Anyone here use a Dvorak keyboard?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I use to use Dvorak many years ago when I was about 16 or so. I had learned QWERTY earlier in typing class when I was about 14 but I had been using a computer when I was about 12. I learned Dvorak in a couple of weeks. It was strange at first, but I learned it okay. But to me, it didn’t seem that much faster. To me it seems the problem is that when you are typing from your thoughts, things don’t seem to go as fast as they do when you are typing from words already printed. For instance, if I had typed this from something that had already been printed, I could have typed it almost twice as fast.

Some people say that they can switch between Dvorak and QWERTY as if they were seperate langauges, but I never could. My Dvorak always replaced my qwerty layout and vice versa. I switched back to QWERTY after about two years. I needed to be able to touch type on various machines anywhere. For me the speed impediment was the speed at which I thought, because I never transcribed copy. If I were to transcribe copy for a living I would think of switching again, because I can feel the difference when my fingers are the only impediment, but most of the time, its just my speed of thought when posting or doing any kind of extemparaneous writing.

So in my opinion, we are all limited by our language processing center into producing text through our hands. But if you want to transcribe, things go much faster, at with point Dvorak becomes useful.

But I don’t know if I’d ever switch back, even if it would help me. I mean the ability to type anywhere is a bigger benefit to me. I can’t switch between them as if they were seperate languages.

With Spanish, I can, but most keys are the same except for the ñ and a few other keys like the ? and so on, but I have an idea where most of them are. That much I can manage, but a whole new keyboard in the same language is too much for me.

So, have you every used a Dvorak keyboard? That means learning the layout to touch type.

Could you switch between that and a QWERTY without problems?

Did you find that it made you much faster?

I just thought of this lately, but it is interesting to me, because I could do it, and it was more comfortable, but I always use various computers, so it is hard to do.

2

A tangentially related question, what is the order of keys on a Dvorak keyboard?

For example QWERTY is
qwertyuiop
asdfghjkl
zxcvbnm

3

And I’ll follow that up with a completely unrelated question.
Merkwurdigliebe, your name seems to be a German word. Was bedeutet es?

4

http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/layout.html

5

I’ve had the same experience as the OP. I learned to type around 12 and type very fast. One day several years ago I decided to learn Dvorak. It was hard, but I forced myself to use it exclusively for a couple months. After I learned it, I didn’t find it was any faster for me. But worse, I found I couldn’t type on other peoples keyboards, which came up all the time. So I switched back.

6

I believe the Doper ronincyberpunk (who is also my little brother) has used one. I don’t know if he still does, but I think he was learning to use one last December; perhaps he’ll do a vanity search and come post in here.

7

Heheh,

But if you wanted to be totally correct, you’d say:

Was bedeutet das…
But Merkwuerdigliebe isn’t a German word.

It is from Stanly Kubrik’s Dr. Strangelove. In one scene, General Turgidson asks, “Strangelove, that’s not a kraut name” He recieves the response, “His real name was Merkwuerdigliebe, he changed it when he became a citizen.” But of course, Merkwuerdiglibe isn’t a real German surname. That’s why I chose it. But for the interested. Merkwuerdig means strange, and liebe means love. This is where my name comes from. I didn’t remember to put the umlaut over the u when I did it so it isn’t totally correct. I’ve been thinking of changing it for a while now.

8

I touch-type in Dvorak-- it’s just a question of making sure the drivers are activated, so it’s never a problem at home or at work.

As for the keys, they are:
',.pyfgcrl/=
aoeuidhtns-
;qjkxbmwvz

If you note the location of the vowels, you’ll see they’re under the left hand’s home row, so often when I type I look like the stereotypical “computer user” seen in mid-80s movies, with the hands rarely moving off the home row…

I find it much easier on my wrists than typing in QWERTY.

9

It would be fine for me, but the problem is that QWERTY is the standard. I didn’t find it to be much faster, when typing my thoughts, but it i s easier on the wrists. But if I were typing copy, I could fly using Dvorak, and I wasn’t even that good at it. I sure do wish I could switch back and forth though. On the dvorak site where I learned about it it said that some people could switch back and forth as if they were different languages. But I never could.

10

Qwerty is standard, but it takes just minutes to set up the Dvorak driver in Windows or MacOs the first time on any machine, and after that it’s as easy as flipping a switch…

11

It’s faster and more comfortable. I do data entry at work, which means that my typing speed really counts (and I’m not composing thoughts) so I think it’s a pretty big advantage there to use Dvorak. But I’ve gotten pretty reasonable at switching. I generally have to at least glance at my fingers occasionally while typing on a QWERTY keyboard but my actual typing speed ain’t much worse than it was when I used QWERTY exclusively.

Frankly, though, I wonder whether the chief speed advantage of Dvorak is that it taught me not to look at my fingers at all while typing; I could type well with QWERTY but I was sloppy about it and would look at my fingers fairly often. Since doing that while typing Dvorak is assuredly not an option, it cured me of the habit.

My typing speed is quite impressive; I haven’t measured it but occasionally people ask me if I’m just randomly hitting keys because they think no one could type that fast.

12

I use Dvorak exclusively. It’s a software setting in both Windows and Linux, so I’ve never had a problem being able to switch over a computer so I could type on it. I have my own account on my parents’ PC that I built them, so the computer’s settings are all QWERTY except when I am logged in. My home PC has a keyboard shortcut to switch back and forth, though Dvorak is the default; the bf uses my PC sometimes and doesn’t touch type.

This was my experience also. My keyboards have always been labeled for QWERTY, so even back when I “touch typed” on that layout, I’d still look down a lot.

The main benefit I’ve noticed is ergonomics. All the keys you press the most are on the home row, so you aren’t moving your hands and fingers nearly as much. I’ve had a lot of problems with serious pain in my wrist and knuckles since I was 14-15. When I got my own computer at around 17 and started typing all the time it got even worse. When I was 20 my (then) boyfriend got me to learn Dvorak, and once I got fluent with it my wrist pain dramatically decreased, in the sense that I never get pain from typing anymore (drawing and other things can still make my hands hurt.) I also preemptively switched to using a split/raised keyboard to help avoid problems down the line, but switching to Dvorak has been a godsend for my wrists. I recommend it to anyone that’s having problems with carpal tunnel or similar symptoms.

I can still type on a QWERTY keyboard, not quite as fast as I used to, but enough to do the job. To be honest I have more trouble typing on a regular, non-split keyboard now than I do dealing with the Dvorak/QWERTY difference.