Artwinauto

Nowadays, automation on computer operating system is still an inconvenient or expensive task. Fortunately, most software are designed such that redundant manipulations are reduced or taken care off by the interface, because most software developers have user-friendly designs in their mind. However in some cases, we do find ourselves the need to repeat certain task over and over again.

 

If the task could be achieved by using keystrokes alone, then we are lucky. For example, "saving the Google search results of the keyword 'sikuli' every minute" is something that can be automated easily using any automation software such as AutoHotKey. All you need to do is to send the keystrokes: "Win+R, firefox, Enter, http://www.google.com, Wait 2 secs, Enter, sikuli, Enter, Ctrl+S, Enter". The macro could be coded easily by anyone after checking the relevant section of the software documentation, usually not more than one page.

 

New frequency-ordered word lists in five different languages: Spanish, Chilean Spanish, Portuguese, German, French were added to our word list collection. They were compiled from Large Corpora used in CTS. Words fewer than 5 characters were deleted (you don't need autocompletion for those). The lists are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution license. As we are English users, we aren't sure of the efficiency of these word lists. Please give us feedback if you use one of them. Meanwhile, newer TypingAid is under development over AHK forum.

Last week, we uploaded an English frequency word list for TypingAid. A series of tests have been carried out to ascertain the benefit of using such word list. A 63-word passage was randomly extracted from a news site. A typist was asked to type the passage without TypingAid, with TypingAid + comprehensive English word list and with TypingAid + frequency-ordered English word list. The time spent was taken down with a timer, from which we calculated the typing speed. We also kept track of the number of keystrokes registered.

 

Both the program TypingAid and the word lists can be downloaded from the page:

TypingAid and word lists.

 

The test involving frequency-ordered word list was recorded in the video below:

A frequency word list is a list of words sorted by the frequency each word appears in texts. The most commonly used words appear on top of the list. The word lists we have on our site so far are alphabetically ordered word lists. They are good for language learners. For other users, we don't really need the alphabetical ordering. With a frequency word list, we enjoy a slightly faster typing speed with TypingAid, because we're able to spot the word we want quickly after typing fewer characters. Try it! Download English frequency word list here. If you do not have TypingAid, download TypingAid here.The frequency word list is obtained from Wiktionary, which says their lists were extracted from TV and movie scripts. The texts are available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

 

1-1000

rank

word

count

1

you

1222421

2

I

1052546

3

to

823661

4

the

770161

5

a

563578

Some work was needed to compile the word list. Words fewer than 5 characters were deleted (you don't need autocompletion for those). There are about 36'000 words in it. If you like it we appreciate if you could tell more people about TypingAid. As at now, only English frequency word list is available. Send us your feedback. If the feedback is good, we will try to compile frequency word lists in other languages.

It is amazing how fast CPU speed and harddisk space can advance in recent years. What's more "amazing" is perhaps we are still using the same keyboard and mouse as we did 15 years ago. Our computer input paradigm hasn't changed much, still the same old routine: typing - mouse-click - interrupts due to flow of thought - typing again.Here we review 5 inventions and technologies that could one day make it easier for us to work with computers and be able to match with the productivity of typing on a keyboard: Software aided typing, DVORAK keyboard, ergonomic input devices, speech recognition technology and multi-touch technology. We introduce each, analyze the pros and cons behind and try to find out which one of them could turn into a consumer product in near future.

 

 

 

Keyboard shortcuts are very useful in every program or application if you want to save time. Having to take your hands away from the keyboard, grabbing the mouse, using it, clicking on the item, drop the mouse and putting your hands back to the keyboard consumes much more time than just hitting a key combination or hotkey.

 

This is the turn for MS Excel, a very useful application with some very interesting shortcuts.

 

 

 

We all know that using shortcuts when using Windows will save our time, and some shortcuts are well known and used, but some others are even more useful than the usual and are not as well known.

 

The basic hotkeyss are Ctrl + C to copy, Ctrl + X to cut and Ctrl + V to paste, they are well known but unless you are very fast typing right clicking will do the same job and for some people will be even faster. Alt + Tab is very known as well to switch from a window to another, but when we have a whole lot of them it is not as useful as it looks.

 

Here we go with some less known like for example Windows + D (Windows key is the key with the windows logo usually located between Ctrl and Alt). This key combination will minimize all windows and will show the desktop. It is very useful when you got a whole lot of open windows and you want to execute a shortcut from your desktop. If after clicking on the shortcut you want to restore all the windows to their previous state you just have to hit Windows + Shift + M.

 

Windows + E will show the windows explorer with a single combination, no need to look for the icon elsewhere and Alt + F4 will close a window without having to look for the X to close it.

 

Sometimes we will need to search for something fast, the only thing you got to do is hitting Windows + F hotkey and the search menu will open.

 

There are some other combinations which need to have IntelliType installed in your computer and will be revisited as long with other tricks of IntelliType.

Below are the Five Stages that everyone experiences when learning to type

Two-finger typing not knowing the key positions Two-finger typing knowing the key positions All-finger typing looking at the keyboard All-finger typing not looking at the keyboard (touch typing) All-finger typing not looking at the screen

 

 

AutoHotkey isn't new. It has been around since '03 and has attracted for itself a sizable user community that keeps producing and sharing useful scripts and feedback to keep the program development going. It has also been featured in many popular sites before, such as MaximumPC.AutoHotkey is a multi-purpose free, open-source utility for Windows, capable of

In the past, typing certificate is a must-have requirement for office or clerical work. Today, due to the use of common office productivity software which simplify much of an office work, typing is not an essential requirement compared to the proficiency in such software. Schools no longer provide typing lessons. Kids start to use computer without a proper typing training. It is sad to see professionals typing with two fingers.

 

Actually in all the common kinds of work we perform, we can't escape from typing: blogging, social networking, typing an email, document editing to chatting with friends on MSN. If you type twice as fast you can do twice the amount of work than what others can do. Typing speed is always a key factor to productivity and work efficiency.

 

Take the typing test below to see how fast you can type, and what you can do to improve. Choose the category you believe you belong to, and click "Start Typing Test", when a sentence appears in the middle text box, type exactly the same sentence in the text field below, then click "DONE".