My Dvorak Experience

Well, as I said, I decided to switch from Qwerty to Dvorak, giving myself a month to get to 40 wpm (words per minute).

I found a website, http://www.powertyping.com, that offered free lessons and speed tests in both Qwerty and Dvorak. Just before starting lessons, I took a speed test using the Qwerty keyboard. I typed 54 words per minute and made 9.2 mistakes per minute. I was surprised my speed was that high. I’ve hovered between 45-50 words per minute for the past ten years. The low accuracy didn’t surprise me, though. That actually was one of the reasons Dvorak appealed to me. If the claims were true, perhaps I could attain greater accuracy levels as well as increasing my speed. I printed out the Dvorak keyboard layout, put it above my computer and started the lessons.

That first day, I spent 3 hours at lessons and another 2 hours playing typing games. That is much more than what is recommended, but I do tend to be a bit intense when I start new projects. After that first day, though, I usually only spent the recommended 1-2 hours training or typing. When I had progressed through most of the lessons, I decided to test my speed and accuracy. I used the same test I’d used for my Qwerty pre-test and discovered I could type 13 words per minute with 2 mistakes per minute.

That first week was spent doing the lessons over and over, striving for mastery at each level. I also worked through several of the tests, particularly the lists of most frequently used words. When I tired of the lessons, I played the typing games at http://www.powertyping.com. Each morning and evening I would log my speed and accuracy. My accuracy fluctuated from 2-10 words per minute, but my speed steadily increased. I averaged a 2 word per minute increase each day, reaching 30 words per minute in a week.

I still struggled to have a clear mental image of the Dvorak keyboard. Even when I was staring at my print-out of the keyboard, my fingers kept insisting on typing Qwerty keys. Discouragement hit. Should I just quit? I tried to take a Qwerty speed test. I faltered and stumbled through the text and finally gave up. I could not bring up the mental image of the Qwerty keyboard that had been in my mind for decades. I didn’t quite have a Dvorak image there, but the Qwerty one was fading fast. If my mental image of the Dvorak keyboard was that strong after just a week, surely I could take a few more weeks to get my fingers used to the keyboard.

With renewed energy, I typed every day. Sometimes it was from handwritten notes; sometimes directly from my mind. I got caught up on a lot of email that week. My mental image of the keyboard grew stronger. I became more accurate as long as I concentrated hard on that mental image (or stared at the print-out) and typed slowly. If I typed too fast or started "thinking into the keyboard", I reverted back to Qwerty or, more often, a mixture of the two keyboards. That created some highly amusing mistakes.

It is now the third week. Every day I type for at least an hour. I answer emails. I write articles. I play typing games. I’m still not completely comfortable with the keyboard, but that will happen. I have accomplished my goal of 40 words per minute. And it only took about 3 weeks and 30 hours of typing to do it!

You should try it!

Dvorak, Anyone?

Dvorak is a type of keyboard. A man named Dvorak and a partner designed it in the 1930s. They studied the physiology of the hand and typing and devised a keyboard based on their research. (There are also right-hand or left-hand versions for one-handed typing. I don't know if Dvorak developed those versions or if they were developed later.) More info can be found on several websites. http://www.powertyping.com , http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard are just a few useful sites.

Advocates of Dvorak say it is easier to learn and use than the more common Qwerty keyboard. The most-used letters are on the home row; the least used on the bottom row. The most frequently used words utilize the keys on the home row most often. All the vowels are on the left side of the home row. This makes it likely you will alternate hands when typing most words, which is better for the hand muscles and for speed.

I've been toying with the idea of switching to Dvorak for a couple of years. The fact that it was supposedly better and easier appealed to me. I like doing things efficiently. It chafed that I was stuck using a less-than-perfect keyboard just because that’s what worked with the original typewriters. In this computer age, when it is so easy to learn, use and switch between Qwerty or Dvorak, why use the inferior Qwerty?

The drawback, though, was that I’ve been using Qwerty for 30 years. It would not be easy to switch. Would it be worth it? I’m a writer. A pre-published one, yes, but still a person who uses her keyboard daily. Over the years, I’ve developed the ability to “think into the keyboard”, making typing far easier than handwriting. If I attempted to learn a new keyboard, that ability would be lost, at least for a time. Could I reclaim it quickly after learning the Dvorak keyboard?

I decided to try. I was on the cusp of a change anyway. Why not make it a big change? We were preparing to move. I knew that packing, cleaning and all the chaos inherent in moving (with which I am well-acquainted) would make it difficult to produce much creative writing. Why not use this time to learn a new keyboard? If, by the end of the move, I hadn’t learned Dvorak well enough to type 40 words per minute or I decided it was too difficult to make the transition, I would revert to Qwerty. I had one month.

The tale of that month (still not quite finished) will follow soon.