Comments on: Dvorak vs QWERTY Keyboards: Typing Fast & Accurate

By: Chen Yee

Chen Yee — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:19:16 +0000

I learned to touch-type using QWERTY during my freshman year in high school, and I used to use QWERTY for years. Now, when I heard about Dvorak, I started learning it during my junior year in college. It took me like 6 weeks to get to type about 50 wpm on it. When I compared between QWERTY (we traditionally use) to Dvorak (easier, more efficient, and faster), my fingers get to stay in the home row most of the time and reach the bottom roll less. I even feel like better alternating between hands using Dvorak. If I’m gonna be an elementary school teacher, I’m gonna teach the kids how to type using Dvorak keyboard only.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 07 May 2007 21:16:48 +0000

I ripped up my keyboard to use it its kinda cool

By: Sylvan

Sylvan — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 17:39:00 +0000

The keyboard shortcut issue was a problem for me at first, but I eventually learned to type most shortcuts two-handed. Of course, this isn't ideal, since you have to take your right hand off the mouse to do so, but I eventually adjusted. Recently I found this handy utility, which allows you to type Dvorak but reverts to QWERTY when the CTRL key is pressed. That means most of your keyboard shortcuts will stay the same, which is very useful. And if you're on a Mac, you don't need a utility - just use the Dvorak-QWERTY layout and you're set.

By: Lelia Katherine Thomas

Lelia Katherine Thomas — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 05:41:00 +0000

I’ve seen these before, and I’m convinced that they’d completely throw me. I type anywhere from 80-90wpm, and I am very used to the standard keyboard.

One thing I wonder about the Dvorak keyboard the most is whether it is all that intuitive for shortcut users. Having letters like the “i” toward the center of the keyboard seriously hinders shortcuts such as CTRL-I (for italics in things like word processors).

In terms of writing markup coding, I think it wouldn’t be all that different, considering things like the greater-than/less-than signs (can never remember the proper term for those things, haha) are in the same place, just on the opposite sides of things.

I think the key here is that Dvorak may, indeed, be a useful tool for writers and typists, but not for others, such as designers or coders or any number of other users.

And, yes, there are many communities in favor of Dvorak. Where I see this most is in my ventures into the publishing and writing realms.

Just a thought or two.