I am curious if there is any other pocket owners who are working to improve their touch typing on the pocket? The keys are smaller and it doesn’t lend well to a lack of precision. I am getting there but I really have to concentrate to get around 70% (80 wpm) of my typing speed on it so far, but with a TON of errors.
How is this going for you?
I do not write as fast as on my full keyboard, but it works well enough for the size. For me it helps using a layout where I almost never have to leave home rows, with the help of kanata, a software which lets me use layers and home row modifiers. It lets me use the exact same layout as on my standard keyboards.
I find that positioning is pretty critical, but I’ve also had quite a lot of practice on a Planck so it’s not that far removed.
I keep on home row (would love to get some dimpled caps for f and j at some point) and keep my thumbs over the space keys. The temptation is to keep them over the mouse buttons which leads to a much more adhoc and right-hand-dominant style. My speed and accuracy is pretty good already, but I don’t ever expect it to quite reach the level of a full-size keyboard, but I assumed that from the get-go.
I use a Corne as my daily driver so I’m used to fewer keys, so I’m interested to look into the viability of fabbing a new board that drops a layer and a row and uses full-sized caps instead.
I have a Planck as well but I found the Pocket more difficult and requiring adjustment due to spacing and keycap size. The more practice i get though the better things are getting.
My best so far on monkeytype:
So I have been making progress despite the little time I have had to invest in the Pocket typing proficiency. One thing that has helped me a lot and I can’t really explain is that I started using Wordstar 7 and all of a sudden I was typing much more accurately on the pocket.
I have a file I just call drivel in which I just type things. Nothing serious. It is all random, and just whatever pops into my head. It is really just about typing and getting better at it.
Anyway here is another score of something that I have been able to do.
The thing is that while my speed is improving slowly (my normal speed is 120-30 wpm) my accuracy is also making big strides.
Hopefully this helps people feel like they can learn the keyboard and use it efficiently. I’ll post again when I see another improvement.
Turns out that Wordstar might have seriously just unlocked this keyboard for me. I feel so much more comfortable on this thing now.
I was having some negatives on the keyboard size but it seems like it isn’t that hard to get accustomed to it and make some progress. With the RK3588 becoming available for the pocket now, I am thinking that this little powerhouse is really going to be going places with me!
I don’t have any hard stats yet, but my touch typing is surprisingly good on this thing! Certainly not as fast as usual, but very good nonetheless. Helps that I have small hands, and helps that I’m used to typing on a Planck.
This thread is very encouraging, as I am struggling to get decent accuracy and comfort on the pocket — even though the switches feel great.
I am not at all used to typing on a planck; my preferred keyboards are 14" thinkpads and the moergo glove80. Some super basic questions:
Gonna try to answer your questions in order here:
At some point I might have a look at remapping to use the outer mouse button keys to space and backspace and the two space keys as those mouse buttons as I feel that would be more ergonomic.
What browser are you using for monkeytype?
(I tried Firefox in Sway, and monkeytype is unbearably slow).
I use Brave. Works perfectly.
Totally understand why you would ask this. Seems kind of arbitrary to me that Wordstar had an effect at all. I think what helps is that in DOS text mode full screen, the words you are typing are pretty large and you just have real good feedback on what you are inputting. For me it just helped me to focus better while typing. I did that a while and then just learned that for me, at least, looking occasionally at the keyboard would allow me to make slight adjustments on the overall position of my hands. It also helped me to learn which keys are problematic. Punctuation is basically a must. I have to look or I will hit the wrong key. Things like this are just easy to do when you are hyper focused on just entering text. Wordstar is great at that. At least for me.
I have been seeing slight improvements, not so much on speed, but on precision/accuracy. I feel far more confident while typing and not having to pay that close of attention to the keys. Even for punctuation. I guess practice really is the key here.
This is my latest result.
This is only ~10 wpm off my normal max. So I would say I’m doing ok.
Impressive. My problem is posture. At a desk I can get a modest 80wpm using a split keyboard (ZSA Voyager mostly, but also use Altreus keyboards), but as I use the Pocket on the couch I’m in a terrible position, half draped over the side arm, I’d be lucky to get 30wpm, so wonder are you getting those speeds at a desk?
