Michael Sampson is trying to switch to the Dvorak keyboard. The Dvorak keyboard is arranged differently to help you type faster and with less finger movement. While the advantages sound promising, I have never quite understood why you’d want to switch to the Dvorak keyboard if you are already proficient at QWERTY.
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I type somewhere between 50 to 75 words pre minute, but it is very rare for me to type at those speeds because I usually spend more time thinking about what I’m writing than I do actually writing. Maybe I just think slower than most people
The basis for most of the claims of Dvorak’s keyboard was done for the Navy in 1944. However, it appears that the report is fairly difficult to locate and people who have actually looked into it found the methodology to be questionable.
Even if it was clear that the Dvorak keyboard was superior in 1944, you have to consider the way typing has changed in the past 50 years. The way we use a keyboard today is significantly different than the way it was used half a century ago. .
I can see the advantage of the Dvorak keyboard if you are simply doing transcription or copying text. Back when it was invented, word processors didn’t exist, so there was a lot of mind numbing retyping of documents in order to fix errors. With word processors, this isn’t as much of an issue because you don’t have to retype an entire document to make a bunch of small edits.
Has anyone tried using the Dvorak keyboard? What were your results?
I have played with using the Dvorak keyboard on several occasions. I just changed the keyboard layout without actually getting a different keyboard. I found that after just 2 days I was able to type close to the same speeds as I do with the QWERTY keyboard.
I don’t type non-stop in data entry, I type in programming. I think given time I would be able to type my code quicker with a different keyboard layout.
However, I’m not sure that Dvorak is the best layout for programming. It would be interesting to see an updated study for typing in general to see if the Dvorak keyboard is still more efficient, and to see another keyboard layout that is more programmer friendly.
I switched to Dvorak about 5 years ago and have been quite pleased with it. I still do a lot of general typing–emails, blog post comments :P–so I find that it’s quite useful all the time. I think the change in the way computers are used is a bit overstated here.
I find that, more than the speed increase, the benefit in using Dvorak is that it’s just simply easier on the hands. I don’t move my hands as much to type, and I don’t feel strain in my hands or wrists.
My one warning about using Dvorak: keyboard shortcuts change. I use the keyboard most of the time where possible–shortcuts in everything!–and found that adjusting to the shortcuts took much longer than adjusting to the typing (the latter of which was only a number of weeks).
My biggest argument against an alternative keyboard is that all the other keyboards in the world will still be QWERTY. That would include your iPhone, Blackberry, or even the random computer you find yourself needing to type at. Switching back and forth would most likely be a nightmare.
Three years later and it looks like touch devices have become mainstream. And as such it’s very simple to change the displayed keyboard layout with software.
At the same time, qwerty might get a boost with predictive text algorithms that make typing on the conventional layout easier.
I have always been fairly fast touch typing with QWERTY. Some years back I was brushing up with the Mavis Beacon program, and I noticed that there was an option to use the Dvorak layout. After learning it I found out that Windows had Dvorak support built in, so I started using it.
I never bothered with changing the key labels as I had learned it all by touch. There is somehow a logic to the Dvorak layout so that if I forgot where a key was, I could infer where it ought to be. The Dvorak layout feels more comfortable and streamlined for fast typing, and there is definitely less finger motion which is very noticeable if you watch someone using it. The effect reminds me of the machines that court reporters use; I always used to wonder how they could type as fast as someone can speak with so little finger motion.
Nowadays I’m fairly fluent with both layouts. I use Dvorak most of the time at work, but my computer at home is still set for QWERTY (I probably do more typing at work).
@Andrew – Good point. I guess maybe you could get use to it just like people who learn to jump back and forth between different languages. Or you could always carry a keyboard with you just in case you needed it. :)
I switched to Dvorak last June, and have never looked back. I was a chronic hunt-and-peck’er until senior year of high school, but even touch-typing with qwerty, I was never able to type without looking at my hands. Well. I could, but it took more than twice as long. And special characters? Forget about it. I had to look for numbers, too.
Now that I type with dvorak, it’s just easier. I rarely have to stretch to reach a letter, because the letters I use most are right in the home row, with second priority going to reaching up, rather than down. And I can hit the “?” without thinking about it. Even numbers are easier.
Not everything is an improvement. The rare occasions that I’ve had to use someone else’s computer or look something up in the library, it’s back to hunt-and-peck. And I’ll still accidentally type an “E” at the end of a sentence. So what? I have no interest in a blackberry, and I’m fairly confident that by the time I have the money or desire for an iPhone, someone will have figured out a hack to allow me to use dvorak.
Count me a happy user. =)
@ Andrew Flusche:
Nah, I do it pretty regularly and it’s not bad. It does take some getting used to, but at this point, context is everything: I naturally sit down at someone else’s computer or grab my BlackBerry and start typing in QWERTY while typing in Dvorak on my own systems.
My son uses the Dvorak keyboard for gaming communication and chat room stuff. He is FAST – the words really fly when he types. He actually does not have a keyboard that is labeled for Dvorak, he just changes the system settings.
I hate it when he uses my system and switches it to Dvorak – it always confuses me for a bit. Then, I have to remember how to switch it back.
@Mark … I changed mainly due to RSI concerns. I would not have done so otherwise.
@Andrew … see the post re BB issues. I don’t think it’s an issue. On other computers, I now hunt and peck!
M.
I’ve used Dvorak for over a decade now.
I switched because I’ve always have been partial towards looking towards things off the beaten path. I’m a comics reader and a Libertarian party member, to show to of the most prominent examples that have stuck.
( There’s even a comic book about the history of the Dvorak keyboard. I wrote about it here: http://www.comicspundit.com/2007/07/non-fiction-comics-dvorak-zine.html )
I’ve stuck with the Dvorak keyboard because:
1. I find that I don’t have to move my fingers as much since the home row is where the most common keys are.
2. Since learning the Dvorak layout, I can no longer look down at the keyboard to know which key is what. So my touch typing has improved over the long haul, since I can’t fall back on “hunt and peck” the keys have to be kept in my memory.
When I first swtiched to Dvorak, my main keyboards at home and work got covered with little stickers which showed both the dvorak and qwerty keys. I also found a shareware program that taught typing in both keyboard layouts.
I still can type in Qwerty. As I occasionally find myself using other’s computers. Admittably, it does require a bit of reorienting myself when I do so, and since most computers I work on easily can be switched to Dvorak and back, I often do that.
The worry about other devices that don’t have Dvorak? You’d be surprised the number of systems that support Dvorak. Remember, most electronics are built to be sold beyond just the English speaking nations, so they have the ability to change the keyboard layout in its software, as they don’t want to have to build different hardware for each language, just paint different letters on the keys.
And of course, there’s the new touch screen keyboard devices, such as the iPhone. They should be REALLY easy to switch,
I tried to switch once and my brain nearly exploded. I can type upwards of 100wpm now and the effort to switch was just not worth the difficulty in re-training all the muscle movements to find the right keys.
@Michael – I hope it works out well for you. I’m still a little skeptical, but maybe in my subconscious I don’t want to feel like there is a better way that I’m too lazy to learn. :)
Where did you get your data about how many miles your fingers will travel for Dvorak vs. QWERTY? Did you find any modern research comparing the two keyboard layouts?
I’m surprised at how many people are using Dvorak here. I do have a question for those of you who switched. How fast did you type before with QWERTY?
@Steve – I believe there is a Dvorak modified layout specifically for programmers who use C, C or Java.
@Mark: I type about the same speed as I did in QWERTY, about 80wpm. Admittedly not fast, but fast enough for me. And as I mentioned before, the real concern for me was the comfort; the speed was an afterthought.
Also, less of an issue, and I don’t have any numbers to go on, but I seem to make fewer mistakes when typing in Dvorak.
@Andrew Conkling – Well 80 WPM seems pretty fast to me! :) I just wanted to make sure that the people who liked Dvorak’s layout weren’t people who typed 15 WPM with QWERTY and were happy that with a little effort they were able to get to 40 WPM with Dvorak.
@Mark- I don’t really know how fast I type, before or now. I do know I’m not a speed typist either way. I do know I type faster and with less effort with dvorak than I did with qwerty. Part of what helps me type faster now is simply that I can now type while looking at the screen, rather than watching my hands as I type.
The real selling point for me is knowing that the qwerty layout was specifically designed to slow down typing speed so that the keys wouldn’t get jammed on old keyboards. That obviously hasn’t been enough of a reason to get the standard to change, but it was plenty reason for me. =)
The Dvorak Zine (http://dvzine.org) is a great resource for Dvorak info, and you can read the Zine online @ http://dvzine.org/zine/index.html.
But I gotta hand it to Shawn’s blog post, made me laugh.
I type about 70 WPM in QWERTY, and was up to about 50 WPM in just a few days of using Dvorak. I didn’t stick with it because I’m a computer programmer and do pair programming. Since my pairs don’t use the Dvorak keyboard it was causing a problem for them.
Operating systems like linux and OSX make it trivial to swap keyboard layouts with a key combo. It’s possible in windows but a little more cumbersome.
Look up keyboard layouts on wikipedia, far from every one uses Qwerty.
If computers are to become truly accessible it should be easy to select and switch input preferences and language settings.
It is surprisingly challenging to use a keyboard that doesn’t have the right keys printed on it. Even if you touch type, most of us look up the occasional symbol or little used key.
@Steve – I can see how that would be a problem. :) Have you looked at SubEthaEdit? It lets two people edit the same document at the same time. I’ve used it for taking collaborative notes and it worked really well. I believe it is Mac only, but I think there is an opensource alternative that runs on Windows.
@Jenika – Was it designed to slow the typist down or just to space things out so the keys didn’t jam? I’ve heard a lot of people say it was to slow typists down, but the stuff I’ve actually read said it was just to keep keys (or possibly the arms that hit the platen) from jamming.
I remember playing with a mechanical typewriter as a child and there were certain keys that when hit close together would jam. Fortunately these keys were combinations that didn’t occur much in actual typing.
I seem to recall a typing demo on David Letterman’s show years ago that was to show the speed and efficiency of the Dvorak keyboard. The typist did finish her transcription in record time, but it was unreadable… as I recall, she had placed her fingers one key off from the home keys (does anyone else remember this?)
Hi Mark,
I wrote a blog article about my experience with Dvorak keymaps earlier this year, so I won’t reiterate what I put there. If you use the search form on my site, there’s a couple of other related articles too…
What interests me about Dvorak nowadays is that I have spoken with a lot of people who never looked back after switching to Dvorak, a handful who couldn’t get over the resistance of switching in a few days and went back to QWERTY, but not one person who spent a little time becoming proficient with Dvorak and then decided that on balance QWERTY was worth going back to…
Nowadays Dvorak layout is almost as mainstream as QWERTY, and the vast majority of OSes and devices that have any kind of keyboard internationalisation facility offer a Dvorak keymap.
Cheers,
Gary
I type 6 to 8 hours a day with some coding rather than programming.
Using a Qwerty keyboard, I had begun to suffer carpel tunnel syndrome, and I didn’t enjoy the pain at all, I changed over to DSK at home and at work nearly 4 years ago, and left the pain behind.
I have looked at Programmers Dvorak but not installed and used it yet, as I do coding rather than programming, I’m not sure how advantageous the move will be, but I went through all that once moving from Qwerty to Dvorak, the additional learning curve is set to be a minor change to the major change of the past.
My Qwerty speeds were around 72 wpm, but I always ran everything through a spell checker as I’m a low level dyslexic, it always came up with errors, and there would be 50 to 60 errors on a full page, after the change over it took between 2 and 3 weeks of cold turkey typing to get back into the swing of touch typing, it took about another 3 to 4 weeks to get back to around 68 wpm, but I noticed that my errors went down to 20 to 25 errors per full page.
I am now typing at 85 wpm and my errors are at 12 to 15 per full page, I run 90% of my typing through a spell checker, and the total errors are about 25% of the errors I used to get with a Qwerty keyboard.
So from my point of view the past 4 years of DSK have been “No pain. Great gain”.
In terms of productivity the Dvorak keyboard makes me at least 20 – 25% more productive, in a purely subjective estimation, this is based on eliminating the pain totally, improved typing speed, and reducing the errors/page by 75%. The greatly reduced finger mileage has changed some things, that would make any typing after 5 hours on a Qwerty keyboard painful, to the point that I can be pain free after 8 or more hours on a DSK
@Andrew – You actually switch without knowing.
*answers.- 4 years ago, because I was spending so much time in chat rooms, IRC and Instant messangers, I decided to change to Dvorak anytime i can. So far it’s been amazing, i type faster and I am able to reduce the wrist strain. The mind switches automatically. I had two keyboards side by side for a bit when i was doing website testing,(qwerty and Dvorak) and the brain makes the switch instantly. The only problem is that it refuses to switch BACK. Say for instance the left keyboard is qwerty and the right is Dvorak, your brain has memorised this pattern. If i switched the keyboards around, i found i was unable to use them for a few seconds until i actually made a visual report of which was which. Minor, but i don’t change keyboards anymore. I have switched labtops, (mac and PC) and popped keys on keyboards and even bought stickers , and still constantly used a dvorak. My goal is the split dvorak keyboards. One annoying note. PC’s do not allow you to log in using changed keyboards so i always have to qwerty my way in if i have it set up in International.
If you write alot, go ahead and switch, it takes about 6months to be entirely comfortable, but only about 2 weeks to get the gist of where the keys are.
I’m can’t type naturally in more than one layout like Albert M.
But I’ve found that it’s possible to memorize the letter pairs for QWERTY and a nonstandard keyboard for each key.
And if I know the pairs, I can transpose between layouts as I write.
For example, the pairs for ‘e’ ‘h’ ‘l’ and ‘o’ between nTheia (my board) and QWERTY are ‘eg’ ‘ha’ ‘lc’ and ‘op’. Typing “agllp” on a standard board gives me ‘hello’.
And I do agree with Andrew Flusche, companies that produce gadgets like the iPhone should be pressured to make the keyboards customizable.
Ciao e mahalo,
Søren
Brit:
I also saw the Letterman show with the world’s fastest typist. The printed document was unreadable because the typist uses a Dvorak typewriter at home but Letterman’s typewriter had a QUERTY layout. So, for example, “Tonight’s top ten list” would have printed out as “Kslgujkq; ksr kdl pg;k”!
I’m an attorney and I type thousands of pages a month. I had terrible wrist pain and on a whim I switched to Dvorak. Learning Dvorak was one of the greatest things I ever did—I haven’t had one incident of wrist pain since converting two years ago. However, I don’t know if it’s because of the Dvorak layout or if it’s because I actually learned to type correctly when learning Dvorak. When I was using a Qwerty keyboard, I actually typed with only three fingers and would “cheat.” When I learned to retype in Dvorak, I learned to type with the right habits. So maybe that’s why typing is so much more comfortable.
Today, I can switch between the two. If I type correctly, it has to be in Dvorak. If I type in my old “cheating” style, it comes out in Qwerty.
By the way, I do think I type faster in Dvorak than I ever did in Qwerty.
@Christian – How fast did you type with QWERTY? It seems like an amazing thing to change on a whim if you are already decently proficient with the old keyboard.
A lot of people seem pleased with it though, but it should like a lot of work to change?
I typed at around 50 words per minute or more in QWERTY. It really was a whim—I was talking to a college buddy who now works at Lockheed Martin and I mentioned the wrist pain I had. He jokingly said, “why don’t you learn Dvorak?” I had never heard of it.
As for why I went with the whim, I cannot say other than enjoying being different—in all honesty the benefits of faster typing and more comfort were ancillary. I almost abandoned my efforts because I have a word-processing-intensive job and my typing was painfully slow (and doing everything by dictation defeats the point of learning to type in a new style). It took me over a year for my typing to equal (and then surpass) my QWERTY speed.
Amazingly, since learning to type in Dvorak, I have also learned to type fluently in Hebrew—which took me less than a week. I am curious if learning Dvorak helped me pick up the new style faster, just one who learns a second language can learn a third.
I’ve used the Dvorak keyboard for about four years and don’t notice a big difference from Qwerty in my typing speed. The main benefit is no one else finds my computer usable since they don’t know which key is which!
So I just recently switched to dvorak. With Qwerty I type about 70 words per minute. At first it was just to challenge myself, but then I realized that I really wish to avoid carpel tunnel. It took me about an hour to memorize the layout but my typing is still slow. Well it has only been one day, but I definitely notice that the words flow much better with dvorak.
I have used the Colemak keyboard since two years now. Unlike the Dvorak, it has a number of keys in common with the QWERTY keyboard, so it is much easier to learn. I am very happy with it, is just feels “right” when I use it.
I can’t really compare the typing speed before and after. Before, I had slightlly different keyboard layouts on different PCs (US, UK, German, French), which greatly annoyed me and slowed me down. Now I use Colemak on all PCs, and this has restored my sanity.
Colemak is great for writing accented characters in multiple languages (ñ, ç, ä, ö, ü, ê, à, ß), and all the characters used for programming (#|[]{}%\) are in the same place as on a US keyboard. For my purposes. it is really the ideal keyboard.
I don’t think Barbara Blackburn being then the world’s fastest typist being at fault! It looks as if they just had the typewriter set up for a different input layout.