Numbers in text typing practice

These keys, measured

Keys

10

Digits

0.0386% of prose

Turns up

once in 2,587 characters

Fingers involved

8

Counted over the 111 books behind the practice texts here, digits come to 25,814 of 66,792,973 characters — 0.0386%, or one every 2,587. That is rare enough that nobody practises it, and common enough in a password, a formula or a line of code to cost real time.

The set spans one row: the number row.

Other drills

Keep going

• Typing test

  Gross and net WPM, accuracy and keystrokes per hour — the figures typing exams use, at eight lengths from 15 seconds to 15 minutes.

• Typing lessons

  Fifteen short lessons, two new keys at a time, with the keyboard showing which finger goes where.

• Practice texts

  Type a passage from a classic book: real sentences, capitals and punctuation, with the numbers that say how hard each one is.

• Every key

  One page per key: the finger that owns it, how often it is really pressed, and the letter pairs it lives in.

• Typing speed

  What a speed means in characters, keystrokes per hour and minutes per page — and a test paced to the number you are aiming at.

• Weak keys

  A drill built from the keys you miss most, worked out from your own tests.

• Times tables

  Each table with its patterns, a drill that returns to what you got wrong, and a 60-second speed test.