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Learning DVORAK

A

asher

Junior Member
I have been thinking about changing my keyboard layout for a while. I know there will be a learning curve but in the long run it will hopefully pay off to have a more efficient layout (I sometimes suffer from wrist pain). I have a couple of questions...

1. How long does it take to become good enough at using the new layout that it is quite natural?

2. How much better is it once you are used to it?

3. Do you 'forget' how to use QWERTY? Like if you sit down at a regular keyboard do you hit all the wrong keys? or is it like learning a new language where you know the old one as well as the new one?

Thanks!
 
Try to remember the first time you started using a QWERTY KB. You'll probably fumble around for a while but soon you'll get a feel for the layout. How long that takes will be up to you. Not everyone catches onto things at the same rate. Once you do get use to it, it probebly won't be any better or worste then QWERTY. But thats up to you.

As far as going back and forth between the two... Well i'm sure you would fumble around a bit when you first go back to QWERTY but it wouldn't take long at all for things to flow again.

But like i said all of this is up to you. Only you know how fast or slow you'll be able to pick this up and weather or not it will be a smooth trasition.
 
If the underlying reason is wrist pain, then most likely a Dvorak layout will not help. The main advantage of Dvorak over QWERTY is speed.

Wrist pain is likely the result of your wrist position relative to the keyboard. If you have a position where the wrist is flexed upward, it becomes the "claw" position. Pinainists can also suffer from the same bad angle.

You may need to lift the FRONT of the keyboard so it tips away from you. That makes for an angle of attack where the wrist is straighter or flexed slightly downward. I learned this years ago when I had CTS. Sloping the keyboard down and away cured the problem - no more pain.

This article illustrates:

Angles
 
I wouldn't learn DVORAK. It will make you pretty much useless on any keyboard other than your own. And nobody would ever be able to use your computer with ease. If you're going to be using one computer at home for the rest of your life, sure. And how fast do you really need to type? It's not hard to get to about 100wpm using qwerty. And very little good writing is cranked out at that speed. Unless you're transcribing memos, it's pretty much irrelevant today.

For ergo reasons, follow corkyg's advice.
 
I tried learning dvorak more for the hell of it than to type faster (100wpm qwerty is plenty). In a few weeks I got up to ~25wpm but I eventually lost interest. It's easy to switch a PC between the two, so some of the disadvantages listed above are overstated. I didn't find switching between the two very difficult.
 
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