| Pages in topic: [1 2 3] > | Poll: Do you think (10-finger) touch typing enhances your translation speed? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you think (10-finger) touch typing enhances your translation speed?".
This poll was originally submitted by Annett Hieber. View the poll results »
| | | | Interlangue (X)
Angola
Local time: 06:20
English to French
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Do I really need all my fingers to speak to Dragon?
| | | | Anne Carnot 
France
Local time: 06:20
Member (2009)
English to French
it's faster and you don't have to look at your fingers, which is a big help when you already have 2 or more documents to look at! It was quite boring to learn, but I don't regret it
But then, I don't have Dragon...
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I could and I was fast, then I started using a laptop, and the keyboard is not the same size, so, I now use 6-8 fingers, but I am auite fast, well, i can say it is less comfortable, and I am not sure about the difference in speed
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Mary Worby
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:20
German to English
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I don't touch type, but I do a vague approximation of it involving about eight fingers. The little fingers don't seem to get involved. As it is, I feel my fingers are sometimes running away with me. But my typing speed now roughly matches my thinking speed, so I'm happy!
| | | | David Wright
Austria
Local time: 06:20
German to English
+ ...
until I got RSS (repeated strain syndrome), a very frequent consequence of high speed typing. Stopped me working for quite a while until I hired a freelance secretary (a student at the local university) to dictate to (in the good old days when you just had to pay someone for the hours they did and the more complex regulations concerning tax and social security didn't exist). This progressed to using a dictaphone and delivering the types, later still mailing the files to her to type and finally, ... See more until I got RSS (repeated strain syndrome), a very frequent consequence of high speed typing. Stopped me working for quite a while until I hired a freelance secretary (a student at the local university) to dictate to (in the good old days when you just had to pay someone for the hours they did and the more complex regulations concerning tax and social security didn't exist). This progressed to using a dictaphone and delivering the types, later still mailing the files to her to type and finally, once she and her successors had graduated and got proper jobs, switching to Dragon.
I would say that touch typing could seriously slow down your work speed eventually. ▲ Collapse
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I never was good at touch typing. I simply do not have the coordination, and I sometimes say that is how I learnt to proofread. 
I do NOT play a musical instrument!! You can correct typing errors afterwards, but no amount of practice seemed to help when I simply hit the wrong key on the piano. After forty years of intermittent practice, I reckon I am never going to be a good typist, but I get by. It would be worse w... See more I never was good at touch typing. I simply do not have the coordination, and I sometimes say that is how I learnt to proofread.
I do NOT play a musical instrument!! You can correct typing errors afterwards, but no amount of practice seemed to help when I simply hit the wrong key on the piano. After forty years of intermittent practice, I reckon I am never going to be a good typist, but I get by. It would be worse without some elements of touch typing.
What really causes havoc is the ridiculous short cut in Trados for what they call Set/Close Next Open/Get or moving from one segment (sentence) to the next.
The short cut involves the Alt key and the + from the numerical keyboard right across the keyboard.
Well, the exercise seems to save me from RSS, which I get from the mouse, but the Wordfast short cut is smarter, especially on a laptop.
Am I the only person with this problem? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Not being able to touch-type | Jan 20, 2010 |
led me to develop an existing machine translation program. Now, with two fingers, I get through about 1500-2000 words an hour on the first draft. Is touch-typing quicker? By the way, using machine translation means you can be fully confident that any numbers in the text are correct, which is an advantage when doing scientific texts. I must say I would like to have the choice of being able to touch-type...
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Abdulvahed
Iran
Local time: 07:50
English to Persian (Farsi)
| KEYBOARD TYPING is wrong on its base | Jan 20, 2010 |
We should be after a software capable of recognizing and scanning hand written letters and changing them into typed forms. We translate a text into a target language in hand written form and the rest of the work involving recognizing, scanning and changing handwritten charaters into typed ones is undertaken by a suitable computer software. In typing with computer keyboard two hands and ten fingers are involved while in writing with hand we use just ... See more We should be after a software capable of recognizing and scanning hand written letters and changing them into typed forms. We translate a text into a target language in hand written form and the rest of the work involving recognizing, scanning and changing handwritten charaters into typed ones is undertaken by a suitable computer software. In typing with computer keyboard two hands and ten fingers are involved while in writing with hand we use just one hand and at least three fingers. Before that we were writing with our one hand and three fingers, now we still use our hands but two instead of one hand and our fingers but ten instead of at least three fingers.We are not faced with problems once Gutenberg was intangled with having him prompted to invent movable type so as to overcome with laborious work of copying books of the same title.So it was not writting with hand to prompt Gutenburg invent movable type but was copying same material for multiple of times. The written symbols, tools and technology to reproduce these characters as a raised surface on a suitable material, ink and finally paper were major problems which have been solved before coming into existence of printing.Now we have computers and digital printers of some sorts and writting machines have been replaced with for example Microsoft word office without any need for ink and paper and a raised surface in the typing process.We can save our document and copy and print it whatever time we choose.But still a major problem “typing” keeps going.Hands still keeps involving us in producing documents.It ,s now time to choose between writting with one hand three fingers involved or typing with two hands ten fingers involved.Instead of decreasing hand involvement in documents producing we have increased that through typing. We are so fascinated with computer facilities that ignored to get rid of this defect in our civilization. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | No, I am using one hand only | Jan 20, 2010 |
As I am paralysed on my left side after a brain tumour, so I am typing with one hand only (my right). However, I am so used to doing everything with one hand that I would like to claim that I am as fast as anyone else. Certainly, I am not experiencing any problems or negative effects - and I always deliver my projects in - or before -set deadline.
| | | | DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
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If typing speed < translation speed then it does limit greatly.
If typing speed >= translation speed then it does help, or at least doesn't limit.
If *typing* is automatically done in background t... See more If typing speed < translation speed then it does limit greatly.
If typing speed >= translation speed then it does help, or at least doesn't limit.
If *typing* is automatically done in background then one just has more time and speed for translation process. Also there're people who can type at 250+ chars per minute while just skimming and I hardly imagine what diagonal or zig-zag really fast readers can do)
As for me, my typing is 150 ± 30 chars per minutes and I sometime do find it rather constraining... Anyway, IMO one should rather be able to do something than not) ▲ Collapse
| | | | Heike Kurtz
Germany
Local time: 06:20
Member (2005)
English to German
+ ...
I learned it at an early age and on a mechanical typewriter (I was 13). Then I improved it during my training as a European Secretary (you have to do at least 400 strokes/minute for the final exam). Since then, I have been typing every day at work, therefore it is as automated as, say, shifting the gears while I'm driving. In my case, it helps me a lot because I can type as fast as I think without concentrating on it and seeing the sentence I am working on in written form improves my thought pro... See more I learned it at an early age and on a mechanical typewriter (I was 13). Then I improved it during my training as a European Secretary (you have to do at least 400 strokes/minute for the final exam). Since then, I have been typing every day at work, therefore it is as automated as, say, shifting the gears while I'm driving. In my case, it helps me a lot because I can type as fast as I think without concentrating on it and seeing the sentence I am working on in written form improves my thought process.
I always have a hard time using Dragon because a) it is much slower than my typing with all the errors and corrections I have to make and b) my own talking disturbs me a lot - I cannot concentrate on my work with background noises on.
Laptop keybords (and most default computer keyboards) are a nuisance, though. I use a Microsoft Natural keyboard (the one that's tilted towards the monitor) and it works just fine. Apple used to have a split keyboard that was even better, but alas, my Macintosh days are over since DVX did not run on a Mac when I started using it...
david young wrote:
led me to develop an existing machine translation program. Now, with two fingers, I get through about 1500-2000 words an hour on the first draft. Is touch-typing quicker? By the way, using machine translation means you can be fully confident that any numbers in the text are correct, which is an advantage when doing scientific texts. I must say I would like to have the choice of being able to touch-type...
It all depends on the point of view. My typing speed matches my thinking speed and I do not produce "rough drafts". My first version is my last - subject to proofreading and a few minor changes of course. Is machine translation quicker in the end? But I must admit that we were trained thoroughly and took exams in speed touch-typing in three languages back then.
[Bearbeitet am 2010-01-20 10:14 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 06:20
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
Being a self-taught typist since the age of 9 or 10 years, I find it rather difficult to touch type and to "blind" type.
In fact, the typing tests at college revealed that using my method is much faster and produces less typos than touch typing.
Why change something that works well?
Regards
Thayenga
| | | | | Faster than Dragon | Jan 20, 2010 |
I learned when I was just a teenager, and after 20 years I'm fast and I make very few mistakes at typing.
If I use Dragon, I need to review everything more carefully than when I type. Plus, I cannot use Dragon in Catalan (yet?), so I could only use it in some of the projects I work on.
Touch typing is definitely vital for me.
| | | | | Also learned fast-typing at an early age | Jan 20, 2010 |
I have had basically the same experience as Heike Kurtz and Marta Cervera Areny. I learned to type very fast during my first year in high-school, and it is one of the abilities I am glad I learned early enough.
But I also wanted to add that I have always tried to make sure, now that we use the PC so much, to follow the recommendations about ergonomic typing positions (see www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/computerworkstations/positions.html), because when you type so fast it's easy to strain your fingers, wrists, arm, etc.
Ivette ▲ Collapse
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