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Fellow Dvorak users... tell me you're out there!
- Thread starter chadabshier
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Ya, about that. For some reason I never typed well in Qwerty. I always made mistakes and such. And I was never good with things like the "?" and "+" and such. But they all make sense to me now... everything is where it should be.
Switching was hard though. It took about 3 weeks before you can even function on the computer again... reprogramming your brain and fingers to a new keyboard was really weird. After about 2-3 weeks I was pretty much back up to 30-35 wpm. Then after a couple months I was typing about 60 wpm and now I type about 70-75ish wpm.
I can still look and type on a Qwerty keyboard and get about 25 wpm.
I love running across words and phrases that (in Qwerty) have no letters on the home row; it makes me laugh. Examples: powerpoint, youtube.com
Switching was hard though. It took about 3 weeks before you can even function on the computer again... reprogramming your brain and fingers to a new keyboard was really weird. After about 2-3 weeks I was pretty much back up to 30-35 wpm. Then after a couple months I was typing about 60 wpm and now I type about 70-75ish wpm.
I can still look and type on a Qwerty keyboard and get about 25 wpm.
I love running across words and phrases that (in Qwerty) have no letters on the home row; it makes me laugh. Examples: powerpoint, youtube.com
i never really understand dvorak...
hahahhaa
i've tried it twice before..
it feels like i'm back to when i was 10 years old..
with my first computer..
trying to hunt and peck the letters to type my own name... 😛
i do heard that dvorak is actually aimed to typist,
i don't know what kind of work you do, but i don't think that dvorak is really good for programming.
i mean, well, we do type, but other than that, we use shortcut also.. a lot of them actually..
and shortcuts were made with the consideration that the users are using qwerty.
take cut copy paste for example.
it's placed logically close to command modified button (command, alt, ctrl, shift)
with dvorak u'll have to 'reach' to 'C' with your right ring finger (i think)
and that's (in my opinion) a bit too far..
but the hardest thing is to modify your muscle memory..
but great for you..
i've never even met anyone who uses dvorak..
hahahhaa
hahahhaa
i've tried it twice before..
it feels like i'm back to when i was 10 years old..
with my first computer..
trying to hunt and peck the letters to type my own name... 😛
i do heard that dvorak is actually aimed to typist,
i don't know what kind of work you do, but i don't think that dvorak is really good for programming.
i mean, well, we do type, but other than that, we use shortcut also.. a lot of them actually..
and shortcuts were made with the consideration that the users are using qwerty.
take cut copy paste for example.
it's placed logically close to command modified button (command, alt, ctrl, shift)
with dvorak u'll have to 'reach' to 'C' with your right ring finger (i think)
and that's (in my opinion) a bit too far..
but the hardest thing is to modify your muscle memory..
but great for you..
i've never even met anyone who uses dvorak..
hahahhaa
cb911
macrumors 601
i did learn DVORAK, some years ago. it was fantastic. if you do lots of typing, or just want to type faster - then it's for you. (i originally learnt to touch-type just so i could type and post faster on this forum. 😀 )
yes you do have to learn it, it takes some time. but unless you do you will have no idea how fast you will be able to type. lots of common words can by typed without even moving your fingers from the home row. think about that - you have no idea how much faster that makes typing.
when i had started to learn DVORAK i was still switching between QWERTY. for me it wasn't a matter of "unlearning" QWERTY, you can know and use both. (or at least that's my experience.)
i may look into using DVORAK again, espeically if i can get a DVORAK keyboard. as has been mentioned it's the shortcuts that make it a bit tricky. i use Photoshop and InDesign etc. alot so to change my main computer to DVORAK was a bit tricky. (of course you can re-map the shortcut keys...) I did actually re-arrange the keys on my TiBook G4 to DVORAK and used it like that for a while. confused the heck out of people when they saw it. hahaha 😀
maybe when i get a laptop or something i will just use it as my dedicated typing/writing machine and go back to DVORAK... 🙂
yes you do have to learn it, it takes some time. but unless you do you will have no idea how fast you will be able to type. lots of common words can by typed without even moving your fingers from the home row. think about that - you have no idea how much faster that makes typing.
when i had started to learn DVORAK i was still switching between QWERTY. for me it wasn't a matter of "unlearning" QWERTY, you can know and use both. (or at least that's my experience.)
i may look into using DVORAK again, espeically if i can get a DVORAK keyboard. as has been mentioned it's the shortcuts that make it a bit tricky. i use Photoshop and InDesign etc. alot so to change my main computer to DVORAK was a bit tricky. (of course you can re-map the shortcut keys...) I did actually re-arrange the keys on my TiBook G4 to DVORAK and used it like that for a while. confused the heck out of people when they saw it. hahaha 😀
maybe when i get a laptop or something i will just use it as my dedicated typing/writing machine and go back to DVORAK... 🙂
actually.. just now, just for the heck of it, i tried to find typing tests on the internet..
i tried a few, and always give me around 71-74 wpm...
hahahha
i guess i do type fast 😛
but if i use dvorak.. and let's assume that i already am good at it.. how much will it increase my speed?
100?
does anyone type at that speed?
hahahha
probably his or her fingers would just go blur 😛
i tried a few, and always give me around 71-74 wpm...
hahahha
i guess i do type fast 😛
but if i use dvorak.. and let's assume that i already am good at it.. how much will it increase my speed?
100?
does anyone type at that speed?
hahahha
probably his or her fingers would just go blur 😛
Getting your brain to learn the new shortcuts (Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v, etc) is the same and getting your brain to learn new letter positions. To me, copy and paste are just as easy as they were in Qwerty.
They are two handed for me now, which seems easier to me actually. In Qwerty they are one handed... which is like using the left Shift key to make a capital A, S, D, or F... you should be using the right Shift key for those letters (in Qwerty of course).
They are two handed for me now, which seems easier to me actually. In Qwerty they are one handed... which is like using the left Shift key to make a capital A, S, D, or F... you should be using the right Shift key for those letters (in Qwerty of course).
fireshot91
macrumors 601
Didn't know Apple made Dvoraks, couldn't see myself switching to one because I'm rather comfortable on a QWERTY + phone's etc. don't have Dvorak layout. But glad its worked out for you 🙂
cb911
macrumors 601
My understanding was that typewriters kept jamming because people were typing too fast on them, so they changed the typewriter layout to QWERTY to slow down the typing. Now we have QWERTY keyboards everywhere simply because it was carried over from typewriters.
The "QWERTY was designed to slow typists down" thing is a total fabrication. There were actually a number of different keyboard designs early on; QWERTY won out because it was at least as good as any of them. Also, read this, which casts some pretty reasonable doubt on the idea that Dvorak actually is any better.
--Eric
--Eric
Almost. QWERTY is not designed to slow typists down - it's designed so that the most common letter sequences do not result in adjacent key presses.
On the old hammer style typewriters, if you pushed two keys that were right next to each other in rapid succession, the two hammers would collide and stick together. So QWERTY was designed specifically to make typing common words into an exercise of using the entire keyboard. DVORAK on the other hand is precisely the opposite, so that you have as little finger movement as possible when typing common sequences.
Well, I know Apple has an input called "Dvorak - Qwerty ⌘" that uses Dvorak for regular typing, but then when you press ⌘ to do a shortcut, it reverts back to Qwerty. I guess this would allow you to have a stepping stone in learning.
