Increasing speed of typing

By Borostar, 30 July, 2012

Forum

iOS and iPadOS

Hi. Currently I'm using my right indext finger to type messages on the iPhone. I tend to hit the correct or neighbouring letter but I can't seem to write more than 7 words per minute. I do have Fleksi which has increased productivity and I'm typing 3 times faster but I still would like to improve my typing speed with the native keyboard. I've tried a tactile screen protector and that had slowed me down as I was concentrating on locating the dots. Can anyone recommend a method of increasing the speed of typing on the iPhone?

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What I've found is to divide

What I've found is to divide the keyboard into 3 quadrants by positioning the 3 fingers on the virtual keyboard: Index, middle and ring finger. With my index (I'm speaking using my right hand) I remain in the area between the a and f along with the q through r and z through v; with the middle finger I remain in the g h v b area; with the ring finger I remain in the j through ñ area along with the uper upper and lower letters. I've definitely increased not only my confidence with the virtual keyboard, but little by little start to increase my speed. Any more ideas?

I assume you're not using an

I assume you're not using an iPhone 4S? If you are, dictation works very, very good - just remember to speak punctuation! (Period, comma, exclamation mark, etc) Also, dictating in public isn't something you'd normally do unless you'd speak quietly into your mic, and in a semi-crowded / noisy area so people don't really hear you. For you non 4S users, turning on autocorrect helps somewhat, as well. If you miss a letter autocorrect usually picks it up. You hear a bubble sound, it corrects the text, you slide up or down to hear more suggestions, and if you'd like to not use autocorrect in that case you can just double-tap the suggestion to cancel. HTH

The way I do it

I use a tactile screen protector, and just tap with my left thumb where I think the letres are, while holding the phone in the left hand.

Adventure games

Play text adventure games. I taught myself to type that way. I ride a bumpy paratransit van to and from work and wanted to be able to type on the onscreen keyboard well enough to compose short emails. I practiced by playing text adventures because the excitement of the game made me forget how painfully slow my typing was. When I just tried typing email it was boring, frustrating and I felt incompetent. When I played games, my speed increased without stress.

Actually that's a good idea.

Actually that's a good idea. I just practice and use my left bird finger to type with. I can go at about maybe 10 words a minute which is fast enough for me.

Those magic 'textin thumbs'

I use my two thumbs to type on the keyboard, similar to how a lot of my sighted friends do it. Between that and direct touch typing, I'm limited more by how fast my thumbs can travel rather than by Voiceover. According to my mom and some friends, I actually text faster than a lot of sighted people. It definitely takes some practice and I still use Braille for passwords/etc, but for texting and emails direct touch is my go-to.. Happy typing!

I lost patience with my

I lost patience with my thumbs. Lol! I tend to type faster with my bird finger and many don't know how I can. It just takes practice.

Braille Screen input

Hi. Why don't you use the braille screen input to type? Are you using iOS 7? If so, you can't type with braille screen input.

Faster Typing

Have you tried putting the phone in landscape mode with Fleksy and then using all of your fingers to type like on a conventional keyboard? Putting the phone in landscape mode, even on a phone, will make the keyboard just wide enough to be able to do this.

My main frustration with the Fleksy app now is that I can't seem to be able to switch back to the default Apple keyboard when I want to. I've had to have a sighted person do that. There should be a button on the Fleksy keyboard for switching keyboards as there is with other keyboards.

--PeteOne

Hi,

Hi,
I find braille screen input, the apple version to be annoying. I just use a combination of bluetooth keyboard and touch typing on the screen to type. I think that theres a case called the boxWave, or something. I can't remember, but one of my friends has it and he uses that constantly. it's a slide out keyboard that has little keys that you can then use to type texts etc with and it connects to the phone via bluetooth like other keyboards.

fate of boxwave

The boxwave is goign away so don't get it. Going has got to be another case like it for those of us who like quirty keyboards especually in portrate like the old candy bar phones of the dash I used to use.

Gesture Typing

A while back, a developer posted here about a gesture based keyboard. I have been working with him on refining it. I am looking forward to it being available as a system keyboard for a number of reasons.

I do not like to make typos. When I use dictation or the on screen keyboard, I have to edit out errors that are not really of my own doing. The gesture based typing means that each character has a discrete gesture associated with it, so errors are minimized. Further, like Fleksy, the app can correct words based on predictions.

I find typing to be slow. Sliding around at or near the right button is not efficient. And, while I use dictation when I can, I do not always want to talk out loud to my phone in public. An app that is faster and more accurate would solve this.

I do not wish to carry another device like a keyboard. The phone is enough of a pocket filler.

I do not know how to type in Braille, and I am not sufficiently motivated to learn.

So while I'm sure i could be more accurate with practice, I think the gesture based typing holds the most promise for me. It will solve both my speed and accuracy concerns .

Braille screen input takes up my entire two hands

Hello,
I find that while Braille screen input works well for inputting passwords or for use on my iPad, I do much better with my thumbs on my phone. Mostly because I can hold my phone more securely, and don't have to actively be using six fingers at once, which basically takes up both of my hands. I've gotten pretty good at using my texting thumbs and juggling my phone while I, say, use my cane or eat. Smile.

Actually you don't slide to

Actually you don't slide to the enter key all you do is imagining the space you are in and touch the right hand lower corner of the screen. I can actually type very very fast in touch typing If yo go to audioboom.fm/ke7zum and look for the rant on editing. I can type about maybe 6-10 wpm and I'm fine with that. It just takes practice and I think the gesture keyboard is a no go for most of us. Memorizing 26 gestures is not going to be easy for most of us with hand issues. here is a sample of how fast I type. I can keep this up for a while.

Take care.

How I do it

I use mBraille as a 3rd-party keyboard when I need to type very quickly. I do agree that this and Braille Screen Input require both hands and take up the entire screen. I recently tried Fleksy again, and while they have made some great improvements to their accessibility, like someone has already commented, it's practically impossible to switch to the default keyboard without sighted assistance. I finally deleted Fleksy from the keyboard list so I could use the regular on-screen keyboard for things other than passwords. I also tried another suggestion for faster typing, dividing the keyboard into three sections, and that has worked for me as well.

Speed and Errors

I would not post text with the quantity of errors that you do. I am not criticizing you. I am just saying that I believe that our ideas are at least in part judged by their presentation. Further, I think readers appreciate text that is easy to read and free of distracting errors. Even if I increase my typing on the iOS keyboard, or dictate, I am still spending almost as much time editing as I am creating. Neither of these input modalities offer me the accuracy of a standard hardware keyboard.

I am excited about the gesture typing because the keyboard allows for discrete text entry. By that I mean, if I swipe right in the first quadrant, I am going to get an A every time. It is this predictability and gross rather than fine motor skills that hold the promise of speed, and accuracy.

As for the gestures, until you try it, you may wish to keep an open mind. The whole alphabet is covered with four cardinal direction swipes in one of four quadrants of the screen, and a few that use taps. People with dexterity difficulties may find it easier than hitting the small letter buttons on the standard iOS keyboard. This isn't semaphore. All of the gestures are ones we know and love. With auto correction and prediction, even the quadrants aren't all that important to achieving accurate text entry.

In testing, I am faster, and important to me, more accurate.

Hi Dpinwi,

Hi Dpinwi,
I can't agree more. Not criticizing posters, but I also like typing without errors. By the way, is this gesture keyboard thing out yet? If so, what's the app called? I also am looking for a quicker way to type, and the whole splitting the keyboard into quadrants like a previous commenter just doesn't do it for me. I've tried that.

In Beta

The gesture typing app is still in the beta phase of development. I found out about it from a post from the developer here on AppleVis. I am overdue to talk with him, and will contact him this week. I will post an update if I have more information.

still not a good idea.

I think I've been lucky. I really don't have to edit as I'm normally thinking 1 word ahead of where I need to be. It's the musician's trick that has helped me through out wood working, typing, etc. IN fact I type my good reads reviews with the text keyboard and that has helped me speed up my typing. I still personally don't think the gesture thing is a good idea, but to each his or her own. I believe in being fast and accurate and with both comes practice, just like singing melismatic passages.

I'm willing to try it out if

I'm willing to try it out if I have the time, but since I start work today I dunno how much time I will have.

Take care.

I have no patience with

I have no patience with direct toucdh for some reason. I keep trying it out though. I do type faster with touch for some reason.

i use braille

I use braille screen input. I Have used a braille note for a long time. For me, typing with braille screen input is the fastest way to type.

What works for me.

I will preface this by saying that this works for me. I use dictation or the standard on screen keyboard. Also our friendly robot Sery. Oh no! It will be mad at me because I can't spell it's name correctly. Sorry robot.

I use my Bluetooth

I use my Bluetooth Keyboard to type. I'm not using it as I'm typing right now, I'm using my Refreshabraille. But I tend to type faster with my Bluetooth Keyboard than my Refreshabraille. Lol.

Yesah but if the bt keyboard

Yesah but if the bt keyboard dies, you havde to learn to type on the touch screen or you will not make it. I've had dictation totally die on me as well hence why I practice hard.

It's not a battery

It's not a battery taking Bluetooth Keyboard. It comes with a charger. It charges when I plug it in, then I only have to wait a few minutes. Then it's done. The battery lasts for long long periods of time, so if I charged it in February, it would die in April.

Everyone has their

Everyone has their own way of typing, KE7ZUM, and I was glad to hear you can use the touch screen. Since I'm totally blind, it's hard. If I use the touch screen all I tend to type is ljjkj or something like that.

I can use the

I can use the touch screen keyboard, though I type verry slowly.