How good is Dvorak really?

[Gorsnak]

I can’t see how the advantages of a Dvorak layout could possibly have any effect if you’re not touch-typing. I touch-type with qwerty myself, not because I don’t believe Dvorak is a technically superior arrangement, but because I would be putting significant effort into improving a skill which I find to be quite adequate already. If you hunt and peck, I can’t imagine how you would possibly gain by switching, even in the long term.

[Captain_Carrot]

@Excalibre

If you have to look for each key to push it, you’re not really typing, and there’s no logical reason why it should make any particular difference.

Also, to the OP, typing the same sentence over and over is not even remotely a test of your typing speed. There’s free programs out there that will test your typing speed if you’re curious about it. Your method simply does not yield any sort of useful measurement.

1. I don’t really look for each key, it’s just that I have my eyes on the keyboard to make sure my fingers are at the exct right spot instead of a centimeter off. It’s definitely not touch typing, especially since I use two fingers the vast majority of the time: both index fingers, and occasionally middle fingers. Right pinky for right shift, sometimes; I have no idea how that stuck.

2. I took several typing tests about an hour ago. When I’m trying to type fast and looking at the keyboard as I need/want to, I average 40-50 wpm. A bit high, but not all that much. If I don’t look at the keyboard, I still do surprisingly well.

[Excalibre]

@Captain Carrot

1. I don’t really look for each key, it’s just that I have my eyes on the keyboard to make sure my fingers are at the exct right spot instead of a centimeter off. It’s definitely not touch typing, especially since I use two fingers the vast majority of the time: both index fingers, and occasionally middle fingers. Right pinky for right shift, sometimes; I have no idea how that stuck.

Then it really wouldn’t be hard to learn to touch-type. Basically, all you’d have to do is get used to hitting the keys with the correct fingers, and you’d be ninety percent there. You wouldn’t really need any typing program.

2. I took several typing tests about an hour ago. When I’m trying to type fast and looking at the keyboard as I need/want to, I average 40-50 wpm. A bit high, but not all that much. If I don’t look at the keyboard, I still do surprisingly well.

Normally typing tests involve typing a text as you read it, one that ideally you aren’t familiar with, so that particular combinations of letters aren’t favored or particularly practiced. The text should be sufficiently long and reasonably representative so that you have to do most of the frequent combinations present in English text and so that letter frequencies are reasonable.