following the norm.

 

[Lee]

I tend to use a mixture.  I never look at the keyboard but I don't place my fingers on the home keys.  But then I am 40, always used a keyboard and my hand writing is a complete mess simply because I never write.

 

[HalfEatenPie]

Oh I use the home-row method (originally developed for the typewriter to provide enough time for the mechanics to move around).  I'm known to type pretty fast.  Honestly I don't know how people can hunt and peck (no offense to you guys!) and spend so much time that way.  My father actually types in the hunt and peck method and it takes him a while to type a page of content.  

I heard dvorak layout is supposed to be best for typing but I haven't really tried it (nor am I really interested in trying it anyways).  

 

[wdq]

When I first started typing I had no idea what I was doing. I had to look down and find each and every key, and honestly I ended up getting pretty darn good at that. I was able to remove the hunting all together, I was able to just peck away. I was able to type "fast enough" that way, but I wanted to be able to type faster so that I could get more done in a day. 

I ended up reading about that home row method. When I first started using it I never really needed to learn that this finger is for this key and this other finger is for this key. I just kind of knew where all of the keys were from the days when I used the hunt and peck method.

If we were to shift this topic and talk about smartphones/tablets this would be a completely different story. I can't type all that fast on either one of them, even though I really want to learn how to.

 

[SkylarM]

I never did get the whole homerow key thing. I mostly use my index fingers to type but use a mixture, hard to explain but I type an average of 130-160 WPM so whatever.

 

[D. Strout]

I use the home row method and average about 65 WPM. I used to hunt and peck and was pretty good at it, getting probably 50-55 WPM. But then I took a computer class in high school and I had to learn the "right" way of typing. Gotta say it annoyed me that with all that bother, I only increased my WPM by 10-15. But, I am faster now and used to the home row method, so I guess that's something. No idea how some of you can get 130+ WPM - 70 seems to be my limit.

 

[Aldryic C'boas]

I suppose you could say I type 'homerow'... don't use qwerty though, never made any sense to me.  Dvorak increased my english typing speed significantly (layout worked better for me I guess).  Also picked up a Das Keyboard Ultimate recently... between that and the key layout, I don't have to worry about anyone messing around at my workstation anymore XD

 

[dnom]

I use the home row method and average about 65 WPM. I used to hunt and peck and was pretty good at it, getting probably 50-55 WPM.

I am trying to learn to type using the home row method but after reading this I'll probably just go back to hunt and peck.

 

[SkylarM]

I always got yelled at by our typing teacher in elementary/middle school for not using the homerow method, but they gave up when I was constantly typing miles faster than everybody else.

Honest opinion, if you can NOT stare at your hands/keyboard while you type and you type at a decent rate, then it doesn't honestly matter.  Never did fully understand why the "home row" was supposedly better.

 

[Coastercraze]

I use the home row method on a typical asdf layout. I can't do it on a Dvorack layout though.

 

[shawn_ky]

Home row modified somewhat.... typing used to be 120+ somewhere around 70-80 when not really putting forth the effort. No use typing faster than I can think.

 

[dmmcintyre3]

 How many of you are like me and only type with your index fingers (thumb for space bar and pinky for shift/ctrl/alt though)?

That is what I do.

 

[blergh]

I have one of these, hence this makes me a world-speed typist.

 

[Slownode]

I use an IBM Model M from 1988., I type quite slow with it but the feedback is important... my typing style isn't for wpm, but for programming/editing.

 

[Chronic]

My method evolved from a combination of the countless hours of gaming (where I had my left hand glued to the WASD keys) and the occassional school report I wanted to push out of the way as soon as possible. My hands are spread further apart than with the home row setup at a slight angle and across multiple rows. My pinkies and thumbs handle everything from modifier keys to space and enter, and the index fingers peck away in the middle of the playing field. The rest of the fingers are used to complement the index fingers on each of the sides. I have learned to type fairly fast this way (120+ wpm on average) and it works very well in most occasions. The negative aspect is that I rely heavily on smooth movements of the hands across the keyboard and muscle memory so if I make a mistake, I can be thrown off and have to take a second to reposition in order to continue (as opposed to the home row method, where your hands are more or less on the same spot and you can easily regain coordination). I luckily rarely make typing mistakes so all in all, it's working out for me.

I tried some tutorials on using the home row method, but I felt dumber than when I first picked up a keyboard. That in combination with being too lazy to adopt the method for my local language layout prevented me from changing my technique.