Setting expectations

[zingano]

I got my silver touchstream yesterday, shipped from the US to France in 2 days! But my typing is abysmal. Can anyone give me a rough idea of what progress I might expect over the coming weeks?

On normal keyboards I'm a hunt and peck typist, and I timed myself at 44 words a minute. About 6 days ago, I bought a typing tutor for my Mac and started to learn to touch type. I haven't finished the keyboard yet, but have done all the letters, and average about 30 wpm on my laptop keyboard.

I spent about 4 hours with my TouchStream yesterday and got to about 22 wpm tops.

How many hours would you expect to get my touch-typing on the TouchStream back to my previous level - 44 wpm?

[TorbenGB]

I really think that the TS is ideal for those who already master ten-fingered typing. Hunt and peck works well but it is slower and the success rate is lower because you're not as sure that you actually touched the correct key area.

I would say, first learn ten-finger typing on a normal keyboard, then transfer to the TS and learn the flat surface. It's confusing that there's no tactile feedback do typing skills are needed in advance.

You could probably also take the big leap and only work with your TS and learn touch-typing and flat surface at once. It would be harder but perhaps it will not take more time than learning each thing separately.

I was a fairly good typist in advance, and it took me but a few days to get up to ~60% of my regular speed. The remaining 40% may take a very long time or not come at all; I don't know yet but I'm satisfied with this.

Not being a good typist must be an extra challenge because of the lack if tactile feedback; I wish you all the best of luck and much pleasure with your new TS.

[jwr]

I used to be a very good touch-typist. It took me about two months to get up to reasonable speed with the Touchstream. I still make more errors than I used to with a conventional keyboard, but the benefits are worth it.

Overall, I'm very happy with it, but I have to admit that one has to stick to it and relearn typing all over again.

[Casey]

Been at it two weeks here. I used to be at 70WPM tops as a touch typist on a regular keyboard. Now I'm at 25 or so when I'm in a groove on the TS. But that's still better than when I started. Improvement is coming slow and steady.

However, I feel encouraged to make the commitment because the other benefits of the keyboard -- the gestures -- kicked in fairly quickly.

The other challenge has been learning to type lighter. I have felt some hand and shoulder pain, no doubt due to not making that adjustment.

[Casey]

UPDATE: I'm about six weeks into my TS experience. Typing speed has improved to about 40-45 WPM. Not bad. And I don't have to look at the keyboard as much. I'm finally getting a feel for the key layout.

Errors are still there, but there are fewer of them and I'm pretty adept at fixing them on the fly. Also, now that I'm more accurate with the keyboard, the auto-correct function is working a lot more. I think it's because it's better able to guess at my spelling errors?

Personally, I would recommend that anybody who spends a lot of time at the keyboard should occasionally switch the main mousing features to the opposite hand for a while. This helps me reduce strain.

[The Juggler]

It might be worth giving the Dvorak layout a try if you'll be learning to touch type anyway. Less finger movement means you'll have fewer problems with accuracy.

It's taken me about ten days of heavy use to get my Dvorak speed up to something which doesn't frustrate me immensely; I'm still slow but it's workable, at least. I'm still improving at a decent rate, which is good.

On a normal keyboard I'm very fast, 70wpm or more. I look forward to getting something resembling that on my TouchStream.

(Hmm, just realised that the opening post is months old, so I guess my advice isn't needed... ah well, it's free to anyone who wants it)

[rideforever]

After 3 weeks typing I am habing a nigntmare (this is what it lloks lkke errors and all: ... I havd been tluch tyling fir 10 years and tested at above 90 WPM and this is a joke ... the keys are NOT in the same position as a normal keyboard ... why not I have nl idea, and manh modifier combinations lke ctrl+alt are virtually kmpossible.

Have been using a typing tutor 2 hours a dah minimjm for these 3 weeks.

The mousing functionality is good ... maybe I should have just got the mluse replacement.

I used to like work, nlw this keyboard is f**** me up all day long - should come with a big box of aspirin.

Aside from four dots per hand there are no markings on the keyboard and so edpect lots of errors :not sure how to remedy this, I don;t want to be making errors in every second word I type from now on.

In an office of about fifty I was until last month the fastest and best typist - feel like an idiot now, hope I don;t get fired, I have a lot of work to do snd I just can;t ge this slow.

Set expectations low.

[TorbenGB]

Originally posted by rideforever
The mousing functionality is good ... maybe I should have just got the mluse replacement.

That's a good thought. If your work demands very high typing speeds, then the TS may not be the best thing.
The TS was made to relieve RSI pain, and added the benefits of gestures etc., but it is best used in situations where it's okay to type a little slower than you're used to, and to make more typos than you're used to.

[The Juggler]

It is hard... but it's possible. I'm not as fast as I was on a standard Qwerty, but after several months (and some serious typing tutor time) I'm up to 70wpm on a TouchStream with modified Dvorak layout.

To get that fast, though, you're going to have to customise the layout. First off, switching to Dvorak is very helpful... it means you use the home row more.

Those eight notches are all you have to go on... so make them all you need. First off, bring the upper row down and the lower row up. (You need to edit the XML to do this fully). It should be set up so that you get the centre row by hitting the notches exactly... as soon as you can't feel the notches any more you should be on the next row.

Next is equally tricky... you need to eliminate all reaches. You can do that by use of the punctuation pad, number pad, and symbol pad. Modify them so they contain all the numbers and symbols you need under the keys y-p, h-; and n-/, ie under your right hand. Then have modifier keys that enable them under your left hand: I use q, w, e. The number row can be disabled completely, as can all symbol keys.

Then you can get any keypresses you need without any reaches: your fingers will never move more than a finger width from the home notches.

Finally, use chords for modifier combinations, and assign gestures for commonly used shortucts. I actually have all the modifier keys (ctrl, alt, shift) disabled in my normal layout. I have the spacebar row chord do ctrl+alt.

It's hard work, but with a setup like that you should be able to get a reliable 70wpm+. I'm still improving, as far as I can tell.

[ivanw]

The Juggler said:

It should be set up so that you get the centre row by hitting the notches exactly... as soon as you can't feel the notches any more you should be on the next row.

And I say: Very interesting! although I believe that any deviation from the very thoughtful outcome from Westerman has to be smart thinking!

So you choose to deliberately deepen the breach between your TS and the standard keyboard. So much for your typing technique.
You definitely need the whole black layout version to make sure that people around do not get trapped thinking they still could use you computer.

(...) Then have modifier keys that enable them under your left hand: I use q, w, e.

What do you call modifier keys as far as MyGesture Editor is concerned?
And what did you do to the q,w,e keys so that you can use them to enable Punctpad, Numpad and Symbolpad?

I definitely agree on the need to hunt down those killer reaches!
If chording is not for the TS, it is smart enough to get us free of this beast!

If you've nothing against, could you attach a related segment of your customization XML, I would gladly play with this one

Another layer-abuse related topic: Do you think it could be good using ring-fingers instead of pinkies for the related above home-row keys q, tab and p with the qwerty layout?
This guy plays with this kind of craziness...Alexey Kazantsev

[The Juggler]

Well, on Dvorak the Q W and E keys are ' , and . rather than letters. So they just move to one of the symbol pads.

There's definitely no way a normal user could use my keyboard

Probably the best way for you to see what I've done is via the XML, which I've (hopefully) attached.