Dvorak keyboard

I made one on an old/gray/slow Toshi laptop. Just pulled the keys off and pushed them back on to their new positions. Had to clip a couple to fit around the eraser mouse. You know, I never thought I could type...but that thing messed with my head.

For those that do not know, the qwerty keyboard was specifically designed to SLOW YOU DOWN...yes, it is true, back in the days of mechanical typewriters fast typists would cause jams by having too many strikers in the air at once, so qwerty was engineered to be as unergonomic as possible. And now we are stuck with it. To the OP, if you manage to convert your brain to Dvorak I salute you!

Dvorak puts the most used characters on the home row and the least used in the corners, much as morse code uses one bit for the two most used characters, two bits for the next most popular four and so on, up to six for numbers and punctuation.
 
Actually fyi: the only study that I have seen claiming dvorak is faster was overseen by dvorak himself. I just want to see if I can adapt to it
 
Wasnt really that much research going into it... For example why can you spell typewriter on the top row with QWERTY? Hardly a coincidence lol

I would like to try the DVORAK schedule as well but I don´t really have any problems with QWERTY... I suppose my brain are to slow anyway and I manage to misspell a lot already with QWERTY... The faster I write the less correct my grammar gets ;)
 
you don't need a special keyboard to do dvorak, just go into the keymapping (I know this works on Windows XP, Ubuntu, SuSE, and probably OS X) and set it to dvorak - US, you can move the keys around if you like as well
 
the only out "of the box" Dvorak boards I've seen is this stuff http://www.fentek-ind.com/dvorak.htm (unless you count blank ones like the "Das Keyboard" , "Happy Hacking Pro" and the variable optimus maximus...)

But all you really need (as mentioned) is to change the PCs keyboard layout settings. (I'm only using it to switch between US/german/japanese layout though ...confusing enough, keyboard stays the same, only the mapping changes)

If you want Dvorak printed on the keys, the cheapest way would be to simply get a QWERTY with easily removable ones and rearrange them yourself like jojo69 did.
 
The-UselessNoob said:
Actually fyi: the only study that I have seen claiming dvorak is faster was overseen by dvorak himself. I just want to see if I can adapt to it
Click to expand...

I've heard of test using the Dvorak keyboard where people were having sustained rates of 200+ wpm. That's almost impossible on a QWERTY keyboard.
 
I simply swapped the keys around on my IBM Model M.
If you don't want to move keys around you can also purchase some Dvorak keycap stickers and put them on your keyboard.

I've been using Dvorak for almost 4 years now and couldn't be happier. :)
 
i've been using dvorak for over a year, don't really see any difference in hand strain, but i definitely feel my fingers moving less than qwerty...

you'll probably memorize the keys(or have a printed layout near the computer)... one plus side is that none of your colleagues/friends can use your keyboard unless they know how to change back the keyboard setting
 
I switched over to dvorak quite a few years ago and stuck with it for some time. After getting used to it, it was *definitely* easier to type sentences with. The problem came in when I tried programming (C/C++), for some reason, certain keys being where they were just made things *WAY* easier to program in qwerty.

After a while I eventually did switch back to qwerty full time, though I would like to try dvorak again... it really was easier on the hands.
 
I remember on my first computer, the Apple //c, there was a physical button that allowed you to toggle between Dvorak and QWERTY. I actually quite liked the Dvorak configuration, but since 99% of all other keyboards are QWERTY and since it is hard to keep switching back and forth, I gave up trying to use it.

I'm surprised they don't make keyboards anymore that allow you to switch back and forth at the press of a button!
 
They don't because keyboard mapping is now all handled at the software level. The pain on your keys doens't matter, and all modern OSes let you switch keyboard layout at the change of a control panel setting, assuming you have access to that control panel from your login. The paint on your keys is now mainly there in case you can't touch type and need to know what the layout is.

Now you can do Japanese, Greek, and Arabic input with a standard QWERTY board just by changing your software configuration, and the computer won't care what the paint says the keys are.

Now if you really want a keyboard you can set to whatever you want for the layout and see what it is set to, there is always this thing...

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/keyboards-mice/9836/

The only reason a Dvorak switch is hard right now is because many computer admins won't let you have access to the control panels to change your layout, and it takes a minute the first time you enable it on each machine. Your workplace environment isn't going to be conducive to letting you make the switch unless you are an admin.
 
HOLY CRAP! A $1600 KEYBOARD!

with teensy little screens in every key

oh god, what is wrong with me...I want this
 
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