Something ive always wanted

For all my years working with computers i have to admit ive never been great at typing. Ive never managed to master the art of touch typing. Because of this one of the things ive always found super annoying is after typing a long sentence i will look up and find that some where along the line ive accidentally hit the caps lock and half of what ive written is in capital letters and im forced to delete it all and re-write it. It drives me crazy ive never understood why there wasnt just a way to highlight text and change the case!!

But today i found out there is a plug-in for firefox that lets you highlight the text and change it from upper to lower case or vice versa. This has made my year (so far) so i just had to share it for anyone else who is type-challenged.

addons.mozilla.org...

If anyone else knows of any time/stress saving plugins that are not well know please add them to this thread

a reply to: PhoenixOD

Learning to touch type IMO is incredibly necessary for everyone using a keyboard.

www.typingclub.com...

This site will take you through lessons to learn to touch type.

Quite often I close my eyes or turn my head away from the screen and just type. Because my fingers just know where to go.

a reply to: grey580

Thanks, ill give it a go

Being dyslexic doesnt help i think.

a reply to: PhoenixOD

ive accidentally hit the caps lock and half of what ive written is in capital letters

lol I've done entire paragraphs. Sometimes I just say "screw it" and hit "new". It's so frustrating I just give up. I wish I could learn to touch type, I just use a 3 finger method. My hands just won't do what they used to, due to arthritis. I've even had to quit playing guitar.

a reply to: DAVID64

lol I've done entire paragraphs. Sometimes I just say "screw it" and hit "new". It's so frustrating I just give up.

I totally feel your pain brother, been there done that, kicked a few things as well lol.

originally posted by: PhoenixOD
a reply to: DAVID64

lol I've done entire paragraphs. Sometimes I just say "screw it" and hit "new". It's so frustrating I just give up.

I totally feel your pain brother, been there done that, kicked a few things as well lol.

It really is worth persevering. Twenty something years ago, frustrated at my poor typing I got Mavis Beacon teaches typing which really set me on the right course for touch typing. It helped that I soon got a job as a data clerk which meant that typing at speed was an essential part of the job and for the last few years I can touch type for hours until (and this is the weird thing) I start looking at my hands as I type and end up fluffing a few words. Once exercise which has always helped which as that when time allows, don't go back and correct, the point of the mistake and type it all in again - kind of sub consciously exercises the mind to do it right or at least better next time.

Knowing how to type is great. Knowing how to spell, even better. Proof reading your work?

...priceless.

a reply to: intrptr

There is no way i will ever get good at spelling. I even spell words wrong that i know how to spell. My brain just doesn't work like that i can barley even see fully formed words in my head with eyes closed. But ill run rings around most people with maths and art. So you cant be good at everything.

Just writing on ATS can be a real challenge for me and to be honest 95% of everything i ever write on a daily basis is on here.

Most word document programs (even open source ones) allow you to highlight text and change case to either all caps, all lower, or every word capitalized. Just highlight the affected text, right click and choose formatting.

a reply to: JDeLattre89

Yeah most text editors will let you do that, ive just always thought there should have been a button on the keyboard for it right from day 1.

a reply to: grey580

Fingers knowing where they are going has been an insane boost to my typing. I am dyslexic and utterly horrible with a pen, i just cant remember how all words are spelt, for some reason after years of having a spell checker analyse as i go typing, i have trained my fingers to type words without thinking about how they are actually spelt. I just think of the words and my fingers know the keyboard patterns and they just do it.

I have no idea why i cant train them to do the same with a pen, something about having a limited number of patterns for any word is easier than attempting the same thing with a pen and paper.

Anyway, i agree about the caps things, some times i just rocket ahead without realising the caps lock was hit instead of shift to make a single capital. Annoying, but infrequent now as i spend much more time reading the text going on the screen than watching my fingers busily rushing around the keyboard.

originally posted by: PhoenixOD
a reply to: intrptr

There is no way i will ever get good at spelling. I even spell words wrong that i know how to spell. My brain just doesn't work like that i can barley even see fully formed words in my head with eyes closed. But ill run rings around most people with maths and art. So you cant be good at everything.

Just writing on ATS can be a real challenge for me and to be honest 95% of everything i ever write on a daily basis is on here.

I have edits at the bottom of most of my posts because I misspelled something or didn't check the bracket code...

I try to type fast so I get a post in quick and that just makes it worse. Thanks for that reply, I feel better now.