Learning & Training
TYPING TRAINING – AMPHETYPE AND FRIENDS
The Big Bag holds a bunch of training gear. On the Training page you'll find good tips both from the experts and me. Whether you're a seasoned veteran or fairly new to typing training, it's a recommended read.
Amphetype is a cross-platform, layout agnostic typing program written by Frank S. Hestvik. I think it's very nice for typing texts, analyzing weaknesses and generating lessons. It's one of the training tools mentioned in the Training Topic.
Amphetype about to start a book text session (from Berens' Greek/Roman mythology)
THE TARMAK TRANSITIONAL LEARNING LAYOUTS
"Tarmak may well be the best transitioning mechanism not only in the Colemak universe, but in layouts period."
~ Lalop
I've added four Tarmak layouts that provide stepping stones from the standard QWERTY layout to Colemak[eD] by moving only 3-4 keys per step. Each step brings at least one important key to the home row (notably, E-T-R-O-I) and only the rare J key is misplaced in the process. If you're brave and impatient, you may of course skip steps to customize your progress.
Tarmak transitional layouts have been reported successful in easing the conversion to Colemak typing and although this evidence is anecdotal I find the proposed hypothesis that gradual changes should be easier to learn for many a plausible one.
NOTE: This may not be the perfect way for everyone. Some people prefer learning Colemak by diving straight in, the "cold turkey" approach. Some like to do "QWERTY by day, Colemak by night" for a while before making the jump. But some have used Tarmak to get a more gradual learning experience and have liked it a lot. So if you think this might be for you, read on!