How do you type?

I like computer applications that allow me to use the keyboard entirely for text-based work, rather than using the mouse, which I find causes more strain to my hand. A friend of mine recently got a Kinesis (I think) type keyboard to help prevent recurrence of his RMI; he thinks it is great.

I do not use any particular system. I have been typing for many years and therefore can type quickly and accurately without looking much (except for characters I don't use much).

I was shanghaied into a typing course when I was in high school. I learned the basics then, but didn't really learn to touch type until I started using a computer (it's easier to correct mistakes, I don't worry as much about making them).

I found it interesting that you touched only indirectly on the vast number of people who *write* much of their digital text input now. You made brief mention of some keyboard "alternatives" (glass cone?!) but "handwriting" was not one of them. One may assume that the vast majority of the several million PDA users would pick that option.

great options!

I've always wanted to try those split keyboards...my hands are too close together on a regular one, and my wrists have to bend at an odd angle to get at the keys properly.

I used to have to look at my hands frequently, and it's only in answering this question that I realize that that's not the case any more.

I have to look at the keyboard (although I
can do ok looking mostly at the screen and
just catching typos), and I only use two
fingers on each hand, but I do it pretty
quickly.

I'm amused that I forgot to include a stylus option (handwriting, graffiti) despite having worked in the PDA industry for the last two years.

I was kidding about the glass cone. It's experimental. It was in the news last October.

Back when I typed in QWERTY I was fast and accurate and never looked at my hands, though they flew furiously around the keyboard. But I discovered one day that, although I never looked directly, I couldn't type at all in the dark. I guess I was looking a bit. My QWERTY skills are pretty rusty now though.

QWERTY... home position... don't have to look... about 65 WPM.

I still look a little at the keyboard (mostly to align myself). A few years ago I forced myself to look at the screen instead of the keyboard and my accuracy got a lot better.

I use Graffiti a lot.

If I look at the screen or my hands, it becomes very difficult to type.

my fingers have a home position.. but it isn't really touch typing. I don't have to look at the keyboard when I type. I use more of the fingers on my left hand than I do on the right. right is index, pinky and thumb.. left is index, middle, ring and thumb.. the thumb is the spacebar (I do it with either hand) the pinky is usually the Shift key only. actually I will correct myself.. I use my right middle finger for periods only. whee

I can't use a split keyboard because I use the relative positions of my hands to each other to know where the keys are. Also I think I hit B with the 'wrong' hand.

I also have to look to type numbers or special characters, just because so many keyboards put them in the wrong place.

It always annoys me that those split keyboards don't have B (and Y) duplicated. Why not put them on both sides?

why is the word "often" in all of these?

**anonymous: Because absolutes are always wrong.

I type haphazardly...very fast.....pretty accurate.....like a writer....

I'm a touch typist on both the QWERTY keyboard & the numeric keypad. I've never used a Dvorak keyboard, but I've used a split/ergonomic keyboard. I found it difficult to type at my usual speed on the split keyboard, but I'd probably improve with some more experience.