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Michael Lynch
Stablehand

Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 34

Posted 11/14/2006 1:45 AM (GMT -5)

Does anyone else feel like they are lost at times when working with a computer?
I really hate to say it but I am the worst typist their has ever been. I always use a pen and paper to wite my work first then dread having to type it up.
I have never claimed to be the sharpist tool in the shed but I have taken a few typing classes and still suck at it. I would call myself the two fingered bandit, I have actually given alot of thought in hiring a typist.

Michael Lynch

Jeff Stehman
Sage

Date Joined Mar 2005
Total Posts : 1224

Posted 11/14/2006 11:05 AM (GMT -5)

Typing was the single most useful class I took in high school. It was on IMB Selectrics--the ones with the golf ball. I got Cs & Ds in it, but I stuck it out for a whole year (a half-year was required, which was surprisingly farsighted). Despite my grades, once I cleared high school, most fellow students and coworkers have considered me a very fast typer. Image what they would have thought of the A students. Oh, and that six-week segment on the number pad (that was one of my Cs) got me an A in Research Methods in college. I thought it a fair trade.

My father, who never used a computer until a few years after he retired, is a two-fingered typist, and not a fast one. He's written a family history. It's probably 30K-40K words, and he sends out new additions every couple of years. Sure and steady may not win the race, but it can still get the job done.

--Jeff Stehman

Rob Santa
Sage

Date Joined Apr 2004
Total Posts : 1456

Posted 11/14/2006 12:00 PM (GMT -5)

When I was in high school I took a typing class...on a REAL typewriter! Typed about 60 words a minute, which is pretty respectable (except for the one or two errors). My family was also the first one I knew to have a home computer (Apple II+), and I couldn't type for beans. The keyboard on a typewriter has a high degree of slant; on a computer, not so much. So I learned a new way of typing that exludes both pinkies and usually the ring fingers. Can still type about 60 words a minute (also with one or two errors) and do it exclusively with six fingers and one thumb (for the space bar).

Keep at it. The most important thing about learning to type is where all the letter are. Once that happens, you can type two-fingered like its machinegun fire. Trust me, my Dad types as fast as I do and her couldn't use his middle fingers more than once or twice a sentence.

Rob Santa

Bill Ward
Biblioholic

Date Joined Jul 2006
Total Posts : 1724

Posted 11/14/2006 12:47 PM (GMT -5)

I'm a decent speed myself, as Rob says its more about knowing where the letters are than having perfect typing form, as I certainly don't use all my fingers. Again, I'm one of those lucky folks that took typing in high school and had it stick fairly well.

My guess is two things have to happen before you can get any kind of speed out of typing, One, you have to have some experience with touch typing, and have confidence enough in what you are doing with your fingers to look away from the keyboard while you type. If you always hunt and peck your brain isn't ever really forced to think 'with your fingers.' I'm not a touch typist by any means, but having it drilled into my head totally changed the way I interact with a keyboard.

The other thing is you need to get comfortable composing straight onto a keyboard, as you'll force your typing speed to increase to keep pace with your thoughts.

cussedness
Adept

Date Joined Apr 2005
Total Posts : 849

Posted 11/15/2006 6:47 PM (GMT -5)

My typing has actually gotten worse since the advent of the computer. Back in the days of the typewriter, I could do 100 words per minute accurately. I think that spell check led to my becoming a lazy typist.

While I still write long hand at times, I usually compose directly onto the computer and revise as well.

Janrae Frank
I have no skeletons in my closet, they are all hanging from the yardarm.

Once there were three brothers, Brandrahoon the vampire, Isranon called the Dawnhand, speaker to spirits, and Waejonan the Accursed, first of sa’necari. Isranon defied his brothers and was destroyed, his descendants forced into the darkness.

Blood Rites
www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook29989.htm
website
www.janraefrank.com
Darkzone
darkzone.yuku.com

crystalwizard
Forum Moderator

Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 5069

Posted 11/18/2006 7:31 PM (GMT -5)

>Does anyone else feel like they are lost at times when working with a computer?

Didn't you know that the grimlins who used to inhabit planes during WWII have now moved into home computers? Additionally, your home PC is sensitive to the phases of the moon... rather like your favorite furry werewolf (there wolf!), so look out on the full moon!

Never meddle in the affairs of a wizard unless you are soggy and hard to light!

Visit my art gallery on art wanted at
http://artwanted.com/crystalwizard

All my books in print:
http://sojourn.omnitech.net

Michael Lynch
Stablehand

Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 34

Posted 11/18/2006 8:31 PM (GMT -5)

LOL.... oh my god thats funny.

Michael Lynch

Jeff Stehman
Sage

Date Joined Mar 2005
Total Posts : 1224

Posted 11/18/2006 11:50 PM (GMT -5)

crystalwizard said...
Additionally, your home PC is sensitive to the phases of the moon...

You laugh. A program was once laid low by the phase of the moon.

--Jeff Stehman

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