Hey everyone. I'm in the process of learning Colemak. I'm also trying to get my head around the keyboard zones for touch typing. I touch type QWERTY at 70+ wpm, but with a nonstandard technique. Everyone is normal except I use my left index finger for 'c' and either right or left for 'b', depending on the word. This keeps my left wrist comfortable.

I have an ISO keyboard now so I've been trying out Dreymar's zxcvb shift. So far, I'm struggling with it because 'c' becomes much harder to type. I think that pulling the long middle finger directly back is tricky. The other option is to move the whole hand down, but then you've moved away from the other letters. Repeated hits are also uncomfortable.

I'm wondering why it isn't more common to hit 'c' with the left index finder, since it's quite a common letter (~twice that of 'b'). Hitting 'b' is like a lateral wrist flick. From FPS games I would think that this is more precise than the y-axis movement needed for zxc and ,./  Moving one key to the right/left keeps you closer to the other keys than moving up/down.

Am I missing something important? Do any of the analysis programs for typing efficiency take alternate zones into account?

I was thinking of sticking with my old technique but making the b key more pronounced (elevated, different texture) to make it more trouble free to hit.

I want to add a shift key under my spacebar.  But I was thinking also that caps-> shift could be nice, since it lets you keep a nice wrist angle.