Comments on: Michael Sampson on the Dvorak Keyboard

By: Alexey

Alexey — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:24:44 +0000

@jeff, I suspect you was trying to remember the layout in your head and that’s why ‘aoeu’ next to each other was a problem for you. The right place to remember the layout is in your fingers. It’s really hard to mistype ‘o’ instead of ‘a’: ‘o’ is typed by ring finger and ‘a’ by little finger (or how you call them in English, I’m not sure…) ).

By: Alexey

Alexey — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:16:18 +0000

The reason is that one cannot see the keyboard if your hands are in a right position. So if you look at the keyboard, you remove the hands from the place where they should be, so muscle memory doesn’t work when you type.

By: Alexey

Alexey — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:12:03 +0000

@Mark, I’ve printed a sheet of paper with dvorak layout and put it on the wall. So I was not looking at the keyboard but was looking at the wall.

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:22:31 +0000

Thanks for sharing your experience with Dvorak.

By: jeff

jeff — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:33:41 +0000

I switched and typed DVORAK exclusively for 3+ months. Memorizing the keys was very easy, and I used a DVORAK practice typing program every day for at least 30 minutes. After six weeks, my improvement began to slow down, and after three months, I realized that I would be making more type-o’s with DVORAK than I had with QWERTY for years to come. The fact that all the vowels are right next to each other on the left home row makes it very easy to mistype. I switched back to QWERTY and what a relief!!! DVORAK was kind of a fun experiment, but a big waste of time.

By: RSI Stuff Discusses QWERTY vs DVORAK key layouts | RSI Stuff

RSI Stuff Discusses QWERTY vs DVORAK key layouts | RSI Stuff — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 22:41:51 +0000

[...] something to DVORAK. I’ve read dozens of stories from people with RSI who made the switch such as this one and the consensus is that the learning curve is frustrating, but that long term the benefits are [...]

By: Denver

Denver — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:16:02 +0000

If you use , , and , you don’t have to worry about where the letters are.

However, most laptops have lousy layout for Insert, Delete, Home, and End, while conveniently positioning CapsLk, Fn, Windows, Menu, and other keys I rarely use.
I never use CapsLk. In fact, I’ve disabled it.
I never used SysReq, even back in the days of MS-DOS.

It would be nice to have a comprehensive look at keyboard arrangements beyond just the letters and punctuation and re-engineer it in light of modern usage.

By: John Wall

John Wall — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:11:40 +0000

There are Dvorak alternate layouts that leave cut, copy and paste in the same place.

By: Dale King

Dale King — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:42:15 +0000

I’ve tried switching a couple of times and keep resorting back to qwerty.

One of the problems I always have is cut, copy and paste or ctrl-X, ctrl-C and ctrl-V. For most people finding these control key combinations is automatic and has little to do with what the actual letters are, but with Dvorak they get moved somewhere else.

I’d be interested to know how you worked around that.

By: John Wall

John Wall — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:09:25 +0000

I hadn’t heard that stat about it being 1/16th of the distance. I can believe that. I’ve been on dvorak for about 5 years, and just posted some of the things I’ve learned:

http://www.themshow.com/wordpress/2008/03/15/do-you-need-the-dvorak-keyboard-layout/

I have not gone so far as to buy a full dvorak keyboard though:
http://www.maltron.com/maltron-kbd-ltype-dvorak.html

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:25:34 +0000

@Alexey – So how did you get started with the new layout if you had no way to tell where any of the keys are located? Were you using some type of typing program or did you spend a bunch of time trying to memorize the keyboard before using the new layout?

By: Alexey

Alexey — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 09:00:45 +0000

When I started the transition, I purchased a Dvorak keyboard overlay for my Apple keyboard.

That was a major mistake, I think. You should not look at the keyboard AT ALL when you’re learning. I did switch myself to Dvorak around 6 years ago, and it took a week to be able to type easily and no more than a month to reach the same speed as I had before. (I do not know what’s my speed in wpm terms, but what I can do with my typing is very much like what is described.)

I’m not sure, though, if I got any speed benefits, but tiredness and pain in my hands went away completely after my first week with Dvorak and never come back.