Month with Dvorak Simplified Keyboard

Okay, I'm going to spend the next month with the Dvorak Keyboard. Here is a quote from Wikipedia.

Dvorak proponents claim the Dvorak layout uses less finger motion, increases typing rate, and reduces errors compared to the standard QWERTY keyboard. This reduction in finger distance traveled was originally purported to permit faster rates of typing, and also in later years, it was purported to reduce repetitive strain injuries including carpal tunnel syndrome.

This part is about the QWRETY Keyboard Sholes thus focused his efforts on stopping jams, rearranging the keys to this end. Sholes commissioned a study to determine the most common letters and letter combinations used in the English language. Sholes then used the results of the study to scatter the common letters and combinations across the keyboard. This increased the time in making the jumps between the letters and helped to alleviate the jamming that occurred when two adjacent keys were struck too rapidly in succession.

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Here is a picture of the layout.



Here is how I changed the layout.

System Preferences > Language & Text > Input Settings > Look for Dvorak, click it (Go to Wikipedia to learn the differences)
Test it out, different huh, but the physical keys don't match. Use this. It will help. (Match the keys to the above picture)



Day 1: This is really kind of annoying. I'm doing "chopsticks" to find the right key like a 6 year old, but I'm not giving up so soon. Each day I will test my WPM using this. On a traditional keyboard, I can type about 40wpm. I'm hoping for this much by 1 month.
Day 1 Results: I feel bad that sucks. I'll update again tomorrow. (Sorry, if my post lacks content I just type slow right now. XD)

Day 2: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/12518572/ & https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/12521809/


Feel free to join if you want and post your days and results too.
(Man, that took forever for a small post!)

Koodauw said:

I think this is a great experiment. Please keep us updated on your findings!

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Thanks for the support. I'll try not to go back unless I need to (school).

Day two (morning): So getting tired of chopsticks, I decided to Google "Dvorak Typing Lessons". This is probably cheating, but doing just the first lesson helped. I no longer do "chopsticks" since the most used keys are in the home row, but I still need to look. I will post speed test results when I get home tonight, but I feel like abut 13 WPM.

Abstract said:

This post was typed using Dvorak, and took around 3 minutes to type.

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Heh, I'm getting better since I did a typing lesson online to learn the home row.

Edit: Day two results: Slightly better!

OutThere said:

I popped all of the keys off my old iMac g3 keyboard a while ago to rearrange them and play the Dvorak game...I didn't last very long . I use many different keyboards every day, so being used to typing on one that doesn't match the rest would probably be a big disservice. Plus I can type 100wpm on qwerty.

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Heh, that's funny.

bobertoq said:

I used to the Dvorak keyboard for roughly a year, but switched back to Qwerty about six months ago. I noticed no difference in speed between either; I typed ~75 WPM on each. But it was funny when someone tried to type something on my computer.

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I would've kept it with the Dvorak just for that last part!