
Ask HN: How did you learn to touch type? - dartf
I&#x27;m a self-taught typist and my previous attempts to learn touch typing weren&#x27;t very successful. So I&#x27;m curious how you learned to&#x2F;improved your touch typing?
======
smashd
Like others here, I did a lot of learning via a game and via a typing class in
high school. But one thing that helped me a lot was doing some imaginary
practice away from a keyboard as well. For example, if I was a passenger in a
car I would read road signs and imagine typing out the letters. Sometimes I
would physically move my fingers, and sometimes I would just tense the finger
involved while I imagined reaching to the appropriate key. I practiced this
way anywhere I was hearing or reading words and had the spare mental cycles to
do it.

I used this technique again when I switched from qwerty to colemak. You'll
still need some dedicated "coursework" like a game or program, but this
approach lets you fit in some extra practice over the course of a day.

------
mtmail
Learned in school on a typewriter. This game
[https://zty.pe/](https://zty.pe/) is fun (also addictive) to type faster. I
enjoyed that more than other online tool where you type long sentences.

~~~
karmakaze
Hey thanks, I can use this right now, I'm relearning. I didn't used to touch-
type. I recently started to learn an alternative keyboard layout.

First tried Dvorak, my starting wpm was too frustratingly low. Looked at
Colemak but Tarmak had too many steps.

Made Qwickly and am up to 50-60 wpm after about 3 weeks. I also noticed that
since I'm trying to improve my typing speed that I touch-type when using the
new layout.

[https://github.com/qwickly-org/Qwickly](https://github.com/qwickly-
org/Qwickly)

------
mindcrime
Learned in high-school (typing class in 9th grade) on an old IBM electric
typewriter. Didn't do much typing for the next couple of years, so my first
year of college I took a "keyboarding" class to refresh my skills.

In hindsight, probably two of the best decisions I've ever made.

------
lewe
I have used this free tool to improve my touch typing
[https://www.tipp10.com/en/](https://www.tipp10.com/en/)

Remember to look at the screen, not at the keyboard ;) Also, focus on
precision - not typing speed.

