So I had been using Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred 9 for about four days, and I was wondering just how fast I was actually typing.  I knew it was easier, my hands and arms were much more relaxed not doing half as much work, I was multitasking and doing many other things while I was typing just like I am right now.  (I’m currently were adding spy sweeper on a different computer and going to the simple mouse clicks required for that.).

So, I looked online to try to find a free typing test program that I could use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.  The trick was I needed a typing test that would actually receive the text input from the program but wouldn’t have to be triggered by a keyboard key press.  I found a program on a United Kingdom site called typeonline.co.uk.  This was not the perfect typing test program for my needs, but it got the job done.

The test was designed to throw in some curveball type of words from 19th century English that sounded slightly archaic and outdated, along with capitalization, punctuation and other items that I wouldn’t normally type myself.  It reminded me a lot of typing class back in high school, so it was basically your normal typing test.  I ran through three or four tests initially, and I made a bunch of errors because I was learning how the typing test worked with the program Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

So I threw out the first few tests.  I then did five tests in a row, and captured screenshots of the results.  Which you can see below.  My results range from typing speeds of 135 words per minute.  Up to 157 words per minute.  In the early typing tests I had 14 to 20 errors, and in the later tests I was able to get down to six to seven errors.  Most of these errors were due to the peculiarity of the typing test program.  To do it error-free I would probably have to slow down by half to a measly 60 to 80 words a minute. 

However, if I were to use a combination of voice recognition and typing, I could still probably hang in there at over a hundred words a minute.

There was a slight flaw or slowness in my computer system that probably decrease the speed by 20 words per minute.  I would often read a typing test paragraph and wait 10 to 20 seconds before my computer caught up with me and printed the text in the typing test program, at that point I would hit the submit button to in the typing test.  I’m running a gig of RAM on my new duo century no machine, but I suspect if I had a slightly faster machine and more RAM.  I could get my words per minute 180 maybe 200 words a minute.

I can type 70 to 90 words a minute myself, however fatigue will eventually set in, and doing that day in and day out for many years increases the chance of a repetitive stress injury.  If nothing else, Dragon NaturallySpeaking pays for itself when it enables your average person to type in over a hundred words per minute.  As a further disclaimer I’ve only taken two of the training exercises in Dragon, and so my accuracy and speed would probably increase the more I improve my profile.

I will do that over time, but I’m in no rush since the program works.  So damn good already.

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