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Dvorak keyboards, Whos heard of them? Who uses them? Who loves them?

S

Shalmanese

Platinum Member
I was thinking about buying a dovrak keyboard and I was wondering how many people actually use them and can they see a measurable increase in typing speed. Also can they still type as fast with a normal qwerty keyboard

Thinking of getting one at the end of this year after I graduate from HS and use time on these forums to "practise" with my dvorak before I get to uni next year. Mainly I want it because it looks different and it will stop people from tampering with my computer 🙂.

any thoughts?
 
Heard of them, never tried one. I'm a pretty fast typist on a qwerty, and I'm satisfied with that. I really doubt that you could switch back and forth and be fast on both.
 
WHOA!! I was JUST thinking about Dvorak keyboards 5 minutes ago when I started drifting off to sleep... freaked me out when I saw this topic...

I would not get a Dvorak keyboard just because there would probable be many times when I would need to use a Qwerty when I am not at home, and it would be confuzing 😕
 
Dvorak is the best thing to happen since computers since, um, since I stopped using QWERTY.


To answer your question, Shalmanese, I use the Dvorak layout and it is absolutely fantastic. I'm not going to lie to you though, it took me a long time to retrain myself and forget how to use QWERTY. However, once I accoplished that, I got up to speed pretty quick and can now type about 140WPM according to some of those online typing test deals whereas I could "only" type about 90 with QWERTY. I'd say that speed increase was worth the trouble!

In addition, it is a great way to get people to not mess with your computer, but to really screw with them, just keep the keyboard you have now.... and remap it. The Dvorak layout is included with Windows (it's on the CD if not already installed). Go to the Control Panel, then Keyboard, go to the Language tab, then Properties, and pick "United States-Dvorak." Print off a copy of the layout for reference and type away. Then, when anyone tries to use your computer, not only will it be in Dvorak mode, but all of the keys will still be labled QWERTY, thus increasing the mental-torment factor by an (estimated) power of 7. 😉



Have fun and long live Dvorak!



[EDIT] As a tip, do everything in your power to not use QWERTY when you're training for Dvorak. The switching messes with you big time. It is sort of hard to go back to QWERTY as well, if only that it is so much more clumsy. Do what I do: Throw a floppy with the Windows Dvorak file in it and load it at any computer that you have to use. It works quite well, I must say! 😀 [/EDIT]
 
I have seen them and remapped my keyboard to that style once but I thought it kinda sucked so I went back to the normaal style.

Schola
 
so switching between the two is a major pain? I thought it would be something like learning to ride a bike and then learning to ride a scooter or something, you never really forget...

I really dont want to learn now as I am starting Year 12 but I have about 3 months after I graduate to when I get to college so Im thinking that would be a great time to learn. Plus I am sick of finger strain after long typing sessions so dvorak looks like a nice alternative. How do you get dvorak on a disk, I thought that it came bundled along with windows.

Also would it be worth it going for a proper dvorak keyboard or can I buy those little transperant sticker things.
 
One of my HS compadres switched to DVORAK a year or so ago. He now uses it for everything.. He was on a small get everyone to swtich to DVORAK for a while though.

Gatsby - 776
 
If you don't have an ergonomic keyboard, the keys are prolly all uniform sizes, so you could just pop them off and reorder them and load the dvorak map... course, then your J and F keys would have finger bumps in the wrong places.........
 
I've tried Dvorak. It's cool, but I wasn't willing to devote the time necessary to retrain my hands.

And it is kind of difficult to switch back and forth between kb layouts. Your brain seems to want to use the last one you learned.

For instance, there were several different kb layouts I had to use when I was in Europe this summer. The worst, by far, was France. They use AZERTY... it was terrible. I felt like I was learning to type all over again! Then when I had to switch back to QWERTY I was constantly screwing up because I was used to the AZERTY kb.

It's probably best to pick one layout and use it. If you can switch back and forth with ease, more power to ya!

l2c
 
hmm guess the opinions about dvorak are mixed, The only thing I am worried about now is that if I am going to use computer labs/other public places, can I still type at a reasonable speed. Im guessing that I would have the willpower neccesary to stay with dvorak unless I am forced repeatedly to type slowly in qwerty.

the fact that 99% of the world uses qwerty would probably be the only reason I have not yet switched to dvorak.

Also: what is LH and RH dvorak compared to normal dvorak?
 
If you have the time to spend to learn Dvorak, which by my estimates for me was about 15 minutes per WPM of casual practice, then you should absolutely do it. It's so much easier, it really is. I honestly abhor typing on QWERTY now, although I can do it at about 50WPM, which isn't terrible I guess. Everytime you switch though, you have to readjust a little bit. You get used to it, but I really try to avoid using QWERTY.


As for putting Dvorak on a disk, the file Windows needs is in one of the .cab files on the CD. You can copy that file onto the floppy then tell the computer to look at the a: drive where it finds the appropriate .cab file. It's not that hard of a process at all.


LH and RH Dvorak is just mirroring the layout down the center of the keyboard so your right hand (RH) can type the vowels instead of your left. If you look at the layout, it's the same only mirrored.

Any other questions?
 
Without actually using the layout, I'm having trouble telling what the advantages of the dvorak layout are.

Can somebody try to explain to me why the dvorak is more efficient?
 
My old Apple IIc had a Dvorak option. I enabled it and spend 2 hours prying off the keys and rearraning it. The experiment lasted about 2 weeks before I went back to QWERTY.

The advantage of Dvorak is that all the most used keys are put in the middle row. The minimizes the time it takes to move between keys. Less used keys are put off to the size. It was the alternative to QWERTY which was designed when mechanical typewriters reigned supreme. It was arranged so that the letters didn't get stuck together.

Windogg
 
I'm not sure about this, but I think it's like this: qwerty was designed to slow down typing speed, to stop typewriter jams. Now, that obiouvsly isn't a problem anymore. dvorak i think is designed to have the most common letters easiest to get to, and therefore be faster.

EDIT: ahh i'm too slow.
 
no deeko, it was just to prevent thhe mechanism .. i mean make it less likely to jam. those things had little hammer things that swung at the ribbon.
 
I tried a Dvorak once, for about an hour, and it was so easy that I think people would probably need only two days of practice to become proficient with it. The strange thing was that I hardly had to move my hands because the characters I typed most often were under the home keys almost every time. However, critics have said that the advantages of the layout have been exaggerated because almost all the studies were done by Mr. Dvorak himself. The last Dvorak PC keyboard I saw was an 83-key XT or 84-key AT model.

 
basically, with the invention of the typewriter, people got so proficient with typing that when they typed 2 letters quickly, the typewriter would jam since both letters would be hitting the paper at the same time. Some guy (not named qwerty 😀 ) decided to invent a keyboard that was designed to be as ineffecient as possible to minimise jamming. When the computer keyboard came out, noone was enthusiastic about learning an entire different keyboard layout so they decided to keep with the qwerty which is most people are typing with an intentional designed inefficient keyboard.
 
I think you can remap your Qwerty keyboard in the windows keyboard settings, but then you have to put little stickers on the keys till you get used to the layout.
 
the problem is that I am currently using a home PC so my brother would not appreciate having the keyboard letters being rearranged and I would not really like having to learn a different layout without the comfort of looking down at the keys so my alternatives are:

either buy the sticker things
buy a special dvorak keyboard(I can have dual keyboard because this one is an AT and my mouse is on the com1 so I can either get a USB or PS2 keyboard)
buy a cheap qwerty keyboard and pry out all the keys

Im leaning towards the third option as no qwerty keys are displayed so no tampering 🙂 and also dvorak keyboards are hard to find in australia and expensive too 🙁
 
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