Give me a beat, a bass line … anything
This is my third day of typing in Colemak. It’s weird. At times I feel like I’m really getting it: my accuracy is great, my speed is better than I expected, I‘m getting into a rhythm. Then I type a QWERTY-ism and all that progress disappears.
To learn I’ve been using Colemak lessons for TypeFaster. TypeFaster itself is a great program, and the lessons are helping. I like to use the hi-games.net typing test, because it uses a large variety of random sentences that better gauge my speed. In addition to the lessons, I’ve been typing mostly in Colemak, interspersed with some QWERTY to keep me in practice.
This has been a learning experience in more ways than one! Until now, I have taken my typing speed for granted—it is so ingrained in me that its just a skill I use, like reading. I never really understood how frustrating it must be for those without typing skills to use a computer—one skill totally changes how one can interact with technology. I‘m used to being able to type almost as quickly as I can think. On the other hand, this new perspective will likely improve my communication skills. I’m ordinarily verbose, and part of that is because my speed allows me to express myself more quickly than a slower typist. Right now, I‘m inclined toward brevity, which can be a good thing! It’s still frustrating, though—hence the title. I’m in the mood where I need some good hard rock with a beat. Or, you know … Mozart’s K-271, Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-Flat … that works too.
My Colemak WPM: 30. QWERTY WPM: 100.
And so I continue!
QWERTY? More like QWFPGJ!
Partly out of concern for my fingers, but mostly out of errant boredom, I have decided to try to learn Colemak. The QWERTY keyboard layout was intentionally designed to slow down typists, lest their typewriters jam. Now that computers have largely replaced typewriters, such a layout is inefficient, but we still use it anyway. Other layouts, such as the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, just didn’t catch on.
Colemak is another alternative layout that comes to me highly recommended. I can type 100-150 WPM in QWERTY, so why switch? My humourous little sidebar about shift key abuse is the symptom of an underlying problem; all these hours at the computer leave my fingers strained. A more ergonomic layout may be the solution. Besides, if I can type 100 WPM in a layout designed to slow me down, I should be able to type faster and more comfortably in a more efficient layout (once I master it, of course).
This was my first post (of hopefully many posts) composed using Colemak. It took a very long time, and I‘m finding it frustrating, but that’s expected. I haven’t abandoned QWERTY, but the more I practice, the faster I’ll learn. Wish me luck.
