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    Dvorak to Colemak experience

    • Started by leyanlo
    • 3 Replies:
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    • Registered: 26-Nov-2007
    • Posts: 2

    I was at first doubtful of switching from Dvorak because when I visited this forum a few months ago, I didn't see many posts from people who switched from Dvorak.  Well here's my contribution!

    Over the summer, I switched to Dvorak because I heard so many good things about it and had some time on my hands.  I think I had tried switching to Colemak around week 6, but quickly switched back after a few hours of painful struggle.  After 8 weeks on Dvorak, I was at 75 wpm (I had been at 70 wpm on QWERTY after years of use), and I decided that I had enough with the copy paste shortcut positions and switched for good.  It only took me one week to get up to a decent speed of 50 wpm after switching to Colemak.  It has been 5 weeks since I switched over, and I'm now typing at a respectable 80 wpm.

    But I believe that these results have to be taken with a grain of salt.  I think the brain gets better at learning new layouts the second time around, so the speeds don't necessarily mean that Colemak is faster than Dvorak.  On the contrary, it is my firm belief that Dvorak is much more comfortable for typing prose, and can ultimately achieve faster times.  There were noticeably more inward finger rolls and hand alternations in Dvorak, which made that slightly more comfortable.  However, there is more to using a keyboard than just typing prose, and for me, Colemak is my recommendation for computer use.  If you are a Dvorak user and you find yourself missing the good old days when you could ctrl+c with your left hand and click with the right hand, then I think Colemak is for you!

    Another thing I want to mention is that Colemak makes typing in QWERTY a lot easier.  I remember that after I switched to Dvorak cold turkey, my QWERTY speeds completely died.  I could no longer touch-type, and when I typed, it was hunt-and-peck at 25 wpm.  Now that I use Colemak, I find that I still have to hunt-and-peck, but the hunting has gotten a lot easier because my eyes look in the right direction for letters because the layouts are so similar.  I can type in QWERTY at 40 wpm no problem without practice.  This might be something you should consider if you have to use internet cafes or use smartphones or have to use other people's machines often.

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    • From: Köln, Germany
    • Registered: 01-Apr-2007
    • Posts: 264

    Congratulations on your good skill, leyanlo. I can't really comment on your Dvorak experience, except that I am happy you successfully switched. I don't really understand your reason for the faster Colemak speed... I don't think if you switched to QWERTY again, then to Dvorak and then back to Colemak, that you'd be any faster than your are now. Perhaps I am misunderstanding you.

    Regarding the smartphones, I was going to say that I don't suppose any available layout is very ergonomic.. What you would need would be something like the left and right hand side of the keyboard (i.e. a keyboard split in half) and then each half turned 90º, as you type with the thumbs (if I understand correctly, that is.)

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    • Registered: 26-Nov-2007
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    What I meant was that my rate of improvement improved after all that training.  It took me a few weeks to get up to 50 wpm in Dvorak, but then it only took one week to get there in Colemak.

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    • Registered: 17-Nov-2006
    • Posts: 68

    Glad to hear you made the switch, leyanlo. I also made the switch from Dvorak, and it was definitely difficult and frustrating.

    Getting to 50 wpm in one week is rather impressive. It took me about two weeks to get up to 50 wpm, and it took me about a month to peak at 70 wpm.

    I never matched my QWERTY speed with Dvorak, but that might be because I didn't practice using Dvorak as much as I could have. I was only able to reach the 75 wpm mark, and I was able to type at and sustain 80 wpm with QWERTY.

    I also switched cold turkey when I switched to Dvorak, and I can no longer touch type on QWERTY. I cannot hunt-and-peck as well as you can, but I definitely agree it became easier to do so after I switched to Colemak.

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