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Touchtypetorial
(When you don't know how to type it reeeeaally sucks when you hit Caps Lock instead of Shift at the start of a sentence...you know...in case you've never had this problem) | |
I can't touch type.
I don't exactly hunt and peck for the letters anymore but I look at the keys a lot more than I do the screen.
There should be a downloadable, (should that word be hyphenated?), program which displays a virtual keyboard along the bottom of a computer screen to allow the novice,
(or too dang busy to take a course in it), typist to be able to see not only the letters themselves being brought up on the screen, but the keyboard as well.
This would negate the need to look down in the first place when learning the skill.
You can get a free demo version of this
http://www.typingmaster.com/
and it shows you an on-screen image of the keyboard. [pertinax, Nov 23 2007]
[link]
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Woops. Not a thourough enough search. Gone in a flash. |
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Thanks [pertinax] I might have to order that. |
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I misread first time and thought this idea was for an application that would show a keyboard at the bottom of the screen while you're doing other stuff, like using a word processor (or typing this). Not as part of a stand-alone tutorial program. More of a complementary application that lets you keep learning while doing 'real world' stuff. |
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With that would be customisable on-screen keyboard style, position and size (near-transparent white, bottom quarter of screen please). |
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Whilst if you use a computer for work you should certainly get professional typing training because it covers a lot more than just finding buttons (including essentials such as posture and punctuation), if you wish to teach yourself there is a simple method which works reliably and fast. |
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First, take a cardboard box (large cereal box is ok), cut out one large side and one long thing side, so that it can be placed over the keyboard like a 'garage', leaving an opening at the front of a few inches height. |
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Now, slide your hands into that cardboard box, and with your two index fingers, seek out the home keys which you can identify by small dots or raised bars (F and J). Return your two index fingers to those keys every time you move them, and resist the urge to move your fingers left or right (only your index fingers need to move left or right, to cover the gap between them). |
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Within a week of forcing yourself to find keys by trial and error without sight of the keyboard you will have increased your blood pressure and learnt how to touch type merely through remembering which finger action produces the required letter to appear on the screen. |
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[boysparks] you didn't mis read. I do mean an accessory program that will display a keyboard no matter what else you may be doing on the computer if you call it up. |
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I would like to see something like what you mentioned, with one addition: a way for it to utterly reject a press of the <enter> key until the user has actually looked up to see what they typed. My father-in-law is always looking for tech support on "The stupid computer is messed up again, it won't go to that google.com thing" and I look in his history and find he typed "qwqwwe.tgffo9iololgfle. ,cdojm". |
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Ah, good. Your 'Whoops...' reaction to the existence of TypingMaster made it look like you thought this was baked. |
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I could be wrong but it looks like TM (and its on-screen keyboard) is a stand alone tutorial and won't do what you want. |
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The cardboard box idea: with a slight slanty adjustment for a laptop's keyboard/screen junction I might try that too. |
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Personally I'd far prefer it if people would apply creativity to the other end of this problem space: why is it near the end of the first decade of the 21st century and we still tolerate those ridiculous keyboard things. Not only tolerate, but freely let them proliferate. They should be stamped out. |
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