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Becoming a keyboard master

Léo Sumi

11 August 2019

Today, most of our writing are produced using a computer. Unfortunately, most writers did not take the time to master the keyboard. If you type a lot, and do not have a proper technique, you need to fix this issue. You will gain a lot of benefits with some effort.

A good technique will allow two things: to type without looking at the keyboard and to type with ten fingers. If you do not need to look at your keyboard, you can focus your attention on the document you are writing. You can look only at the screen and have a better posture. You do not need to constantly move your eyes between the screen and the keyboard anymore. Finally, why would you want to use less than all the fingers you have to type ? Using less than ten fingers is like purposely not using all the resources at your disposal to do a job.

The objective can be summarized in one word: efficiency. Good typing is a skill that will save you time. This can be pretty important particularly if typing is part of your work. You will make less typing errors and, with practice, you will gain in typing speed.

As typing is a skill based on muscle memory, you will need time and practice to learn it. The sooner you start, the better. It is a skill that is learned with constant repetition. You will not learn it in a day.

In my case, I had the chance to start to learn to type at school. We had some courses to practice. I would not have gain the skill with the five practice hours we had. It was not sufficient to master the keyboard. I did buy the same software we used at school and practice at home. With time, I learned to type with ten fingers.

If you did not learn to type with ten fingers from the start, you will need to break some bad habit. This will take you more time at the beginning, but perseverance is key.

If you want to learn to type, here are some resources available on the web. No need to invest in a costly software.

Both websites let you choose your keyboard layout. This is the first thing you need to do before using these websites. Both websites let you create accounts, but it is not mandatory. I would advise to start with typingstudy as it is organized in lesson. Use keybr when you already have some practice and you want to go further.

If you want to test your performance, you can use 10fastfingers. You can test your performance before the learning process to see the progress you make. In my case I currently have a typing speed of 50 words per minutes with an accuracy of 99%. I am sure I can even do better with more practice.

During your practice sessions, remember to focus on accuracy. Try to do as little typing errors as possible. You will see that speed will come naturally with time after some practice.

After mastering the letters, practice the number row. Then, practice the capital letters. You need to be comfortable using the left shift for the right hand and the right shift for the left one. Do not leave out the forgottens. You know, these keys: # @ % &  < } and all the others. Although you may not use them every day (unless you come from computer science), it is a good idea to know all your keys.

Finally, remember that you need dedication and regularity. Practice is key to learn a skill as touch typing.