How many people here can touch type? Did you take a class or teach yourself? If not, how do you type?

I have a disk on touch typing but I find it too time consuming to practice, since I type quicker with my own method that I developed. I use all fingers (but rarely use my pinkies) and just, well, type! I can type without looking at the board too, but I need to look back at it every so often. I just don't see the point in learning to touch type if my wpm is round about 55 anyway, and I don't need to type for my job.

I can be anywhere from 80 to 100 wpm.

I should also say I learned by having access to a computer for about 14 years.

I've never been taught but I type pretty fast anyway, just from practice. I wonder what my wpm would be.

There are loads of tests online that will let you know.

I don't touch type. I use about 4 of my 10 fingers. xD Having said that, however, I'm apparently pretty fast. My peak in some test I did online was something in the order of 95 wpm.

I have nerve damage in my right hand, so I can't do certain fine motor skill related things with it, one being typing.
As a result, I only type with my left hand. I am still pretty fast though! No ideas what wpm though.

I remember as a kid, they tried to teach us touch typing. I couldn't do it, but the other kids had to type with a cut out from a box over their hands so they couldn't see the keys. I remember playing speed games to increase my wpm, my mom was concerned because of having to do it one handed.

I really got fast in high school, when I met my husband online...lol.

I had no idea you had nerve damage in your right hand, nor that you only typed with your right! Thats interesting.

yeah, I don't think it's come up in ages, so I don't even know how many even faves know :-P and that's okay. I haven't really brought it up much. And IRL no one can tell until I mention it.

What happened is, when I was a baby my mom noticed I wasn't moving my right side as much (I want to say in my baby book it says that around 2 months she thought something was wrong.). She kept telling doctors but they just believed I was developing slower on that side. At 7 months, I was trying to crawl using my left hand, and my right elbow on the ground. I didn't like to use my right arm. Mom finally got someone to listen, and they gave me a CAT scan and discovered that at some point, I had a blood clot that burst in my left hemisphere of my brain ( since it controls the right side).
Essentially, it looked as though I had a stroke at some point.
They don't know how or why or even when exactly it occurred-most likely it was trauma during my birth. They gave me a lot of physical therapy and such as a baby, but I've been told the damage is permanent.

Technically it affects my whole right side but mostly it affects my hand. I don't have the same amount of sensation in it-if I touch something with only my right hand without looking, I can't tell you as much about the details of what I'm feeling as I could with my left. It's hard to explain, but there's a difference in what small textures feel like.
I can't stretch my fingers individually, like you would playing an instrument, so that's why I can't type with it or hold a pencil. I also accidentally grip things hard with my right hand and don't realize it. I put my hand in a fist naturally, whenever I am doing something and not thinking about it.
I often lose things if they are in my right hand and I put it down :-P

I also must try shoes on with my left foot.... ohhhh, and I hate car controls. Everything is on the right. I turn the car on with my left, and I wish I could have something other than the windshield wipers and the mirrors on that other side :-P it's also why I drive an automatic. I couldn't drive a manual transmission as it would be too complicated. I'm not that coordinated anyhow :-P

So basically, I'm just very left handed, I do everything that way.

I actually broke my left arm in 2nd grade, and had a cast all the way up to my elbow. I wrote with my hand anyway because I had enough room to move my thumb. Otherwise I couldn't have written anything or gotten anything done at school. :-P

now I will quit rambling....lol. :-P

Holy moly! I would've never known (duh, we communicate through a computer screen.. lol). That makes me respect what you're doing more, it seems that you've had to adjust and do a lot yourself to get to where you are now.

Aw, well thanks, but I think it sounds a lot worse than it really is. Like I said no one can even notice until I mention it. And like I said, meeting a boy online sped up my typing skills so that wasn't a problem! LOL.

also I wonder if I explained the thing with my fingers clearly...let's see....
like you know how you can put just two or three fingers up, like signaling the number two or three? that's what I can't do easily. my fingers want to all go together. I can show five no problem, I just can't put my fingers over piano keys and play a note with just my middle finger or just my pinky. Back in band class I played percussion (the nerdy xylophone/marimba/bells) because I could use mallets. :-P I just wanted to clarify because my hand doesn't look abnormal or anything. it's just my fingers are not as flexible, you could say.

okay, for real, not rambling any more :-P

I understood what you were saying about your fingers ;). I just think it's interesting! One of those tiny facts you don't know until you know :P.

I can touch type. I was able to before we had out first computer skills class (in grade 9), but that class perfected it I suppose. I usually type just over 100 wpm, though sometimes it's slower, and on a good day up to 120 wpm. That was, of course, according to our computer skills department in high school, so it's been 2 years since I timed myself with one of those programs. I use a computer more now than I did then, however, so I think it'd be roughly the same.

I touch type and usually over 100wpm (according to those test thingies ;D)

i took a typing class my freshman year of high school, it was mandatory. they had you do all these exercises and eventually they tested you with these black things that covered all of the keys so you had no choice to look at the screen and not the keyboard. that, plus then computer/writing/data entry obsession, and 6+ years of schooling, i type an average of 95wpm. =) one time i got in trouble for taking notes on a computer in class, because some girl couldn't concentrate with my rapid typing. haha. whoops.

I type at around 90wpm, and can write at around 100wpm with a biro in teeline shorthand!

See if I typed that fast, it would become littered with spelling mistakes which I can't stand!

WITH A BIRO! HEHE - WHAT IF YOU USE A FOUNTAIN PEN OR A FINELINER, YO! DOES IT GET QUICKER? BIROS ALWAYS GIVE SOME NAUGHTY RESISTANCE!

Gosh, yo! A fountain pen would smudge everywhere, and I assume a fineliner would too! And pencil nibs tend to snap when you write at that speed!!! So a biro it must be!

FOUNTAIN PENS DO SMUDGE, BUT FINELINERS DO NOT, YO. THEY ARE THE VERITABLE ESSENCE OF PENHOOD! THEY MAKE WRITING A GLORIOUSLY SMOOTH SENSUAL EXPERIENCE. GOSH, YO - THE OTHER DAY I TOOK A FINELINER TO WORK, AND ALL THE STAFF WANTED TO STEAL IT, YO! THEY LIKED IT SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE BIROS!

I can, we were taught it at secondary school.

Haha you were actually taught something useful in IT?! Impressive!

We were taught it in english literature so when it came to writing coursework pieces it was a lot easier and faster to complete everything.

I was never taught touch-typing, yo! I think it just came with years of practice and spending far too much time at my computer. I also play piano, which probably helps, as it's the same kind of thing, right?