Learning to type is a skill that millions of people develop through practice, often beginning in middle school. Some receive formal instruction, while others learn on their own. Regardless of how they learn, the objective is generally the same: to become faster, more accurate, and more comfortable using a keyboard.
Over the years, educators and typing instructors have developed a fairly consistent set of recommendations for improving keyboarding skills. Most of these fundamentals have been around for decades, and for good reason. They work.
Learn proper finger placement. Traditional touch typing begins with the home row, where the fingers rest on the A, S, D, F and J, K, L, semicolon keys. Each finger is assigned a particular group of keys, allowing the hands to develop consistent movements. With practice, these movements become increasingly automatic, reducing the need to think about where individual letters are located.
Avoid looking at the keyboard. One of the most important goals of touch typing is to keep your attention on the screen rather than constantly looking down at your hands. This takes practice, particularly for people accustomed to typing with only a few fingers. Eventually, the location of the keys becomes familiar enough that your fingers can find them without visual guidance.
Prioritize accuracy over speed. Trying to type faster than your abilities allow often produces more mistakes, and correcting those mistakes takes time. A better approach is to develop accuracy first and gradually increase your speed. As your movements become more reliable, faster typing tends to follow naturally.
Practice regularly and develop a comfortable rhythm. Like playing a musical instrument, typing involves developing coordination through repetition. Consistent practice helps reinforce finger movements and improves familiarity with common letter combinations. A steady, comfortable pace is generally more productive than constantly trying to type as fast as possible.
Pay attention to posture and comfort. Good typing technique also involves how you sit and position your hands. Relaxed shoulders, reasonably straight wrists, and a comfortable keyboard height can help reduce unnecessary strain. Taking occasional breaks is particularly important for people who spend long periods working at their computers.
These are sensible recommendations, and anyone interested in improving their typing skills would do well to follow them. But there is something interesting about nearly all of them: they focus on improving the abilities of the person operating the keyboard.
What if we added another fundamental?
Let the Computer Do More of the Work
For generations, improving typing speed has largely meant learning to move our fingers more quickly and accurately. But there is another way to approach the problem. Instead of concentrating exclusively on how quickly we can press the keys, we can also consider how many keys we actually need to press.
That is the central idea behind TypeShort.
TypeShort introduces several capabilities that complement traditional typing skills, beginning with automatic spacing. Instead of pressing the spacebar after nearly every word, you can allow the computer to insert most of those spaces for you. Since spaces account for approximately 18% of ordinary typing keystrokes, this alone can eliminate a substantial amount of repetitive work.
Automatic capitalization offers another improvement. Rather than routinely reaching for the Shift key to capitalize words, TypeShort can handle much of that work automatically. You continue typing normally while the software takes care of many of the capital letters.
Then there is shorthand, which allows you to enter familiar words and phrases using fewer keystrokes. For example, typing “bc” can produce “because,” while “lmk” can become “let me know.” With practice, these shortcuts become familiar and increasingly automatic, much like the finger movements developed through traditional touch typing.
TypeShort also helps correct common typing mistakes, reducing some of the time spent backspacing and retyping.
These capabilities work alongside traditional typing fundamentals. You can continue improving your finger placement, accuracy, and rhythm while also learning to let your computer handle more of the mechanical work.
A Benefit at Any Typing Speed
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this approach is that it does not depend on how fast you already type.
Consider someone who types 30 words per minute. That person can certainly benefit from improving traditional typing skills, but reducing the number of keystrokes required provides another opportunity to increase productivity.
Now consider someone who types 80 or even 100 words per minute. Such a person may already have excellent technique and years of experience. Improving their physical typing speed further might be difficult, but they can still benefit from eliminating unnecessary keystrokes.
The principle is straightforward: if you can produce the same writing with fewer physical actions, you have the potential to complete it in less time. The actual improvement will depend on the material being written, the shortcuts being used, and how comfortable someone becomes with the software. There is also a learning period, just as there is when developing any new typing habit.
The important point is that traditional typing speed does not have to be the limiting factor. Even highly accomplished typists can find opportunities to become more efficient.
Building on the Fundamentals
The fundamentals that generations of typing instructors have taught remain as valuable as ever. Proper technique, accuracy, regular practice, and comfortable working habits provide a strong foundation for becoming a proficient typist.
But today's computers are vastly more capable than those available when these principles were established. We now have the opportunity to reconsider how much of the mechanical work involved in writing should remain the responsibility of the person sitting at the keyboard.
TypeShort offers one approach to answering that question. Rather than replacing traditional typing skills, it builds upon them, giving people another way to improve their speed and efficiency.
We have spent generations learning how to become better typists. Perhaps the next fundamental is learning how to let our computers become better typing partners.
