Is everyone able to type without looking the keyboard?

By sasha3 - updated: 4 years, 3 months ago - 124 messages

i can never do that -.-
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By skatoulaki - posted: 10 years, 9 months ago

I've been typing for a lot of years and have worked in jobs where typing is one of my main job duties for the last 20 years. In fact, I type so much that most of the letters are rubbed off my keyboard, so it's a good thing I can type without looking at the keys;)

Don't worry, it will happen! Just keep on practicing. You'll find someday that looking at the keyboard will cause you to make mistakes! Once your fingers learn the keys, they'll know where to go. It becomes almost like reading; some words your hand will type before you even know it's typing it--similar to the way our eyes skim past simple, common words like "the" and "and"--let your fingers do the typing;)
By luciazandanel - posted: 10 years, 9 months ago

Everyone can. (my first language is spanish, sorry for the mistakes). You have to feel the keyboard. There are two little marks in the f and the j, they help you to know where are you while typing without looking the keyboard. And every single button must be touched with a special finger. See the next image:

http://www.google.c…
By rusty_one2 - posted: 10 years, 9 months ago

You can do it! I taught myself when I was 12. Highest speed 105 when I was in high school. Haven't done much typing in years though. Trying to hold on to 65 now.
By school_rocks75 - posted: 10 years, 9 months ago

With enough practice, anyone can type without looking at the keyboard, which is the main objective of touch-typing. I learned to touch-type when I was eight years old with rigid training from my father who is a computer engineer. Now I am thirteen and my speed is still no further than 95 WPM which is the fastest that I've gone. Anyway, good luck to you on training yourself in touch-typing!
By justcallmemouth - posted: 10 years, 9 months ago

I don't even know when I learned to type without looking at the keyboard. I've been typing for so long, it's just natural for me to type without looking down at my fingers. I think, probably, around ten or eleven. But, I can't put a certain date on it.
By faithfracture - posted: 10 years, 8 months ago

I can't look at my keyboard when I type. I have my layout set to DVORAK, but the keys are all labeled normal, so looking doesn't help at all.
By berseri93 - posted: 10 years, 8 months ago

I tend to glance down every now and then but I can go a good while without looking.
By malevolarky - posted: 10 years, 8 months ago

I do not look at the keyboard, or at the text that my keystrokes are producing. When I am thinking it up as I go I usually just stare into space...
By user45043 - posted: 10 years, 8 months ago

I could never do it
By silentleopard - posted: 10 years, 8 months ago

You can easily do it. Depending on how much time you spend on the computer, you can do it without looking. Some people may say they can never do it, but it surprising what happens when they try do it for the first time.'

Just keep believing.
By chdorb - posted: 10 years, 8 months ago

When I type on AZERTY, I look always the keyboard. Il learn new ergonomic keyboard layout and now I can type without looking.
Try the Dvorak keyboard layout, which is easy to learn and more comfortable.
By camboy1313 - posted: 10 years, 7 months ago

Yeah you need to practice I've been lucky enough to go to a school at a young age that taught how to type with all fingers and not look at the keyboard but it takes practice look up some tutorials
By lordlucassen - posted: 10 years, 7 months ago

I've been able to do it since 2009, probably because I've been using computers and typing in general for a long time. Sometimes I will glance the keyboard, but I generally don't look, especially when I'm taking a typing test here.
By user3810 - posted: 10 years, 6 months ago

I have to look at my keyboard when I type my password. It is important to be able to type without looking at the keyboard.
By user724289 - posted: 5 years, 7 months ago

i am currently in year 8 (second year of high school) and I have got my typing speed up to around 40WPS on average and I have only been practicing for around 5 years.
By lonelyguy05 - posted: 5 years, 7 months ago

Yes since high school :) just keep on practicing, someday you will :)
By tamalesrancheros - posted: 5 years, 7 months ago

i used to go to a private school where it is mandatory for you to learn how use a proper typewriter. from 4th grade when i was 10 yo to 3th grado of secondary school (15 yo) i had classes to learn how to use them.

when i passed to highschool they get rid of the typewriter and let you use PCs and you have to use a program that helps you count how fast you were using the keyboard and how many mistakes you made. kind of like this site hahaha.

but all in all it was pretty fun. and yes they teached us to use the machine and the keyboard without lookin down at it.

TL, DR: yes i can do it , was teached to use it like that
By rhym3r - posted: 5 years, 7 months ago

The only required typing practice for my K-12 education were a couple of games that we played a handful of times in elementary school (I still hunt and pecked) and a couple times in middle school.

I was probably only typing 20 WPM or so up until high school, when I started playing PC games... and then I got the hang of it pretty quickly! :D I tried switching to dvorak during my first year of college but wasn't patient enough lol
By user990432 - posted: 5 years, 7 months ago

Practice regularly and your fingers will learn their location on the keyboard through muscle memory. To know more tips related to the keyword or any hardware then visit his link https://www.hptechs…
By garciag42069101 - posted: 5 years, 6 months ago

I can but it was hard at first. You will get used to it. It will take a lot of practice for it. I have been typing for 12 years now.
By garciag42069101 - posted: 5 years, 6 months ago

I am in 9th grade and I can only get about 60 wps. I had trouble at first but it got really easy as I kept practicing. All you really have to do is practice and you can get up there.
By goshawk - posted: 5 years, 1 month ago

What is this hp propoganda
By mastersteve - posted: 5 years, 1 month ago

Just focus on getting a firm foundation to your typing form. I am by no means spectacular myself, but when I first started when I was very young to satiate my curiosity the main point I would say to drive is to simply learn the keyboard. You'll find the lessons here will have you repetitively using a series of 2-3 characters, and that's the best way to learn at first. Typing entire words before you know where the keys are will not yield you much result in the beginning, so you want to spend your earliest time on finding your posture, where your fingers go, which fingers you use for which keys, and so on. Once you get to the point where you don't have to look at the keys to go through the different home row lessons and so on, then the sky is your limit. Practice will be your only obstacle then.
By joyjoy - posted: 5 years, 1 month ago

Easy peasy.. you just have to learn the technique
By user900958 - posted: 5 years, 1 month ago

its impossible to learn when youre old. My speed this way is 7 while using 2 fingers its 50
By ogno72 - posted: 5 years, 1 month ago

What is your definition of old?
By sowz - posted: 5 years, 1 month ago

I only look at the keyboard when spelling an unfamiliar, lengthy, or challenging word. Very rarely do I need to look at the keyboard.
I type faster actually when I don't.
My hand positioning may not even be textbook-middle-school-computer class (or maybe it is) but it's effective :)
By bitbat - posted: 5 years, 1 month ago

It's good.60 wpm is a good speed for touch typing, in fact that is probably the speed of a professional.
By plex_is_better - posted: 5 years, 1 month ago

Honestly, it's something that you need to do with practice. I've been typing since I was in 2nd grade, so I've been able to do it with ease ever since. At that time, I averaged 80 WPM without looking, in middle school I could average around a 120, and in high school I am currently averaging a 130. It's all down to how much you type and how much you practice. Remember the home row keys, and just allow your fingers to glide across the keyboard without even having to think.
By sirtulip - posted: 5 years, 1 month ago

I am very proud to say that, yes I can!
Actually more impressive is when I can read a piece of paper, type it out, and not look at the screen and still make no mistakes. No one notices this but me but I'm proud of myself :)
By mrmugwump - posted: 5 years, 1 month ago

As far as I can tell, there are no mistakes in your English. The only thing I could think of is your use of "special finger". "Particular finger" might be better.
By weesin - posted: 4 years, 10 months ago

When I learned to type in school, we were all given pieces of heavy cloth material to drape over our hands and keyboards while we typed - although I was super irritated by that at the time, I truly believe it helped me learn to type as it kept me from being able to look down to see the keys. It forced me to learn to memorize the proper finger placement and key strokes. Good luck to you. You'll get it with enough practice!
By jscribner2000 - posted: 4 years, 10 months ago

I mess up if I look. I just read the words and my fingers type. If I try and think about where the letters are on the keyboard or if I look at they keyboard I'll mess up 100% of the time. In order to look and not mess up, I have to go super slow. If I don't even think about it and just let my fingers type then I do really well.
By kawara26 - posted: 4 years, 9 months ago

I don't look at the keyboard at all unless it's a very special key that I don't remember...
By skegg - posted: 4 years, 9 months ago

I've been using PCs on a regular basis since ever, so I don't usually have to look. The only exception to the rule is when I write characters that I won't usually use, such as "[". I would simply suggest to practice more. Go write some stories, type away on this site or chat with people more often.
Updated 4 years, 9 months ago
By fefcas - posted: 4 years, 9 months ago

Use a typing tutor program, there are many free ones. You go practicing small groups of keys, after some 2 or 3 weeks you can get muscle memory of all the positions. Then you will practice more and more, after one month you will get amazed with your automatic skill to type without looking at the keyboard.

ps.: my first suggestion is to take a look at Klavaro touch typing program.
By harlekein - posted: 4 years, 9 months ago

Get a keyboard and blank keycaps.
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Updated 4 years, 7 months ago
By 10vingers - posted: 4 years, 7 months ago

What is old? I started to learn touch typing a half year ago at age 55. I "peak and hunted" around 44 wpm at 10FF and when I knew all the keys 2 months later I started to touch type with 16 WPM. Now some 4 months later I have a High score of 65 WPM at 10FF and in general type text around 45 WPM. I still practise daily for 15 minutes or so with some text and some speed tests. And I setup a website where I try to write at least 2 stupid articles of 400 words or more every week. Just for practising real text: https://10vingers.nl

I'm not improving a lot at the moment but maybe a couple of words per minute per month. My goal is to easily type text (the whole keyboard, so also all characters like {}|\ etc) with 75 WPM. I think it will take a lot of time, maybe a year or so.

Interested in people that started say at 40+ and how they improved over time. Let me know.
Updated 4 years, 7 months ago
By boi - posted: 4 years, 6 months ago

Well, you said you were interested! I was one of those people who started at about 40+ WPM.
I started typing in 3rd grade or so, and I never really started out slow. It just sorta... happened. After I had gotten used to the keyboard a little bit, I had gotten to 40 WPM in no less than a week. However, I didn't really practice that much, so it kinda stayed at 40 WPM for a year or two.
Then, the next year, I started practicing typing much more (for the stupid reason that I wanted to beat one of my enemies in the class typing game. Stupid, but useful), and my WPM skyrocketed. Although I hadn't fully memorized the keyboard yet, I was still at 80 WPM easily. At this point I had been typing for about a year. If I had to say, the time between getting from 40 WPM to 80 or so WPM is by FAR the hardest typing block you'll ever go through- it's smooth sailing after you get to 90 WPM for me at least!
The next year, I didn't care about typing nearly as much as I did last year, so my WPM pretty much stayed the same. I'm guessing, though, that along the way, because I was still typing sometimes, I started to memorize the keyboard.
Finally, the year after that (at this point, I had been typing for three years) I started to get into typing again. Halfway through the year, I joined KeyHero, and as my data says, I started the year off with an average of 90 WPM. Somehow, previous to joining KeyHero, I had memorized the keyboard, so all the practice that I was doing was completely going into increasing my WPM and accuracy. I mean... it worked.
And now it comes to this year. This is my 4th year typing (yes, I am still quite young, but like you said, age doesn't really matter, does it?) and never once have I had to look down at my keyboard. Somehow I increased by 45 WPM in half a year and am now at the grand total of 135 WPM. I haven't really encountered any bumps in the road yet; it's been pretty smooth sailing!
Throughout these 4 years I've figured out a method for learning how to type, so for now I'm trying to get to 150 WPM. Not sure how that's ever going to work out, but you never know unless you try, I guess! This brings my response to a close, then. I hope you got some sort of benefit from reading all of that- but you did ask, so I tried to deliver!
By chaoticwolf - posted: 4 years, 6 months ago

Yep, I can type without looking at the keyboard :P

Don't worry, one day you'll be able to as well!
By biggerlicious - posted: 4 years, 6 months ago

Blank keys is the way to go. This is how I forced myself not to look at the keys. Was a painful learning curve to begin with but I would never go back now.

Typing without looking at the keys allows me to focus more on what I am typing rather than how I am typing it.
Updated 4 years, 6 months ago
By twofingertyper - posted: 4 years, 6 months ago

I can touch type, but most of the time I don't. Am I the only one who will just memorize a sentence (or more) at a time at a glance and then look down at the keyboard to maximize speed, touch typing only while looking up at the screen to memorize what's next? With that said, most of the strategies I develop are just ways to try and lessen the massively negative impact of trying to type with two fingers rather than actually being serious... so maybe it's not helpful if you type normally.
By hunterz1200 - posted: 4 years, 6 months ago

Everyone can learn, but not everyone wants to. I learned in 6th grade from taking a class that taught us the proper typing form (home-row hand positioning). Ever since then I've enjoyed taking typing tests, and my average speed is up to around 130WPM, and climbs up to ~150 WPM on a good day. I started out at ~40WPM in that class, typing with a piece of paper taped over my keyboard. In a year or so, I got to 85WPM average climbing up to around 90 every so often.

It's all about remembering the key positioning and taking the time to practice. Once you do remember the layout of the keys, though, it's game time. The moment that happens, you can speed up really really quickly with daily practice. I think around 20 minutes a day would get you the best results. Too much time spent practicing can make typing a laborious and dull experience, but not enough is useless.

In all, it's up to you whether or not you can type without looking. I recommend putting a piece of paper on your keyboard, or getting a rubber cover to cover the keys. A set of blank keycaps will run you around $30 if you want a cleaner alternative. It may be a bit frustrated to use at the beginning, but it will definitely improve your typing speed if you keep at it.

Currently, I'm using a set of blank keycaps myself, and they're really fun to use. If you get good enough at it, people tend to get really really confused as to how the hell you're able to type on something without printing. It's pretty funny.

TL;DR - practice makes perfect, and if you want to learn to type quickly without looking, it's up to how much time you're willing to spend on remembering the layout. I recommend covering the lettering on your keycaps if you want to speed up that process, but taking peek every so often won't kill you, and may help you improve in the long run. (Identifying a mistake you might make a few times too many)
By hunterz1200 - posted: 4 years, 6 months ago

Hahaha, that's good advice. I had a class where the teacher would take paper over our hands so we couldn't see what we were doing. I thought it was super frustrating at the beginning - typing at a mere 40WPM and not being able to see what hell I'm doing - but now I'm typing at well over 100WPM with blank white keycaps....

Love watching the mystified looks on people's faces when they see someone speeding along on an essay or other work without looking down or, better yet, not having any lettering at all! They always make an odd face.
By high_intelligence - posted: 4 years, 5 months ago

I know exactly what you mean. When I was younger, maybe when I was about third grade, my teacher gave us a sheet of paper with blank squares in the layout of a keyboard and we had to fill in the keys ourselves. Before that though, we spent a certain amount of time each day practicing typing and we got lower grades if we were caught looking down at our hands. I remember always being nervous every time I walked into the computer lab. But now that I'm older and can type pretty swiftly without glancing down, I've grown to appreciate the practice I had when in elementary school.

Now when typing essays and reports in the computer lab at high school, it's quite amusing to see the faces of people around me.
By hunterz1200 - posted: 4 years, 5 months ago

Oh, for sure. It's almost all worth it just from the reactions. Especially if they know a bit about typing. Reactions range from impressed, to just a look of "Are you okay?!"
By user942997 - posted: 4 years, 5 months ago

Your just an old dog learning new tricks
By makeupsguru - posted: 4 years, 5 months ago

It does require to create awareness for braking the (bad) habit of looking at the keyboard.
By mokmoon123 - posted: 4 years, 3 months ago

Pretty much everyone good has the ability to type without looking at their keyboard, but do not feel ashamed for looking at it every once and a while if you are new. You do have to memorize the keyboard layout if you want to get better and improve at typing, however.
By hyphen - posted: 4 years, 3 months ago

Professional speeds are much higher, however that typing speed is impressive. If you get high accuracy and practice regularly, that speed will only ever increase.
By 5705412 - posted: 4 years, 3 months ago

Touch Typing is so easy though. If you believe you can't then you probably can't.
By bart9782 - posted: 4 years, 3 months ago

I learned touch typing when I bought my first Microsoft Natural Keyboard, (made tons of mistakes while trying to look at a split ergonomic keyboard), so used a program called Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, and learned a bit.

I'm glad I had the time and patience to practice, I was unable to write online with my friends into a BBS (Bulletin Board Service, before Internet browsing) LOL

Now I'm 57, using a mechanical gaming keyboard, and my average speed is about 70 WPM, but.... I must say that some keys are still difficult for me to type, especially numbers and some symbols, so I sometimes look at the keyboard briefly
By th1nkp0l - posted: 4 years, 3 months ago

It's certainly possible! Just stay patient with yourself and practice a little every day. Something about this site really works well for me - the constantly changing quotes and ongoing statistics keep me coming back for just a little bit each day.
Typing practice makes for a nice break in the monotony of a task!
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