My quest to learn the Dvorak keyboard layout, part 1

For science, for productivity, for not making my hands move so much.

Read the whole story

 

[hajile]

The author should try colemak. It's a more optimized layout and keeps the ability to use copy-cut-paste shortcuts.

 

[nbm]

cyrogenic[/url]":2lwnaxmj]

nbm[/url]":2lwnaxmj]Oh, I have an anecdote to counter Dvorak as a panacea for wrist pain. I didn't start developing wrist pain until several years after switching to Dvorak. If I use a keyboard other than the Kinesis for more than a minute, I can feel it. This fact doesn't depend on keyboard layout.

I just switched to the flat qwerty keyboard I keep on my ^desk for when other people need to type at my computer (the Kinesis has qwerty key caps, so it's practically impossible for anyone else) and I started feeling discomfort in my left wrist at the ^.

I love my kinesis. I have the one with the QWERTY and DVORAK labels, so if I ever go to Dvorak, I hope that helps.

Learning to type on the Kinesis was a solid week of making typos galore for me, but I couldn't look at the key caps even if they were labeled correctly. All the keys I had trouble finding were on or below the bottom row and my hands cover up the keys so I can't type and look at the same time.

If someone wants to make a change that will improve their typing life significantly at the cost of mental code switching and some learning time with lots of typos, I would strongly recommend buying a Kinesis over switching to Dvorak. I use Emacs and play games. Having access to ctrl, alt, and whatever the heck else I need (easy remapping) at my thumbs is such a huge improvement that it's worth it just for that. Add in the fact that my fingers hardly move at all when I type and it's a huge improvement.

 

[Bleeprz]

The80sCalled[/url]":18bjpjz3]Most painless way to coax your brain into Dvorak: make a few of your passwords (email, Facebook, company login password, password manager password) phrases typed in Dvorak. You get crazy good at typing your passwords, so you'll get crazy good at typing a few words at a time in Dvorak.

That just seems masochistic.

 

[Peaceful]

It took me a full 3 months to become a faster typer with Dvorak than I was with Qwerty, but it was worth it. My hands feel much better.

I switch to Qwerty for most games (except awesome ones like StarCraft II that support grid-based mappings and multiple saved control profiles which makes it easy to re-map everything you actually use under Dvorak).

I never properly learned to touch-type Qwerty in the first place, so I had a bad habit of staring at the keyboard while typing. I actually lost my Qwerty typing skills, such as they were, as I learned Dvorak. Afterwards, I re-learned to touch-type in Qwerty (for games and for when you're at someone else's computer) and I'm no longer a stare-at-your-fingers zombie. I do about 95% or more of my typing in Dvorak, and the rest in Qwerty.

I'll tell you what, when you go back and (re)learn Qwerty after learning Dvorak, you are very aware of just what a crappy layout Qwerty is (which is what it was designed to be: maximize the distance between common keys == crappy).

 

[LionInWinter]

I switched a number of years ago (using some nice keycap stickers, though now I just type blind) and it was an uphill battle for the first couple of weeks. There's going to be a point when you hit max frustration, where you have a rough idea of where all the keys are but still can't find them so everything gets even SLOWER, but once you get past that hump things will start picking back up.

Personally it took me about two months for my typing speed to recover, but since then I've been running full speed. I'm also pretty good at mentally switching back to QWERTY when needed, but I'm still a lot slower on that.

I'm still writing between 200k to 300k words a year and I can't say if I'm any faster, but I'm no longer in pain and I really think that's more important.

 

[heavyboots]

I tried this experiment in the mid-90's. I actually found the DVORAK layout pretty soothing to use and not too much trouble after the first week. As for the holding two modes in your head, this is what eventually made me give up. Turns out that one of the myriad ways that Quark XPress copy-protectec (still protects?) their software is to *hardwire* the keyboard layout down to the country they sold it for. So, even though all my other programs let me type DVORAK, XPress enforced QWERTY irregardless of what Keyboard Layout I chose in OS 9…

I am definitely with JerryLove though—wish like hell DVORAK had won the layout battle.

PS: The way I overcame the initial learning curve was to write out a tiny alphabet on clear tape (I think?) stick them to the kbd to make an on-keyboard DVORAK reference available.

 

[Bleeprz]

TheESDGuy[/url]":33ybk36c]As someone who currently types on a German keyboard layout at work and a US keyboard layout at home, I don't know how you can remap your brain that way to two completely different layouts. In the German keyboard layout the Z and Y keys are transposed to the US, ALL of the special symbols are in a different place, and to reach @{[]}\|~, right alt is the modifier key which modifies the q7890ß<+ keys respectively. probably the most maddening thing is that ( and ) are shifted one column to the left (89 instead if 90) so I will often hammer out quick parenthetical statements such as: )for example=.

This was typed on a German keyboard layout.

It's not that bad to switch between QWERTY and QWERTZ. I got used to it and can switch between the two on command. Though it's hilarious whenever people use my German keyboard to go to "http://www.zoutube.com/". And they scream ZOUTUBE in response to the insanity.

 

[erendorn]

I learned dvorak some years ago, and it felt very nice. The layout improvement is obvious when you've learned to touchtype again.

But I've stopped using it since, mostly because:
- any other pc is qwerty
- any new device need to be configured
- my coworkers would become confused when typing on my session
- I don't touchtype for punctuation (apart from keys used in programming), so it was a bit annoying to search for keys

 

[Trillian]

6 years ago, I decided that I should finally learn to properly touch-type and stop watching the keyboard. I tried a few typing software but didn't persevere. My solution was to learn an alternate layout, since there would be no point in looking at the keyboard if it didn't have the right labels. I tried Dvorak and Enti-Key++ but ended up choosing Colemak and have loved it ever since:

• It has "extended" latin characters easily accessible so I can code, type in English and in French with the same keyboard layout (top feature for me)
• It remaps caps lock to backspace, which is quite practical
• Having people be scared to touch your keyboard can actually be a good thing

In the end, would I recommend doing the switch? I do think it's a somewhat better keyboard layout but going against the de-facto standard has obvious downsides and you'll have to resort to Qwerty once in a while when you have to use other machines. If you think the challenge of making the switch looks fun and work in a discipline where you will be able to change the keyboard layout of your work computer, then sure, try it out.

Also, Typing of the Dead is a great way to practice a new layout!

 

[skriticos]

I did this sometimes in the mid 2000s and it reflects my experiences. I was a fluent QWERTY touch typist already. After beating around the bush for a few months one day I decided to switch, changed the layout on my computer and forced myself to figure it out.

The first hours were as described here: a game of search the key. It was extremely slow but after a page of text I got into it somewhat OK-ish, probably around 5 WPM, though I did not measure. Rarely used keys were still a challenge.

Then came the really hard part: once I was good enough to switch from conscious remembering of the key locations to muscle reflexes QWERTY came back to my fingers and I hit the wrong keys all the time. Getting rid of this took much longer, a few weeks maybe.

With time I managed to re-train my reflexes though and blissfully un-learned QWERTY. Never regretted the decision, I'm still typing Dvorak and enjoying it.

As for the labels on the keys, they never practically bothered me much. Still, I got myself an unlabeled mechanical keyboard some time ago because they are much nicer to type on and look cool.

 

[reckless76]

Honestly surprised no one else already posted this, but for anyone interested the translation of the gibberish from the middle of the article is here:

this is what it looks like when you try to type qwerty into dvorak.. this is my mental state right now. if i even forget for a second that im not using Qwerty this is how my typing is going to come out.. not that you can understand. not that anyone understands. typing in gibberish at 86 wpm is better than being understood at 5 wpm. ive been at thsi 20 minute sand already ive lost patience.

 

[natgab]

Is Dvorak any easier to learn for people who are bilingual from birth? I can easily switch between languages both speaking & writing. I don't type for a living, but do type a bit at work and at home. I am also family's tech support so I would be still going back and forth between keyboards frequently enough.

I touch type for text, but have never been one to use keyboard short-cuts. Since I use a Mac at home but use Windows at work (and other people's PCs) it has also made me reluctant to learn keyboard short-cuts since Mac and Windows have different combinations.

It would be nice to see a charter school or maybe a private school try an experiment and teach kids typing " bilingually " by having them learn both systems and switch between them. School - Dvorak and Home - Qwerty.

 

[ChaoticUnreal]

natgab[/url]":22p7feei]Is Dvorak any easier to learn for people who are bilingual from birth? I can easily switch between languages both speaking & writing. I don't type for a living, but do type a bit at work and at home. I am also family's tech support so I would be still going back and forth between keyboards frequently enough.

I touch type for text, but have never been one to use keyboard short-cuts. Since I use a Mac at home but use Windows at work (and other people's PCs) it has also made me reluctant to learn keyboard short-cuts since Mac and Windows have different combinations.

It would be nice to see a charter school or maybe a private school try an experiment and teach kids typing " bilingually " by having them learn both systems and switch between them. School - Dvorak and Home - Qwerty.

The only thing I could compare it to would be learning to write with both hands at the same time. I don't think the bilingual aspect would help out since its not thinking in a different language. Most typist don't know where the keys are they just know where they need to put their fingers to get the letter they want. So it is all muscle memory.

 

[sebnukem]

I have a Dvorak keyboard waiting in my closet. The conclusion of this series of article will decide the ultimate fate of my keyboards.

 

[RealityMonster]

You're doing basically all the stuff that I did when I switched. I used a small picture of the layout on the screen, and I chatted with friends on a MUCK. It was the kind of place where people didn't really stand for poor typing, so I had very slow conversations with people.

It was physically painful, sometimes. Reaching for a key and forcing yourself to stop and press the right one is difficult.

The advantage of switching isn't just limited to the theoretical inherent benefits of dvorak. I'm a much better typist now. Because I can't ever look down to try and fix my problems, I feel like the amount of auto-pilot typing I do now is even more than I did when I was a QWERTY touch typist.

Added bonus: pick your passwords in QWERTY, type them in dvorak. You get an additional cipher step for free.

 

[RealityMonster]

anselor[/url]":28rokp7e]I made the switch while I was in college when the productivity cost was much lower than it would be for me now. I was pretty fast at typing in Qwerty at around 80-90wpm. It took me about a month to in Dvorak before I felt I was being reasonably productive again at around 60wpm. I never really achieved 90wpm again on Dvorak but I suspect that more has to do with having spent so much time living in a bursty IM-centric typing environment through college.

One of the driving reasons for switching was due to recurring pain in my wrists while tying in Qwerty. After switching to Dvorak I've rarely experienced wrist pain. With some practice I've found that I can make a mental switch between Qwerty and Dvorak within 20-30 seconds. What is most fascinating, however, is that I don't have a clear image of the Dvorak layout. When I imagine a keyboard I still see Qwerty and if I needed to write out the Dvorak layout it would take a little while of me air-typing works to reverse engineer the layout. I think I remapped my muscle memory of where to move my fingers when typing.

Good luck with your transition. The first week is hardest but it gets better from there.

Edit: Regarding smartphones - I still use Qwerty on my smartphone. Since my mental image of the keyboard is still Qwerty it's actually strangely confusing to do two-finger smartphone hunt&peck with Dvorak.

Yeah, this is almost exactly my experience. I also don't have a clear picture of the dvorak layout. When I run into trouble, I either air-type, or start pressing keys on my keyboard to verify that I'm correct.

It's no trouble using a QWERTY keyboard on a smartphone/tablet. You can see where you're reaching for the letters, and typing speed isn't really the goal.

 

[Raptor Apocalypse]

You can type in both. I've been typing in dvorak ever since middle school when I decided to teach myself, but I've also picked up qwerty by necessity when using other people's computers. I can do about half speed on the qwerty keyboard which I consider to be good enough. It's like learning to play two different musical insturments. Your brain will adapt to the new fingerings and once you learn both, you can effortlessly switch between them.


(Frg jab euurpyn.oonf o,cyjd x.y,..b yd.m)

 

[RealityMonster]

phobos512[/url]":1bl3itx9]I cannot think of a reason why any adult who's been touch typing in QWERTY for an appreciable amount of time would want to switch layouts for the sake of a few percent efficiency gain. It will take years to get as good with Dvorak as you had been with QWERTY, just as it did with QWERTY the first time around. All that lost productivity will add up. Dropping from 100+WPM to under 50 for months +...just doesn't seem like a great use of energy.

It's less about the efficiency and more about the reduced movement. My hands aren't tired at the end of the day. I'm a programmer. I type a lot. I've been typing for 20 years and I hope to be typing in 20 more without trouble. I don't think I'm any faster with dvorak, but it IS more comfortable. I find that I reach for common letters less. The weird letters are off in places where you don't have to go looking for them as often.

 

[skriticos]

Deus Casus[/url]":2xkml6gq]

natgab[/url]":2xkml6gq]Is Dvorak any easier to learn for people who are bilingual from birth? I can easily switch between languages both speaking & writing. I don't type for a living, but do type a bit at work and at home. I am also family's tech support so I would be still going back and forth between keyboards frequently enough.

I touch type for text, but have never been one to use keyboard short-cuts. Since I use a Mac at home but use Windows at work (and other people's PCs) it has also made me reluctant to learn keyboard short-cuts since Mac and Windows have different combinations.

It would be nice to see a charter school or maybe a private school try an experiment and teach kids typing " bilingually " by having them learn both systems and switch between them. School - Dvorak and Home - Qwerty.

The only thing I could compare it to would be learning to write with both hands at the same time. I don't think the bilingual aspect would help out since its not thinking in a different language. Most typist don't know where the keys are they just know where they need to put their fingers to get the letter they want. So it is all muscle memory.

From personal experience I agree. I've grown up tri-lingual and had the same difficulty any other person has with learning Dvorak and it took long until I completed the switch. I also unlearned QWERTY in the process. I think it's mostly because of the muscle reflexes.

 

[DCinWI]

Haven't read through the five pages of comments yet, but I wanted to ask this question.

If "one hand controls common letters and the other handles vowels" then this sounds like a piano where one hand does the chords and another notes (generally speaking). Are there any studies on the ease of transition to the DVORAK keyboard for piano players? In other words, does a similar skill-set with hand usage make adapting to the DVORAK keyboard easier for the user?

 

[mborgerson]

TL;DR: I made the switch and regained my proficiency in about six months. It was hard.

When I first started using computers, years ago, I taught myself to type--incorrectly. I rarely used my pinky finger except for the Enter/Return key, and would cross over with my index finger to type some keys. I recognized that this wasn't the 'correct way' to type, but I was reasonably fast so I never cared much to correct my form. Near the end of 2012, around October I think, I remembered hearing about Dvorak years before, so I did some research and I was convinced of the benefits (i.e. minimizing typing fatigue) and I decided to try it.

I used a typing tutor for about 30 minutes per day for a week or so to become familiar with layout. Once I was able to locate a majority of keys from memory, I switched all my keyboards over to Dvorak. It was slow at first. Painfully slow. Fighting years of QWERTY muscle memory is not easy. Typing out even the shortest e-mail was a challenge. In addition to the usual writing of e-mails and code, I used a speed typing test to practice and improve my speed.

It probably took about six months before I was able to type with the same proficiency that I previously had with QWERTY layout. My speed improvement was negligible--I'm probably 5-10 WPM faster. My form is much better--I now use all my fingers to type, and because of the way the keys are arranged, there is a good distribution of effort. I also learned to embrace the Caps Lock key--something I almost never used on QWERTY. Unfortunately, now I'm much slower on a QWERTY keyboard--this isn't a major issue for me, but for this reason some people choose to leave some of their keyboards set to QWERTY to remain proficient in both.

It's been almost a year and a half and I'm glad I made the switch. If you can tolerate the agony of re-writing years of QWERTY training, I highly recommend it--especially if you do a lot of typing on a regular basis. Best of luck, I look forward to reading your follow up articles.

 

[Uncompetative]

I thought I would dig up some old work I did on my ABCDEF keyboard layout and see how it fared:

© Nick Harris - 27/3/2014

Here's my recent post on my adventures...

http://uncompetative.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... ayout.html

 

[YetAnotherAnonymousAppellation]

LaughingMan11[/url]":3k1ikjaj]If you're learning to touch type, they teach you never to look at the keys, regardless of the layout.

Way back in dinosaur times when I took typing class in high school, all the manual typewriters had blank keycaps and the only reference to the layout was on a chart at the front of the room. After the first few weeks, the teacher took the chart down...

 

[ChaoticUnreal]

Uncompetative[/url]":tfx6y77y]I thought I would dig up some old work I did on my ABCDEF keyboard layout and see how it fared:

© Nick Harris - 27/3/2014

Here's my recent post on my adventures...

http://uncompetative.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... ayout.html

Where do you get the heatmap from?

 

[Blue Adept]

I've been touch typing QWERTY for 30 years. I'd be afraid that I'd permanently wreck my touch-typing ability.

I've read studies about people who have had lenses attached to their face so that they see everything upside down, and then eventually their brain does a switch, and they see everything righ-tside up. I'd never mess with something so important.

 

[klbarrus]

Promathion[/url]":3v1e6rzr]Windows does a TERRIBLE job of highlighting which mode the system is in, and obviously the password field is no help.

I'm not sure what version you are using, but this is one thing that Win8 does improve.

I've got several Win8 machines at work and the login screen displays the IME state: "ENG US" for QWERTY versus "ENG Colemak" or "ENG Dvorak" or whatever - I also have "Chinese Microsoft Pinyin" but I don't select that one for logging in

The XP box at work doesn't give a clue as to the IME state on the login screen. Neither does my work Mac. Once logged in OSX happily displays an IME gizmo, but the login screen doesn't say squat. And through a peculiarity/bug from when I installed this system, I just happen to know that the initial login screen from boot expects DVORAK even though I removed that as an option afterwards.

All my linux systems are VMs and I can't recall right now if the login screen displays the IME state. EDIT: I just cranked up a Fedora 20 Gnome VM, and I see a dropdown selector for the IME state.

 

[Dracorat]

Heatmap at:
http://www.patrick-wied.at/projects/heatmap-keyboard/

Here's my long post above, from the source - in both layouts:

My Post In QWERTY

My Post In Dvorak

 

[SAI Peregrinus]

I switched to Colemak years ago, since it has similar benefits to Dvorak, but is easier to switch back and forth with QWERTY. They share more keys, including the QWAZXCV hotkeys.

 

[boli]

(My email bounced, hence as a comment)

Have you considered Colemak?
Having seen your article about your Dvorak switch I remembered I was in a similar situation 7 years ago. I ended up not switching to Dvorak (too hard), but to Colemak instead (also hard, but less so). Fewer keys change compared to QWERTY, particularly many of those that are almost hard-wired in the spine for common shortcuts, such as ZXCV as well as Q and W.

I work as a programmer in a software engineering company with about 200 people, and we're already 4 Colemak users and 1 Dvorak user, and I think 2 more are about to learn Colemak. BTW one of the full-time Colemak users did use Dvorak for some time (then switched back to QWERTY IIRC), and eventually to Colemak.

You'll find a lot more info on http://colemak.com. If you like the scientific approach I recommend checking out http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/carpalx/?popular_alternatives: Colemak is the best of the "popular" alternatives to QWERTY. There's only one layout that seems even better, but it's more obscure and misses some of Colemak's strengths.

 

[CenterLess]

lostalaska[/url]":uz5o7yko]If you're already a fast touch typist I'd say the simplest speed boost is just getting a solid mechanical keyboard. The tactile feedback boosted my speed from about 75-82wpm to a little over 100wpm the main thing was the slight click you can feel when depressing the keys as confirmation the key was pressed. It's almost like driving a clutch where once you get the hang of it you don't even press it down all the way, eventually you just find that sweet spot at about three quarters the way in where it engages, mechanical keys feel very similar in that aspect to me. Anyways, save yourself a lot of frustration and pick up a mechanical keyboard.... DRINK THE MECHANICAL KEYBOARD KOOL-AID AND JOIN US!

A problem with these "clicky" mechanical keys comes up when you're using it in the vicinity of other people. It will drive them to murder you. They're loud if you're an okay typist, but typing at 100 words/min would be extremely distracting.

 

[RubyPanther]

If typing speed is the bottleneck of your writing... you're doing it wrong.

Think how much better a writer you would be if instead of trying to type faster, you tied your preference-hand behind your back, and spent more time thinking about what you write?

 

[blueshifter]

klbarrus[/url]":3r7v6jk0]The XP box at work doesn't give a clue as to the IME state on the login screen. Neither does my work Mac. Once logged in OSX happily displays an IME gizmo, but the login screen doesn't say squat.

My Mavericks macs show/allow me to change the IME state in the upper-right corner of the login screen. Check for a subtle little keyboard icon.

And yeah, on Vista/7, I'd have an IME selection if the screen was locked, but it would be (invisibly) Qwerty if logged out.

 

[DStaal]

brentK[/url]":303z5az3]I have never tried to learn the Dvorak layout, but I wonder if using tactically different keyboards would help with the learning process. In the past I used to play two different woodwind instruments (bassoon and flute) which are different sizes and use different fingering, as well as the piano. I never had trouble switching between the two, but I suspect that is because the two were so different. I currently switch back and forth between playing the piano and the organ. On the piano and organ the fingering and notes are the same for the keyboards, but one still has to use a different touch on them. I suspect this is easier because the different keyboards give different tactile feedback.

(I too would love to learn Dvorak, but there are a lot of impediments to doing so.)

That was my system, so anecdotally it works. I use Dvorak on my desktop, with a Kinesis keyboard, but use QWERTY on other keyboards. I've never had trouble switching back and forth, although the initial two-three weeks of Dvorak was slow. At this point I can switch at will, and rarely have trouble. (Though I'll admit to having a few 'odd' mistypes.)

I can't say anything about speed advantages or disadvantages: I maxed out at under 30 wpm well before I learned Dvorak, and never got faster, on any keyboard. (I'd also learned Fitaly, back in the Palm days, and was equally good on that.) But I can use basically any keyboard put in front of me without trouble, and I use Dvorak on my main-use keyboard.

 

[semperwifi]

The question is: do you pronounce "Dvorak" the Czech or English way?

 

[Dracorat]

semperwifi[/url]":2w55l15j]The question is: do you pronounce "Dvorak" the Czech or English way?

Either are correct and you can see their pronounciations at the top of the relevant Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard

 

[nbm]

semperwifi[/url]":34ia89re]The question is: do you pronounce "Dvorak" the Czech or English way?

I pronounce the keyboard the English way and the composer the Czech way. August Dvorak was an American.

 

[Texadan]

Microsoft has a keyboard layout designer one can download. I made a modified Dvorak; I left the -_, =+, [{, ]}, \|, and '" keys where they were because I liked them there. That also means the /? is the Q key. I wrote letters on white labels and stuck them on the keys until I had memorized the positions then took them off. I also assigned hot keys for switching between the two layouts. When someone from IS needs to use my computer "Alt-Shift 0" makes it Qwerty again while "Alt-Shift 1" puts me back in Dvorak.

I also use the same layout on my Linux laptop but there's no switching back and forth.

 

[drumhellar916]

This would be the perfect time to install Sega's "The Typing of the Dead"

After each level, it gives you plenty of feedback regarding which keys you are good or bad at, plus graphs your improvement over time.

Plus, the voice acting is absolutely horrible, just like the original "The House of the Dead 2"

 

[anjoschu]

blobbel[/url]":3an7dmu9]I switched to Dvorak about four years ago. I had tried but failed to learn ten finger typing on qwerty. I found it a lot easier to learn on the Dvorak layout, because you could use the home row to actually type some words and use ten finger typing much sooner in real life. instead of keep typing into those silly typing tutorials.

I, too, have tried to learn qwerty and failed several times. Then, I tried it with Dvorak. Learning Dvorak went relatively smoothly because i didn't have to un-learn anything. In my experience, learning to touch-type with Dvorak is much MUCH easer than with qwerty. Iff it is the first layout you learn. Oh, and don't use those ghastly typing tutors, just write text.

- disclaimer: wrtote this post on phone

 

[Garst]

I don't think leaning the Dvorak key layout would benefit me in any way. Both QWERTY and Dvorak key layouts look like a garbled mess, so learning another garbled mess would only clutter my mind with virtually useless knowledge. And the thing I have to type correctly the most often "Brian Burwell" would not be improved by switching to the Dvorak layout.