Typing test

One of my favorite things about Android is just how customizable it is. In particular, I greatly enjoy that I can swap out keyboards. My current favorite is Swype, but I skeptically refused to accept that it was much faster until I could get some empirical (if not statistically sound) evidence. Well, wait no more: Here it is.

I gave myself two minutes to do some extemporaneous writing (destined for my journal) on Swype in both portrait and landscape modes, as well as the Android stock keyboard and a physical Bluetooth keyboard. I then took the resultant writing and counted the words; I counted errors as well, to give some indication of the effectiveness. Here is the result summary:

Swype portrait: 37wpm, 1 error
Swype landscape: 34wpm, 2 errors
Stock: 24wpm, 1 error
Physical keyboard: 66wpm, 3 errors

Some quick notes: Swype in landscape screams out to be used with two thumbs, but it just doesn't work well like that; I ended up just sliding one finger around as before.

Stock with two thumbs seems to work all right, but feels frenzied, especially for the low speeds that came out of it.

The physical keyboard reigns supreme: I made more mistakes without automatic correction to save my bacon, but with speeds 80% faster than the nearest contender, I won't be ditching a keyboard when I have access to it.

Also, the physical keyboard put my mind at ease and let me just think about composing text; with Swype, I had to have constant vigilance as to where the letters were. This might go away with time, as I've only been using Swype for a couple of months, but the lack of applicable muscle memory venues suggests otherwise.

Keyboard shortcuts... for real this time

Over the past few days, I've been compiling a list of my keyboard shortcuts. That is, the ones that I use on a daily basis. Since I sit at a computer a lot each day, it got fairly long. But if you take the time to sift through it, you should be able to glean something worthwhile.

General
Ctrl+X	Cut
Ctrl+C	Copy
Ctrl+V	Paste
Ctrl+A	Select all
Ctrl+Left/Right	Move cursor by word
Ctrl+Up/Down	Move cursor by paragraph
Ctrl+Backspace	Erase the word I just screwed up typing
Alt+F4	Close current window
Ctrl+F4	Close document within current window
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+P	Print

Click through for the full list.

Keyboard shortcuts

I made a list of helpful shortcuts for a friend. These are basic, but if you know someone who could use 'em, feel free to share:

General:
Select All	Ctrl+A
Undo	Ctrl+Z
Copy	Ctrl+C
Paste	Ctrl+V
New Window or New Document	Ctrl+N
Windows:
Switch between programs	Alt+Tab
Open Start menu	Windows key ÿ
Internet Explorer:
New tab	Ctrl+T
Find on Page	Ctrl+F
Word:
Open a file	Ctrl+O
Save a file	Ctrl+S
Print	Ctrl+P
Bold	Ctrl+B
Italics	Ctrl+I
Underline	Ctrl+U
Move a word at a time	Ctrl+Left (or Right)
Move a paragraph at a time	Ctrl+Up (or Down)
Select text	Shift+Arrow keys

Notes:

"Ctrl+A" means hold down Ctrl key while pressing the A key.

Get the printable pdf at scribd.