Typing tips, how to make type faster and master the keyboard

1) Accuracy

I had been trying to improve my speed for months and I was not seeing much improvement. Once I slowed down and started being more accurate instead of trying to type faster I started seeing an increase in my typing speed. I feel more in control as well. I still have a way to go for my personal goal but am pleased to see that I am now improving and relaxing more.
Learn to be accurate first then improve speed. Because if you make mistakes all the time the longer it will take you to type. Every time you backspace takes longer than if you slow down just a tad so you can type accurately. I still makes a lot of mistakes but I realize when I slow down to be accurate I actually tend to type slightly faster.

2) Practice

For new typists: Practice. Get used to the home keys work to the point where you do not need to look at both what you are typing, or your fingers on the keyboard.

For advanced typists: Practice. Develop muscle memory for typing certain types of commonly used letter parings. Identify the combinations of letters for certain words that give you trouble and practice typing them in particular to the point where you no longer need to think when doing so.
My tip to improve your typing speed is to not only practice often, but practice correctly. Try to get rid of bad typing habits and replace them with good ones. For example, you should use every single finger when typing instead of relying on the use of fingers with which you're most comfortable. Full utilization of both hands is necessary to achieve your highest typing potential.

3) Stretching

When my wrists get stiff from typing, I grab my fingers with one hand and stretch out my arm to full length and pull on my fingers back slowly. I then, stretch my fingers by opening and closing them, bend my hands back and forth, and rotate my wrists.
if you feel a little sore on the fingers or knuckles, just put your arms up high, and wriggle your fingers (only do this if your fingers feel sore. ) and if your knuckles hurt just put your left hand into a fist and do the same with the right. With the bottom of your left fist, tap the knuckles on your right hand and vice versa.

4) Know your keyboard

My tip to improve your typing speed is to feel for the "F" and the "J". As most know, those are the letters you feel for first on the keyboard. As time goes by, and you learn how to type without looking, you will not even really have to "feel" for the "F" and the "J" you will just learn the keyboard.
It is also important to familiarize yourself with the keyboard you are using. - This is essential as, if you can map the keyboard out in your mind, you wont need to look away from the screen to locate the key you need. This would also minimize time spent between getting your many thoughts onto the screen before loosing them (again).
If you are typing 60 wpm or higher, and want to get better, and not get carpal tunnel: buy a mechanical keyboard. I use red switch that I bought for both gaming/typing, and after an hour of typing, my fingers still feel fine. I wouldn't recommend red for most typists--It doesn't have the feedback that other switch types have, and takes a while to get used to not bottoming out the keys all the time.

5) Rhythm

What is important is developing a rhythm, not to hurry, but to be accurate, first-priority. Speed comes naturally with practice and time. Further, one must push one's self to perform better, but acknowledging that efficiency only is established, along with effectiveness. In closing, one must learn to type only what one sees/reads; never change the words, unless, of course, it is an editing ... exercise/test. One only types what one sees or reads!

Start training

Touch typing

Touch typing is typing without looking at the keyboard. The idea is to teach your fingers the location of each keys. The F and J keys have a raised bar or a dot allowing your finger to identify them. Once you have placed your two indexes on those keys, the other fingers are placed on the keys next to them.

In order to type fast you have to be careful about which finger to use to press a key. Take a look at the drawing below. Each color match a finger. For example the left index is light green and has to type only the light green keys.

typing test tips

Certain keys are special. ASDF and JKL; are the base positions for your fingers.Your fingers go from the base position to the key that you want to press.

A good first thing to do when your learn touch typing is to memorize the keyboard and create a mental map of the associated fingers. You have to be able to press any key without even thinking. For example if I say C you have to think move the middle finger down and press C instantly. You can only achieve this through practice. You have to build up the muscle memory of each fingers.

Key ideas

* Place your indexes on F and J
* A key has to pressed by the same finger all the time
* Don't look at the keyboard, your eyes should always look at the screen
* Go practice!

Take a typing test

User tips



newu 14 years, 2 months ago
My tip to improve your typing speed is to...Treat ur keyboard as just the interface between speaking and writhing and make sure you can type faster than you speak....That's my target...

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newu 14 years, 2 months ago
Play first-person shooters that would require to to type out strategies and messages to teammates in a very short amount of time. Otherwise, you'll end up dying while typing a detailed set of information.

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nastydonkey 14 years, 2 months ago
My tip to improve your typing speed is to...not to read too far ahead of the text you are copying. Oh, and sit nice and square and upright to the keyboard and monitor!

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lynxnathan 14 years, 2 months ago
Do nothing. Conscientiously trying to acquire fast typing speed is like trying to get faster at sharpening your pen for drawing better.
The more you use, the better you get at it. This rule works for everything, except for heroin.

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tpurch 14 years, 5 months ago
My tip to improve your typing speed is to...
find out which keys you keep messing up and go back to a typing program and practice, practice, practice.

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teledahn 14 years, 5 months ago
My left hand is too dominant, hard habit to break after playing computer games, or just too used to typing one-handed while using a mouse.

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jmensah71 14 years, 6 months ago
My tip to improve your typing speed is to...lessen outside distractions and concentrate on typing only one word at a time, and avoid reading the sentence or paragraph as you type!

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Eric 14 years, 7 months ago
Hey guys it was me who uploaded Jelani Nelson's typing video on youtube.. You can find ricky08 as the uploader's name besides the video.. :)

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user11 14 years, 9 months ago
When I press AltGr I get this  before the real character, and my keyboard layout is azerty so there are some characters i can't make

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timw4mail 15 years ago
Actually, I'm always switching typing keyboards, whether an IBM Model F AT, a Compaq MX11800, an Apple Extended Keyboard II, or a Cherry MX8100. Or, maybe my IBM Model M, or a Scorpius M10. Keyboards are addicting to collect...

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watduzhkstand4 15 years ago
I think is is a great site. However, I think that there should only be one word highlighted at once rather than two. Or maybe just highlight the word as you type. Make the current word that's being typed green and make the next word yellow or red. Something along the lines like that =D

Also, what keyboards do you guys type on? List it in your description or something =)

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dreymar 15 years ago
Thanks for fixing the Start button problem, marc!

Could it be possible to start the next test by pressing Enter instead of only clicking, you think? Would be very nice for a typing game.

And you might include 'neighboring keys' as an error category in the analysis. Many of my 'other' errors are pressing a key right next to the one I ought to press. That'd have to be mapping sensitive of course.

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toomanycatz 15 years, 1 month ago
I've only just started with Colemak but am impatient to type at least as fast as Querty ~50 wpm but alas can only eak out about 20 wpm so far. I do like Colemak - which is much like Querty - even if I never break 50 wpm.

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bsdhacker 15 years, 5 months ago
how on earth can you type with 2 fingers and average 95 wpm? I'd like to see a video of that.

Marc, the input box was fixed, but somehow it has been reverted.

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rico 15 years, 5 months ago
I touch type with just two fingers (my index fingers). I average 95 WPM, but often make mistakes, so I'm trying to learn Colemak. Unfortunately new keyboard layout + proper touch typing is very slow going :)

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scasware 15 years, 7 months ago
marc3: I don't know how difficult it would be to simulate a 'cursor' (or I-beam) that shows your position in the typed text sentence at the bottom. I think it would be very useful because when you are trying to fix an error and you look down it is not easy to see (like in a normal text editor) exactly where you are. For instance, if I mistakenly hit space more than one time after a word, it is not clear if I have deleted them or not. I can't see if I'm just before the last letter, or I'm a space away. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?

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