Dvorak keyboard

[Minstrel]

Does anyone else use the Dvorak keyboard layout? I have found it to be faster, more efficient, and easier on my hands than QWERTY.

Retraining took me roughly two weeks, at two hours of work a day. I was up to my previous QWERTY speed (55 wpm) by three weeks. In the original retraining, it is better not to use QWERTY at all. Once you are solid in Dvorak, it shouldn't hurt you to use QWERTY once in while (someone else's computer, etc).

My personal experience was that after retraining to Dvorak, I wasn't able to use QWERTY at first. I had to "retrain" to QWERTY. However, this was a very fast process because the neural pathways are already there. The statistics are that fifty percent of people who retrain to Dvorak are able to use both layouts interchangably. The other half find that this is too confusing and they must choose one or the other. I've never heard of anyone choosing QWERTY after experiencing Dvorak, although rest assured you could easily and quickly switch back if you needed to.

I found the following pattern: Learn Dvorak, took 3 weeks. Return to QWERTY, one week. Return to Dvorak, one week. Return to QWERTY, two days. Etc. I am still unable to switch back and forth at top speed right away. However, if I have used QWERTY for a while at 55 wpm, I might start at, say, 30 wpm when I return to Dvorak, but be back up to 70 or 80 within 24 hours. And vice versa.

There is a very simple toggle in the control panel to switch to Dvorak. You don't have to buy a new keyboard.

Some of the benefits of Dvorak: QWERTY is seventy percent left handed. Great for you left handers, not so much for the rest of us. Dvorak is fifty fifty. Dvorak has seventy percent of the typing on the home row.

I recommend actually using a typing program, such as Typing Instructer Deluxe. But I am sure there are people who have switched without a program.

Learning Dvorak will take much less time than learning QWERTY did. This is for two reasons: First, Dvorak is a better layout. Period. Second, you already have the basic "touch-typing" skills, the patterns your fingers move in to reach certain keys. It is just a matter of assigning new letters to the keys.

You should know that studies show training for more than two hours a day is not beneficial. You will do better with less.

The first two weeks are rough. You will feel frustrated, unable to communicate in either "language." But the results are amazing.

If I were to work on it, I am confident that using Dvorak I could reach much higher speeds than the 70-80 I have now. But even this is a great improvement.

Try it!

Minstrel

[Elladan]

Originally Posted by Minstrel

Does anyone else use the Dvorak keyboard layout? I have found it to be faster, more efficient, and easier on my hands than QWERTY.

Retraining took me roughly two weeks, at two hours of work a day. I was up to my previous QWERTY speed (55 wpm) by three weeks.

[...]

The first two weeks are rough. You will feel frustrated, unable to communicate in either "language." But the results are amazing.

Yes, me. I switched about two years ago.

Actually, since there's no ready-made german layout (Windows has only the english Dvorak preinstalled), I had to design my own Dvorak knock-off. While it's pretty difficult to fit in all the additional "umlaut" characters, this in turn allowed me to make some additional changes like inverting the numbers row (numbers are shifted -- as a programmer I tend to need the brackets more often).

The best change I made was modifying the "rest position" of the hands: instead of having all four fingers of a hand resting on the home "row", for me the middle and ring fingers rest on the top row. This is a *much* more relaxed position since I don't have to actively bend these fingers any more.


And, yes, I have to agree that the first few days are very frustrating. Yet the benefits really outweigh the inconveniences by far. For me, it's not so much about typing speed, but about relaxation and error frequency. I don't think I'm that much faster, mainly because I didn't put much energy into the retraining and just adopted it "on the go". But I can type much longer now, without tiring, and produce significantly less typos.

If anybody wants to try their hands on customizing the standard Dvorak layout: just download Microsoft's *free* keyboard editor. Simple and easy to use.


Have fun,
Elladan.

[Matthew Shea]

I just tried this out. I can see the benefits. There is definitely a lot less finger movement, but it will be challenging to get used to it. I think I'll switch the keyboard settings back for now, but I'll certainly keep this in mind.

[Fusebox]

I heard about this keyboard back in uni. Apparently QWERTY was invented to actually slow down typists!!

[searstower]

Yes, the original QWERTY keyboard was designed for old style typewriters that had the arms that had to move to hit the ink and the paper. Remember those?

If you've ever used one of those, you might remember how easily they jammed, especially when you typed faster, because too many arms where in the same place at the same time.

So some genius the arranged the keys to keep the metal arms as far apart as possible and slow the typist to prevent jamming.

I'm 24 now, I picked up Dvorak when I was 17 during the summer because I had nothing better to do, and I wanted to impress a guy. It worked.

I still use Dvorak as my main layout, both on my own computer and at the office. Since I work tech support, I work on a lot of non-Dvorak computers every week and have no trouble with the switch, though sometimes I type the first two or three characters in the wrong map first and have to backspace and switch!

One other benefit of Dvorak that I've found is that it provides a little extra computer security. If by chance someone gets both my password and my computer, they still can't get in without knowing how to touch type Dvorak (since I don't have the Dvorak keys labeled).

Rebecca

[Alex Wu]

From what I understand, there is no hard proof that people type faster with Dvorak layouts vs. Qwerty. But people who do switch tend to find it a lot easier on the hands. I remember reading that Qwerty has one advantage over Dvorak in that there is better use of alternation between the hands, which speedwise makes up for the fact that the letters are in harder-to-reach places on the Qwerty layout.

That being said, I once saw a keyboard on eBay that had all the keys perfectly lined up in a grid pattern as opposed to the staggered format on conventional keyboards. The grid patter is purported to reduce strain on the hands, and it was available in both Qwerty and Dvorak labelling. If anyone has tried this keyboard, let me know.

[Minstrel]

From what I understand, there is no hard proof that people type faster with Dvorak layouts vs. Qwerty.

Hmm. I've read that people who are already 60 wpm typists are the most likely to find no improvement in their speed with switching. Slower QWERTY typists usually show a significant speed gain in Dvorak.

Regarding studies and proof, try this link:
Introducing the Dvorak Keyboard -- Dissenting Opinions

The author seems a bit defensive, but I think it has good information The main site is here:
Introducing the Dvorak Keyboard

But people who do switch tend to find it a lot easier on the hands.

Amen to that. My hands tend to ache and ache when I use QWERTY. I have to use Dvorak for three times as long to make them ache like that.

I remember reading that Qwerty has one advantage over Dvorak in that there is better use of alternation between the hands, which speedwise makes up for the fact that the letters are in harder-to-reach places on the Qwerty layout.

This is entirely possible, but it surprises me. The Dvorak keyboard gives all the vowels to the left hand, to facilitate alternation. Also, if seventy percent of QWERTY typing is left handed, how is that good alternation? You could be right, but keep in mind QWERTY words like "agree, fact, grass, greater, opinion, regard..." (from the site).

One other quirk I've noticed about having both layouts available to me is defeating writers block. Have you ever noticed that you can defeat writer's block by speaking instead of writing, or by using longhand instead of computer, etc? Well, the same is true of switching between two keyboard layouts. They access different parts of the brain. I find my writing is more clear, concise, and logical when I use Dvorak. I am more creative but more poorly organized when I use QWERTY. (At this moment I am on QWERTY--I share a computer and haven't bothered to switch it yet this morning.)

Minstrel

[ticktockclok]

I switched last August.

Its excellent, I can type much faster and freely, but when using qwerty I have to look at the keyboard to type.

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by ticktockclok

I switched last August.

Its excellent, I can type much faster and freely, but when using qwerty I have to look at the keyboard to type.

How did you go about switching? Did you rearrange the keys on your keyboard or just figure it out? Also, could you already type well or did you have bad typing habits?

I cant touchtype and i dont use all my fingers...you think it would still be easier to use dvorak?

[elainevdw]

I just found out about Dvorak and started learning it this weekend! It's very odd switching over from QWERTY, since I can type QWERTY really fast without even thinking about it. It's also weird not moving my fingers all across the keyboard so much. But I like it -- I hope that I can get my Dvorak proficiency up to usable levels, since I type so much at work.

Right now, one finger will hover over the QWERTY key, the other will hover over the Dvorak key, and it takes me a second to figure out which one to hit.

[ragtag]

The keyboard with the keys in line is probably the TypeMatrix. It looks very interesting, though I'm very sceptical to the Ctrl and Alt placement. I use both a lot, and they've been moved even further away than they are on an ordinary keyboards. On both my laptop and computer at work, I've mapped the Caps Lock key to Ctrl (Caps Lock is a useless key if there ever was one).

My ideal keyboard, would combine the keys in a row layout of the TypeMatrix, the small size and limited number of keys of the HappyHacking Keyboard, with the fully split layout of keyboards like the ErgoMagic or Kinesis Freeform.

It should be easy to change the layout to Dvorak. On OS X, you can choose it as country in the International preferences.

[Adrienne]

I started with this a couple months ago now and wrote a bit about my experiences with it here i am still working at getting good with it. I really like it, i just cant seem to stay off of QWERTY because of differnt computers, fixing computers, text messaging, not to mention when i have a server down, its frustrating to not be able to type fast to get the server back up.

Does anyone know of any good computer games to teach Dvorak?

Adrienne

[XeutonMojukai]

I typed this post in Dvorak, and it took me about ten minutes...

~ David

[Kaspian]

I switched to a Dvorak layout about a month ago. I practiced a little the first week, and I've typed as needed since then. Now that it's starting to feel more "normal," I doubt I'll ever go back to Qwerty.

[Ilya]

I'm bilingual. In fact I'm quadralingual, because I can type in English and Russian, both in qwerty and dvorak. In any case I type at productive speed.
I never had a problem with hands pain while using qwerty, but I still prefer DVORAK, it has a better rhythm and my top speed is higher. But I have to work on many computers so not forgetting qwerty helps when I can't change the layout.

[Zulu]

I made the switch last year. I'm happy I did. Speed has increased slightly overall, but I "enjoy" typing much more.