@spremino thanks for your reply it was a real help, I meant to thank you earlier.

I'm still using Dvorak, so I've noticed some of the weaknesses, namely my poor right pinky.  Some of these issues are addressed in the Colemak FAQ.

I desk hop a lot, so chose Dvorak.  I was hoping that touch typing would cure some of my neck/shoulder pain.  It hasn't lifted, plus now I have problems in my hands and fingers that I never had before.  I'm not sure if I'm especially prone or it's a symptom of being new to touch typing (6 months).  The stillness of my body and neck can't be good!

I've achieved a speed rate of about 50wpm, 96% accurate, but my fluidness varies.  As I say my right pinky suffers, programming doesn't help here.  I've noted the Dvorak programmers layout but haven't adopted it yet.  I might try and reduce the load on the pinky by moving my right hand.  I was hoping to make more speed gains, though I'd be happy with a comfortable sustained 50/60wpm.  A plus point from touch typing is that I can now type blindly - lying down and in the dark.

I'd still recommend other people learn how to touch type with an alternative layout to Scholes' Qwerty.  Especially if they use one PC primarily.  My pain is inevitably a result of poor posture sustained over the years.  If you need to look at the keyboard you have to be really careful not to damage your neck. (See: Readers/computer neck).  At least touch typing combined with sensible posture should keep the head upright.  I have banned myself from laptop use.

Touch typing is pretty alien.  Stephen Fry recently pointed out that it takes longer to learn how to touch type than to fly a plane!  I am now reliant on all my fingers, so heaven forbid I loose one or break my wrist or arm!  I can't help but think there has to be an easier way to interface with a computer that doesn't use a keyboard.  There has to be infinitely better gains available  with innovative software and ergonomic design that trump any benefit any alternative keyboard layouts could bring; surely?

I looked at Dasher, and within a few hours you can compose messages with it.  I dare say you could use a toe to write messages.  I'm hoping I see more benefits for my investment in time as right now I wish the keyboard would die.

@spremino those videos were really great.

To go as fast as those kids would be amazing!  Oh for that nimbleness.  My fingers can be loose one minute, the next they clamp up.  They are quite unpredictable it's probably arthritis or something.

My hands and wrists look something like the slowed down Dvorak user from the video.  I have been floating my hands above the keyboard.  And I do rest my fingers slightly on the keys, but perhaps I could do that more.  I worry that having my right arm suspended is what is aggravating my shoulder/neck.

I take on board your comment about the mechanical keyboard, perhaps depressing the key less, may take some strain off of my fingers, along with any assisted spring back.  I can't help but think it must have been agony to use mechanical typewriters for long periods of time.

My no frills basic membrane keyboard is okay, better than some I've tried anyway.  My laptop has nice feeling keys (scissors), but it encourages me to wrest my palms while typing.  I rarely use it that though.  I'd like to try something else.  I'll see what I can find.  But I don't want to lay all the blame of my typing on my tools!

Perhaps as I'm relatively new to touch typing, I'll gain speed, nimbleness and fluency naturally over time.

Because we need the F keys for other things? I use F1 for Help, F2 for entering text fields, F3 for searches... Bad idea.

Some people like to just go through the menus with the mouse. I wouldn't map anything to F2 – I just use it way to often. Almost as often as copy/paste. There simply isn't another universal shortcut for "rename".

So yeah – different people, different preferences. But I wouldn't call "map copy/paste to F1, F2..." the solution for the problem, since it raises other issues for many people.

This is why I've Extend remapped the F keys to the number keys (plus Caps)! That works very well for me. I see that other happy hackers use the same strategy.

To close a program for instance, it's Caps+A+4 (=Alt+F4). Search, Caps+3 (F3 is often Search). Rename, Caps+2. Refresh, Caps+5. Etc etc.

Changing layouts isn't very ergonomical. Many tense up and tire easily while changing. I think Colemak and Dvorak are about on par ergonomically speaking, focusing on slightly different benefits.

[edit: Hang on - why are you spamming the sameish posts all over the forums?]