Does anyone Genuinely like having auto-word completion on?

[skip.knox]

No keyboard has ever surpassed the keyboard for the original IBM PC, at least for writing.

As for autocomplete, it's worse than useless for a fantasy writer. I even tried crafting some, to get words like Trouvères or Bernabò mapped to a three or four letter prefix. When I realized I had then made it harder to type troupe or Berne, I got clever at made it into Trxx or Brnn (I think it was). But I would have to stop and think, if only for a moment, and I wound up with more typos than just typing T-r-o-u-v-Alt-2-3-2-r-e-s. I know that probably seems unintuitive or even just plain dumb, but the alternatives were thoroughly road tested by an expert. So even that specialized application of autocomplete is off the table for me.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I (mostly) like auto-correct, but that's mainly because I can never remember where all the H's go in words like whether.

I hate autocomplete with a passion. It only gets in the way, never does anything useful, and it completely derails my thoughts as I'm writing and I'm seeing these weird suggestions.

I need the ergonomic type, and really just the one layout

I would have picked you for a Dvorak layout user.

But I would have to stop and think, if only for a moment, and I wound up with more typos than just typing T-r-o-u-v-Alt-2-3-2-r-e-s.

You could look into Finnish keyboards. They have separate keys for adding diacrits to most letters. French would do it as well, but they tend to have AZERTY keyboards which are a pain. And scandinavian ones tend to have more diverse characters in my experience.

 

[pmmg]

Ya know....I am left handed. And all my life I have been encountering stuff that is made for left handed people...left handed desks, left handed scissors, left handed golf clubs, left handed guitars, left handed mice and keyboards, and my reaction to them is all the same. I grew up in a right handed world, I am used to the right handed stuff, the left handed stuff is weird, and I would prefer someone did not try to help.

I am sure there are keyboards that can do irregular stuff with the keys, but I dont need them. I will stick with the one I have and make due. I've written a million words without needed the little marks above the letters. I think I can continue without them.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I would have picked you for a Dvorak layout user.

Oh, I'm not that cool. lol Not many people know this, but I was a two-finger typist - somehow got my dad's keying habits instead of my mom's - until nearly thirty... when I got a job that gave me an ergonomic for my desk. It really forced me to engage both hands and all ten fingers, and my typing speed increased by leaps and bounds. Now, while typing and writing at the same time, buried in the throes of a scene, I can hit 100 words per minute without breaking a sweat.

Might explain the collection of wrist braces in the basket next to me.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Ya know....I am left handed. And all my life I have been encountering stuff that is made for left handed people...left handed desks, left handed scissors, left handed golf clubs, left handed guitars, left handed mice and keyboards, and my reaction to them is all the same. I grew up in a right handed world, I am used to the right handed stuff, the left handed stuff is weird, and I would prefer someone did not try to help.

I am sure there are keyboard that can do irregular stuff with the keys, but I dont need them. I will stick with the one I have and make due. I've written a million words without needed the little marks above the letters. I think I can continue without them.

My mother-in-law is the same. Lefty in a righty world. She retired from 23 years at the phone company where she had been "strongly discouraged" from using lefty accommodations, and it took her a long time to get past that.

My nephew, on the other hand, is an ambi, and he and my sister lived with my mom most of his life. My mom had been an ambi in the 50's and had it beaten out of her. She was his most fierce advocate and protector of his right to use whatever hand he chose, and today he switches back and forth with no problems.

 

[Finchbearer]

Oh, I'm not that cool. lol Not many people know this, but I was a two-finger typist - somehow got my dad's keying habits instead of my mom's - until nearly thirty... when I got a job that gave me an ergonomic for my desk. It really forced me to engage both hands and all ten fingers, and my typing speed increased by leaps and bounds. Now, while typing and writing at the same time, buried in the throes of a scene, I can hit 100 words per minute without breaking a sweat.

Might explain the collection of wrist braces in the basket next to me.

You make me think of a scene from Ghost in the Shell where there is a typist who has mechanical hands…

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I'm about a 6 finger typerererer and whenever taking a test in typing class, I reverted to my 6ish fingers because it was faster. I broke 100 per minute that way. I could never get any faster this way, Bu I don't need to, heh heh.

Oh, I'm not that cool. lol Not many people know this, but I was a two-finger typist - somehow got my dad's keying habits instead of my mom's - until nearly thirty... when I got a job that gave me an ergonomic for my desk. It really forced me to engage both hands and all ten fingers, and my typing speed increased by leaps and bounds. Now, while typing and writing at the same time, buried in the throes of a scene, I can hit 100 words per minute without breaking a sweat.

Might explain the collection of wrist braces in the basket next to me.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I'm not sure what that is, but I doubt it was Bluetooth, heh heh. My favorite keyboard is an undersized Logitech with 3 Bluetooth settings, so back when I wrote some on an iPad I could connect fast, move to the tabletop at my house, and tabletop in my office super easy, and never lose the feel and familiarity without shelling out for 3 keyboards. I've had the danged thing almost 8 years now, and the batteries haven't croaked, and I will be sad when they do, LOL. The letters are all faded on the keys, some gone, but it keeps right on rockin'.

It wasn't great for doing the books without the calculator keyboard, but for writing it fits me.

No keyboard has ever surpassed the keyboard for the original IBM PC, at least for writing.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I'm not sure what that is, but I doubt it was Bluetooth, heh heh. My favorite keyboard is an undersized Logitech with 3 Bluetooth settings, so back when I wrote some on an iPad I could connect fast, move to the tabletop at my house, and tabletop in my office super easy, and never lose the feel and familiarity without shelling out for 3 keyboards. I've had the danged thing almost 8 years now, and the batteries haven't croaked, and I will be sad when they do, LOL. The letters are all faded on the keys, some gone, but it keeps right on rockin'.

It wasn't great for doing the books without the calculator keyboard, but for writing it fits me.

I have an alarming habit of giving characters names with alt codes. Bloody Irish Gaelic. Norse isn't any better. My wife was able to stop me in Beneath a Stone Sky from using some characters that we don't use in English anymore, namely two variants on "th" and one that looks like a dropped "z" and sounds like clearing a throat with COVID. Dwarves, you know? With more than a little flavor of a misspent youth. So, if I don't have a 10-key, it suddenly gets real difficult to include some names and that just won't do!

I always find it interesting when men can use tiny keyboards. I've got big hands. Really big, for a woman. No one wants me to hit them, not so much just for big as for my dad teaching me exactly what to do with them. But throw a tiny keyboard at me and it feels like my fingers are clashing. My wife has these pretty little hands and 10-keys like the wind. But for me, my 15-inch lappie looks like it belongs in Kindergarten. Chunky keys, big cartoony letters, 10-key. all the stuff.

 

[Karlin]

Most search engines use auto-complete, including Google.

AAARRGGH. If you once look for something, it assumes, till the end of time that THAT is what you are interested in. After all the first 3 letters were the same!

 

[Prince of Spires]

I'm not sure how fast I type. I doubt I reach 100 words a minute. Maybe if they're short words... But for me the limiting factor always is my thinking speed. I can type faster than I can think, which means I never have to try and find out what my max typing speed is. Maybe one day I'll learn to think faster.

 

[pmmg]

I'm not sure how fast I type. I doubt I reach 100 words a minute. Maybe if they're short words... But for me the limiting factor always is my thinking speed. I can type faster than I can think, which means I never have to try and find out what my max typing speed is. Maybe one day I'll learn to think faster.

I feel I am the opposite. I think faster than I type, which leads to a lot of misspellings, bad tenses, and missing words in my sentences. Which by itself is very vexing. Missing words in sentences is the bane of my existence.