How to Type Faster: Tips and Tricks to Master the Keyboard

In order to learn how to type quickly many people sign up to take quick typing courses, undergo trainings and pay money in order to buy some materials for study. It’s unnecessary to do this. Here you will find some tips and tricks and learn how to type faster free of charge and on your own. But before I pass to the advice and recommendations themselves, it is important to say several words about the profit, which person gets if he can type fast.

The main advantage of fast type is saving of time. For people whose everyday job is connected with quick typing of many texts and symbols this skill is priceless. Besides, the fast type technique is really profitable for copywriters and rewriters.

The Main Rules Of Quick Type

First of all you should remember the arrangement of keys. There is one exercise. During 10-15 seconds watch at one of three rows with books of the keyboard (it is better to start with the first row). Then try to enumerate them in the correct order on a sheet of paper. You have to repeat this exercise for every row till you will be able to enumerate all the letters order automatically. Then you can try to type the Alphabet from “A” to “Z”. Do this till you will be able to do it quickly enough.

For those people who want to start learning fast type it is important to choose the right instrument. For professionals or those who wants to become the best choice is an ergonomic keyboard, or at least ordinary bent keyboard.

Not the least of the factors is your location at the table, pose and posture. It is one more main thing for skill development.

Even honed skill of type with the help of several fingers will be worse than modern type method (like a touch type method). Therefore, if you want to type faster, it is important to set in motion as many as possible fingers of both hands. Some training programs define keys for every finger. Of course, it will be difficult to change your approach, but little by little you will forget about two-finger type method.

Touch and type method was invented by Frank Edward McGurrin, a court stenographer, in 1888. Then people used eight-finger type method. McGurrin was the only person who used this method in order to prove its advantages and he offered to make a bet to Loius Traub. Edward McGurrin won the bet and 500 dollars. He proved the advantages of his type method. And now for more than 120 years people learn to type using touch method of McGurrin.
While mastering the touch and type method, don’t hurry at first. Try to avoid mistakes and misprints. Of course, the speed is important, but it will fall because of excessive haste and permanent text editing.

Touch And Type Method

As you might understand, the main rule of touch and type method is in typing text with the help of all ten fingers and without looking at the keyboard.

This method involves the placement of hands on the keyboard in concrete way. The bases of the palms should be on the front edge of the notebook case or on the wrist rest if you use ergonomic keyboard. Herewith the form of hands should be like you are keeping tennis balls in them.

Fingers Location For Touch And Type Method

For each finger definite keys are fixed. It isn’t accidentally. At any keyboard symbols and letters are located for the touch type method.

So, keys at any keyboard are arranged in 6 rows. It is possible not to think about the top row (with “Esc”, F1, F2…) during touch typing. The next row with numbers some people use, some of them don’t. Some people use the number block in the right corner. The reason is that it is uncomfortable to reach the upper row. But it is a personal matter what row to use.

Learning touch method begins with initial hands arrangement. There are several methods of hands arrangement, but there is a main one:

• Fingers of the right hand should be arranged such way: the little finger is over the “;” symbol, the ring finger is over the letter “L”, the long finger is over the letter “K” and the forefinger is over the letter “J”.
• Fingers of the left hand take such position: the little finger is over the letter “S”, the long finger is on the letter “D” and the forefinger is on the letter “F”.
• Thumbs should be over the space bar.

Firstly in order to control the right hands position your forefingers should feel small hangs which are on the letters “F” and “J”. Gradually your hands will get used to them and abandon to search for them every time.

Kick Technique

All training programs, which tell about quick type, start telling from the kick technique. And even the beginner knows that key touching is performing by the finger pad, but not everyone knows that not only a finger should be involved, but even the whole hand.
The main principle of the touch type method is in lightness and accuracy of flicks with permanent returning of fingers in their home position.

Type Rhythm

The rhythmicity in learning of touch type method is a great thing. It means that pressing should be at regular intervals. Observing the rhythm will help you to achieve automaticity of type. And even if you think that some keyboard shortcuts you can type faster, anyway keep the rhythm. In order to develop rhythm and learn fast type it is better to use metronome. Such function is available is some training programs.

So let’s cap it all. A basis for the touch and type method is fixing definite keys zone for each finger. The process of learning fast type is turned into developing “muscle memory” of our fingers. Now you know how to type faster and you should only want to do it. Regular exercises from this post will help you to master such skill in a short term.