I’ve typed with the Dvorak keyboard layout for years - I type about 30 words faster than I ever could with QWERTY. But I’ve gotten a little irritated with having to use key layouts. So what Dvorak keyboards are out there, made expressly for the purpose, and not requiring software to handle the key layout? Windows 98’s keyboard handling is iffy at best (as with most aspects of Win98 - but I digress . . . ) and it’d be nice to have a keyboard that worked automatically in DOS mode and reliably in Windows. (For instance, the Word language bar, when it’s configured for Chinese pinyin input, sometimes seems to expect me to type in QWERTY and sometimes in Dvorak.)
Plus, while I touch type quite well, it’s hard to remember where hotkeys are since, if my hands aren’t on the keyboard, I have a hell of a time remembering how to type Ctrl-C or Ctrl-V. So it’d be nice to have non-deceptive keycaps. At work I have a lovely old heavy-duty, extra-clicky IBM keyboard with rearrangable caps, and I tried just rearranging them, but without the little nubbins on my index finger keys to guide my fingers, I could hardly type at all.
So any ideas on where to find a hardware Dvorak keyboard, hopefully one that’s also not to bad in its feel and appearance?
I found one here for $189. It weighs 6 pounds. There were some other hits from google (dvorak keyboard) including a QWERTY/Dvoark switchable keyboard. I was surprised not to find anything on eBay, but I am not an eBay guru.
There’s no need to buy a DVORAK keyboard. You can reconfigure your OS to make your current keyboard DVORAK layout. Obviously, the only issue would be that the keys are not labeled right.
[aside]
Although I don’t dispute your experience with Dvorak, Excalibre, as the Master admits (see the reply following the original article), the supposed superiority of the Dvorak keyboard (and the inferiority of the QWERTY) have been greatly exaggerated.
The story that QWERTY was designed to slow down typing speed is not true, and the tests that purported to show dramatic performance improvements with Dvorak were all the work of people with a stake in promoting Dvorak. Objective tests have not shown the same advantage for Dvorak between people trained to touch type on both.
[/aside]
I too use a Dvorak keyboard and shudder at the thought of resorting to QWERTY. I purchased a number of hardware switchable keyboards from DvortyBoards although i am not sure whether they are still around or not. If not, try ErgoCanada.
I don’t really care whether or not there is any truth to the old saw about QWERTY being developed to slow down typists, whether or not it is faster to type on a QWERTY keyboard, whether you can set up Windows to recognize a Dvorak layout, or anything else for that matter. I learned to type on a Dvorak keyboard and i want to stay with Dvorak. My wife, however, can scream along on the QWERTY and, to keep our young-uns from learning a socially unacceptable vocabulary, a solution had to be found. After much searching, i found the DvortyBoard. In place of the minus key on the numeric pad is a ‘Dvorak Lock’ key. Tapping this key will alternately place the keyboard in Dvorak or QWERTY mode. No software, no double keyboards connected with a splitter, just easy switching and a minimum of uncouth language. The keys themselves are labled with both the Dvorak (large characters) and QWERTY (small characters) layouts.
The last few i bought went for about US$50, but it looks like ErgoCanada is asking $100.
The QWERTY keyboard was designed to arrange the keys so that the type bars of letters usually used in sequence had less of a chance to lock together when hit. Once typewriters lost the hammers/type bar configuration, this was no longer a consideration. The Dvorak keyboard puts letters used in sequence in a more logical order, and thus it is claimed to be faster to type on one - at least once you teach yourself how to type all over again.
The classic IBM AT 101 key keyboards which (in some ways) are still the quality standard by which other keyboards are judged, has removable keys that can be popped off re-attached as you desire. As long as you don’t have to move the shift and enter keys, or the spacebar, you can easily make you own superb quality “Dvorak hardware” keyboard with the keys properly labeled. You can often get these keyboards in superb condition for a few bucks each at thrift stores.
The construction quality and key feel of these boards has rarely been equaled.
The Liebowitz and Margolis article has been addressed in previous threads in response to Cecil’s column. Other esteemed Dopers have noted that Cecil neglected to recognize the Liebowitz and Margolis article for what it is (a thinly veiled argument that whatever the free market decides must be right) rather than what it is not (a meticulous investigation of the advantages and disadvantages of Dvorak versus QWERTY). Rather than bother the hamsters looking for those threads, I cite once again Randy Cassingham’s response to the Anti-Dvorak Crusaders.
Yes, as I mentioned in my OP, I use one at work. They are indeed lovely keyboards. But rearranging keycaps won’t work, since (as I mentioned) with the little nubbins that are supposed to be on U and H (F and J to QWERTY users) on the wrong keys, I can’t switch between my mouse and keyboard at all. At least not without swearing and looking down at the keyboard to place my hands. And, as I also mentioned, software key layouts haven’t really solved my problem - in Windows 98, at least, they don’t properly support (Microsoft’s own) pinyin to Chinese input, nor do they work in DOS mode (without separate, and irritating, workarounds for DOS.)
And, commasense, while I’ve heard plenty of claims that Dvorak isn’t inherently any faster than QWERTY to type, my own experience has quite clearly not supported that claim. So, whether or not I’m being recklessly irrational by using a keyboard just because I can use it to type 90 wpm, when I never could with QWERTY, at this point I’m about as amenable to switching back as most people would be to switching to Dvorak. I can’t cite science to support me on this (since none of the research ever conducted on the issue is free from political biases, apparently) but my own experience has been quite clear. Since I type for a living, I like to do it efficiently.
Like I said, I need a hardware Dvorak keyboard. As I stated in my OP, neither switching layouts with software nor moving around my keycaps has met my needs. At any rate, thank you for the tip, Octothorpe. That sounds perfect for me. Do the keyboards in question feel nice from a physical standpoint as well?
Well, Excalibre it ain’t the old and venerable IBM AT 101, but it’s passable. This is actually the second iteration of the DvortyBoard, the first model had a better tactile feel and a respectable ‘clack’ and was probably closer in feel to the Keytronics KT800.
