How to learn typing without looking at keyboard?

May be one of you can give me advice?

I am trying to type not looking at keyboard, when I concentrate it works, but then I start to look again :frowning:

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What you want to learn is ā€˜touch typingā€™.

Try this: https://www.typingclub.com/typing-qwerty-en.html

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@AstonJ, thanks, I will try it!

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There is ktouch as a tutoring program available as part of the KDE education project.

It does have different learning programms for different keyboard layouts where later exercises might even be tailored to your systems language.

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@dgamidov Iā€™ve been typing for around 15 years 2 hours everyday minimum and it just came to me over time really. Sometimes I can even speak with someone (looking at them) and continue typing code or chat ahah but it depends if itā€™s on a keyboard Iā€™m familiar with and what kind of work Iā€™m doing.

If Iā€™m using special characters that envolve keys that are less often typed (or using CTRL or ALT plus another key) I may need to look at the keyboard. Another tip I can give you is to look at the screen but have the keyboard on your peripheral vision. It will help you with knowing where your hands and fingers are approximately.

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Hi @dgamidov.
I learned to touch type using https://www.typing.com/ .
I did invest 30 minutes a day for a month and i completed the beginner, intermediate and advanced sections.
My typing speed improved and i was able to type without looking to the keyboard for regular stuff.
But when i was doing programming, with a lot of special characters, my speed was still slow and i was looking at the keyboard very often.
To solve this problem i used https://typing.io/ .
I found both excellent and a didnā€™t spend a single dollar on them.

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I learnt by typing histories, itā€™s muscle memory, practice and itā€™ll come. Right now Iā€™m able to write 115 WPM in Spanish and 100 in English, also trying to learn Vim to be even more productive.

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People hate it when I do that, haha! ^^ā€™

I think it gradually comes over time, although it helps doing heavy typing. For me, I think my typing speed and also independence from looking at the keyboard came from the time I played MUDs(multiplayer online text-based games) and hanging out in IRC. ā€“ besides programming a lot, of course ā€“ I think it is easier to not be distracted by the keyboard when you can just write what youā€™re thinking right now, which is easier when formulating a letter/post/message than when typing code.

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Maybe something like this? :slight_smile:
http://www.daskeyboard.com/daskeyboard-4C-ultimate

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@mkunikow, it is really cool! Thanks :slight_smile:
Just imagine peopleā€™s faces when you are talking with them and typing on such a keyboard :smile:

You can learn touch typing with http://www.ratatype.com/
and also improve your typing speed ))
you can check your results here http://www.ratatype.com/typing-test/

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@JohnOldman, thank you!

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Since youā€™re learning to touch type, it will be worth investigating Dvorak and Colemak layouts (easier to learn now before you learn QWERTY then learn either one).

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@thinkpadder1, but we have never seen other layouts - only QWERTY.

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Iā€™m not sure what you mean. but Wikipedia has an entry for keyboard layouts.

@thinkpadder1, I mean that I havenā€™t seen these layouts on keyboards in stores - only QWERTY layout.

Ah, you donā€™t actually need to have a special keyboard for a layout. All you need to do is adjust your operating system settings to a layout.

For Windows, youā€™ll find it in the language control panel (you just add a new keyboard). This is for Dvorak. For Colemak, you need to download a program.

Linux/Unix has similar instructions that you can find.

Another alternative is getting a programmable keyboard (Pok3r etc.) and programming the keys to anything you want so itā€™s ā€œhardwareā€ based instead of software. Or you can even build your own (Ergodox etc.) and program that.

I love programmable mechanical keyboardsā€¦ but itā€™s a rabbit hole you wonā€™t be able to come back out of. :wink:

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@thinkpadder1, thanks for clarification!
I am aware about people who are using mechanical keyboards and I am not ready to take that pill right now :slight_smile:
Have you checked the keyboard for this post?

I have. It has a similar layout to my Realforce 87u. But, I could never go back to cherry switches (they use Greetech, even worse) now that Iā€™m used to topre switches. Only exception would be zealios switches since I really want to try them outā€¦

Also, this Das keyboard uses Greetech switches which are some of the cheapest in the industry so I would stay away. Also, they use ABS keycaps which will start shining and get slippery. You want PBT keycaps. My Realforce 87u has PBT textured keycaps soā€¦ I really love how it feels too :slight_smile:

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@thinkpadder1, oh no! So much info about mech keyboards - I see there is no come back from the world of different switches :joy:

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