Want to learn Dvorak Keyboard!

[paulsterio]

Hey Everyone!

 

So I've decided to try and learn something new - the Dvorak Keyboard. 

 

 

A little bit of background about be - I consider myself to be a pretty fast typist - I currently type at 110 WPM, and I can burst up to 120 WPM if I'm in the zone. After competing in typing tournaments with friends who are computer geeks and who all type in the 80 - 90WPM range, I've decided to start taking typing seriously and start competing. 

 

I know that the world record for typing is 150 WPM sustained over an hour and that was achieved on a Dvorak keyboard, thus, I think I will benefit if I move away from QWERTY and try to re-learn how to type on Dvorak .

 

So I was just wondering if anybody here has managed to learn Dvorak and whether they found that it benefit their typing speed. Obviously I won't need a new keyboard as I'll just switch around the keycaps on my Ducky mechanical keyboard - blue switches. 

 

Of course when I play games and stuff I'll have to switch back to QWERTY and the WASD keys, but yeah, I'll figure something out for that situation. 

 

Any help?

[TheRoss0411]

You could buy another keyboard with a Dvorak layout 

[Freaky_spider]

I know a programmer who uses dvorak and he says he'll never go back to AZERTY (thats what we use)

 

the wasd isnt a problem, rebindable keys you know

[Norwegiantweaker]

lol

[gundershot]

I've heard that Dvorak doesn't really improve typing speed, just makes typing less fatiguing. I'm not sure if this is true. Switching to Dvorak will probably mess you up when you have to use anyone else's keyboard though.

[paulsterio]

You could buy another keyboard with a Dvorak layout 

 

Probably no point, it'll just be cheaper and easier to buy a budget mech like a Ducky Zero and swap the caps to a Dvorak. 

 

 

I know a programmer who uses dvorak and he says he'll never go back to AZERTY (thats what we use)

 

the wasd isnt a problem, rebindable keys you know

 

yeah, that's true actually, might forget about the 2nd keyboard after all!

[paulsterio]

I've heard that Dvorak doesn't really improve typing speed, just makes typing less fatiguing. I'm not sure if this is true. Switching to Dvorak will probably mess you up when you have to use anyone else's keyboard though.

 

Well I guess less fatigue is also good I'll make sure I keep up my QWERTY though, in fact, I'll probably keep my laptop as QWERTY so I can manage to sort of use both. 

[BonBon Scott]

Seems like alot of work for very little to me. I don't think there is any studies to prove that DVORAK is more efficient, excluding the ones Dvorak did himself.

[Nineshadow]

You don't only have to change the keycaps...you also have to rebind the keys.

[paulsterio]

You don't only have to change the keycaps...you also have to rebind the keys.

 

You can just change the layout to Dvorak in Windows. I've already tried it earlier.

 

 

Seems like alot of work for very little to me. I don't think there is any studies to prove that DVORAK is more efficient, excluding the ones Dvorak did himself.

 

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking as well, but I can see the logic behind Dvorak and around the internet, there are those who swear by Dvorak. 

[Nineshadow]

You can just change the layout to Dvorak in Windows. I've already tried it earlier.

Oh,there is that?

It became easier.

[ShadowCaptain]

Try colemak or maltron, proper hardcore ;P

 

 

Oh,there is that?

It became easier.

 

yeah most operating systems support alternative layouts

[BonBon Scott]

You can just change the layout to Dvorak in Windows. I've already tried it earlier.

 

 

 

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking as well, but I can see the logic behind Dvorak and around the internet, there are those who swear by Dvorak. 

 

I can see the logic behind it, with the most used keys being next to each other. It's alot of work and time for an uncertain outcome though.

[EchoRomeoCharlie]

If you're serious, get a Mechanical, swap the keys to Dvorak, switch the OS to Dvorak and when you want to play games, just swap the OS back to QWERTY...I'm sure you know where the WASD keys are without looking if you have played even a small amount of PC games.

 

QWERTY is a leftover from the typewriter days...it was designed to prevent jamming of the typewriter not for efficient typing.

[Heisenbleurgh]

If you switch the keycaps to dvorak you're going to get a very ugly looking/feeling keyboard unless you have DSA keycaps (all have same height/angle). I know this cause I tried it myself recently

Best way might be to buy DSA profile keycaps or regular blank ones so the legends don't confuse you.

[cae]

I switched to Colemak a little over 2 months ago. Prior to that I was typing 80-90 WPM on QWERTY. I'm only up to ~50 WPM with Colemak, it does take some getting used to. Dvorak completely rearranges the layout; I couldn't imagine using it, but I'm not a coder either. It does feel a lot nicer to type now because of more home row usage. Switching to games is somewhat painful if it uses a lot of keybinds, you only have to redo it once though.

[paulsterio]

 

Try colemak or maltron, proper hardcore ;P

 

 

Not going to try maltron, not too interested in completely getting a new keyboard structure. 

 

I might investigate Colemak against Dvorak and see how it looks...etc. 

[paulsterio]

Now that I'm actually seriously thinking about this, I reckon the hardest thing would probably be the common short-cuts, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V and that sort of stuff. 

 

I'm thinking I might rebind them to Ctrl-J and Ctrl-K (what those keys are in Dvorak). 

[cae]

Now that I'm actually seriously thinking about this, I reckon the hardest thing would probably be the common short-cuts, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V and that sort of stuff. 

 

I'm thinking I might rebind them to Ctrl-J and Ctrl-K (what those keys are in Dvorak). 

 

That's the great thing about Colemak, most of the common shortcuts are retained.

[paulsterio]

Just an update, I've managed to switch the layout to Dvorak but I've decided to keep the keyboard as QWERTY so that I'll be forced to not look at the keyboard. Hopefully it should help me learn faster

[Heisenbleurgh]

Just an update, I've managed to switch the layout to Dvorak but I've decided to keep the keyboard as QWERTY so that I'll be forced to not look at the keyboard. Hopefully it should help me learn faster

good luck! will you update the thread as you go along?

[paulsterio]

good luck! will you update the thread as you go along?

 

Yep, definitely will. 

 

So update for today. 

 

I've been using this site to help - http://www.powertyping.com/dvorak/typing.html - it's actually quite fun to try and get higher WPM. What I'm trying to do is to just keep repeating the exercises until I can achieve 30 WPM, then I'll graduate to the next level...etc. 

 

To be honest though, I think it will be a very long time before I actually reach a speed similar to where I am with QWERTY, whether or not it'll be worth it, I'm not too sure, but hey, it's a fun experiment I guess. 

[Legion]

 

 

 

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking as well, but I can see the logic behind Dvorak and around the internet, there are those who swear by Dvorak. 

 

There are those who swear by Nvidia

There are those who swear by Intel

There are those who swear by AMD

There are those who swear by Andriod

There are those who swear by iOS

There are those who swear by Toyota

There are those who swear by IPS

There are those who swear by High Refresh Monitors

There are those who swear by Corsair

There are those who swear by Samsung

 

ect

 

 

Just because people swear by something doesn't mean you should listen to them unless they can show you a solid reason to give up months of your time drop your efficiency levels all for a gain of most likely less than 5%