Dvorak keyboard

[lillerina]

I just switched to this layout and so far, so good. Obviously my typing speed has dropped like a stone, and I'm making mistakes all over the place, but I think this could be very good for my typing overall. Is there anyone else on here using Dvorak?

So far, the hardest part is making myself slow down and remember that I do know where the keys are, rather than panicking and mashing keys frantically in my search for the right one.

ETA: also, all my keyboard shortcuts have moved!

[rowan]

How have you managed to retrain your hands to know where the keys are? I find that spelling for me when I'm typing totally bypasses any cognitive thinking about it...in a totally different way than when I'm writing. (this disturbs me immensely, actually)

Did you switch to help your wrists or for some other reason?

[lillerina]

I switched partly to protect my wrists (I do a lot of knitting and crochet, as well as a fair amount of typing), and partly because the idea of more efficient typing was attractive to me. I've been using an online touch-typing program to help with muscle memory, and other than that, I'm relying on practice to let me form the knowledge of where the keys are. I'm back at that beginner-typist stage, sometimes having to spell words out as I think about where the keys are that I need.

[Neko]

What are the benefits of switching to Dvorak?

[monk]

What are the benefits of switching to Dvorak?

being able to say "your keyboard sucks" to everyone everywhere.

[Mathmo]

It's supposed to be more efficient and hence better for your hands. The story is (not totally sure if this is true) that the qwerty layout was of course invented when everybody had typewriters which had levers flying out to bash on the paper, so when considering the layout of the keys you had to consider whether two letters were likely to be used in quick succession would cause levers to bash each other and get stuck. So the layout of the keyboard had to take that into consideration ... but obviously now it doesn't.

I played around with Dvorak for a couple of months one summer. It worked fine but I wasn't really interested enough to do it properly ... have you physically got a different keyboard / are you using stickers on your old one / is your keyboard still labelled in qwerty but just setup to do dvorak?

[lillerina]

What are the benefits of switching to Dvorak?

Significantly more of the commonly used letters are on the home row, meaning your hands don't have to move around nearly so much. In theory, this means faster typing and less risk of RSI.

@Mathmo, I've not changed my physical keyboard at all, just changed the settings.

[rowan]

you had to consider whether two letters were likely to be used in quick succession would cause levers to bash each other and get stuck.

I dunno if that's actually the reason behind qwerty but I can personally verify that typewriters did do this if you were typing too fast. So it does make some sense for that to be the reason.

[Bork]

One of my friends switched to a Dvorak keyboard probably about six months ago, and once he figured out how to use it he really liked it. I'm pretty sure he's still using it. He just changed the settings, too, not the actual keyboard. I can ask him for tips/questions, if you want.

[Aum]

I didn't even know there was a second keyboard format. I looked it up. It looks interesting, but I've never suffered wrist problems from typing, not even the slightest ache, and I type super fast already. I have no use for typing at 200wpm. Typing at 100wpm suits me fine.

Do let us know how things go though once you master it. It's intriguing.

[lillerina]

As of now, my average wpm is around 14. I compose at around 60-70 wpm on qwerty, so I'm interested to see if that changes. I can't see myself switching back at this point, but even if I did, I'd be glad to have given this a go. I think it's a good idea to learn new and difficult skills. keybr has been awesome, using Jabberwocky to learn to touch-type can't be beaten, in my opinion.

Also, I never master skills. I mistress them.

[monk]

Also, I never master skills. I mistress them.

I wanted to mistress some things once but my ex-wife nixed that idea.

[cwbyrvr]

*runs away from this forever*

NOOOOOOO, CHANGE! CHANGE BAD!

Though it would be kind of cool if we could go back to having the keys in alphabetical order, but I wonder how long it would take for everyone to get as good at that as they are with QWERTY, let alone even better.

[Charli!]

I did change once, and got quite used to it.. then went back to uni and it was just a pain having to alter the keyboard settings everytime I sat down (and one some compuetrs you couldn't alter anys ettings)- so I ended up going back to qwerty purely because constantly switching formats was annoying.

[Barkey]

I'm so comfortable with QWERTY I don't have any reasons to change, but if you're looking to challenge yourself for fun that sounds like a good way to do it.