The main reason I've been doing this is because I'm a huge fan of life hacks & progress. To be honest, just 'cuz something is the standard, it does not mean that it is the best.

Perhaps a brief overview is in order as some who see this may not even be aware of what I'm on about. QWERTY remains the current standard on keyboards due to the fact that it was invented with the typewriter. The main reason for its invention was to help the mechanics of the typewriter function without a problem. This of course, meant that typing was purposely made inefficient for the sake of progress. More about this is easily available on the web.

In the 1930s, a scientist called August Dvorak, invented a new kind of typewriter keyboard that aimed to remove the strains, aches faced by typists at that time and improve the speed & accuracy. The result was the Dvorak layout, but the claims met with a whole load of opposition. QWERTY still won the vote due to the amount of people that were already using it. The Dvorak layout achieves a good deal of comfort. Most of the common letters in used in the language lie on the home row. Dvorak also achieves more hand alteration. More on the Dvorak layout can be found at (http://www.dvzine.org/zine/index.html) The main reason for it not becoming a norm is the amount of time a QWERTY typist needs to adjust to it. Dvorak is a standard alternative layout available on any OS.

Invented in 2006, Colemak (colemak.com) is a fascinating layout which tries to the same as the Dvorak layout, but has a layout much closer to QWERTY. Again more available on (http://colemak.com/wiki/index.php?title=FAQ#What_is_Colemak.3F)

That aside, I'm having trouble choosing the layout for me. Colemak makes the normal keyboard shortcuts more easier. With Dvorak, I loose the shortcuts, but I feel typing more easier. I've been using the Colemak layout for some time and for some reason, I'm just not getting the placement of the letters.

What I like about Dvorak was that I was able to learn the layout very easily. Perhaps that hand alteration helps. Since the main shortcut keys are moved more to the right on Dvorak, I've tried to use the left hand mouse.

I want to make Colemak work, but I'm just struggling so much.

Tags: Colemak, Dvorak, QWERTY, keyboard, layouts

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Comment by Knightjp on May 16, 2013 at 1:19am: I bought myself a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 to help with my Colemak. But I still keep on making mistakes. I reach the keys more easily, but the it is becoming apparent that with my bad brain, hand eye coordination, it is getting more and more difficult to get a proper sentence done with as little errors as possible.

Even now my Colemak is so bad I'm trying to type so slowly to avoid making errors that I just keep having to make corrections every 2 -3 letters. SO DAMN FRUSTRATING..

It's been more that 3 months.. I should have mastered the layout by now. :(

Comment by Knightjp on April 23, 2013 at 8:58am: Ok.. I've been using Colemak for all this time and the I wanna keep using it because of its features with the shortcuts, but I'm not feeling that comfortable on it than what I felt on Dvorak. I have lost my Dvorak because of the loss of practise on it.

I did try to type on Dvorak for a short while today but I know I will be able to learn it quickly... :)

Comment by DTM on January 27, 2013 at 10:28am: As far as keyboards go, I don't use a standard 'beat the choppy keys senseless' keyboard anymore since the quiet short throw chicklet keyboards came out. As much as I dislike Apple, I love their full sized desktop aluminum keyboard and have one ported over to my PC using a key mapper utility.

Comment by Knightjp on January 26, 2013 at 6:35am: Still using Colemak for the moment. One thing that takes me back to Dvorak is the fact that it is available as standard on all the OS right now. Which means that if ever I was given another computer, I would not need to install anything.

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