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Original poster

How many MNers can type?

77 replies

marthamoo · 26/05/2005 13:44

Properly, I mean?

I can't. I did do Mavis Beacon for a while but I got bored. I'm pretty fast but it's not "proper" typing. Wish I'd learned it at school - it would have been a damn sight more useful than algorithms and Norwegian fjords - but...how can I put this nicely?...top set-ers weren't encouraged to do typing!

OP posts:
WigWamBam · 26/05/2005 13:45

I can - I was a secretary in a former life. I wasn't allowed to learn typing at school either, because of the top-setters thing, but I took RSAs through night classes when I then couldn't find a job.

suzywong · 26/05/2005 13:46

I can
that's why my mouth runs away with me on here as well as RL

ZolaPola · 26/05/2005 13:46

mother dead against me learning when I was at school for fear of me not getting decent job! seems such an old-fashioned view now..

MarsLady · 26/05/2005 13:47

I can, though not so well when a DT or two try to help!

Surfermum · 26/05/2005 13:47

I can touch type at about 100 words per minute. I learnt at college when I trained to be a bilingual secretary, then years in the NHS bashing my way through piles of clinic letters and discharge summaries got my speed up.

What's weird though is I can do it without looking, but if you asked me where the "p" or the "d" is I couldn't tell you!

Gobbledigook · 26/05/2005 13:47

I can! Learned at school on an old fashioned type writer and Sooooooo glad I did. Never have to look at the keyboard.

KBear · 26/05/2005 13:48

Yep - speeeedy too! DH hates it cos he can't and takes four hours to type an www address or an e-mail!!!!

I learnt at college on a manual typewriter

a s d f j k l ;
a s d f j k l ;

am old.....

oliveoil · 26/05/2005 13:49

Yes, touch typist here as well. Annnnnnd I can do shorthand an everryfin.

rickman · 26/05/2005 13:49

Message withdrawn

Surfermum · 26/05/2005 13:49

Ah yes, the "home" keys. I'm old too and learnt on a manual. "All together girls d d d d d d, k, k, k, k k,". Don't know they're born these days with word processors.

WigWamBam · 26/05/2005 13:50

I'm old too, I learned on a manual and was very jealous of those who had done some typing before because they were allowed to use a new-fangled electric jobby.

oliveoil · 26/05/2005 13:51

the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

Is that right?

Enid · 26/05/2005 13:51

I can type sssssssssooooooooooper fast

taught myself. Have to look at the screen while I am typing though, can't look at the document.

CountessDracula · 26/05/2005 13:51

MOI

I learned at school too on olde type wrytere

sunchowder · 26/05/2005 13:52

I started my career as a secretary, so yes, I can touch type very quickly and I too remember those manual typewriters! Then we went to the IBM correcting selectric and onto the MAG Card Readers....I don't look back on those were the days or anything though! But I am glad that I can touch type.

Original poster
marthamoo · 26/05/2005 13:53

Gosh, so many of you can! I'm impressed.

OP posts:
MarsLady · 26/05/2005 13:54

I touch type and can't look at the keys when typing. I took myself of to Sight and Sound and learnt to type there. I have such memories of blanked out keys and a booming voice saying a....................... a.......................... followed by the thudding of keys by keen learner typists. lol

I figured it would come in handy one day, and here I am proved right!

Fimbo · 26/05/2005 13:54

Yes, manual typewriter here too. What a faff with tippex and those rubber pencil things - if you rubbed too hard you wore a whole in the paper. Anyone remember Thermal paper as well, which you typed on and used in a copying machine, if you made a mistake you had to correct it with pink stuff that reminded me of nail varnish.

KBear · 26/05/2005 13:54

Being old though , we can remember the days of three carbon copies, making mistakes, bugger, tippex, three times, wait for it to dry, total mess, start again. I love PCs.

tarantula · 26/05/2005 13:54

I can do it a bit and am self taught. Problem is I think about it too much and then forget what Im doing IYSWIM. Love to have learned properly at school. think all kids shoud do it esp now with computers everywhere. dss is computer mad but can type or even navigate a keyboard with any fluency at all.

Surfermum · 26/05/2005 13:57

I used to type discharge summaries with 3 self-carbonating copies. I had white, pink, yellow and blue tippex! What was really annoying was if at the end of the letter the doctor said "oh can you go back to "Investigations" and add these results. The whole thing got typed again and the doctor got a clip round the ears and salt in his coffee. I wonder now how we got all the work done.

roisin · 26/05/2005 14:00

Yes, I touch type super speedy - best thing I ever learned at school. I started off doing 5 A levels in 6th form, and couldn't cope, esp with 2 languages. So I dropped French and did typing instead - what an inspired choice!
Proud Mummy alert: DS1 is doing Mavis Beacon atm, he's just passed the Beginners section (i.e he knows all the keys without looking), and he can do 12 wpm

bundle · 26/05/2005 14:03

we weren't allowed to do typing at school either, unless you were doing lots of cse's (showing my age ) but learned on manual typewriter when i was on the dole after college. god i had strong fingers. got a distinction and touch-typing is very unnerving for people watching you if you look as if you're writing about them...

cod · 26/05/2005 14:04

Message withdrawn

Surfermum · 26/05/2005 14:05

Wow Cod, no typos . Punctuation a bit dodgy though.