Setting to prevent spacebar from jumping to next word

[hanakin]

It is highly annoying when trying to type and accidentally hitting the spacebar and the app jumps to the next word? This is not natural to typing? There needs to be a setting to simulate natural typing where this does not happen forcing me to backspace and pickup where i messed up. Currently the only way to disable this "bug, I refuse to call this a feature" is to enable stop on error which defeats the purpose of testing natural flow...

[Miodec]

Its not a bug. If you press space, you tell the website "i want to type the next word". If you don't want that to happen, enable stop on error: word.

Im not really sure what you mean by 'natural flow'.

[hanakin]

its a bug that its not a setting to toggle on or off. its not a natural thing when typing to have the keyboard jump. the stop on error is also not a natural thing that happens when typing so its not proper alternative to not having the spacebar jump to next word?

[Miodec]

Stop on error: word stop an incorrect spacebar press from going to the next word, which is what you're complaining about. Im not sure what you're expecting here.

[fehmer]

Try zen mode for the most natural experience.

[hanakin]

zen mode has nothing to do with anything? "Stop on Error" prevents you from moving on that is not what the problem is here with the current functionality and not what the desire here. it is not the opposite of hitting spacebar and jumping to a word? there needs to be an uninterrupted typing experience that would be no different then typing in a text editor which means there should be a way to disable spacebar jumping words! there is no option to do so and it makes for very bad experience

[hanakin]

I do not under so this is so complicated i do not want the "feature" to skip a word thats all its annoying and jaring. I also do bot use stop on error! Because i do not want to stop before getting the word correct which is just as jaring. None of this is natural functionality as you would when typing in a text editor which is more desirable to my needs and use case for most learning

[Miodec]

Zen mode is like a text editor, but if you dont want the space to move to the next word, and you dont wan't to use stop on word to block you - I don't know what you want. Youre the first person thats complaining none of this is "natural" (which i disagree with but oh well).

You can try to describe it word by word, letter by letter, keypress by keypress - maybe then we can grasp what you have in mind. Other than that I can't help you sorry.

[hanakin]

I do not know how you do not understand all it is a toggle for the "feature" that monkeytype has to skip a word when hitting spacebar! Just turn it off! Thats all i want to do! This is not something that exists in any text editor anywhere? So why is it not a toggle-able setting? When practicing or learning a new keyboard or layout I desire to type things naturally how i would in a text editor which means disabling all custom features! I do not understand how to communicate it more simple than that. Unless I am mistaken, "Zen mode" is free text which is a completely different app in essence.

[fehmer]

Zen mode is working like a text editor. You can type what you want instead of being forced to type random words the site is prompting you to type. The other test modes like time, words and quotes don't work like a text editor because text editors don't prompt you to type a specific word.

What I cannot figure out from your comment is, what should happen with the letters you missed by using space too early. Let me visualize it for you:

The test wants you to type "could work" and you type "c", "o", "u", "space", "w", "o". This would be the current result:

Space ends the first word and you start typing on the second word.

Now if you disable the feature should it look like this?

We remove the two letters you missed to prevent space bar from "jumping" or where should the two letters go?

[Miodec]

If you don't want the space to skip the word, then how are you going to move to the next word?

[hanakin]

Space should be treated as any other incorrect letter when it is not expected do not assume its a desire to go to the next word it is just a character.

…

On Sun, Apr 13, 2025 at 6:14 AM Jack ***@***.***> wrote: If you don't want the space to skip the word, then how are you going to move to the next word? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6438 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAAR26LGN7BOIBSCQ4THTW32ZI2HXAVCNFSM6AAAAAB22KUVW6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTEOBRHAYTKMY> . You are receiving this because you modified the open/close state.Message ID: <monkeytypegame/monkeytype/repo-discussions/6438/comments/12818153@ github.com>

[Miodec]

So.... you're describing stop on error: word...

[hanakin]

No i am not because you can not move forward without fixing, i do not want to be forced to stop and fix, space should just be treated as a wrong character.

…

On Sun, Apr 13, 2025 at 2:00 PM Jack ***@***.***> wrote: So.... you're describing stop on error: word... — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6438 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAAR26M25X7Y3GJV6LK6AQT2ZKQ3TAVCNFSM6AAAAAB22KUVW6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTEOBSGEZDGNQ> . You are receiving this because you modified the open/close state.Message ID: <monkeytypegame/monkeytype/repo-discussions/6438/comments/12821236@ github.com>

[Miodec]

Ok i think i know what you mean, you want it to work like this? https://www.speedtypingonline.com/typing-test

[Miodec]

Or this https://www.keyhero.com/free-typing-test/

[Diamonds85]

Could that be made a setting? I mean it could go under the stop on error category but I'm not the familiar with the folder/file system yet, so I wouldn't know where to start.

[devenlg]

I am also struggling with this and would like to see a setting to disable or modify this feature. To clarify (since it seems like the issue might not still be fully elaborated on), the issue is that space bar is not treated as its own normal character, but as something "special" that progresses to the next word. Monkeytype is the only online typing test I have ever seen behave in this way, which is what makes it feel so unnatural. I am used to seeing any mistyped space character being treated as any other mistyped character which the user can choose to go back and correct if they decide, like in the tests linked by @Miodec. (Some tests seem to put a hard limit on one incorrect space, which is nice to have but not essential.)

On Monkeytype, the default behavior leads to situations where I may mistype a space character in the middle of the word, causing the cursor to progress to the next word while I am still on the last word, which of course leads to more errors cascading into more errors and so on, because I am essentially out of sync with the cursor.

Here's an example with typos shown so you can see what I mean:

I mistype space right after "pl" in "place" which causes the cursor to jump forward to "you," but my brain is still on "place," so I type the rest of that, which is incorrect for where the cursor is. I hit space thinking I've finished typing "place," which pushes the cursor forward again, and again... This example is a little "neat" since I did it intentionally but it's the same fundamental problem.

stop on error: word is not a good solution for this, because it forces the user to go back and fix the mistake, which in the midst of a test is often not what I want to do. Again, the issue is that the cursor is not where I expect it to be, so many errors cascading down from one incorrectly typed space is not really compatible with this. It leads to a situation like this:

which is obviously much more cumbersome than fixing one incorrect space key.

I think a simple feature to disable the space bar progressing the cursor to the next word would really be all that is needed. Stopping the user at maximum of one incorrect space would be nice as well, but not essential. I recommend the tests on typing.com as an example of this behavior.

[Miodec]

Monkeytype is the only online typing test I have ever seen behave in this way, which is what makes it feel so unnatural.

10fastfingers.com
typings.gg
typingtest.com
typing-speed.net

All behave the same.

causing the cursor to progress to the next word while I am still on the last word, which of course leads to more errors cascading into more errors and so on, because I am essentially out of sync with the cursor.

And if i insert a space character instead, it will still cascade into more errors because you will be off by one character - except with the current system its easier to recover because you can just focus on the word after the next space.

which is obviously much more cumbersome than fixing one incorrect space key.

Ctrl + backspace will delete entire word at a time.

This approach is MUCH different to what im currently using and im not sure if it can be added easily. Im not sure if will be added at all because it would require some weird hacks. I may come back to this at some point, but its not high on the priority list as you two are the only ones that complained about this out of millions of users. Sorry.