Hey Logan I was just wondering if you knew of any fun games or nice ways for me to learn how to type?
stage 1 learn how to type by typing allot, obviously...
stage 2 force yourself to only look at the screen, not the keys while your typing
stage 3 get a keyboad with blank keycaps to show off your skills.
if you practice 30min/day you should master it in about 3-6 weeks.
http://10fastfingers.com/typing-test/english
Make an account. Keep track of your progress. Go to competitions and try to land top 10, then 5, then 1 (because there's always a few that are out of their league).
You don't need to "practice", just use this test a lot, and don't think of it as practice.
Any keyboard is good, don't buy a mechanical just because people tell you to. Get one that you feel is good for you. I love IBM mechanical keyboards but at the same time I love my microsoft membrane desktop keyboard (which is low profile as well).
I agree with fluffymace on stage 2 though, you shouldn't ever look at the screen while attempting a test.
First things first would be to get a random long word or sentence like The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog and try to think of where the letters are on the keyboard. Once you get a feel for it type it faster and faster. This uses all finger positions and you will cement them fast and easy into muscle memory.
The most important part: post your results here so you can brag about how better you are than the x% in your country at that given time (wake up at 4am to take the test and be better than 99%+)
When i started working at a data-entry company, i was typing about 3500-4000 characters/ hour. After 2 month i was typing about 8000-12000 characters/hour, so exercise is required.(I wasn't typing in my native language)
If you want games, try Typing of the dead, is fun and it has 3 levels of difficulty,the last one is nuts.
You can try to type while you listen to something like movies or audio-books.
Google "keycounter" , is a software that records all the keys pressed.This way we knew how many characters we typed/hour.
If you live in the US or have a US layout keyboard I would HIGHLY suggest you to learn DVORAK, with a bit of training, you can/will type faster than you currently do, and you will make alot less misspells than before. It takes around 2-3 weeks untill you have your own speed back, it really depends on who you are.
http://learn.dvorak.nl/
Remember to read the instructions, as they are really important for you to increase speed rather than decrease. You might want to try and maintain the QWERTY layout too, as of that most computers are not configured for DVORAK.
For more good reasons to switch: http://workawesome.com/productivity/dvorak-keyboard-layout/
I was in the same boat about a month or two ago. The best tool for me was http://www.goodtyping.com/ I found the lessons for me were the best. And as Ionut Enachioiu said listen to a book on tape and really just work on it about 30-40 min a day and in no time you will be typing like lighting.
Do it the old fashioned way!
http://download.cnet.com/Mavis-Beacon-Teaches-Typing-17-Deluxe/3000-2051_4-10441764.html
Dvorak is more efficient, so why aren't more people switching ?
Simple: most people can't keep 2 conflicting sets of motor memory in their heads. The brain plasticity needed to change that only exists in children below the age of five.
You can't throw out Qwerty or you'll be gimped everytime you use somebody else's computer.
So everybody could switch simultaneously right ? -> wrong : the majority of people will furiously resist change unless it's a matter survival. People will resist learning the most.
So my advice is to not switch to Dvorak unless you're sure that you actually can keep Qwerty alive too, or you are certain that you'll always be the master of the keyboard layout of the computer you are using for your professional career.
i personally think that the moderate gains from Dvorak don't justify the downfalls of being a keyboard maverick
force yourself to not remove your index finger in the tabs in key f and j, specially if you always rely on your index finger, that way you'll be forrced to use them all, and don look to the screen.