Goodbye QWERTY, hello DVORAK

I made the switch from qwerty to dvorak about 3 weeks ago on all my computers. My Macbook, Linux and Windows computers are now all dvorak. I have been intrigued with dvorak since I heard Mark Hurst talk about it in New York city last May. I don’t expect anyone to make the switch as I have done, but you should read the dvorak zine which gives you the history of the keyboard and helps explain why I use dvorak… www.dvzine.org

Previous to dvorak, I could type qwerty about 80 words per minute, 100 in a short sprint. Currently I can’t type either particularly fast, but I’m in a transitional phase now I suppose. Am I crazy? Sometimes I think so, it’s frustrating typing slowly and I’m reminded of those 4 hour twice a week keyboarding classes I had in college learning qwerty. The thing is though - I’m learning dvorak *faster* than I learned qwerty - in fact *much* faster.

I can type about 30 words per minute now in dvorak and am making quick progress. Little things catch me up, especially if I try to go too fast, but I have all the keys memorized.. and yes qwerty is still printed on my keyboards. Makes no difference though, you aren’t suppose to look at the keys when you type anyway and I never really did with qwerty. I make a lot of errors still, but they aren’t like the errors I would make with qwerty. My brain tells my fingers where the keys are *after* my fingers type them sometimes. It’s the difference between knowing where the keys are and *knowing* where the keys are, I suppose. I’m noticing the transition though. When you can think what you want to type and it just happens you know you’re on the right track… and I’m almost there.

What do I expect to get out of dvorak that qwerty can’t deliver? Increased accuracy, speed, and a lowered risk of developing carpal-tunnel or other repetitive stress disorders. With dvorak, there is significantly less finger travel. Dvorak just seems to make more sense to me. It’s the answer to a question I never though to ask until recently. “Why do we use qwerty?”