15 Responses

1. Fire Eye'd Boy

   31|May|2007

   In my Windows 98-era PC, I actually switched the Dvorak keyboard setting on, manually mapped out the keys in Word to check which buttons result to which characters, and to top it all off, rearranged the physical keys and put them back, even printing out the new characters and taping the printout over each key. The keyboard didn’t look pretty at the end of that experiment - the edges taper off differently and you end up with what looks like a mob of heads in all different directions - not to mention I wasn’t patient enough to learn a new way of typing altogether

2. J. Angelo Racoma

   31|May|2007

   Dvorak? As in John C.?

3. benj

   31|May|2007

   You did that FEB?! What?! haha

4. Fire Eye'd Boy

   31|May|2007

   im a nerd. what can I say

5. Mr Butterscotch

   01|Jun|2007

   Of course, the reason that keyboard inefficiencies exist is all down to the humble typewriter. Typewriters had the keys in certain places to limit typing speed so the keys didn’t mash and get caught up. On an electronic device of course the only real limitation is the human finger speed!

   As much as these ideas come and go, I really don’t think we’ll see another keyboard design take hold. If just because a lot of schools now teach touch-typing…

6. Fire Eye'd Boy

   01|Jun|2007

   ^ on top of that, the QWERTY layout was such because early manufacturers wanted their salesmen to easily demonstrate the then-new typewriters by putting all letters of the word “TYPEWRITER” on the first row. Spiffy, but unfortunately now, the beast has been unleashed and not a lot of people are willing to re-learn their keyboards, myself included

7. Geo

   01|Jun|2007

   Old time touch typists like me will have a hard time switching to DVORAK or Colemak. Just thinking about typing in those keyboards already confuses me. X_@

8. W.E.

   07|Jun|2007

   I am a medical transcriptionist, more than 25 years/8 hr/7 days most weeks, with painful hands, elbows, back and shoulders for the last 10+ years. Finally a diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome and not wanting surgery convinced me to try Dvorak. I have been at it full-time now for 3 months and finally matching the productivity I had pre-Dvorak. The transition was slow and difficult, had me questioning my sanity, cursing myself, and wishing I were 25 years younger when taking on such a change. I did invest in a hardwired Dvorak keyboard (Tpyematrix) and I think that made the transition a bit easier.

   I ran across information about the Colemak layout but after I had made great strides with Dvorak. Oh, how I wished I had run across it before taking on Dvorak - not to have to relearn the whole keyboard, the common Ctr+Z,X,C,V in the same location, etc. However, after giving thought through my transition to Dvorak, I am convinced the difficulty transitioning to Colemak would have been just as difficult as the most difficulties I had were with those keys that were moved very close/right next to where they were originally. So I am sticking with Dvorak, now that I have learned it.

9. J. Angelo Racoma

   07|Jun|2007

   I’m okay with my QWERTY keyboard. I’ve always had faster than average typing rate (ever since I was about ten years old). I don’t necessarily equate productivity to a faster typing rate, though. Typing fast is efficient, but not necessarily productive, especially in fields where creativity is a big factor.

   My mind can still think faster than my fingers can type.

   And then of course, being mostly a user of laptops, I couldn’t just switch to another keyboard layout easily!

10. Justin

    09|Jun|2007

    The dvorak keyboard was designed for touch typing. I would suggest that you do not go through the hassle of rearranging your keyboard. Leave it as qwerty, that’s what most of the rest of the world does. What I did, was I printed up a picture of the dvorak keyboard and put it up near my monitor (there’s a good one on wikipedia)

    I found that my typing speed did not neccessarily go up, but I feel much more comfortable when using the Dvorak. If you would just use it for a couple of days, you will understand what we mean by that. Typing in English, about 60% of your keystrokes will land on the home row. That’s compared to 30% with qwerty.

    The copy and paste shortcut keys are probably one of the biggest things that annoyed me with the change. Since they are obviously tied to the qwerty keyboard, they come out all funny in Dvorak. Initially, I used the mouse a lot when I needed to copy and paste. Later, I would select the text, right click, and hit “C” (where the ‘i’ is on qwerty). Keyboard shortcuts are a wonderful thing, but they CAN be relearned.

    I learned about Colmak too late to switch, but I don’t think that it is as widely supported as the Dvorak layout.

11. Ak

    16|Jun|2007

    I’m one of the few people who actually use Colemak (despite its mildly ridiculous name). I had had a go at Dvorak at some point but abandoned after a couple of weeks; I then learnt about Colemak and stuck to it… I think I started 4 months ago or so and though I probably haven’t yet got my QWERTY speed back, my accuracy and comfort improved dramatically. I can only encourage you to try it; the only problem with it I can foresee is that it is not as widely supported as Dvorak - but then the more of us use it, the more widely it will be supported in the future. This being said, for me a key benefit of Colemak over Dvorak is the ease with which I can type in other languages, notably French, and cross-platform consistency.

    One thing that I wish I had done more during my transition phase is typing-focussed training - using programs or even games, Typing of the Dead being the cult one - rather than just hoping that my speed would improve by itself (which it did but after weeks of frustration!).

12. winsly

    10|Sep|2007

    hey

    ive been using the dvorak keyboard for some time now. compared to the qwerty comfort is one thing i do find desirable on the layout. it was a pain to re-learn typing and all especially for someone like me who visits the forums regularly. i remember composing a reply to a post for a full 20 minutes of key hunting.

    ive grown familiar and i guess numb on some of the physical pains i felt while using the qwerty layout (wrist pains, fingers going crazy on me) and lately doing the same volume of typing on the dvorak keyboard never really gave me any stress or any physical pain on my hands until now. very comfortable if i do say so myself.

13. Craig

    03|Oct|2007

    I was a reluctant Qwerty typist for 30 years, having never taken formal typing classes when I was in school but having used computers starting with a Radio Shack TRS-80 and Commodor PET computer in High School (the school had one of each). So last December, I decided at the age of 45 it was time to improve my ability to type as fast as I was thinking in a more comfortable manner. I started with Dvorak because that was what was already available on my computer. After three weeks, I was not loving the layout. I hated where the punctuation was and I hated all the work my right pinky was doing to reach the L. My right pinky was definitely overworked and I found the whole process slow going. Using previous favorite shortcut key combinations was unpleasant also with Dvorak. In frustration I did some serious looking around the web and that was when I found Colemak. Looking at the layout, the reasoning behind the layout, and the availability on all major OS platforms, convinced me to drop Dvorak and switch to Colemak. From the beginning, I found I really liked the layout even while slowly working to learn it. In both cases, I practiced without looking down at the keys. I had matched what I had achieved in Dvorak in a week with Colemak (20 wpm) and it felt much more comfortable. Within a month I was hitting 40 wpm with high accuracy. Now 9 months later, Colemak is all I use. I love it. Never going back to Qwerty. I type much faster and far more comfortably in Colemak than I ever did in Qwerty. With Colemak, I am reaching my goal of typing as fast as I am thinking.

14. Vu

    10|Jan|2008

    I managed about 100 words-per-minute using Dvorak, but ultimately gave it up in favor of Qwerty. It’s true that Dvorak more evenly distributes the work load between both hands, but this cripples your ability to go one-handed. (Bad for games.) Additionally, it places too much emphasis on the weak fingers. I couldn’t stand the placement of the “s” and “n” keys. These are common letters, yet they were placed awkwardly and presumably for that oft-touted drumming motion. (In my experience, that drumming motion happens just as often with Qwerty.)

15. Wonderbird

    28|May|2008

    It took me a long time to switch from more than 20 yrs of typing QWERTY to DVORAK. It took several months of frustration to get back to being productive under DVORAK. I do not regret it at all and dread having to use QWERTY when working on someone else’s computers. Almost a year later I am still forming patterns of words with the new layout. Overall I feel more relaxed and comfortable after a long day of keyboarding than when I was using a QWERTY layout. It is well-worth the effort but switching is NOT easy… (On the bright side you can tease colleagues about being stuck in the 1800s!)