Since I type 130 wpm I voted 8 without thinking, but if it's letters I actually only use 7. I just realized that I don't actually use my right pinky for typing letters. After some reflection though, I don't think this is bad form though, the only letter that might be good for the right pinky would be P, but it could just as easily be typed with the ring finger.

b0lt

United States790 Posts

April 21 2014 01:57 GMT

#182

Do people usually always type a certain key with a certain finger? I'm looking at my hands right now, and I use like 3 or 4 fingers to press a specific key depending on what I'm typing. Like for the word 'specific', I have my left ring finger on s, middle finger on e, index finger on f, thumb on c, right index finger on i, and right ring finger on p. The only finger that I don't use for random words is my right pinky, but it gets apostrophe duty, so I guess I type with all ten fingers?

FiWiFaKi

Canada9859 Posts

April 21 2014 02:10 GMT

#183

On April 21 2014 10:28 obesechicken13 wrote:
Shouldn't you use a poll that correlates the user's fingers to their wpm directly?

I thought about it, but it's not very effective. Way too many polls for each category, and people tend to vote in more than one poll, or vote in the wrong poll, and it just wouldn't give a very accurate measure either.

Plus when I made the thread, I didn't expect this thread to get so big, and therefore I didn't expect 500 people to vote - thinking the sample size would be smaller. ^^

Weasel-

Canada1556 Posts

April 21 2014 02:47 GMT

#184

I honestly can't answer how many fingers I use because focusing on it changes it from how it would be if I just typed away.

Also that typing test is really hard because I have to type somebody else's words. When typing out this post I typed at least 4x faster than on that typing test, and with only one error vs 20 or so for the entire paragraph.

itkovian

United States1763 Posts

April 21 2014 03:34 GMT

#185

Pulling 81 wpm according to the first wpm test on google

I thought I typed with all eight of my fingers, but after doing the test, and trying out a little bit on my own, I found my right pinky is pretty idle, that little slacker. He's mostly camping shift and return, not much else

Ragoo

Germany2773 Posts

April 21 2014 12:39 GMT

#186

Seems like I'm in the 1% of 3 finger master race. Left pinky for ctrl, ring finger for shift, thumb for space and alt. Then the left index and middle finger for letters and the right index finger as well. I get 80-90 wpm.

PVJ

Hungary5221 Posts

April 21 2014 13:02 GMT

#187

I never thought about this but results were interesting. I type w/ 3 fingers on the left and 4 on the right hand

c0ldfusion

United States8293 Posts

April 21 2014 13:33 GMT

#188

I really want to see you guys type at 70-90 wpm with 2-3 fingers. That's just utterly incredible to me.

kaztah

Norway1221 Posts

April 21 2014 15:22 GMT

#189

I had actually no idea about how fast I type, so I made a profile at typeracer, completed 40 races and checked.

From that I got around 100 wpm and 96%ish accuracy. I'm surprised how many people actually have +120, considering that's pretty much what their live updated scoreboard consist of.

I have no idea how many fingers I use thought, since I have no idea how I'm supposed to notice that when typing is all muscle memory for now. But I would guess around 5~

c0ldfusion

United States8293 Posts

April 21 2014 16:59 GMT

#190

The real kicker is that loads of people here claim 100+ WPM on _average_.
If I really force myself to focus on typing I can hit over 90. But by then my fingers are quite tired and there is no way I can't keep this up for an extended period of time. ::Shrugs:: Maybe my techniques are all wrong.

In either case, this my normal typing speed of 70-80 WPM is certainly not a bottleneck of my writing productivity on the computer. Unless one spends a considerable amount of time taking dictation, I can't imagine this would be a practical limitation for anyone here.

phosphorylation

United States2935 Posts

April 21 2014 17:35 GMT

#191

Just scored 151 wpm on type racer. Speed really depends on the difficulty and length of text. On easier ones, I can reach 140-160 WPM. On more difficult texts, however, it can dip to 100 WPM.

I am a classically trained pianist - maybe that helps; also have around 300 APM on broodwar (maybe we should correlate APM with WPM)

YourGoodFriend

United States2197 Posts

April 21 2014 17:55 GMT

#192

As a developer me using 5 fingers (3 on right hand only 2 on my left) works just fine even if I am not super fast (60 WPM) but I do wish I typed using home row

Najda

United States3765 Posts

April 21 2014 18:06 GMT

#193

7 finger typer (I don't use my right pinkie for letters), 93wpm average on typeracer over 50 races, highest score was 125.

I'm surprised more people here use 3 left fingers and 4 right fingers. My left hand is much more proficient at typing since it spends so much more time on the keyboard due to gaming, though especially hotkeys in Starcraft/DotA. Do you people play DotA/LoL with just 3 fingers as well?

Kon-Tiki

United States402 Posts

April 21 2014 18:50 GMT

#194

I've read the phrase "pinky key" enough for it to be really funny by this point. It shouldn't be, but it is

iamho

United States3347 Posts

April 21 2014 19:20 GMT

#195

140ish average on typeracer. I'm surprised so many people have high scores here as well, must be related to the APM requirements for Starcraft.

pebble444

Italy2503 Posts

April 21 2014 20:24 GMT

#196

i feel that many people including me are lying on that poll.

rudimentalfeelthelov

Finland268 Posts

April 21 2014 20:40 GMT

#197

I type only with my index fingers and left thumb for space button and I can write well above 100 words per minute.

Sn0_Man

Tebellong44238 Posts

April 21 2014 20:50 GMT

#198

On April 22 2014 05:40 rudimentalfeelthelov wrote:
I type only with my index fingers and left thumb for space button and I can write well above 100 words per minute.

If you classify "I" as a word for the purpose of "words per minute" then I believe you

Xapti

Canada2473 Posts

April 21 2014 20:57 GMT

#199

Some people might not have realized —like me— that they don't type letters with their pinky fingers. Do all of you who said 8 fingers really use your pinky fingers for 1,q,a,z and p (and/or possibly others)?

It seems quite strange that people would use both their pinky fingers in typing. One pinky seems maybe reasonable, but both seems strange.

I'm thinking that many people didn't read the post entirely. I certainly use my pinky fingers but not for typing any letters.

On standard layout keyboards it seems kinda inefficient to use pinky fingers for typing letters; the letters A, and P are used too often, and pinky fingers are generally rather weak and always short. Maybe a different physical layout and/or key layout, but standard grid QWERTY doesn't look like it works well.

How do you guys type the word HELP? (or any word consisting of successive P's and L's) you type both (L&P) letters with the pinky? aside from seeming awkward, it seems slow and inefficient

Sn0_Man

Tebellong44238 Posts

April 21 2014 21:01 GMT

#200

I use my pinkies for all the letters you are supposed to, although I'm guilty of only using one shift button (left) and as such while "a" is done with my pinky, "A" is done with my ring finger.

PS qwerty sucks ass but thats how everybody learns and its too much work to completely relearn typing hell half the people in this thread don't even type properly in the first place such as yourself (not flaming, just fact). Me neither tbh.

And L is definitely a ring-finger button. Put ur hands on home row lol. The only letter your right pinky touches is "p" although it also does a ton of punctuation.