Starting to learn Colemak over Dvorak - Experiences

ggeneraux
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07-Mar-2007 01:41:45#1 Starting to learn Colemak over Dvorak

After a few of days of researching, I've decided to learn Colemak, starting tonight. I was contemplating learning Dvorak, but have read so many positive experiences on the forums here, as well as the reasons stated in the FAQ which seem very logical to me, have convinced me to try Colemak instead. I also really like the fact that AutoHotKey can be used to temporarily switch the layouts on the desktop at home, which will mean less confrontation with my wife over forgetting to switch the regional settings back :) So far I've successfully installed it (Autohotkey as above) on WinXP and my Macbook Pro, although I have not remapped the caps-lock yet. Here's where I'm coming from in terms of typing skills:

Qwerty
~75 WPM and 93% accuracy (based on TypingTest.com)

I'm excited to see how this goes.

Grant

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AGK
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07-Mar-2007 04:48:51#2 Re: Starting to learn Colemak over Dvorak

hi ggeneraux,

I'm glad to hear that you've decided to switch. Just like you, I had 75 WPM with 95% accuracy before I switched, based on typingtest.com. Now after a month of using colemak, I just tested, and have 45 WPM, with 98% accuracy. When I just started with Colemak, I did 1 week of using typing tutors a couple of hours everyday until I hit a stable 30 wpm speed. I would highly recommend to only use colemak when you are learning the layout that way you wont get confused and thus learn it faster. Also, after getting used to colemak, my typing speed via qwerty is much lower than colemak, but that's ok, since I'm not planning to go back.

I agree, autohotkey is an excellent tool, as I mentioned in another thread (in the general section), it doesn't even need other files, all it needs is the colemak.ahk and the autohotkey.exe file.

-Albert

Last edited by AGK (07-Mar-2007 04:58:39)

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DreymaR
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07-Mar-2007 11:23:55#3 Re: Starting to learn Colemak over Dvorak

Welcome, Grant! I hope your stay will be a long and pleasant one. :)

I'm working on an improved AHK script that'll allow more international features and even an on-screen semitransparent image of the layout so you can always know what you're doing even if some dufus painted the wrong symbols on your keys! I hope to have a working version pretty soon for the US keyboard. See the thread about portable Colemak in the General forum for some tips about how to make it run as smoothly as possible.

I too have the problem of wife and coworker compliance. They stubbornly refuse to switch to Colemak, so the AHK way seems to be the best solution for all the computers I'm using except my own work PC.

[Edit: If you're interested, you may check out the state of my project at http://folk.uio.no/obech/Files/Keyboard … Screen.zip - it's definitely in workable condition although improvements are to be expected. Might be useful, especially while you're so new to the layout. The current file has just the on-screen image, no remappings (but you can remap in any way you like including the other AHK script and still run mine).]

Last edited by DreymaR (08-Mar-2007 15:22:12)

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
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Checkit
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08-Mar-2007 00:35:27#4 Re: Starting to learn Colemak over Dvorak

Hi Grant,

Welcome aboard! I hope everything goes smoothly for you.

I am in my second week of learning Colemak. After my first seven days of practice, I was up to 31 WPM (from a starting Qwerty speed of 68WPM).

Let us know if you have any questions.

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