Touch typing means typing without looking at the keyboard: each finger has its own keys, and your eyes stay on the screen. It feels slow at first, but it is the way to type both fast and accurately for years. This guide covers how to start, how to practise and what to expect.
Why learn it
If you look down while typing, you lose your place every few words, and the number of fingers you use limits your speed. Touch typists use all ten fingers, catch their mistakes on the screen as they happen, and can think about what they write instead of where the keys are.
Start from the home row
Your fingers rest on the middle row of letters, the home row, and every other key is a short reach from there:
- Left hand: little finger on A, then S, D, and the index finger on F.
- Right hand: index finger on J, then K, L, and the little finger on ;.
- Both thumbs rest on the space bar.
Feel for the small bumps on F and J: they let you find the home row without looking. After each reach, your fingers go back home. Sitting upright with relaxed shoulders and wrists that don’t rest on the desk helps too; the basics shows it step by step.
Which finger presses which key
Each finger moves up and down its own slanted column of keys:
- Left little finger: Q, A, Z, plus Tab, Caps Lock and the left Shift.
- Left ring finger: W, S, X. Left middle finger: E, D, C.
- Left index finger: two columns, R, F, V and T, G, B.
- Right index finger: two columns, U, J, M and Y, H, N.
- Right middle finger: I, K and the comma. Right ring finger: O, L and the full stop.
- Right little finger: P, ; and /, plus Enter, Backspace and the right Shift.
For a capital letter, hold Shift with the little finger of the other hand: right Shift for an A, left Shift for a J.
How to practise
- Learn a few keys at a time. Start with the home row, then add the top row, then the bottom row. New keys stick better a pair at a time.
- Don’t look. When you’re unsure of a key, think about which finger it belongs to rather than glancing down.
- Go for accuracy, then speed. Type slowly enough to get almost every key right; your speed rises by itself.
- Keep a steady rhythm. An even pace is faster in the end than bursts and pauses.
- Practise briefly and often. Fifteen to twenty minutes a day works better than a long session once a week.
How long it takes
With short daily practice, most people know where the letters are within one to two weeks. Getting back to the speed you had before, when you still looked at the keys, usually takes a few weeks more; after that, most people keep getting faster.
The first days are the hardest: you will be slower than before, and it is tempting to go back to looking. Stick with it for those days, and use touch typing for your everyday typing too, not only in practice.
Learning with TypeCart
TypeCart’s lessons follow this order: the home row first, then the top and bottom rows, then whole words. Each lesson brings in its new keys one at a time, with an on-screen keyboard and hands that show which finger to use, and a short game at the end.
If you already know some keys, the placement test skips the rows you have. Once you know the letters, adaptive practice keeps working on your slowest keys, and the speed test shows how far you have come; what counts as a good typing speed explains the numbers.