A lot of commentary on the iPad keyboard revolves around touch typists. I’ve been banging away on keyboards for over three decades, but I confess I’m not a touch typist.
As a sophomore in high school I took a typing class. If memory serves, I finished with about 45wpm and 2 errors. I never practiced or took another class. By the time I started using keyboards for a living I’d forgotten it all…
My typing style is simple. I fly through words until I get the current thought down — it might be a sentence or paragraph — leaving a trail of red squiggles in my wake. I don’t sweat it until the thought is complete, if I was the world’s fastest typist I’d never keep up with what’s in my head anyway. Afterwards I go back and fix things. Usually I re-type smaller words, longer words I right-click and use a suggestion.
I expect the iPad to improve my typing time. The combination of auto-correction and a usable keyboard size should drop the initial errors by half. I verified this yesterday as I played with the device.
For people like me (lots of us aren’t touch typists), I’m expecting the iPad’s software keyboard to result in less time spent typing.
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I’ve never heard of someone not touch-typing (I didn’t even know there was a name for it, I had to look it up). So how do you type then?
Joyce, I’m confused. If you looked it up, then you must know. I don’t type via memorization of where the keys are. I look at the keyboard when I type. This is what some refer to as the “hunt and peck” method, though I’m fast at it.