I cannot type fast enough. I get about 80 WPM and thats not nearly good enough

I measured it a couple years back and I know people who can get into the 110 to 120 range on querty keyboards. That's interesting, i was not sure how that worked.

Hmm, interesting. Although you would have to memorize all the phonemes.

Hi Steve,
Have you checked out Talking Typer by The American Printing House, or Talking Typing Teacher by Marvel Soft? Those are rgreat programmes to try, although Talking Typing Teacher is probably better at this, even though it's more expensive and doesn't come with a demo.
Stenography is a form of short-hand writing, almost like texting. In classic stenography (i.e, no software), the paper that is printed lines up with the keys on the keyboard.
Yesterday I saw a steno machine. It almost looks like a typewriter and a brailler at the same time. There's a tray on the bottom of the keyboard.
You place your thumbs on the bottom row of vowel keys. Your index finger of the left hand will rest between h and R. The middle finger will rest between p and H. The ring finger will rest between t and k, and your little finger will rest on the S key. The index finger of the right hand will rest between f and r. The middle finger will rest between b and b. The ring finger will rest on the L and G keys, and your pinky will rest on the t and S keys. Your pinkey will also strike the d and Z keys. Refer to my later post on keyboard layout for more information.
The left hand prints all of the starting letters or consonants and vowels or sounds. Take the word fish, used in the above example. We'll consider the letters T and P, which makes the F sound. T and P are found in the initial syllable, so that means the left hand will strike those first.
The vowel that combines the short I sound, which is, ih, is produced by hitting the thumbs on e and U at the same time as the left hand hits T and P.
To top it all off, the right hand will write R and B, which makes the SH sound in the final part of the syllable.
Different combination of vowels produces long and short vowel sounds, diffdongs and spell differentiations, like two, too, and to.
The asterisk key is used to ignore a preevious error, the same way it's used on the internet.
So here's how a good layout would look like. On the left there is s, t, k, p, w, h and r. On the bottom the vowels are a, e, separated by the asterisk key, then o and u. On the right we have F, R, P, B, L, G, S, T, D, and Z.
You could spell with this machine, but the whole concept is based on writing the sounds of the word using a combination of letters, or just writing pre-programmed phrases by pressing one or two keys instead of four or six keys.

I just got more information, and I updated post no. 8 to reflect those changes. Evidently, the list I gave you corresponds to the columns of a steno paper. It's like putting those letters on top of the Braille paper. You punch the letters below each column so they line up properly.
The row below the number bar for the left hand is s, t, p and H.
The row below that for the left hand is s, k, w, r. Notice how the s key is present on both rows. In reality, the S key is in between the two rows.
Then we have the asterisk key.
The vowel keys are a, e, o, and u.
On the right hand we have f, p, l, t and d.
On the row below that for the right hand we have r, b, g, s, z.
Now get ready to learn some combos.
English Letter
Stenotype Letter
S, T, K, P, W, H, R, A, O, *, E, U, F, R, P, B, L, G, T, S, D, Z.
Example
Comments
Initial B
   PW
Initial C (Soft)
  K   R
cell
Use for soft c only
Initial CH
  K  H
Initial D
TK
Initial F
T P
Initial G
TKPW
Initial H
     H
Initial J
S K W R
Initial K
  K
call
Includes hard c
Initial L
     HR

Initial M
   P H

Initial N
T P H
Initial P
   P
Initial QU
  K W
Initial R
      R
are, our, hour
Initial S
S
is, whiz
Initial T
T
Initial V
S     R
Initial W
    W
Initial Y
  K W R
you
Initial Z
S *
Final consonants
Final B
  B
Final CH
     F P
Final D
      D
Final DZ
      DZ
friends
Use only for words that end with ds
Final F
     F
Final G
   G
Final J
PBLG
Final K
  B G
Final L
  L
Final M
P L
Final MP
     FRP
Final N
PB
Final NG
PB G
Final NJ
PB G
Final NK
  *    PB G
Final P
P
Final R
      R
Final RCH
     FRPB
Final RF
     FR B
Final RVE
     FR B
Final S
     S
Final SH
      R B
Final T
    T
Final V
  *  F
Final X
  B G S
Final Z
Z
Final SHUN
   G S
Final KSHUN
  *     B G S
punctuation: Comma
      R B G S
punctuation: Correction (Asterisk)
  *
punctuation: Paragraph
  P    F
punctuation: Period (.)
     F P L T
punctuation: Question Mark
ST P H
Vowel sounds
Vowel A
A
Vowel A (Long)
A  EU
Vowel Aw
A   U
Vowel E
   E
Vowel E (Long)
AO E
Vowel I
   EU
Vowel I (Long)
AO EU
Vowel O
O
Vowel O (Long)
O E
Vowel OI
O EU
Vowel OO
AO
Vowel OU
O  U
Vowel U
    U
Vowel U (Long)
AO  U
This is just a basic list of combination most commonly used by stenographers, but theories can change, and each chord can be customised according to the computer-aided translation dictionary being used.
A key combination can stand for different things depending on whether it appears on the initial side of the syllable or the final. In example, you would write
e for the eh sound, b, g, and s for the ending x sound of the first syllable, a for the short a sound, pl for the final M, and p for the p sound, and l for the ending sound.
Ebgsaplpl--Notice how the combination p and L repeat. The first PL stands for the final M, but the second one stands for the ending consonants of the word P and L. This would require you to make two separate strokes, since you can't hit PL twice without letting go first.
Sometimes, the initial Z is commonly chorded by pressing all the keys of the left hand to avoid thousands of possible conflicts.
Also, if a word has more than two syllables, it is common to use the initial consonants for the first half of the syllable and then use the ending consonants towards the second half of the syllable. They are divided by the vowels in between. In the case where the word starts with a vowel, the ending consonants are used at the end of the syllable before another syllable is written.

Steve, you probably want this excellent tool by Pontes

http://www.pontes.ro/ro/divertisment/ga … rd-1.0.exe

That's a lot to learn... crazy how people are able to do it.

Thanks Defender, I'll certainly check that one out.
As for stenography, I wish I had one of them machines, or that one such program was available for pc. That would take, er, 5 or 10 minutes out of writing a blog post? As a matter of fact, most of my posts are 3 to 400 words, and if you can type 350 words per minute with that then... well that would make it quicker. I could also see using this method of writing to code... but that might turn out more disastrous than useful.
Anyways I'm really interested in this topic. the whole concept sounds neet.

Hi Steve,
I forgot to mention that there is a free and open-source programme that you can try. I don't have a direct link to it right now, but if You Google 'Plovr Steno Project' click on the first result. If you have trouble downloading it let me know. It's supposed to work with QWERTY keyboards, but they recommend you use a gaming keyboard with N-Key-rollover, or NKRO. This basically allows you to press multiple keys at once, since keyboards send a type of code rather than the character being pressed. That's why it's easy to change keyboard layouts without having to change any hardware components.
I have questioned the theory behind stenography myself, and not having come up with the answer is frustrating, especially since r and B can't possibly make the sh sound. I almost think it was meant to be written in such a way that certain people could read it. I'd have to look this up in more detail. Also, there's another type of chorded keyboard called the Velotype or Vorbate. It's supposed to print out syllables, instead of sounds and phrases.

My keyboard has 10-key rollover, and yes i have extensively tested it, ahah. It's the Razer Blackwiddow Ultimate Edition. And My typing speed using that pontes keyboard tool utterly sucks, coming in at around 50 to 60, I don't know what happened that its that bad, it used to be better. I agree with Dark in that the reason it seems os daunting to learn is that the phonemes listed above do not bear any representation of the actual sounds in my mind so that would make learning more difficult.