How to do stenography for free

You don't need a fancy hobbyist stenography keyboard to try stenography. You can try stenography for free on your computer right now! Before you buy a Uni or Polyglot, you should definitely consider trying stenography for free because it's free!

You will learn the basics of how stenography works for free. See for yourself whether stenography is for you! With the first method I'm about to show you, you don't need to download anything or mess with settings on your computer. The second method will require you to download Plover.

Qwerty Steno

The ingredients that you need are:

1. Any keyboard (laptop keyboard, membrane keyboard, office keyboard, mechanical keyboard, gaming keyboard, etc.)

Then go to this website: http://qwertysteno.com/

Click "Basics" and start your steno journey! You can expect to spend around 30 minutes total on the basics.

Plover + Typey Type + Art of Chording

When you're done with Qwerty Steno and you feel like you want to move on, you can download Plover, which is free. Plover lets you use steno with your keyboard of choice on your computer. It's basically a keyboard replacement, so instead of qwerty you are using steno to type on your computer.

Take practice to a whole new level by going to Typey Type and drilling lessons by going down the "Progress" list. You will need Plover installed for this.

If you're ever confused with a Typey Type lesson, just go to Art of Chording to learn about the theory behind the chords. Learn Plover! is also a good alternative.

You can read Art of Chording/Learn Plover! before getting started with Typey Type if you want a more solid understanding of steno before getting started. But there's no problem with just jumping right into Typey Type. Make sure to read through Art of Chording/Learn Plover! at some point though. You want to be following along with the Typey Type lessons while understanding the theory and reason behind every stroke. Understanding the theory will help you construct any word you want, even words you've never typed in steno before.

Hobbyist Machine

If you want to get faster at stenography, you should look into getting a hobbyist machine designed especially for steno. Here at StenoKeyboards we are stenography first, keyboard second. That is why we are StenoKeyboards not KeyboardsSteno. Learn steno first for free, and later you can get a special keyboard.

Here are the keyboards that we offer:

The Uni is the most popular steno keyboard on the market. We already have thousands of satisfied customers who chose the Uni to continue their steno journey.

The Polyglot allows you to switch between Qwerty and Steno. Based off the success of the Uni, the keyboard has more features and more options for customization. This keyboard is currently available for preorder.