I’ve recently started trying to improve my typing speed, which has probably been held back by my somewhat unconventional typing style. Formal touch typing was never a part of my education, and while years of computer use eventually led to me being able to type without looking, I’m probably not as efficient as I could be.
Can you touch type - and with proper form? QWERTY, DVORAK or other layout?
Yes. I started with QWERTY, then I moved to Dvorak, then I moved to Colemak, and then I finally settled on Workman [1].
References
- Type: Webpage. Title: “Workman Keyboard Layout”. Accessed: 2026-02-23T01:14Z. Location (URI): https://workmanlayout.org/.
I was never able to touch type up through middle of high school despite typing papers and taking formal typing courses. Once I got into online PC gaming and also programming I got good at touch typing very fast. Is typing a skill you use daily? Natural practice beats forced if you already have the fundamentals down. QWERTY for me.
Same. I tried really hard to learn it but gave up in frustration. 5ish years with plenty of computer use later I suddenly found myself typing without looking.
Yes, I can touch type. I had a computer class in my year of high school where they taught us all how to do it.
I’ve actually leaned that in school, on a fully mechanical typewriter. But i don’t use this skill, as touch type is completely useless for programming.
I taught myself to touch-type with proper form after I built myself a split keyboard with the Dvorak layout (I figured since I’d never learned to properly touch-type with QWERTY it’d be as good an opportunity as any to pick up a better optimised layout). I gotta say, it does feel pretty great being able to type something with my eyes closed, or more practically, qouting stuff from a textbook without having to look at what I’m doing on my laptop.
Been touch typing Dvorak for about 25 years, qwerty for about 10 years before that. My hands used to feel tired at the end of the day, when I broke my wrist the occupational nurse suggested Dvorak, so when it healed I taught myself to type Dvorak. Probably a few weeks to learn, six months to get speed. (The advantage of a cushy government job). I can type all day now without problems. If you’re going to spend any significant time at a keyboard, I personally think it’s worth investing the time to learn to type properly, whatever layout you choose to use.
Try typing my username in Dvorak :)
Now I’m trying to figure out what you name spells with the same keys on qwerty vs dvorak
Would you recommend switching to Dvorak for someone who already touch types very fast (80-90 wpm)?
Can you switch between the two easily?
I can’t NOT touch type. I need to see what I’m typing to know if I’m typing without mistakes. When I look at the keyboard, I make so many mistakes.
Ironically, with touch typing I know when I make mistakes even if I’m looking elsewhere. It’s just obvious when a finger does a wrong thing.
Yep.
Went to an all-boys Catholic High School and there were no technical programs (shop, auto, woodworking) bc they couldn’t afford the programs, nor the space. Barely had a gym.
Anyhoo, ‘options’ were typing, bookkeeping, and Latin.
Took typing for 2 years, buddy and I would race-type song lyrics out of our heads (lyrics often weren’t included in the liner notes).Elton John - Razor Face - GO!
I learned to touch-type QWERTY in late 90s chat rooms. By 2006, I was bragging about my 100 WPM speed in my online dating profile. I met one girl who challenged me to a typing contest. She won, then I won, and then we called it a draw. We’ve been married for 13 years and had our third child last month.
When I was learning to touch type, I found it helpful to practice in my head even when I was away from the keyboard. Like whatever I’m thinking about, I’m picturing a keyboard in my head and where each letter of each word is. It slows my thoughts down a little, but that’s not always a bad thing.
I guess you’ve got a type, eh?
Yes. You have no other choice when you’re blind. I prefer unlabeled keyboards.
Yup, I can type about 90-100 wpm on a QWERTY keyboard if it’s normal conversational English. Probably half that if it’s something that contains a lot of long technical words. The thing that got me over the hump with getting good at typing was a game called QWERTY Warriors. It was a Flash-based web game that I was playing like 20 years ago, so I don’t know if it’s around anymore, but it was a tower defense game where you had to defeat enemies by typing the word underneath them. It was a pretty painless way to practice touch-typing.
The people responsible for archiving the gold mine that is old flash games are really doing gods work out there!
This is incredible and I thank you for bringing this to my attention
I was never good at typing until I got a job programming. Never took a course or anything so I’m definitely not using proper form, but if you use a keyboard enough your fingers learn where the keys are.
A course might help, but like all muscle memory, the trick is to just practice it enough times that you don’t need to think about it anymore.
I can touch type, but not with proper form. I use a really fast “hunt and peck” method with my two index fingers and my other fingers for specific keys such as backspace, shift, space, ctrl, etc. I can typically type between 70 - 80 wpm with high accuracy.
Thats me, I the ring finger only gets involved if I need to press 2 of ctrl/alt/shift at the same time
Yes, QWERTY. My dad made my brother and I use Mavis Beacon as kids (SHOUT OUT TO MAVIS BEACON!!!) and I had keyboarding class in middle school. WPM is 70 to 80 depending on what I’m typing.
I zan tough ty[e thos well.
