Typing - Get used to IT!

Typing - can't get away from it - so embrace IT!

Are you one of those people out there who uses their 2 index fingers to bash away at the keyboard, your eyes narrowed with concentration as you identify each painstaking key to deliver that faithful stroke?

Whether we like it or not at some stage in our lives we are going to have to type... so it seems like the guys who dropped maths for typing back in high school knew something after all!

There is an easy way out people - its called typing tutors! No you don't need to go back to school or enroll in a night class, where the young kids look at you funny because you are the oldest person there. Just download one of these nifty little programs off the Internet, devote some time and effort, and you could become the next J. K . Rowling.

These little programs are full of ingenious ways to get your typing in shape. They often offer guidance as to where your fingers should be placed and have various levels of skill - so you can start with novice and work your way at your own pace to an expert level. The whole thing is interactive and is able to time you whilst providing visual and audible feedback about the buttons you are pressing in relation to what it is indicating on the screen.

Some typing programs depict a keyboard layout on the screen and randomly highlight a key - until you manage to depress it - and then another random key is highlighted. Some are created as games where you get certain points if the correct key is depressed. Others have different lessons that you can follow and can measure your progress over time.

I have taken the liberty of finding some for you to try out, easily obtainable from the Internet : (a Google for “typing tutor” will bring up lots more)

http://www.powertyping.com/ - this one,works directly within your browser, has progress charts and velocity timing

http://klavaro.sourceforge.net/en/ - the latter can work on Windows, Linux and Mac

I must confess, when I got to university this is how I learnt to type… Now my typing sounds like a regular Girl Friday!! However I haven't lost my memoirs of late nights and high frustration levels as I plodded through essays and assignments one finger at a time! So give it a try you will be amazed at how fast you will catch on.

BTFD (ByteBoy Thought for Day)

If you don't believe me remember what Gary Player said - "The more I practice the luckier I get."

ByteBoy out!!!