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Practice and Improve Touch Typing at Keybr.com
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 12:30 AM on January 4, 2008
Free web app Keybr.com is a simple touch type practice tool that shows you how fast and error-free your typing is through an escalating series of exercises. Like a web-based version of previously mentioned Windows-only tools TypeFaster and RapidTyping, Keybr.com could help you make the switch to a Dvorak layout, or learn to switch from a U.S. to UK, Spanish, German, or Russian keyboard (or vice-versa). Keybr.com is free to use and doesn't require a sign-up.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
mw2006
Posted 8:01 AM 3/1/08
websites like this are a great ego-boost to fast-typers. thanks!
mw2006
summerblink
Posted 7:37 AM 3/1/08
i still like Typer Shark better!!! =)
summerblink
LubsyB
Posted 7:31 AM 3/1/08
Haha, yeah, I guess they weren't prepared for the numbers that LH would send them!
I'm getting the "Service Temporarily Unavailable" error also.
LubsyB
jaredharley
Posted 7:28 AM 3/1/08
Same here - page isnt available right now. Guess it fell victim to the "Lifehacker effect"!
jaredharley
remthewanderer
Posted 7:24 AM 3/1/08
Network Error! argh
remthewanderer
Equis
Posted 9:01 AM 3/1/08
Yikes, what's with the gibberish? I touch-type much faster when they're real words. Letter, words and sentences go together in recognizable patterns and there was very little of that in the exercise.
I had a high school typing teacher that would give us a printed article to type, then give us a quiz on the content of the article. I would be the first to finish typing, but I'd have to go back and read the article when I was done because I touch typed it and didn't actually read it while typing.
Interesting.
Equis
BingleyJoe
Posted 8:39 AM 3/1/08
Not bad, but I don't think anything can compete with Typing of The Dead :)
[www.mobygames.com]
BingleyJoe
StrangeTikiGod
Posted 9:48 AM 3/1/08
@Equis: Yeah, I was thinking the same thing when I tried out the site. Not a lot of call for writing gibberish at high speed unless you've got a low-paying job slaving away for a reality show.
StrangeTikiGod
dripdrop
Posted 9:47 AM 3/1/08
@summerblink:
I love Typer Shark too!!
dripdrop
tumples
Posted 6:02 AM 3/1/08
It type a lot faster when they put up words that I recognise. Typing just a sequence of letters throws me completely.
tumples
The How-To Geek
Posted 11:32 AM 3/1/08
@StrangeTikiGod: Gibberish is very useful... 99% of blogs are based on it =)
The How-To Geek
The How-To Geek
Posted 11:26 AM 3/1/08
Personally I learned how to type through excessive use of IRC and IM...
Now I can type 100+ wpm easily... and I can still vaguely remember what the sun looks like. =P
The How-To Geek
Therevan
Posted 11:22 AM 3/1/08
@StrangeTikiGod: Ha!
Therevan
da5id_nz
Posted 1:30 PM 3/1/08
I think it may be too late for me to learn to touch-type now; I am too set in my ways...lol
I've tried a couple of times using Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing and I only get so far before running into the letters that require large finger stretches (like the letter 'B') to reach the letter from the 'home' keys and I get frustrated.
I would LOVE to be able to do it, but as I said, perhaps I don't have the patience now. I am thinking that perhaps if you do it enough it's like being able to play my guitar without looking at the frets - you 'know' where the frets and strings are.
When I was in high school only girls took typing class as PCs weren't in use (the 'computer room' in high school started out with some CBM PET computers before moving on to a heap of Commodore 64's - but even then I don't think they were used for a typing).
At the moment I use the index finger of my left hand and the index, second, and thumb of my right hand and can type about 40 WPM but having to look at the keyboard.
da5id_nz
mcnee
Posted 1:10 PM 3/1/08
this may possibly help you learn to touch type, but once you get to any sort of intermediate level, you don't type letters, you type words. That's the only way you really build up any speed.
It would be interesting to take a paragraph such as the following and see how most touch-typists end up actually copying it...
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae.
mcnee
Iuvat
Posted 4:09 PM 3/1/08
Yeah the qwety typing things has a lot of strange jibberish. On the other hand, when i switched to Dvorak (or tried), it seemed to have words, and then "ded" every once in a while. Oh well, its at least part of one of my other usernames...
Iuvat
the-happy-manager
Posted 1:23 AM 4/1/08
Whichever system you use to improve your typing, the important thing is just do it!! When I first started college (some decades ago!) I decided if I was going to have to write so many essays I'd look for the fastest (honest/legal) way to create them. So the very first thing I learned was how to touch type. Though I'm a firm advocate of lifelong learning and a professional educator, I have to admit I make more regular use of that single, self-taught activity than the content of any of the papers I wrote!
the-happy-manager
garmahis
Posted 3:23 AM 4/1/08
Stamina is a free typing tutor with humor and many useful features both for beginners and advanced users.
garmahis
yachius
Posted 6:17 AM 4/1/08
@Equis: You have to click the little link at the top that says Lesson 1 to move up from gibberish to words. The lessons don't increment themselves as far as I cant tell, though I didn't spend very much time playing with this.
yachius
jabberwacky
Posted 12:48 PM 7/1/08
The gibberish was removed. Try custom lesson. It will use Jabberwocky poem instead of the generated text.
jabberwacky