Maximize Your Typing Speed: A Step-by-Step Ultimate Guide

1. Welcome to the Class: So many of our day to day activities are tied down to typing. Church T can you tell me more about science here, sir or madam? Unlike a funnel, typing is at the core of everything. By improving this single skill, you'll improve so many other aspects in your life as it has changed my life completely. Speed wise and creativity wise. My speed is around 120 words per minute consistently, my max being 140. At this speed, I'm able to follow people speak as well as take notes better than I could ever before. In this class, I'm going to teach you step by step, everything you need to know, how to type, fast sharing tips from the very best. And also important if you're stuck at a certain speed, how to get stuck. Like any skill, it takes practice. But I'm guaranteeing you that this class will help you accelerate your progress that much quicker. With that said, see you in the next chapter. 2. Introduction and Class Project: To measure your speed, there's a unit called Words per minute, PM. How many words can you write per minute if this is new to you and you don't know what you're typing? Speed is scroll down below, there's a link for a standardized test. Or you can also Google ten fast fingers. For this class, we'll go with English. But any tips from this class apply for any language then. Right there, right at the beginning, you can test yourself in 1 minute. Pause this video, test yourself, and then come back. Great. Now you know your basis. This will be useful to track your progress. The average human typing speed is around 40 words per minute. That means that most people will start around 40. You can be higher or lower. The good thing is, with a little practice and guidance, you'll be able to improve it by a lot. In my case, I started off at 50 words per minute and I felt proud when I reached 80 words per minute, but felt a little stuck over there around one or two months. I gave it a few months of consistent training and I'm now at 01:20 words per minute consistently. That is three times faster than the average person. That is incredible. And the tips I'm going to give you also apply to me to even reach higher speeds for this class project. After all the chapters, I want you to take a screenshot of your typing speed afterwards. You can also comment any doubts you might have, so other students or myself can share specific tips for you, see on the next chapter. 3. Does Gear Matter?: You've probably seen that I have a mechanical keyboard. And in this chapter, I would like to address the three most common questions I get asked in my Youtube video for typing fast, and I'll address them in detail. The first common question is, what is this keyboard? Well, it is an echo retro 65% with brown switches. If you didn't understand what I said, don't worry. It doesn't matter because the next question is even more important. Does the type of keyboard matter? Usually they ask, oh, I have a membrane keyboard or I just have my laptop keyboard. Is it okay? Yes, it's completely fine and the gear does not matter. You don't need a fancy mechanical keyboard to practice typing with. In fact, I perfectly type just as well on my laptop keyboard as I do on this mechanical keyboard. I would even argue that I can type faster on my laptop keyboard because the distance traveled is less. However, the tactile feeling or the satisfying sound does provide for a slightly better experience when typing. Because I type coding, scripting, sending e mails, or messaging my friends basically all day long. Anything that improves my day to day is worth it. It's like investing on a nice chair because you sit all day. The last question to further solidify that gear doesn't matter. What's this? Well, this is a hand dress to make typing more comfortable. Of course, you can buy one. But around three years ago, I decided to make my own out of leftover foam and cardboard. Since then it's really lightweight. I've brought it always with me for different countries I moved. It's always stuck my side. Did you know from doing math, it turns out that every one tenth of a second on Earth, the space bar is hit 600,000 times. When you hit space, you're doing it at the exact same time as 600,000 other people. With that said, now prepare your keyboard in front of you, because in the next chapters we will start typing. 4. Posture for Quick Typing: Proper posture is really important to get right because this is the basis of everything. Having bad posture not only is horrible for your long term health. Since if you do something wrong, your neck starts to ache or your lower back, that really stops you and it's just not good for you. So let's quickly review the steps to make sure everything is set to go. So first things first chair choice is a really important part. All you need to make sure is to have lower back support and also make sure that it has height adjustability. I can go up or down. Your knees have to be bent around 90 degrees. If your legs are too short, you can use some books or a box to rest your feet higher. Now you can adjust the height of the chair so that your elbows are bent around 90 degrees as well, relative to the table. And as I'm writing with the tall mechanical keyboard, you see that my wrists are writing like this for long periods of time, you start getting strains. The best thing to have is a wrist pad. I made mine from cardboard and foam and it works just fine for me for years. It's much more comfortable this way. Now, everything is set well. The chair height, my legs are fine, my wrists are fine, my elbows are fine. But look at my computer. It rests over here. And as I'm writing all the time, I'm always looking down. Okay. And this is no good. So if you have a screen or a computer, a laptop, what you can do is something very simple. In my case, Okay. My eyes meet directly at the top of the screen, and this is much better. With everything done, it should look a little bit like this. This is how I actually work all the time, and this is so much more comfortable. Now, it is your turn. Do you have the proper chair height or monitor height? This will come in very useful not only for typing but for everyday computer usage. Good luck. 5. Best Finger Position and Common Question: In this part, I will cover the most effective finger positioning for typing, as well as common questions I have from more experienced typers regarding this position. If you're just starting out, it is crucial to start off with the right hand positioning. Let's start by placing the fingers on the home row. This is the position where your fingers will always start. Notice that for every keyboard, the F and J have a little groove that you can feel. This is where your left and right index fingers belong. Now, for all the other fingers, go one key to the left, like this, 123 and the same to the right, 123. This is where your four fingers belong and your thumbs go on the space bar. For a more comfortable experience, curve your hands like holding a tennis ball. That's it. This is the base position that your finger should always start when typing. Each finger controls the vertical column. My left pinky controls all of these. The extra on the left. The next one controls this column. My middle finger controls this column. And my index controls two columns. Actually, each index controls two columns. And the same for the right hand, middle finger, ring finger, and the pinking controls the rest. The thumbs are reserved only for the space bar. Now for example, let's type exactly with the middle finger, X with the ring finger, A with the pink, then middle finger with the C because it belongs to that vertical row with the L, with the ring and then index with the Y. This is how you would type, for example, mountain O U N T A I N or computer C O N P T U R E computer. That was a silly mistake, but it really shows that typing is all about muscle memory that you get by practicing using this method. It's way better than writing with one finger computer versus this way the fingers way less. Now a very common question I have from more experience type first towards finger positioning. The type already fast, but they type with a slightly different position. For example, gamers tend to have their fingers on WASD, so they'll naturally write like this. The question is, should they re learn to the proper finger positioning? My answer is for the long run, yes, It's worth it because this position is the one that requires the least finger movement, making you able to tide faster and also for longer periods of time. When I started off, I also started with the slightly shifted gaming position, which was wrong, but I had to re, learn to. My speed dropped a little, but it went way faster in the long run. Now if this is new to you, I want you to practice on your day to day activities when typing. Make sure you have the proper finger positioning and that each finger types on the right key. Even if you have to re learn you'll see a drop in speed. But it's going to be worth it. It's only temporary practice chatting with your friends with this new proper position. It just makes it more fun. Good luck. 6. Shortcut for Faster Typing: Now that you familiarize yourself with the proper finger positioning, there is one shortcut that is often overlooked, but super useful. We're all bound to type mistakes while writing. Let's take the word example example. Oh, whoops, I wrote in C instead of an X. I misspelled it. Instead of spamming backspace to delete so many times letter by letter, let's use control and back space like this, pink on the left, pinky on the right, like this buck. It deletes the whole word. Example, it just deletes the entire word. Deleting the entire word, and writing it back again is less brain power than deleting it manually. And tell where you need to go and then write it again. Therefore, it's faster even if you type more words. Example, house computer. It just deletes the previous word, the previous word and the previous word. That's how it works. Now it is your turn again. Make sure the finger positioning is in the correct spot. Continue regular practice using this proper method. But now, if you make a mistake, learn to have the habit to use the control backspace to delete the entire word. Think about it also in your day to day basis when you're chatting with friends or sending an E mail. This will help a lot in the long run. Good luck. 7. Best places to Practice and Why: Apart from real life scenarios, there are three well known websites that I use to practice my typing. And they all have their pros and cons. That's why I've used them all. And in this chapter I'm going to explain all of them. The first two are actually very similar. Both inconsistency and also the way you train. And they are ten fast fingers and monkey type. Both of these websites have no numbers or special characters like commas or question marks, but they are very consistent to train. You can set your practice fronts almost the same, therefore better know what your typing speed is. Personally, I use ten fast fingers to train in 1 minute intervals. But I do know that monkey type has a more detailed graph showcasing your speed throughout the practice room. They're both about the same and they're both very good. Now if you want to mix things up, I really recommend you to use type racer. I see it more of a game than practice because you race against other online players typing the same text. This type of training, it is more suitable for real life scenarios as well as it is more fun. However, it is way more inconsistent. Sometimes you have to write one sentence or a huge text, special characters, and you'll come across familiar or unfamiliar words. Expect to see your average speed drop and see it as more of a fun game. I would personally choose one consistent website and one fun website. Then you would mix things up and then you can train for longer periods of time. Now take your time and you can try all the websites that are linked down below, familiarize with them. You'll learn which one you like most, have fun and good luck. 8. A Fun Game to Practice Typing: I recently discovered a typing game that is way less serious than type racer, but more fun. Something that I do from time to time for weeks now just to test it out, and I have to say I am quite addicted, actually. So anything that helps to make typing training more fun is always welcome. This is why I wanted to share this with you. The game is called Z type, and you can Google it. It's completely free. It looks a little bit like this. So literally, you have the text and you have the enemies, and they're coming onto you, just like so. And then they came by waves, and this is a much better way to practice if you want to play games. Since this is much more fun than the other methods. And the best part is that you can apply any training to it. For example, you will later learn the steps to go 0-50 votes per minute and you can apply those training methods here. So for example, if you're more of a beginner, you might want to try and start typing without looking at the keyboard. The same way goes from the things to learn to go 100-150 words per minute. This is good for more advanced typist as well. This game is for every level and it couldn't be any more fun. The link is included below or Google Z type and start playing. Have fun. 9. Quickest Way Possible to Aquire Muscle Memory : Muscle memory plays a crucial role to typing fast. And just as you're probably wondering and finding weird why this scenario, all of a sudden change, your fingers will also find a weird why all of a sudden you're typing with the correct finger positioning or even typing in another language. This is exactly just like learning how to tie your shoes when you were a kid, right? There was a very specific story for kids to learn better. Something about the bunny going around the tree to find its home and going through the hole. Something like that. So the same applies to typing. Once you change to a proper finger positioning, it feels like there's just a lot of friction. It's tough. But as you go through repetition and practice it, eventually, it feels natural, just like tying your shoes. This is a graph of how much we return after we learn something. See how it reduces drastically at the beginning. This means that we only retain a fraction of what we learned. From the websites I mentioned from the last lesson, the best way to accelerate yourself to learn something is by repeating it at the right moments. If all you do is train intensively for 1 hour straight, nothing on the other days, I'll guess what. You will forget most of it in about a week. But now imagine that you train less intensively. Let's say about 15 minutes every day. All of a sudden, you force your brain to interrupt this forgetting process and refresh every day and look what happens. You retain so much more by training exactly the same time compared to 1 hour straight. Just like any instrument for my case piano, sometimes I overtrain and feel completely frustrated. Just like typing. Instead of forcing yourself to continue, take a break. It's not a waste of time. You are allowing yourself for your brain to absorb more of the movements, and it's a weird feeling. I cannot explain. But once you sleep over your frustrations, the next day, it does indeed feel better. This graph works for you in a positive way, but it can also easily work against you if you let it do so. Let's say you don't want to use the correct finger placement. If you practice like so every day, you're also teaching your brain this wrong muscle memory. Repeat this every day, instead of learning the correct way, all you managed to do was to learn the bad way for the rest of your life. So I can't stress enough the importance of correct finger positioning. I often get questions that someone changed from an incorrect position to the correct one and their speed dropped drastically. And that's okay, allowing yourself to practice a bit every day, forcing yourself with the proper finger positioning. It feels terrible and super slow at first. But understand slow at first is good. There's nothing wrong with it. Slow and correct is faster than faster and incorrect in the long term. So don't let your habits dictate you how you type, and don't frustrate yourself too much. Taking breaks is better than practicing too intensively all in one go. I think we all know which one is more fun. Slow and steady wins the race. You got this. 10. 0-50 WPM: How to Improve?: Now that you're familiar with the finger positioning, the shortcuts, and where to practice, let's now talk about how to improve from now on if your typing speed is between zero and Fift keyboards per minute, this is what you need to train to improve. First is proper finger positioning, but that we already talked about, this is our first basis for a good long term progression. The second basis for a really good long term progression is typing without looking at your keyboard. To reach higher speeds, you'll need to slowly but surely start memorizing your keyboard. This comes with practice and time, and it'll come naturally. And if you need it, you can look from time to time to your keyboard, but only when you really need it. Continue practicing and step by step, you won't even notice that you're just not looking at the keyboard. If you haven't memorized your keyboard yet, go a little slower. Allow your brain to memorize the keys. This will feel like a lot of effort right now, but once you reach higher speeds, as you can see, I'm now not even thinking about it. It's all muscle memory and no time is wasted. Looking at the keyboard now, I want you to pick ten fast fingers or monkey types, so you can train on your own and at your own pace. And just slowly take your time and practice writing the word without looking at your keyboard while using the proper finger position. Good luck. 11. The 80/20 Rule. Use It to Your Advantage: The 80 20 rule or the Pereiro principle states that roughly 80% of the results come from 20% of the efforts or causes. In other aspects, 20% of the customers generate 80% of the sales or in programming, 20% of the software bugs generate 80% of the crashes. This is a very interesting phenomena. In this case for typing, that means 20% of the words that we know are used 80% of the time. Again, 20% of the words that we know are used 80% of the time. And this is really good to know. That means if we train only these 20% of the words, we will feel more comfortable 80% of the time. That is great. There's no need to waste your time training how to write eloquent or whimsical. If most of your time you're going to write this that house or number, What I want you to do to accelerate your training that much faster, I want you to go to ten fast fingers and it has an option called typing test top 200 words. The advanced test includes the top 1,000 words which you don't need right now. Since your time is most effectively used training for 80% of the situations. I hope you could understand this crucial fact and good luck training the 20% of the words. 12. How to Tackle Spelling Problems: A very common question I get asked is, what are some tips if you're a terrible speller. And I have quite the experience myself as I was born in Portugal from Chinese parents. English was kind of like my third language. I also studied five years in a German university completely in German. So I am very familiar with the pain that it is to not know how to spell. For this topic, I will combine the knowledge you learned from the past lessons to boost your typing and spelling skills. So in the past, I used to struggle with the following words, thought, throw and throughout. For an English learner, this did not come easy. The GH and the H would really confuse me. But good news, this is all very trainable. You have to think of every individual word as an item, a game item that you can train to level up. So let's say I'm really struggling to spell throughout. Maybe I would spell wrong the GH part. So the first thing you want to do is actively think about each letter, type it really slow. Through out. So letter by letter, through. And then you want to go syllable by syllable. Through through out. And then when you get more comfortable, you do the whole word throughout throughout throughout. And by doing this several times for slow letter by letter, then syllables, and then the word, you are actively learning. You're telling your brain to really think about this word maybe just for a minute or two, and then you repeat this until you're comfortable. This is really important. Okay. And this is why my typing speed for English is the best as it is the one I'm constantly practicing. I feel immediately the difference if I type in German or Portuguese because the words are different. I'm not used to typing them. I didn't level them up, and therefore, I can spell them correctly or my fingers just don't move that efficiently. From the last lesson we learned about the 80 20 world. So 20% of the most common words, I used 80% of the time. And for that, I suggest you also practice those common words. But for example, I do physics research, and I have to write certain more scientific and common words. Then it's worth practicing certain words like asymmetric. And by doing this, just for a minute, I leveled up this word and never got it wrong again. Remember that. If you're frustrated when practicing, that probably means that you have been practicing for a while. Take short breaks, practice them later. From a previous lesson, your brain really benefits from learning with spatial repetition. A little here, a little there, your brain retains more information. Remember also that each individual word is like a gaming item you can level up. And once you level up 20% of the words that you cannot spell, you'll feel much better 80% of the time. Maybe you're unsure which common words you can't spell. What I want you to do is go to the normal typing test and then there very quickly, you'll see which words you struggle with. Then note those words in a document or a piece of paper. For me, it was throughout thought and double letter words like asymmetry with a double, for example. After your typing tests, take the time to really slowly refine each word that you noted. Start slow from letter to letter to syllable to syllable. If you repeat this process, it might seem very slow and overwhelming at first. But I want to remind you that this way of actively training is by far the most efficient way of training. I guarantee you that. That's how you accelerate your progress. Good luck. 13. 50-100 WPM: How to Improve?: Now that you're familiar with your keyboard and the proper finger positioning, you can write without looking at the keyboard and your speed is 50-100 words per minute. How can you further improve? Maybe you're feeling stuck, we're not. I have a lot of tips here at this level now that your eyes are not focusing on the keyboard anymore, they're now focusing on the screen, more specifically at the next board. Let me explain. Let's take three words as an example, and this is what you want to write. Example, number, house, this red square is what your eyes looking at. There are two scenarios. First looking at example, writing example. Then look at the next word. Oh, it's number, right number. Then look at the next word. Oh, it's house, right? House. This is not bad, but it could be really improved. Let's take a look at the second scenario. You first look at the first word, oh, it's example. While you're writing example, you look at the same time at the next word and you realize, oh, the next words number. When you're done writing example through muscle memory, you don't need to think what's the next word and immediately start writing number. As you're writing number, your eyes look at the next word and they realize, oh, the next words, house. And then when you finish writing number, you immediately start writing house, and so on and so forth. This change of mentality really changes the time spent between words. And multiply this by a lot of words and you're looking at a big time save here if you are stuck at a certain speed, this tip, along with the others from the next chapters, really help a lot. For now, I want you to try this new method. Don't go at 100% of your speed. Try reducing it slightly to maybe 80% Get comfortable looking ahead of the next word while typing. Practice slowly. And once you get comfortable, slowly increase your speed to maintain that accuracy, which is really important. Did you know that speeds from 80 words per minute and above are required for jobs like transcription or data entry? That is twice as fast as an average person? With that said, good luck with practice. 14. 100-150+ WPM: How to Improve?: For this more advanced level. Just like any skill, it gets harder and harder to get improvements. But these tips are equally helpful if you haven't reached 100 words per minute yet. Implementing them all together is the best way to go. In this chapter, I'll focus on two very important tips to further accelerate your progress. The first tip comes from Sean Runner who won 20 competitive typing championships from 2,010.2022 He gives a big importance in accuracy when you're typing a new or unfamiliar word. It's best to take some time to practice slowly so that your muscle memory has time to register this new way of typing this word. Learn this for more unfamiliar words and it will lead to more optimized and faster typing speeds. For example, in type racer, instead of going to the next race immediately, take some time, pause, see which words you had most difficulty with, and then practice them individually, separately, slowly, for your muscle memory to register again. The second tip I have to share with you is to start thinking to write your words in one single stroke, like a combo in the fighting game. Let me explain. Let's take the example word computer. When I place my finger on the keyboards in one stroke, I would like to have computer written. So stroke, stroke computer. If the word is too long or still unfamiliar, you can practice with syllables by parts. Every word has its own difficulty. A word that I used to struggle was mountain, mount ten. Mount ten. But now I don't anymore because I trained the word to be as quick as possible with this one stroke method. Mountain, Mountain, Mountain. Now it is your turn. These might be really new concepts, especially the one stroke typing method. I want you to write the first word in one stroke and then pause to let your brain register. And then write one stroke. And then pause one stroke and then we pause. This lets your muscle memory register these new words in this typing in this new way. It will be faster in the long run. If it's unfamiliar, you type one stroke by syllables. Did you know that if you type 100 words per minute or more, you are right now at the top 1% of typist. If that's your case, congratulations. If not, that's fine. You can always improve. That should be your new goal. With that said, good luck practicing the one word method. 15. Feeling Stuck? Do This: Being stuck at a certain typing speed is very common for me. It happened in 80 words per minute. And what really helped me was to combine the last two tips in one go. Let me show you, Right now I'm on ten fast fingers and instead of doing the typing test with the top 200 words, we'll go here to custom typing test. Here we have way more words than the top 200 words. That's good because we want to train more word variety. You'll come here to open Settings Duration. Instead of 1 minute, we want to have less time pressure, or no time pressure at all. I'll choose 10 minutes. Apply settings and close the stop. After you've done those settings and you have 10 minutes, there is no time pressure at all, I would suggest now using the one stroke method to train the words with a pause in between a long get, both each and so on and so on until you find a mistake. For example, again, oh, I wrote wrong. In this case, I want to train this word over and over again. Maybe a little slower again, again, again to really let your brain memorize again, again, again, again, again, and then you go faster again, again, again. And now that I'm more comfortable, I'll continue world out. List sentence, whoops, I wrote it wrong. Let's go slow again. Sentence, sentence, sentence tense tense sentence, sentence, sentence, sentence. If you understand what I'm doing, I'm doing the slow first and then doing syllable by syllable or by parts. Basically mixing all the tips I showed you just to get comfortable with the word sentence sentence, that's good. Sentence sentence, sentence, that's good. As long as you're training these new unfamiliar words, you're progressing. You just don't know it. It's little by little. You'll build your vocabulary and you'll be more optimized to write more things. Now, it is your turn, I suggest, after you practice typing, and at the end you feel a little tired or frustrated, you go here, take your time, go slowly and practice these new unfamiliar words. That's how you really improve. Good luck. 16. Important Common Questions: I try to incorporate all the common questions in the respective chapters, but these two common questions, I could not include them anywhere. What I'm including in this separate chapter, the first one is, earlier I talked about the proper finger positioning and how each finger has its own set of keys to press. But in a more rare occasion, you'll find a word that uses the same finger consecutively for different keys. Number is one of the examples. In theory, you would need to write like this number, the first three letters for the number, you only use the index finger. In theory N, U, and then the rest goes normal. But this is really slow. If you want to type fast, it's just not practical. In this rare occasion, you'll break the rule and do this. Index for the middle finger, for the index for the M, again, index for the middle for the U, and index for the quicker goes number compared to the old one number. There's a lot of jumping here which leads a lot to error this method. It's way more consistent and better. For this example number number number, that's way better number instead of the old one number number, number, number number. This is much quicker. Next time you're practicing, you can practice number this way. The next time it comes, you'll automatically write this way. It's much more effective. The second most common question I have is double letters. Double, double. How do you write these? How I do it is to practice vibrating my hand. Your finger does not stop touching. The key for Max effectiveness. That's how you do it. Now you can practice your hand vibration technique for the following words. R for curry, for letter, for, for accept, for abyss. Of all of them use different fingers, but you can practice writing them over and over again. The next common question I wanted to incorporate here is the different type of keyboard layouts. There's Kirti, the one you've been seeing, and there's Dvorak, for example. I'm aware that the Dvorak keyboard layout is slightly better, but here's my opinion on why I'm not using it. Because in real life, every keyboard I encounter is quart. For me, it makes less sense to train for situations that I will not encounter as often. For example, at work school or anyone's computer, they all have Quarty keyboards. I am personally training to be faster around my life. I mean fast enough, but not the fastest in the world. The cost for me of using Vorac is way too big in my opinion, and that's why I just stick with Quarty keyboard. If I'm in another situation and I use someone else's keyboard, I'm good to go. There's no Vorac. What I want you to do is to practice the double letter typing technique, the hand vibration technique, and also practice number how I showed you, since it's a very common word, good luck. 17. Typing in Multiple Languages?: In this lesson, I would like to solely focus on typing in multiple languages. I mainly type in English, but I was born in Portugal and I did my full time university degree in Germany, and I'm currently living in Belgium, which means I may type from time to time in Portuguese, German, and now occasionally Dutch. There are two main problems, and I will present you the best solutions I have ever found. The first problem is that switching between languages can be a challenge in itself, not only speaking wise, but typing wise as well. Your muscle memory the words you're used to typing, they differ from language to language. Throughout this class for more advanced typists, we went through the details of practicing words to build this muscle memory, which is essential to improve the accuracy and reduce mistakes which makes your typing speed that much faster. So naturally, if you switch languages from one keyboard to the other or one layout to another in the same computer, of course, your muscle memory practice doesn't really serve you that well. This is exactly why my typing speed in English is the best. It's the fastest because it's the one I have practiced. And the solution to this first problem is to identify which language you use the most. For me, in my case, I mostly use English. Coding is in English. Academic writing is in English. The scripts I write for these classes or my videos are always in English. That's why I found it so essential for me to focus just practicing typing with English. But if, for example, I would use about 50% in English and 50% in Portuguese, then I would change things. Instead of just solely practicing English, I would switch it up sometimes and practice Portuguese words as well to build that muscle memory exactly for that language. It is completely fine to not be able to write just as fast in other languages. Again, taking back to the 80 20 principle, the Pareto principle, if we're practicing a language we don't use that often is basically saying that you're using 80% of your efforts to use only 20% of the time, which in hindsight, it's not that useful. And the second problem we have with switching languages is that the keyboards from one country might differ from the keyboard you're used to. For example, in Germany, the Z character is switched with the Y. So instead of Quarti, it's quartz. And if you think that's bad, then in Belgium, they write with Azerti, which is completely mind boggling to me. I just cannot get used to it and will probably never learn it. I will always write in Quarti. And not only that, but also the keyboards from other countries. For example, this is a membrane keyboard from Portugal. It has all the special characters specifically only used in Portuguese. Compared to German, they have other special characters that only Germans use, and this might pose a lot of problems if you only want to use one keyboard and you don't want to switch around the keyboard layout in your Windows computer or Mac every time you switch languages. So the absolute best solution I found to write in Portuguese, German, Dutch, and in English is to use one single keyboard layout. In this case, I use US, so United States International. And the keyboard looks exactly like the other classes you've seen. The keyboard layout is exactly the same. However, it has easy but special keybinds that enables you to write special characters for other languages. You can write Spanish with this keyboard. You can write Portuguese, German, Dutch, all the special characters, they're all included in one single keyboard layout. Isn't that fascinating? Now, instead of previously always switching the keyboard layout, I just don't switch at all. I just use the same one, and I write everything. If I need to write a German word, there's no problem. I know the keybines and the Portuguese also, they're all pretty similar to each other. And the keybines are actually quite easy and logical. Now, it is your turn. If you write in multiple languages, have you identified which language you use the most? That's the one you should really focus on. And have you ever heard of the US International layout keyboard? If not, then it is a really great time to try and use it. Trust me, get used to this one single keyboard layout, and you'll be set for life no matter what language you use. Best of luck. 18. Typing Smarter: Easy Tools for the Long Term: The other lessons, we focused mainly on just purely typing fast. But in this lesson, we'll cover something else different, something that will help you be faster than most don't cover. You don't need the best techniques. In fact, this is suitable for any typist level. Beginner, advanced, mediocre, it doesn't matter. It's always productive. So let's say you're writing an email. And the story goes always the same. Here, Sir or Madam. And at the end, kind regards your name. Or every time you buy something online, phone number, okay. This or your credit card number, then you need to type it out, which is always a hassle. And these are only a few examples of common things we all have to write all the time. Well, there's actually a way more effective way to do this. Let me show you. So for an email, instead of just writing manually, I'll just write this. And kind regards and my name, just like so. That easy. And phone number, no problem. Like this, which, by the way, is a fake phone number and also my fake credit card number for the case, here it is. What I just showed you, they're called macros. These are used for really repetitive tasks you always have to do again and again and again. In some cases, some mechanical keyboards, they have the hardware to create macros. But honestly, if I switch keyboards or if I switch computers, I just prefer to use a software on the computer. It's easier to set up and easier to edit. So for any kind of software using Mac or Windows, they all are very similar to how they work. They all have the same commands, and they are easy to define exactly in the same way. So I'm in Windows, and I personally use beef text, and I would like to create a new combo. So like so, and in the snippet, I'll write whatever I want. So in this case, I can write kind regards and then my name. This is something I use all the time for emails. And the keyword is the bind you want to set. So every time you write it, it substitutes with your snippet that you just wrote. So in this case, I will write maybe, like, email two because it's the end of the email. And I write, Okay, just like so. So if, for example, I'm writing an email, I can use the command at the end, email two immediately. It's substituted with the right thing. Kind regards Edlang. And you can set it up to anything. You can set it up for other languages. So I have Email German too. And it immediately substitutes with write thing, which saves me a lot of time every time I'm writing an email. So you can use beef text for Windows or for example, Atax for Mac, and these are the easiest ones to use. You don't need to write lines of code, which compared to other ones are more complex. And I would strongly suggest to you if you don't use macros to take the time now and define them because they will save you so much time in the future. In the long run, you'll make everything else much smoother. Every time you're buying something online or need to write your phone number, you can just write it out so easy. Or every time you're writing an email, it just makes things so much smoother. It doesn't matter which level you have if you type really fast or not. Using macros always helps you in any case. Best of luck. 19. 3 Key Factors to Consider When Buying a Keyboard: Throughout my life, I've had so many different kinds of keyboards, and if you are looking to invest in one, you've reached the right place because I will tell you the three essential things any keyboard needs and the mistakes to avoid in order to really get your money's worth. And as previously stated, gear really doesn't matter. I can practice and I can type just as fast on any type of keyboard. It can be a cheap membrane keyboard. It can be a more expensive mechanical keyboard. It really doesn't matter. What matters here is the comfort and how it feels and the satisfaction when you're typing. If money is really a thing that matters, then having to buy a membrane keyboard is the best option. Since they are the cheapest one, however, be mindful that they are not the best solution for the long term. They have the shortest lifespans, and also the tactile filling is not the best. They feel really cheap and they don't provide the satisfaction as a mechanical keyboard. If you are looking into a really long term, the best keyboards you can have, then we're looking at mechanical ones. And there are three things to look out for a mechanical keyboard. These are things I've learned along years of typing, and in the beginning of the class, I showed this keyboard, actually, which I actually currently don't use. Hence why we're in a new setting because this is an update to the class. And I've learned a few things. I've learned why I don't want to use this keyboard and I trade it for something different, which is this one, which has better, more long term features. And the first of three things to really be mindful when you buy a mechanical keyboard, it is to know if it's hot swappable. All it means if the keyboard is hot swappable is that you can remove the switches without soldering them. This makes the whole process more easy. If you don't like the switches you have, you can always remove them and substitute it by others. If you don't like the switches, but your keyboard is hot swappable, you can easily swap them with another set. As easy as that. For my older keyboard, the one I showed in the beginning of the class, it's a good keyboard, but it's not hot swappable, which means I would have to probably solder around and take off the switches, which is a lot of hard work. And the lifespan of mechanical keyboards, although it's greater than membrane keyboards, they're not infinite, which means if there's one switch that breaks or it's faulty, then if it's not hot swappable, it's really hard to substitute it. You cannot buy the pieces individually. You might as well just buy a new keyboard. Both are fine, but if you're looking for the longest term, a hot swappable keyboard is the most important aspect. The second important aspect of any mechanical keyboard is the switches itself. There are three main types of switches linear, tactile and clicky. Clicki is the keyboards that really click. The sound is, to me, a little annoying. I will never buy them, but some people enjoy them. And I'm a little between tactile and linear. Linear means when you click on the keyboard, you don't feel any tactile feeling. And tactile switches. And when you click on tactile switches, you'll feel a slight resistance. Now, if you watch any videos on YouTube, you'll learn that Cherry reds are linear, Cherry browns are tactile, and Cherry blues are clicky. Other brands have other names of switches. But basically, they're all into three categories linear, tactile, and clicky. If you don't know which of these three switches is best for you, my best advice is to go to an electronics store. There you'll find many types of mechanical keyboards, and they usually label them as maybe Cherry MMX red for linear, or maybe they'll actually say linear, tactile or click. You'll really feel them. And when you're at the store, be careful and mindful to really click and feel slowly to see if you feel any resistance or in the linear keyboards, you don't feel anything at all. It's just a linear feeling. Practice around in the store and maybe type around a little to see which one best suits you. And I wouldn't buy a keyboard in the electronic store since they are a little more expensive compared to online. And also, their variety and collection of keyboards is not that great. And the third and last aspect when you're looking out to buy a keyboard is the keyboard size. Different keyboards have different sizes. And for example, bigger sizes might be suitable for some people. I personally prefer smaller sizes as I don't have really great desk area. And the sizes of the keyboard are named through percentages. The biggest keyboard you can have is 100%. It's right here this way. The biggest keyboard you can have has everything included, the keyboard, has all the F one to F 12 keys, has the print screen button, has the arrow keys, and at the end, they also have the down pad, which might be important for certain people. The lower the percentage means the less keys you have. In my case, I wouldn't want a keyboard that's 100%. Although the numpad might be useful for some, for me, it's not as useful and I don't really care. Therefore, I go for a lower percentage because I have usually a smaller desk and I prefer the aesthetics of a smaller keyboard. Some percentages might still include the F one to F 12 keys, which might be important to some. But if you want the lowest percentage possible, the smallest number of mounted keys, that I would recommend it would be 65%. I personally wouldn't go lower than 65% because even 60%, it doesn't have the arrow keys. And if you're writing code, if you're editing scripts, you always need the arrow keys, and I find them really essential on any keyboard to move around. So for me, 65 is the minimum I would go. Lower, you're really just taking away too many essential functions. So really see what's important for you. For me, the arrow keys are really important. The F one to F 12 are not so important, so I can use FN and then one, two, three, four, five. For the respective keys. And the numpad, for me, it's not essential because I want a smaller keyboard. This is why 65% is the size that I like to choose. Now, for me, a really good keyboard would have a size of 65%, the switches to be linear or tactile, and it would be hot swappable, so I can swap switches. And the best keyboard I ever had is this one, which you can actually split in half, just like so. It can be a normal keyboard or you can split it in the middle and write ergonomically. You can also elevate the keyboard diagonally for a more ergonomical position, just like so, and write it normally. It's really the best of both worlds. It's ergonomical. And if you want, you can just place back down the keyboard just as normal to have a 65% normal keyboard. And a really common mistake is that people think the switches really determine the sound. Apart from being clicky or not, what really determines the sound is the build quality of the keyboard, and even the table might influence how it sounds. If you place a mat, it will sound more muted. If you don't place a mat underneath, then it will sound more clicky. But of all keyboards, this is definitely the one that sounds the most satisfying. It's hot swappable. It sounds amazing, and it's really the perfect size. This is honestly the best keyboard I have. If you're interested, I've linked it down below. Just be mindful of the three things to look out for a keyboard for your best preferences, size, type of switches, and if it's hot swappable. The rest is just about the build quality or how it looks. So with that said, best of luck. 20. Speed Outside Typing: Typing fast is a sure way to make everything you do in the computer damage more productive and fast. But since we're focusing on speed, I would like to talk about other aspects that might help you on a day to day basis. First is posture. You won't be able to do a lot of work if your back starts hurting. Just like piano, keeping your back straight makes you able to first look elegant, but also being able to train for longer periods of time. Now, outside typing, there are several things you must know how to use in your keyboard. Because pressing keys to do certain things over and over again is a much faster way than having to use your mouse point at the right direction, left or right click to do certain action. It's the little things that count again, the 20% of things you do that you use 80% of the time. Let's start with the basics. I think everyone should start using, these are Windows or Apple friendly to copy text, to control C to paste control V, or cut with control X and paste again with control V because having to right click and choose the right option is simply too slow or too much brain power. Control Z to undo the previous action. Control A to select all text or items. Control S to save the current document or file. Finally, control to open the fine dialog box to search for a text if you have been using computers for a while. These are probably not new to you, but what most don't learn is the shortcuts for browsers control to open the new tab. Control to close the current tab. Control tab to switch to the next tab. Or control shift tab to go to the previous tab. Again, this saves you from having to reach your right hand to your mouse point at a small, precise spot and having to click Learn these, and you'll see how much more flower your actions are on the computer. 21. Fastest Way to Type on the Phone: So, for every class, I've been teaching how to type really fast on the keyboard, which is really important. I do most of my work on the computer, and that's how I feel most comfortable. But sometimes I also think it's important to learn how to write fast on the phone. Now, first, I will introduce you the best way to type manually, since this is the best way. And also, I will introduce you the way I also type, which is faster than that. Starting off, if you're typing with one finger, one finger. This is really slow. The upgrade to this would be using two thumbs. You're effectively doubling your speed as you have two fingers right now. Two fingers. If you don't know how to type with two thumbs, you effectively just have your left thumb for the left part of the keyboard and the right thumb for the right part of the keyboard. It will start off very slow, very slow. But as you gain more experience, you can type much faster. You see, this is much faster than compared to one finger method. Now, you might think this is obvious. Maybe you already know how to type really fast with two thumbs. So this is where I would like to introduce swipe typing. Swipe typing has been around for Android for many years, and it has recently been added to the newest versions of Apple. So in case you don't have it configured for Apple users, you can enable that in the settings, and for Android, you can install board. And what this lets you do is to let you type by swiping only your finger. So let's take an example. I want to write keyboard. So I start with my thumb on K, and then I swipe to the other letters. K BOARD, and look at that. It writes keyboard. With a little practice, you can swipe faster and thus write much faster. Keyboard, just like so much faster than two fingers. Keyboard. This is also pretty fast with two thumbs, keyboard. If you have more experience, and personally I use both methods. I use both thumbs when I have both of my hands available. But in other cases, if I'm holding something and I only have one hand available, then I type like this. Which is also pretty fast for one finger. So writing takes a little to get used to. But once you get the hang of it, then you can write pretty quick. Just like so. Again, maybe it's because I'm used to typing with both thumbs that I still use that method. But if you're not so familiar or you want to try something different, which is really beneficial to use with only one thumb, then this is the way to go. Now, it is your turn. To make it more fun, I would start practicing by texting your friends, using the swiping method. As you practice more, you'll see that this will become more second nature and you'll type much faster on your phone. Good luck practicing. 22. Outro and What Is Next?: Thank you so much for coming along this typing journey. I hope you could learn a lot during this process. All of these tips will help you accelerate your progress that much faster and mix things up. So try practicing with type racer and then mix it by using ten fast fingers when you're texting your friends. Try writing properly and fast. Just have fun doing it. That's the most important part. I have a Youtube channel called Mr. Chops, and there I share all my thoughts and stories in the most interesting way. Feel free to check it out. And also skillshare, I have other classes. Feel free to check them out if you like this one. Don't forget to post a screenshot of your progress in the class project. Feel free to review this class if you want to. And if you have any doubts, always ask good luck on your typing journey.