How do you learn touch typing in Hindi?

To learn touch typing in Hindi, learn the InScript layout one key at a time, starting from the home row, and practise every day without looking at the keys. Touch typing is a method, not a layout, but in Hindi it means learning where each Devanagari letter sits on the keys. The authors of a 2016 study on touch typing say it requires deliberate training of hundreds of hours ¹, so plan for weeks, not an afternoon. If you already touch type on an English keyboard and you are happy to type Hindi with transliteration, you may not need to learn a new layout at all.

Learn the InScript key positions, not the sounds

Touch typing works because each finger has a set of keys to reach, and the typist learns those positions by feel. Hindi touch typing needs the positions of the Devanagari letters, which means the InScript layout. Wikipedia describes InScript as the decreed standard keyboard layout for Indian scripts ², and the Staff Selection Commission's 2016 stenography test used a Remington or InScript keyboard ³. So InScript is one of the layouts that exam allowed.

The layout has another advantage. Wikipedia says the Devanagari InScript bilingual keyboard layout has a common layout for all the Indian scripts ⁴. If you learn it once, the key positions carry over to Bengali, Tamil or Gujarati on the same keyboard design. That is a reason to learn InScript properly rather than to memorize one set of letters. Wikipedia is a secondary summary, so check the official specification for the key assignments.

Start with the home row, as in any touch typing course

In touch typing, all fingers rest on their home positions in the middle row and move only up or down toward their keys ⁵. Start there. Learn the home-row letters on InScript first, practise them until your fingers find them without looking, and then add one row at a time.

A free browser tutor or an on-screen keyboard can help, because many tutors add letters as you master the ones before. Choose one tutor and keep to it, rather than switching every week.

Touch typists look at the keyboard less

The point of touch typing is to keep your eyes on the text. In a 2016 laboratory study of a transcription task, touch typists spent about 20 percent of their time looking at the keyboard, while typists without touch-typing training spent about 40 percent ^{6 7}. That is the gain touch typing gives you: your attention stays on the text.

Practise with the screen only. Cover the keys with a sheet of paper or a plain strip if you must, then type a passage and look up at the screen after each word. Glance at the keyboard only when you are lost.

Expect hours of practice before the speed shows

The authors of the 2016 study wrote that touch typing can be learned quickly but needs deliberate training of hundreds of hours to reach the performance rates reported in the literature ¹. That figure is for English touch typing, but it gives a realistic scale for Hindi too. Plan for several weeks of 15 to 20 minutes a day before the new layout feels automatic.

You can still type fast without the method. The same study found that self-taught typists who never learned touch typing reached speeds comparable with touch typists, even when they used fewer fingers ⁸. So touch typing is worth learning to keep your eyes on the text, but it is not the only route to speed.

It depends on the layout you type and the job you do

• You type Hindi with transliteration on an English keyboard: You already touch type on the keys you use, so the new skill is the suggestion step, not the keys. Learning InScript would be a second, separate skill.
• You type Hindi in an exam or a government job: Learn InScript, because that is the layout the test uses. Practise on the exam's font and layout.
• You mostly dictate Hindi: Touch typing helps with corrections, not with the first draft. Our guide to Hindi voice typing covers the voice side.
• You have a repetitive strain or wrist problem: Speak to a doctor or a physiotherapist before you change your typing routine. This guide does not give medical advice.

What to do: a six-week plan

1. Add the Hindi InScript keyboard on your device and confirm that it types Devanagari letters.
2. Learn the home-row letters first, then add the rows above and below over the next two weeks.
3. Practise for 15 to 20 minutes a day on a fixed passage. Count the net words each week.
4. Keep your eyes on the screen. If you look down more than you did last week, slow down and repeat the row you are on.
5. After six weeks, retest. If your net speed is still below 30 words per minute, the question on what a good Hindi typing speed is explains how to set a target.

For the speed side of Hindi typing, see the question on how to type faster in Hindi. For touch typing in general, read the question on whether touch typing is worth learning and the question on how long it takes to learn touch typing. For the wider subject, see our guide to Hindi voice typing and the languages overview.