Inspired by Michael’s efforts to learn the Dvorak keyboard layout, I’ve decided to try learning the QWERTY layout. Yes, QWERTY. See, I took a keyboarding class in high school (taught by, appropriately enough, Ms. Keyes), but it never really “took,” and while I can still do it, my skill level is about the same as if I were to say, try to get directions in Quebec.
The math is compelling - if I can type, say, 40 words per minute with 6 fingers, I should be able to hit at least 66 wpm if I use all 10. With the amount of typing I do each day, I could use the time savings. Of course, it remains to be seen how useful it is when typing C# or HTML, but we’ll see.
So to get started, I downloaded the trial of TypingMaster and I’m doing the drills when I need a break or I’m waiting on a compile or download or whatever. It looks like I get really sloppy after 3 minutes or so of drills, but the drills are interesting, with a lot of letter combinations I don’t use very often, which might deprogram my personal AutoText system…
Current speed (on drills): 35 wpm gross, 24 wpm net (after errors accounted for)
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