Does anybody type with Dvorak? I switched some years ago and it has helped my typing tremendously. It can you haven't heard of it, it's an alternate keyboard layout designed to speed typing as opposed to being designed to slow typing like a QWERTY keyboard as well as being more ergometric.
My wife still types with QWERTY, but with contemporary Windows, Linux, and Mac switching between keyboard layouts is extremely easy (a key stroke will do it) so we don't have any problems with our home computer.
I mention this because I always had trouble typing as fast as my mind would like to put out words, but Dvorak has helped.
Anybody else use it?
[This message has been edited by Nofear (edited March 03, 2002).]
Posted by JK (Member # 654) on :
I've not heard of it before, being from across the pond and all. I've looked at the link, though, and I don't understand why using a different keyboard would make typing faster. I use a QWERTY keyboard and I find typing easy. I type far faster than I can write. What makes it easier, Nofear? JK
Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 1198) on :
So far as I've understood it, this is the deal behind qwerty and dvorak systems...
QWERTY keyboards were designed back in the days when typewriter hammers had to swing up and strike the page for each letter. If two letters were hit in too fast a succession, the hammers would swing up almost simultaneously and get stuck, wedged against one another. QWERTY was designed to spread out the commonly used letters away from the index and middle fingers, so that speed would decrease, and the hammers would get stuck less often.
Needless to say, QWERTY's original intent is long obsolete. But, since typing became so important during the typewriter age, everyone learned that way of doing things and taught it to the next generation.
Dvorak is different. It is designed so that the most commonly used keys are closer to your index and middle fingers, and the least commonly used are at your pinkies. Letters such as "V" and "Y" are moved outward, and letters like "A" "S" and "L" are moved inward.
I've always been tempted to learn Dvorak to increase my typing speed. I've topped out at about 100 wpm, but I'm told that Dvorak would be able to boost that up to maybe 115 or 120. The issue would be that it would take me a long time to relearn, and then I'd be confused and slower if I ever used someone else's machine.
Posted by Tanglier (Member # 1313) on :
I like the cello concerto or the Wind Symphony, but all you ever hear on the radio is the New World.
I heard the Czech phil play symphony #7 on their US tour in '00, it left me smiling and envigorated for a month, but I don't think it improved my typing speed.
[This message has been edited by Tanglier (edited March 03, 2002).]
Posted by Nofear (Member # 1384) on :
It took me about a month to learn with only a low level of practice. I can still type on QWERTY, albeit at a bit slower rate with more mistakes.
Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 1198) on :
Well, as much as my curiosity is piqued, I'm not willing to give up 100 wpm with 99% accuracy to "try something new." Call me old fashioned. Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
For my part, it took me so long to learn to type fast with QWERTY that, while Dvorak sounds like a good idea, it's one of those "if it works, why fix it?" propositions.
I still don't type as fast as I can think, though, but that hasn't bothered me so far.
Tanglier, thank you for my chuckle for the day.
Posted by Brinestone (Member # 747) on :
I now have Dvorak set as my keyboard language. I practiced some last night and liked it, but we'll see how long it lasts before I start going crazy. Posted by Tanglier (Member # 1313) on :
No problem, I'm just waiting around for my writing group to get in motion.
Randy
btw, I've been lurking around here for a while, and I think you do a bang up job. And I know I saw your name on the past winners of the "Writers of the Future" contest. They must have misfiled my short story because I got a letter telling me to keep drinking milk and eating wheaties, and maybe, just maybe I'll be big and strong enough to win next time. I'll try to rise above it, though.
[This message has been edited by Tanglier (edited March 07, 2002).]
Posted by srhowen (Member # 462) on :
My spelling is bad enough without trying to learn something new---in Germany I used a German keyboard, and I am still recovering from that experiance--no way I'd learn a new one---I don't do 100wpm--more like 85 to 90, so like Kathleen, why mess with it.
See, had to correct my spacing--not a keyboard issue per say more like a hubby who spilled coke in it. I need to replace this thing---any sugestions other than dumping qwerty?
Shawn
[This message has been edited by srhowen (edited March 05, 2002).]
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Tanglier, let me know if there's anything (like a gentle nudge) I can do to help with the group.
Shawn, I've had my own encounters with European keyboards--I've been to Europe a couple of times and used those keyboards in cyber cafes to respond to email while I was gone. It can be pretty challenging figuring out where the key you need has been moved to on the keyboard. (Germans have the z where we have the y, for one thing.)
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Aw shucks! (Just noticed the "bang-up job" part of your message.) I enjoy doing this. I'm glad I can pay forward in some way.
Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 1198) on :
European keyboards... blegh. I used a Turkish keyboard when I was over there for a month, and it was insane.
Instead of the letter "i" they had a letter that looked just like it, but without a dot. The actual "i" was where the comma was. Ick. But the strange thing was, while it looked okay on my own screen, sans dots to my eyes, when my email came up on someone else's computer in the States, the strange "i"s were all "y"s with an umlaut!!! (I think that's how you spell umlaut... the sideways colon thing over the letter... yeah...)
It made my foreign emails look very... well... foreign.
[This message has been edited by FlyingCow (edited March 06, 2002).]
Posted by uberslacker2 (Member # 1397) on :
I type very very slow. When I'm copying random nonsense (read: typing lessons) I do about 45 wpm. I guess this means I do about sixty if I'm actually working just out of my head (I find that I think of a word and the whole thing flows out of my fingers so if I use an uncommon word then my fingers sometimes write the more common syllable) Anyway, I'm wondering if there is some program that I can use to learn Dvorak, because I would love to have those extra 10 or 15 wpm (maybe 20 if I got really good) wpms. plus...I think my pinkies and ring fingers are getting abnormally strong. I also think that my handwriting has gotten both slower and worse in the last six months...I rarely ever use it.
My question was: Does anybody have a program or the name of a program (also a place that I can find a dvorak keyboard, you know with the dvorak letter scheme, since I've got the qwerty layout pretty well memorized.
The Great Uberslacker
In a related note, my sister (first grade) is learning how to keyboard. I don't think I even knew what a keyboard was in first grade, lol. :-D
Posted by JK (Member # 654) on :
Hmm. I see no real need to change my keyboard. For those who touch type, maybe, but since I type with only my two index fingers and my thumb, a Qwerty doesn't bother me. And I type like a demon anyway. I actually scare people once I really get going. JK
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
My sense is that you should be able to use a normal typing training program. Just set your keyboard to Dvorak and replace whatever "keyboard maps" come with the program with a Dvorak map (or just use whiteout and a marker to change the keyboard map you get with the program).
Posted by uberslacker2 (Member # 1397) on :
I've devised my own little program. I've just forced myself to type in Dvorak. It's incredibly slow right now. I feel like I should have to move my fingers more than I really do. :-D. I know that if I stick to it I'll speed up. Right now the Qwerty layout is my biggest hurdle. I already like it better.
