One year ago this week I started investigating alternative keyboard layouts, and specifically Colemak. I wanted to tell a little bit about my journey as an inspiration to others.

I had played around with Dvorak during college a little bit. The problem for me was that I was an engineering student so I didn't type that much. Dvorak was more of a novelty, not a necessity. So, while I played around, I never made a full transition. Following college, I was in the Army then went to law school. In law school, it would have been nice to transition but I had neither the time nor the energy (and I just didn't think about it). After law school I became a patent attorney. I essentially write patents for a living now, which includes a huge amount of typing. Patent work has a huge learning curve, so I was in training for a long time. During this training, my boss encouraged me to find ways to be more efficient at work. So, I created a master to-do list, synced all my calendars, built myself a standing desk, etc.

Then, I remembered Dvorak. I thought now would be a good time to transition. Because I was typing so much now, I figured that efforts to switch over would pay dividends. So, I started researching Dvorak during my free time. I thought it was weird that Dvorak followers criticized QWERTY for being so old, but Dvorak is itself very old. So, I researched whether there was an improved Dvorak. This lead me to Workman and then to Colemak and a few others. 

This forum, and the people here, is a big part of why I chose Colemak. This was the most active community that I found and everyone seemed helpful and friendly. The Dvorak forums I was reading did not give the same impression. So, thank you. I read a bunch about the efficiencies of various modern keyboard layouts, but decided that the differences between them was all marginal. This forum tipped the scale heavily in Colemak's favor.

Plus, the Tarmak transition steps were very appealing. I did not have the time to do a cold-turkey switch. I could not be that inefficient for a long stretch. I had thought about doing so over Christmas break, but by this point I was getting so excited about the transition that I could not wait. The transition was surprisingly easy. During each step, you could keep in the back of your mind which of the 3-4 keys were being changed. When you arrived at typing that letter, you could quickly remember where it was. You would then just keep typing on that step until you felt comfortable and didn't have to think about it anymore. I think transitioning with Tarmak was even faster than a cold-turkey switch would have been, though it is hard to say.

While I respect the work done by others here and the desire to customize, I decided to stick with the "vanilla" Colemak for a few reasons: (1) the lateral movements for D and H never bothered me so I did not really see the point, (2) I don't think I have ever actually seen an ISO keyboard in my life, (3) I purchased a Colemak keyboard cover from kbcovers.com and it would be strange to have just a few keys different from that, (4) Vanilla Colemak comes standard on Mac so there was no need for additional software. As a side note, I think that Colemak Mod-DH should be called "Colemahd" (pronounced "Cole-mod"), but that's just my two cents.

Today, I am typing faster than I ever did on QWERTY and it is far more comfortable and efficient. I average about 75-80 wpm on the typing tests, which is plenty fast for me. I am still improving on speed, but I don't know that I will ever hit 100 wpm (nor do I really need to). I am definitely never going back. I can still type decently on qwerty (though I haven't speed tested myself) by looking at the keys a little bit. Doing so always gives me an even greater respect for Colemak. I have so far inspired one co-worker to make the full transition, and a few others are interested in dabbling.

Thanks.