Ask HN: What is the best way or software to learn how to type fast these days?

11 points by marcelfahle 14 years ago | 6 comments

Is Mavis Beacon any good? What are the most fun games to practice? My typing is around 60-70 wpm and just ugly. Shame on me for being so lazy. Time for a change.

phaus 14 years ago |

Typingweb.com is how I went from about 50 words / minute pecking to 80 touch typing. After you get to a certain point with the tutorial the only thing that you can do to get faster is practice. One of the world class typists used to type out a 1000 word block of text each day, starting over whenever he made mistake (this was after he retired.) If you don't have any writing assignments that you are obligated to do, I suggest copying a few pages worth of articles each day. Alternate focusing on perfect accuracy for one article and then focus on speed for the next. Eventually you should get faster.

jeffool 14 years ago |

While I don't remember how difficult it got, I know I loved Typing of the Dead. Orbs the old "House of the Dead" game, but users a keyboard instead of a light gun! Of course, good luck finding a legit copy...

pkamb 14 years ago |

Very impressed with Z-Type: http://www.phoboslab.org/ztype/

irunbackwards 14 years ago |

If you already have a good foundation and just need to practice, typeracer is excellent.

http://play.typeracer.com

mattnguyen 14 years ago |

play.typeracer.com

aitoehigie 14 years ago |

try out gtypist if you use Ubuntu.