Typing skills are essential in this computerised age. At one time companies used to teach typing skills to their employees but when computers began to be used regularly in schools they assumed everyone would leave school with good typing speeds and abilities. How wrong they were. I have often had to watch in emotional agony as an employed person moves slowly around a keyboard, trying to input my details. This can take so long that I have had to learn how to be patient. So often I want to grab the keyboard and input the information myself, I would certainly be quicker!

I first learned to touch type back in the 1970s. I went on a college course which taught shorthand and typing. Today my shorthand is rusty, and my boss uses a dictaphone at work, but my typing speed is still strong.

I remember we had many boring lessons typing letters on old non-electric typewriters. The keys were spaced much farther apart, and each level was higher the previous one. We also had to press return at the end of each line, not just at the end of a paragraph, because there was no such thing as "wrap-around".

I don't move my hands very much at all on a modern computer keyboard but had to move them a great deal on old typewriters.

Whilst I was learning I remember dreaming at night of watching my fingers fly to the keys to spell words. I also used to imagine I was typing words out and I would picture where I would place the fingers, up, to the left, right, down left, etc. This helped me imprint the positions of the keys in my mind.

All very useful, and positive.

Learn more about this author, Carol Noble.
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