Colemak is more ergonomic than Qwerty but NOT faster. Before switching, my Qwerty speed is 60wpm, after switching to Colemak, 63wpm. So you can surpass your Qwerty speed, but not much.

The good thing is that the tingling sensation of your wrists and your fingers goes away even after long time of typing. Your typing is calmer, your fingers stay in home row most of the time.

Check these videos, you can see how less the fingers move in Colemak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdnFqyas6vo (speed 69wpm)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE_9dYeKrng (speed 58wpm)

If you want to take care of your hands and your wrists and still type regularly it is very good to switch, no matter how old you are.

Switch progress takes time, about a month or two, so be prepared.

Thanks for the responses.  I type about 80 wpm copy typing and probably about 70 doing transcription although I've never been tested.  Even transcription job sites only test your speed from online sites as far as I know.  I would like to relieve some of the neck/shoulder problems I have caused with Qwerty.

You should create a hi-games.net account and test your current Qwerty speed. With the replay feature you can see that how much finger travel you can save if you would switch to Colemak.

Neck/shoulder problems? As Dreymar said, you may want to check that you sit in proper posture.

I traded my big supposedly ergonomic keyboard in for a smaller curved gaming keyboard because the reach to my mouse was too far and was causing problems.  I bought a brand new chair last year as well.  I'm up to about 20 wpm with Colemak after a few nights of playing around with it (about 10 hours maybe) and last night I began to notice a few definite advantages to the keyboard layout so I'll keep plugging away.  I'm still at the point where I'm able to switch back and forth between Qwerty and Colemak so I can still work as well. I'm also looking at the advantages of a two-piece keyboard because I've noticed that I sit with my board turned with the right side higher than the other.   Don't know why, but I do.  So, yeah, there are definitely posture problems at work there, too.

Pandora,

Part of the process of transcribing at high speed is the correct use of software for "abbreviated typing", as well as choosing a suitable keyboard.

This video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYJtF1I3PRs

shows me transcribing audio using a Maltron keyboard, with WordPerfect based shorthand.  I've got some 7000 abbreviations which I use.  Although I've done this slowly for display purposes, it's not difficult to achieve 150 wpm plus.  (However, this video wasn't done to show how quickly I can type, but rather how little effort is required.)

There's a link in the video to my blog where I explain how to create your own shorthand.

Re pinkyache's suggestion of using the mouse left handed, that's exactly what I did.  However, I bought a Logitech marble trackball, which is equally useful for left or right hand.  It can be configured very quickly in the Windows Control Panel (Mouse).

https://www.logitech.com/en-gb/mice-poi … vices/4786

Hope that helps,

Joe

Funny thing, I am actually left-handed, but I like to use a right-hand mouse.  Don't know why; it's just one of those things.  I have created my own shorthand that I use just with my autocorrect feature and it has increased my speed substantially, but I'm always looking for ways to improve.  For instance, the word shorthand would be shthd or something like that.  "Possibility" is psbty.  I have probably 200 words right now and I'm always adding more.

I did look at the DataHand and it was very expensive, but the way I sit I could use a two-piece keyboard very comfortably.  Maybe my right arm is longer or something. I even tried fastening my keyboard down so I would be forced to learn to use it properly.