For people like me that spend hours a day typing, I thought I’d share a little trick: learn to type in Dvorak. “What in the world is Dvorak” you ask? Dvorak is a different keyboard layout that is designed for efficiency when typing in English.
Your standard keyboard has the letters QWERTY across the top left letters. The keyboard layout got the nickname Qwerty for just that reason. But this is what bugs me: Qwerty was designed to slow typists down!
Old typewriters had those arms that would stamp the letters on the page. But as typists got fast, the arms would jam. So, a new keyboard layout – Qwerty – was designed to reduce the risks of jamming the arms up.
So, now we all still learn to type in Qwerty for some reason. Anybody out there still using a typewriter? Didn’t think so.
I taught myself to type in Dvorak and it took me about 3 weeks to get as fast as I was at typing in Qwerty. There are lots of great free sites where you can learn to type in Dvorak at your own pace.
No and no. You can type in Dvorak on your current keyboard. Of course, you will not be able to look down at your hands to find the right letters anymore, but that’s a good thing!
You can easily turn Dvorak on in XP, Vista, and any recent Mac OS. Just go to the Language Settings (International Settings for a Mac) and look for the Dvorak option. I set up a hot key, so I can turn Dvorak on by pressing Ctrl + Shift + 1 and Qwerty on by pressing Ctrl + Shift + 2.
I am typing faster, more accurately, and with less strain on my hands. The difference is most noticeable in how my hands feel. I used to get physically tired of typing – or even got pain in my forearms!
Now, I have literally had days where I typed 5000-6000 words and the only strain was on my brain!
Microsoft has a nice tutorial for switching over to Dvorak in XP and for Vista users as well. For Mac folks, switching to Dvorak is just as easy.
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