Touch Typing For Programmers

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Practice Typing Source Codes of your favourite language with finger guiding system. While practicing you should not look at the keyboard but the screen which shows where the fingers will be placed. After completing each lesson you can see your WPM (words per. Actually, touch typing comes first than programming, we are typists first and then programmers.Without Touch typing, a developer spends more time fussing with keyboard and fixing typing errors rather than generating ideas and keeping up with live code. You are now going to learn more basic punctuation. The ' (apostrophe) key is located to the right of the; (semicolon) key. Type the ' (apostrophe) key with your right hand's pinky finger. Touch Typing Fingering Guide Most typing tutors leave symbol keys as an after­thought, and consequently keys like left paren are consistently mistyped. IDEs auto­complete alphabetical variable names but abandon at the first opening brace. Touch Typing Makes You a Better Programmer - How to Learn the US Layout, WPM, 10 Fast Fingers.

Typing skills are often taken for granted with auto-correct and dictation becoming part of our daily life. But touch typing is a time-saving method that can benefit many.

Touch typing for programmers

Is Touch Typing Necessary For Programmers

Because of this, I have rounded up some of the best free online touch typing courses in 2020, so you take control of your keyboard!

Below, you will find many beginner-friendly classes that will teach you to touch type step-by-step. As an added bonus, all of these courses are completely free! Let’s begin!

Top 9 Best Free Online Touch Typing Courses, Classes & Certifications 2020

1. Typing Course: Learn How to Type & Improve Your Typing Speed (Skillshare)

If you are looking for a one-stop that covers touch typing in great detail, while also being easy to follow, this is the course for you!

Your instructor for this online course is Brennan Zimmer, who has helped 1,000’s become capable touch typists through his on-demand video lessons.

For this 1 ½ hour class, Brennan covers 40 mini lessons which will allow you to practice the techniques while watching. Each lesson is also paired with defined keys and exercises so you can easily memorize certain keystrokes.

Some of the modules in this course cover home keys, number keys, QWERTY, F1 through F12 keys, shortcuts, keyboard layout, hand placement, and also several typing tests!

Overall, this is a great online course that is perfect for complete beginners looking to speed up their typing.

  • Beginner level
  • 1 ½ hours
  • Enthusiastic instructor
  • 40 separate lessons
  • Extra tips
  • Includes practice tests

2. Touch Typing Techniques – Learn how to type fast (Skillshare)

Next on my list is a condensed ½ hour course taught by instructor Maged Boutros, who will teach you how to type faster and more accurately. So for those in a rush, this is a great place to start.

Some of the mini-lessons and exercises taught in this course include the home row, G and H letters, top row, bottom row, hand placement, space key, shift key, and many other tips and tricks.

By the end of this course, students should be able to increase their speed to 60 WPM (words per minute), which is an achievable goal.

As this course is hosted on Skillshare, new users get access to all video lessons, downloadable resources, an online community of other students, and a 2-month free trial to all 25,000+ courses!

  • Beginner level
  • ½ hour on-demand video in 20 lessons
  • Increase typing speed up to 60 WPM
  • Class project
  • Extra resources
  • Enthusiastic teacher

3. Touch Typing Made Easy – From Beginner to Mastery in Typing (Skillshare)

For those looking for a more in-depth introduction into touch typing, this beginner level 2-hour course is a fantastic place to start. By the end of this class, students show have the ability to take their new skills and start implementing them into their workflow.

Some of the modules include an overview of QWERTY, how to use the home keys hand position, typing punctuation, how to place your fingers on the keyboard, typing various letter combinations, and many more.

There are also exercises after each lesson which are great for practicing speed and increasing your WPM speed. Overall, this is a fullfledged online touch typing course that is sure to increase your writing dexterity and speed.

  • Beginner level
  • 24 lessons in 2 hours of on demand video
  • SkillShare teacher as instructor
  • Class project
  • Extra resources
  • Teaches speed with accuracy

4. Learning Typing (LinkedIn Learning)

Next on my list is a great course form LinkedIn Learning that covers the virtues of the DVORAK layout keyboard. Your instructor for this beginner course, is author and computer expert, Anson Alexander.

Some of the class segments include QWERTY vs DVORAK, the home row, number keys, number pads, the function keys, how to use the numeric keys, and the 10-Key number pad.

Another benefit of this class is the unique camera angles that aid the presentation of the instruction. Each interactive lesson plays out like a game, making the lessons stick after learning.

Included in the course are project files, chapter quizzes, continuing education credits, and a certificate of completion. There is also a 1-month free trial available for new users!

  • Beginner level
  • ¾ hour
  • Teaches number pad and DVORAK keyboard
  • Continuing education credit
  • Taught by computer expert
  • Certificate of completion

5. Touch Typing Mastery – Learn to type correctly (Udemy)

Moving on to my next pick is an excellent online course that helps shed the bad habits that we may have fallen into due autocorrect and incorrect keyboard position. By knowing where we have gone wrong, it will help to increase our typing speed and accuracy.

In total, there are 12 lessons that include the home row, the upper row, the bottom row, uppercase letters, numbers, and typing sentences. There are also extra notes to use during or after the video lesson for us to keep practicing.

As with most of the courses of any type offered on the Udemy online learning platform, this class comes with lifetime access, extra resources, and a certificate of completion.

  • Beginner level
  • 1 ½ hours
  • Taught by 3D animator with very useful graphics
  • Practice sessions
  • Downloadable resources
  • Certificate of completion

6. Typing Mastery: Learn to Type (Udemy)

Another quality Udemy hosted course, this one is 1 hour of entry-level instruction and includes lessons in ergonomics to avoid developing carpal tunnel syndrome, a common affliction for heavy users of keyboards, mice, and other desktop devices.

The lectures include the subjects’ proper habits, the home row, number pad, function keys, and punctuation among others.

Taught by the self-labeled Tech Geeks at Black Sheep Studios, a company that offers business and technical solutions and training. Black Sheep Studios also has training in website creation and maintenance.

The course can be learned individually or used for classroom exercises. It includes downloadable resources and a certificate of completion. Overall, this is one of the best free online touch typing courses in 2020!

  • Beginner level
  • 1 hour
  • Taught by trainers from Black Sheep Studios
  • Helpful information on ergonomics
  • Usable for classroom instruction
  • Certificate of completion

8. Typing 101: Typing Course Basics & Improve Your Typing Speed (Udemy)

Touch Typing For Programmers Resume

Best selling author Brennan Zimmer teaches this course on Udemy and gives practical advice on why to take improving our typing skills seriously. Such as more efficient production on our job, being more attractive to prospective employers, and easing our frustration level.

Touch

The 1 ½ hour beginner course begins with an overview of a modern keyboard and what our hand position should be. With these basics sounded down, we can concentrate on improving speed and accuracy.

Lectures include getting familiar with the keyboard, shortcuts, proper habits, and increasing speed.

Class bonuses include extra downloadable worksheets for the course, priority customer support for students, and an eBook on ways to increase income or cut down expenses by typing well.

There are extra resources available for download, lifetime access, and a certificate of completion. To learn more, check out my guide on some great writing courses.

  • Beginner level
  • 1 ½ hours
  • Taught by author and trainer
  • Lots of extra resources
  • Lifetime course access
  • Certificate of completion

9. Learn Touch Typing by TYping Club (TypingClub)

First rule about Typing Club, no one talks about Typing Club. Actually, everyone’s talking about Typing Club and their online training for touch typing.

The interactive style of training is virtually a game, making it enjoyable to do and engaging to be able to stick with it. The approach has been used successfully by over 23 million students. Yes, million, not thousand. It’s a good system and it really works.

Besides being completely interactive, there is also a voiceover feature that will read aloud each word as you type it. This gives you instant feedback concerning typing accuracy in addition to the speed analysis.

It concentrates on the DVORAK keyboard, the most efficient design for computer keyboards. The interactive approach lets you get used to this keyboard in no time as opposed to constantly battling with QWERTY tendencies developed over years of use.

Topics covered include home row, top row, bottom row, number keys, number pad, don’t look down, and many others. There really are a whole lot of lessons.

This course is useful for teaching a classroom full of middle school students or an individual working in an office. There are multiple lessons, extra exercises and resources, and it comes with progress badges and a certificate of completion.

  • Beginner level
  • Multiple lessons
  • Teaches DVORAK
  • Suitable for school aged children or adult professionals
  • Interactive approach
  • Progress badges

Final Thoughts

You may be wondering why you should bother with a typing course since our computers have such useful tools such as autocorrect and style templates.

The answer to that is simple. If your computer already makes you faster and more accurate, imagine how well you could type with that capability and proficiency added on top of all that.

The best free online touch typing course will provide you skills and good habits that can last a lifetime.

The keyboard and the mouse are the most common devices that interface us with computers. We don’t have brain-computer interfaces just yet, and we need to rely on them to help us do precisely what we want when programming.

Fortunately, there exist some strategies that help increase our productivity. Here are essential life hacks that optimize typing and make programming way more enjoyable.

1. Learn touch typing, here’s how

Touch typing is a style of typing without looking at the keyboard. Learning this method at first seems like a downgrade. After all, why change something we’re comfortable about? Even if you like your current typing style, consider learning touch typing.

Sure, it won’t be easy. After all, you’ll be rewiring your brain to gain new muscle memory. But once you get the hang of touch typing, a keyboard will feel like an extension of your arm. You’ll type faster, make fewer typos, and focus your eyes entirely on the task at hand. Also, it’s really rewarding and looks professional.

How to learn touch typing? I used this site to get the hang of it.

2. Use the same keyboard model at home and work

When using different keyboards at home and work computers, you need to rewire your brain a little every time you go back home or go to work. Every keyboard has a slightly different layout and stroke depth. You can easily avoid that extra cognitive effort and streamline the typing process by sticking to one keyboard model.

3. Reduce your use of the mouse

While programming, you often need to switch between windows or workspaces – especially when you’re responsible for development tasks in multiple projects. Using the mouse for switching windows is just inefficient. It takes time and may lead to errors. Almost every operating system offers some support for keeping your focus when switching between windows by using shortcuts. Here’s a helpful list.

If you like PyCharm, you can set your own shortcuts to optimize your work further. Check out this guide.

4. Change the windows manager to tiling manager

Tiling window managers like i3 help to organize windows and are primarily targeted at advanced users and software developers. They allow switching focus, moving windows around, and organizing them into tabs by using just a keyboard. They’re usually lightweight really simplistic and blazing fast.

I tested a few of them and chose i3 because of its configurability and ease of use. In general, it’s good to try that type of software out yourself because every developer follows their own unique style of work.

5. Create shortcuts to automate the most frequent actions

Once you get the hang of touch typing, you might find using keys like arrows, backspace, enter a little uncomfortable because of their distance to “base keys” F and J. What you can do to remedy this is remapping those keys and use ctrl+j, ctrl+i, ctrl+k, ctrl+l as arrow keys. You can remap other keys similarly for higher productivity and speed. It will make you type faster.

You can do that in several ways. I use software called AutoKey, the universal tool for that purpose. I really like the “abbreviation” tool; it’s a short sequence of letters, numbers or symbols that when typed will trigger AutoKey to do something – like run a script, insert a phrase, display a menu. The good thing about it is that it uses Python as a scripting medium. That way, we can write some more complex scripts for automating tasks.

6. Decrease repeat delay and increase repeat rate

Repeat delay is the pause between pressing a key, and the moment it starts repeating. Repeat rate is the speed at which the pressed key is repeated. Both these values may not be optimal for software developers.

You can change them by using the following command:

“`xset r rate 200 50“`

The first number refers to the number of ms after which the key will start repeating. The second number refers to the number of repetitions per second. So, after 200ms of pressing a key, the system will generate 50 keys a second.

7. Use Bash or Zsh on steroids

Developers can optimize their work with the terminal a few ways. Let’s start with the basics: shell is a command line interface (CLI) that allows interacting with the computer’s operating system. Most people use graphical user interfaces, but switching from the mouse to typing in the command line is a huge productivity boost.

Bash is basically the default shell on Linux and Mac OS X. And Zsh is an interactive shell that includes many useful features from other shells and other helpful additions like better auto-completions and globbing, path replacement, spell correction, and many others.

Developers can also take advantage of useful GitHub prompts like magicmonty/bash-git-prompt which come with a lot of options that make writing code easier.

8. Don’t forget about dotfiles

Dotfiles are plain text configuration files on Unixy systems for the shell, ~/.zshrc, editor in ~/.vimrc, and many others. Developers use them to customize their systems. The dotfiles community has produced a vast number of repositories and registries that contain organized dotfiles, dotfile managers, and advanced installation scripts.

Most of the time, we store our files not only on our machines but also local drives or in the cloud. That means your documents, photos, etc. are safe from risks like theft, damage, or hardware failure. But what about system preferences, configurations, or even reinstalling every single application? Using dotfiles, we can automate the installation of system tools, settings, and applications.

In the words of Lars Kappert: “Today, I could literally throw my laptop out of the window, buy a new one, and be up and running in a matter of minutes (not hours!). Without breaking a sweat (apart from the $$$).”

To get started, you simply need to organize your dotfiles in a directory. The best option here is a hosted git repository like GitHub.

To see what’s out there, check out this comprehensive list of dotfiles.

Here’s an example of what can expect from dotfiles: .alias is one that allows defining shortcuts for commands, add default arguments, and abbreviate longer one-liners. Isn’t that awesome?

9. Plugins for JetBrains and VSCode tools

This one can be really helpful if you’re just starting out. Newbies using tools like JetBrains and VSCode can download special plugins that show how an action completed using a mouse could be instead carried out with a keyboard shortcut. Learn the shortcut is an excellent example of that.

I hope these tips help you write better code, faster. Do you know any other productivity tricks for developers?