What is Touch Typing?
Touch typing is typing with all your fingers without looking at the keyboard. It’s named touch typing because it uses touch to locate keys on the keyboard. Touch typing is faster than Hunt and Peck.
Over time, touch typists develop muscle memory to allow them to find their way around the keyboard without having to look down.
A touch typist can touch-type above 75 words per minute. This is mainly due to the fact that touch typed people are using all of their fingers and not just one or two as those who don’t touch type.
Why is Touch typing important?
Due to the pandemic, many people are doing classes online and working from home. Doing both requires you to have better typing skills.
Touch typing supports young learners in literacy skill development. If you do online courses, it may be able to help the speed of your assignments and research.
At work, it is a useful skill that is considered important by employers, but not essential. This can vary based on the type of work you are looking for. Some jobs such as data entry jobs require you to have a specific typing speed. For data entry jobs, the more speed the better. Employers are more likely to hire an experienced touch typist than a hunt and peck typist, simply for efficiency.
Typing with this technique is vital since it can boost your productivity significantly and allows you to work faster.
Other than school and work, there are also a lot of benefits of touch typing which includes:
- Focus
- Accuracy
- Reduce physical fatigue
- Better Posture
- Increase productivity
- Boost self-esteem
How to Get Started with Touch Typing
Sitting posture for typing
Keep your back straight with elbows bent at the right angle. Also, keep your head at least an arm’s length away from the screen, your wrists straight, and your fingers curled.
Basic Position
The basic position is also known as the Home Row position. It is called Home Row because if you are done typing a key, you always need to go back to this position.
This position involves putting your left fingers to ASDF keys and putting your right fingers to JKL; keys as shown in the picture.
Did you ever wonder what’s the bumps of F and J keys are for?
The bumps of F and J keys help touch typists to locate these keys without looking.
The Home Room position is important because it provides an easy reach to all other keys.
Keyboard Scheme
The keyboard shown above is a QWERTY method. The name comes from the order of the first six keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard. It is by far the most popular touch typing method.
The picture above also shows that there is a designated position on the keyboard for each finger.
The Most Important Rule
The most important rule when learning the touch typing skill is to NEVER LOOK.
It can be challenging when you touch-type for the first time.
But, the next thing you know, touch typing will become your daily habit.
Useful Video Tutorials
These are some useful video tutorials that you can use to help you with touch typing:
1. Learn the Basics
2. How to Type Fast
3. Tips and Tricks
Practice Touch Typing
One way to master this skill is to practice, practice and PRACTICE.
There are many software and applications available online to help you hone your typing skills. This touch typing software is ideal for touch typists of all levels, particularly for beginners who are looking to learn it
Objective #1 – Typing Speed
First, you have to learn your typing speed to have a base number to compare later if you are improving. You can measure this in WPM (words per minute).
There are many typing tests you can try online like Typingtest.com, Speedtypingonline.com, and Typingmaster.com.
This is what it will look like if you take a test on Speed Typing.
Here in the picture, I got 37 WPM with 96.7% accuracy. This is just an average typist speed.
Objective #2 – Home Row
Before any other keys, practice first with your Home Row.
Just touch-type the keys shown in the picture WITHOUT LOOKING.
If you are having trouble with this, practice it every day and do not move on to the next step until you can touch type all of these keys.
You can practice touch typing the Home Row at How to Type.
Objective #3 – Typing Tutorials
After practicing Home Row, practice touch typing through some typing tutorials available for free!
Typing Club allows you to take lessons for free and with games to keep you motivated.
This site allows you to learn touch typing and lets you test your typing speed in wpm on English, Spanish, or French with a typing certificate.
Reminder
Learning takes time. Do not be discouraged if you do not see results after a couple of days. Practice for at least ten to twenty minutes every day and take lessons available online. After months of practice, you will surely have as much as 78 WPM touch-typing speed.
There you have it! Good luck with your journey.
