Does anyone use dvorak

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Monokle 1. Portworx Enterprise 2. Join us at our new blog home. We can agree on that. Dictation and rote copying were once essential skills for typists, but no longer. Software has picked up at least some of the slack. Shai Coleman says, in fact, Qwerty is better than Colemak on a smartphone.

Could it be that a format like Qwerty, which divides up common letter pairings, is the best format for fat thumbs struggling with small letters and predictive text? The world record holder for fast texting used Qwerty on a keyboard app called Fleksy.

Alec Longstreth is a cartoonist who likens Qwerty to 'wearing a pair of running shoes that are made of concrete' Credit: Alec Longstreth.

In , she made an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman. Blackburn sat on the stage next to the talk show presenter, confident and composed, wearing a Pepto Bismol-coloured top and a chunky crucifix. She had tight curls and math teacher glasses. The bell rang and the music started, and the typewriters clattered. They found that, perhaps nervous about being on TV, she moved her finger one key to the right before the starting bell. To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, please head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. Share using Email. By Tim McDonald 25th May You might hear stories that the QWERTY layout was intended specifically to slow down typists working on traditional typewriters, because their machines would jam if two adjacent letters were pressed in quick succession.

In fact, the real reason likely has to do with the formation of a typewriter cartel in , which caused its members to standardize the QWERTY layout for their models. But the common thread throughout each of these origin stories is the idea that the QWERTY layout was designed for reasons other than pure typing speed. The others are on the row above, where your fingers have to reach to get to them.

In contrast, Dvorak tries to place the most common letters directly on this home row. All of the vowels are here, mostly directly beneath the fingers of your left hand. Then, the remaining letters are arranged so that you type words with alternating strokes of your left and right hand. The aim is to maximize speed by sharing the workload equally between your fingers on both hands. You can look at the most common words in the English language to see how this works in practice.

If the Dvorak layout was going to be big, it would have done it already. Modern technology has embraced the qwerty layout and due to technological social context, you will need to use qwerty regardless of whether you change to Dvorak or not.

Depending on your current skill level, you would almost certainly suffer a decrease in typing speed since you would have to unlearn the previous typing layout you were used to and learn a new one. I suppose a beginning typist could possibly show an increase in speed though.

If you use bad technique you could cause injury to yourself using Dvorak or qwerty, just as using proper technique should allow you to avoid typing stress regardless of the layout you use. This is probably true of Dvorak also.

The Dvorak layout was intended for the English language, and mostly for conversational english. That would seem to leave anyone not typing conversational English out of the intended target-user-group.

Use what is best for you. If you are a kick-ass qwerty touch-typist, the Dvorak layout is probably not going do anything for you. Earlier I saw a comment saying that typing on a Dvorak keyboard makes it harder to use a standard keyboard. Also, I have been typing on Dvorak for about a year now, and I find every aspect of it even as a programmer more comfortable than any other layout. The keyboard reduces stress on my fingers after typing for hours when making a new application for my mac, therefore I feel that it is better than a QWERTY layout.

Also, I type frequently in both French and English, and I feel that the Dvorak keyboard is great for French as well as English, because on the mac I can use the option key to make accent marks. This does mean I have to reach down to the option key quite a bit, but I still feel that I type better on Dvorak than any other layout.

A side note, I just remapped my caps lock key took literally 5 seconds to the option key, so accents are no problem now. This line was enough to make Dvorak users look as much like Mac users.

I would prefer to promote them as superior only because I have found that my workflow has increased tremendously. A lot less troubleshooting and no more RSI. Both worth the switch for me. Other reasons I switched include: The desire to become more of a keyboard hipster than I am right now — I use a Das Keyboard Ultimate Silent blank keys, mechanical Cherry MX Brown key switches , the excuse to allow fewer people to use my keyboard and possibly screw over anyone who does try to use it without my permission..

Well said. That leaves very few times when QWERTY is a must, and for those, how often is it truly necessary to properly touchtype? Just look down! Dvorak really reduces the distance, compared by qwerty. If you want to retain your qwerty skills while learning dvorak, just type in qwerty minutes a day — depends on your typing frequency.

I began with qwerty for about 10 years and then changed to dvorak. I can effectively switch back and forth between dvorak and qwerty. I tried this for a while but kept having usability issues.

When you learn Dvorak, the shortcut commands become a part of your typing and less apart of pattern memory and cut, copy, paste, undo convenience. This was probably the most pretentious article I have ever read. Every word made me hate you more. I actually liked the Dvorak layout until I read this. And to that I say, Dvorak is designed for typists only. Qwerty is designed as a generic layout everyone can use. I am a gamer and a lefty, I dabble in programming here and there, and I use shortcuts a lot for graphics work.

A Dvorak layout would drastically hinder my ability to do the things I do most. So the reason Dvorak never took over is simply that its for too specific of a person. It has become the standard and therefore, software programmers cater to it. Just remapped. Most software use shortcuts out of necessity and not convenience. For those who want to learn Dvorak check out TypeMatrix keyboards. I bought one a couple years ago and love it. We typed lots of papers in college and I dreaded having to type things up due to the cramping.

The faster I went the weirder movements my fingers had to do. The combos th, ch, st and sh waterfall nicely from outside fingers to inside ones. So does anything new. Speed claims will never be accurate because different people type differently, and users that switch may type differently than someone who started with only that layout.

The biggest reason to switch is to get rid of the aches and type while barely moving your fingers. Switch to Dvorak and risk a slight drop in speed. Most likely temporary, but potentially permanently.

I would probably pick number 2 because, face it, WPM is already ridiculously fast; even losing 25 WPM would be worth the added comfort and protection to the health of your wrists. My intentions are not to be rude but Seriously people can you not find more important to debate over than keyboards? I usually do not usually waste my time to comment on things like this but I honestly have to say that I find it very sad that so many take the time to argue over others preferences of keyboards.

Really who cares? Everyone has their own opinion based on what works best for them. I tried Dvorak — I had my keyboard layouts swapped over for about 6 months, but never got comfortable with it. Than numbness would then slowly spread across my whole hand. I know it is simple to swap the keyboard back to qwerty, but it just seemed like an additional pain that was the final straw to convincing me to reluctantly swap back to qwerty.

Assuming their systems are heavily locked down, you could always ask if they can change it for you, or unlock that particular setting somehow. Is the home row really where people type the fastest? But that is not the case with me. I comfortably type at wpm, with a best of wpm according to the results I got on TypeRacer on Qwerty keyboard. But think about it; in proper touch typing, you always start on the home keys and return them there after any key press.

From that position, how could it possibly be faster to hit, say, T than J? I m a great touch typist on the QWERTY keyboard and i have been typing for 5 years for around 10 mins a day in all those years.

Should i switch to dvorak keyboard or not?? Though it takes a while to learn how to type fast i am at about 30wpm on Qwerty keyboard. If there would be support from nearly all aspects OS, all type of programs etc.

I would seriously consider making the decision to switch. I have been using the Dvorak keyboard at home and office since As for finding Dvorak keyboards, sticky labels are a fair solution. The Fentek keyboard made by Key-Tronic is large and the keys are stiff, but its a fair to good option. I found the best solution is to choose a QWERTY keyboard with flat key rows where the angle or tilt of one row is tho same as the next row and the rows are not tiered—that is the upper rows should not be higher than the lower rows.

I chose a Logitech lighted keyboard. First, I switched my keyboard layout preference in Windows and Linux so I could test the new layout. Then I carefully pried off the nearly 3 dozen key caps and replaced them where they belong on the Dvorak layout. Economists Stan Liebowotz and Stephen E. I was a qwerty user with a speed of cpm and pain in my fingers. It just took a month to port to Dvorak. I enjoy using it and feel like geek when i say about this too my friends.

I have been occasionally using Korean layout, as I have to type letters and e-mails in Korean at work. Although it is not Dvorak, it shares some key elements, notably having vowels on one side. In case of the Korean layout, the vowels are concentrated on the right-hand side. This is especially critical in Korean, as it contains many more vowel characters than just the a, e, i, o, u. So, based on my experience with Korean layout, the fact that all of the vowels are concentrated on one side alone makes Dvorak a major upgrade over QWERTY.

I forgot to mention that I had to learn the Korean layout on my own. Its straightforward vowel placement made learning easier. Likewise, a newcomer with no previous typing experience should be able to self-teach the Dvorak. I learned Qwerty in school and always found my hands hurt after using it.

It always felt awkward and never got above 40wpm no matter how much I practiced. Over the years my touch typing degraded to a fairly fast visual typing and I can still type fairly fast with this method if I have to. About a year or so ago I gave Dvorak a try and I love it. I can type for hours without any discomfort and I was able to get to almost 80wpm and still find my speed and accuracy still gradually improving.

I tried colemak before learning Dvorak and did not like the way it felt. I think the placement of the backspace in place of the caps lock may make it more comfortable to learn but hurts speed and accuracy in the long term. I also find a lot of Colemak users are hurting their own agenda with the rather offputting way they promote their prefered layout.

There can be more than one. There is also more to typing comfort than computerized measurements of finger travel. I actually enjoy the feel of typing with Dvorak. The way it feels and the alternation are very appealing to me and even though I often type for hours each day I have no problems with any RSI or strain.

For those of you typing at really high speeds on Qwerty with no RSI issues, there is probably little to be gained by switching. Thanks on your marvelous posting! I actually enjoyed reading it, you happen to be a great author.

I will make certain to bookmark your blog and may come back down the road. I want to encourage one to continue your great writing, have a nice weekend! This was a fascinating read, including the comments and links to the article challenging alleged Dvorak mythology. It seems to me the best way to settle the debate is to try it! Now the other issues are you, your personality, and your particular use case.

In addition to entering tons of data daily, I like to learn new systems and skills. If long term this is better, it will be worth it.

I have some advice for anyone attempting this: 1 Learn to touch type. Forget buying junk to stick on your keyboard. Just print out a Dvorak keypad and hang it up near your monitor. Pay attention to the concept of columns.

For example, 6 is supposed to be a righthand key! On querty the first right hand column reads 6 Y H N. With this in mind, your will properly program yourself instead of learning bad habits. This is helpful no matter which style of keyboard you use. Out of curiosity, I have gotten into Dvorak typing since the mid-October of My thoughts and feelings …. I think it would probably have taken half the time had I used Dvorak typing tutor to go through disciplined typing drills.

Improvement in speed is dependent on establishing proper thought-eye-finger coordination. The less typing mistakes I make, the more my typing speed should improve. As of this moment roughly 2. I think I would not have switched to Dvorak, had I been fixated on typing speed. Fortunately, I do not have to type much beyond e-mails, one-page business letters, and short essays. As I have mentioned in my previous comment, vowel placement is very important.

It is more comfortable to type in a rhythm, if the strokes can more or less follow: Consonant-Vowel-C-V-C-V-… while having one hand deal with the vowels and let the other hand deal with most of the consonants. Idiocy persists like a herd of stubborn donkeys! Then, when travelling, using cybercafes, and switching back and forth, was not something i could manage, because beyond a certain speed, typing is automatic and not conscious, and i would get confused unless i slowed down to think about the letters.

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Dvorak increases your speed. Dvorak lessens your mistakes. Dvorak is more comfortable and better for your health. Switching to Dvorak is easier than ever.

Dvorak is cool. Using Dvorak is a noble cause. Dvorak created something great, but he died in vain. Post Tags dvorak keyboard 1 dvorak keyboard layout 1 dvorak layout 1 featured