Touch Typing - Advantages
Speed
Touch typing can efficiently bring an average speed typist to 60 words per minute (WPM) fairly quickly and at the same time increase accuracy by great amounts. Upon regular practice, good typing speed can be achieved within 4 weeks to 6 weeks.
Reduced switching of attention
A touch typist does not need to move the sight between the keyboard (that is obscured with fingers and may be poorly lit) and other areas that require attention. This greatly increases productivity. For instance, if you are a serious or professional typist, this would benefit you a lot.
Training
A touch typist starts by placing his or her fingers on the "start position" in the middle row and knows which finger to move and how much to move it for reaching any required key. A typist generally masters touch typing by first mastering home row letters and then gradually mastering keys on other rows. Keys near to home row is mastered gradually over time. It is important to learn placing fingers into the start position blindly as the hands are frequently raised from the keyboard to operate the line feed lever (in the past) or (more recently) the computer mouse. The keys F and J frequently contain some surface features that allow the typist to recognize them by touch alone. Most keyboards have bumbs on key F and J to aid touch typists.
The typing speed can be increased gradually with regular practice and speeds around 60 WPM could be achieved within a year or so. Many websites and software products are available to learn touch typing and many of these are free. Learning touch typing can be stressful both to the fingers as well as the mind in the beginning, but once it is learned to a decent level, it exerts minimal stress on the fingers.
Typing speed generally improves with practice. While practicing, it is important to ensure that there are no weak keys. Typing speed is typically determined by how slow these weak keys are typed rather than how fast the remaining keys are typed. If a stage is reached where irrespective of the amount of practice, typing speed is not increasing, it is advisable to let some time pass and continue serious practice thereafter as typing speeds typically tend to increase with time even when no serious practice is done.