The Dvorak keyboard

[Xantar]

I'm probably the only person here who has even used a Dvorak keyboard let alone attempted learning to use it well. But I thought I'd ask anyway just to see.

For those of you who don't know, the Dvorak keyboard was invented by John Dvorak (who is apparently a cousin of the Czech composer, for those of you who care) to be the world's most efficient keyboard. The QWERTY keyboard that you are all familiar with was actually designed to get your fingers to alternate as much as possible in order to prevent jamming on a typewriter. There also wasn't a lot of touch typing back in the day. So I'm giving the Dvorak keyboard a try and having quite a difficult time of it. This message alone took half an hour to type. But I've been told that if I can type 80 words per minute on a QWERTY keyboard (which I can), I will eventually reach 90 words per minute on a Dvorak keyboard. The Dvorak keyboard also reduces strain on my hands by mapping the most common letters to my strongest fingers. So just think: if this all works out, I'll be able to type long posto in less time than ever. :D

I'll keep you updated on my progress. In the meantime, here's a picture of the Dvorak mapping if you're ever interested in trying it.

http://www.thisistrue.com/images/dvorak.gif

[GameMaster]

Looks cool Xantar. But my muscle memory has already been trained perfectly to the QWERTY keyboard. Where would I buy one of these if interest struck in learning it?

[sdtPikachu]

Ah, the mighty Dvorak keyboard. Nice to see you got to it through This Is True Xantar, I hope you're a subscriber!

I've not used the Dvorak much (in case you're wondering how this can be changed in Windows, you can alter the keyboard profile in Control Panel to US - Dvorak), but I'll tell you one thing: for me, it's not uch faster (I can't touch tyope on a QWERTY, let alone a Dvorak) but it is far FAR more comfortable. Your fingers do less moving, and you have to contort them less. I much prefer to Dvorak to the QWERTY (especially since the QWERTY was designed to be puposefully slow - the only reason it wasn't adopted as the standard was due to WW2), and I imagine with a bit more practice I would much prfer it to QWERTY.

As for where to get them, my flatmate purchased a blank 101 key PS2 keyboard for £3, so it's a simple matter to load the keymap and just write the names on the keys. problem is that the default keymap doesn't have a £ symbol, which is a bit of a git, but easily solved.

[Angrist]

Cool! Hey Xanny check out the writer's guild please.

[Xantar]

Originally posted by GameMaster
Looks cool Xantar. But my muscle memory has already been trained perfectly to the QWERTY keyboard.

So is mine. That's why it took me so long to type that message on a Dvorak keyboard. I'm getting better at it, though.

You don't have to buy a new keyboard to type Dvorak. Since you're a Mac user, you can just do what I did: go to Control Panels and look under Keyboard. OS 9 has a bunch of preset key mappings including Swiss, French, UK etc. Put a check mark next to one of the Dvorak mappings (one is plain old Dvorak and the other switches back to QWERTY when you push command so that when quitting a program, you still push where Q would be on a normal keyboard). Then click on additional options and put a check mark in the second box. This will let you switch between the Dvorak and QWERTY settings by simply pushing option + command + spacebar.

Then, print out a picture of the Dvorak mapping (the picture I posted here should work) and use it while typing to figure out where all the letters are. I suppose it only works if you touch type, but I can.

By the way, apparently people skilled with the Dvorak mapping can switch between the two keyboard mappings at will. So even if your muscle memory is perfectly attuned to the QWERTY mapping, you can still pick up the Dvorak mapping with no consequence. You'll just have to practice for a while to get the hang of it. I still think it's worthwhile just as a security device—nobody's going to be able to type in my password at my computer even if they know what it is.

sdtPikachu: no, I'm not a subscriber to This Is True. I found the website where that picture is from through a Google search. Does a subscription cost money?

[sdtPikachu]

Originally posted by Xantar
sdtPikachu: no, I'm not a subscriber to This Is True. I found the website where that picture is from through a Google search. Does a subscription cost money?

No, he does paid and free subscriptions. The pay people just get sent more stuff, that's all.

I think it'll be ample fule for "people are stupid" posts, especially if, like me and him, you have a dread of "zero tolerance" regimes. Just put your email in teh box on this page (http://www.thisistrue.com/subscribe.html) under the free subscription thing, and you'll get a newsletter once a week telling you how stupid peolpe are. What more could a cynic want?!

[GameMaster]

Hey Xantar, how do I do this in OS X? You wouldn't happen to know would you? I'll just check out the system preference and see if I can figure it out myself...

[jshrimp3]

I'm trying to learn to type using the Dvorak keyboard, but it's hard. This has taken about 5 minutes. I'm starting to get used to it.

[Cyrax9]

I actualy Once tried Dvorak on my Middle Schools Word-Proccessor in 8th grade that they gave me,because my writing uck, as do my QWERTY skills for the most part. I might Give Dvorak a try again eventually,especially if It reduces strainon your wrists. Also, a typewriter is not just annoying because of a QWERTY setup, but the satisfying "Ding" that says nothing more than "Congradulations on wasting a pice of paper" is why I love Word Porccessors, even the Bloated M$ Word is better than an old Typewriter these days.

[Xantar]

Progress report:

Well, here I am after eight days with the Dvorak keyboard. I'm going much faster now. In fact, I sometimes type as fast as 20 wpm. Either I'm gifted or the Dvorak keyboard really is that easy. This message took two minutes to type and is about 270 characters.

[Xantar]

Well, sorry to dredge up an old topic, but I just wanted to let you guys know (in case you care) that I can now type just as quickly on a Dvorak keyboard as I can an a QWERTY keyboard. I've actually been able to do this for a while, but I never got around to posting it because I was away in Boston or Europe or adjusting to life in college. I'd say that I've been typing this quickly for about a month now. It took me half an hour to type that post at the beginning of this thread. This post has taken me less than a minute. And when I get around to posting Chapter 7 of my Zelda fanfic, I will have written my first fanfic chapter entirely on a Dvorak keyboard. Pika's right: it really does reduce strain on your hands. Give it a try.

[Renwood]

I will!

[KillerGremlin]

I'm too lazy to try new things. And, since I can devour approximately 90wpm on a QWERTY keyboard, I really don't need to find a new method to improve my typing.

[Angrist]

For a moment I thought Xantar posted here again. :( I'll have to ask him if he still uses the Dvorak keyboard.

[Bube]

For a moment I thought Xantar posted here again. :( I'll have to ask him if he still uses the Dvorak keyboard.
lol :) And I was just about to say that somebody else had started using the Dvorak keyboard and told us all about it some years ago. Then I realized this was the post from "some years ago" :)

[DeathsHand]

Odd that someone revived this post now; I actually stumbled upon the wiki for the Dvorak keyboard a few days ago...
The simple image of it's keyboard get-up makes my head explode...

QWERTY treats me well enough, what with my ~105 WPM... *blows on fingernails and brushes them off on shirt*