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Switching to the Dvorak keyboard layout
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Posted by: fibbi
Switching to the Dvorak Keyboard Layout
Written by fibbi
Back in the day, engineers were developing the newest and greatest technology of the time: typewriters. These babies let anyone willing to shell out a little bit of money able to create documents with those fancy fonts previously only available to people with a printing press and a lot of time on their hands. They typewriter worked great at first, but when people began to get more and more adept and typing, the heads began to get caught from people typing so fast that one head would go out to the same part of the page before the previous one had left. To solve this problem, the QWERTY type layout was invented.
QWERTY was designed to add two things to typing: slowness and inefficiency. It was designed to be slow so people wouldn’t be able to type so fast that the heads stuck, and inefficient so that letters commonly used together would be as far as possible from each other, again reducing the chances of getting the heads stuck.
Fast forward to 2003. Typewriters are antiques, and computers are now used to do all the typing. But we still use the original type layout designed to be slow and inefficient. Why? Because the people who invented computers were the ones most adept at technology, and thus were the some of the fastest typist on the face of the earth. And rather than give up their years of experience in the name of efficiency, they just transferred the world’s most standard layout from the type writer to the computer.
So how does that make you feel? All those hours of struggling away with Mavis Beacon (well, some of you were around back in the typewriter era) were teaching you the worst possible keyboard layout! Fell like rebelling? Then read on.
There’s an alternative layout to QWERTY called Dvorak. Note that Dvorak is not written with all caps, because, contrary to popular knowledge, the top row of the Dvorak layout does not read DVORAK. Dvorak was specifically designed back in the 30’s for comfort, speed and efficiency, but by that time QWERTY already had enough market share (as well the fact that they prevented jamming) to push Dvorak out of the picture. However, come the 90’s it was revived and put as an option even in the oldest personal computers.
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So, how do you convert?
There are two options. One is to buy a hardware Dvorak keyboard, which acts just like an normal keyboard as far as the computer is concerned (ie, it sends the same signals for each letter as a QWERTY keyboard). There are even some keyboards that have a button on them to switch between Dvorak and QWERTY.
The second option, and the one that most will probably choose, is using windows to set the keyboard layout. In XP/2000 (and I think 95/98/NT as well), you can even set it up so there’s a keyboard icon in your taskbar that you can click for fast and easy switching.
Here are the instructions for a software setup (and yes, I know some of you use macs, but you should be able to figure it out by yourself):
For 2000/XP Users: Start > Settings > Control Panels > Regional and Language Options > Languages>Details > Add. Select English (United States) for language, and United States-Dvorak for the keyboard layout. Hit okay, click the Language Bar button, enable the language bar, hit okay, apply, and you’re done!
For 95/98/NT users: Start > Settings > Control Panel > Keyboard > Language >Properties (from here, see the procedure above).
While your system might be set up at this point, if you use DOS, it will still revert to the old QWERTY layout. There are multiple fixes for this, but I’ll just point you to the MS official fix . Note that this does not apply to NT based systems (XP/200/XP).
Now, you’re half done. You’re keyboard is typing in Dvorak, but you only know QWERTY, which leads to a problem. You need to print out the keyboard layout and tape it somewhere where you can see it until you learn to touch type.
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To some up, here’s a rundown of the pros and cons of going hardware/software Dvorak.
Hardware
Pros:
- Works with any computer, any system, and any program configuration free.
- Switch between QWERTY and Dvorak with the press of a button (on select models).
- The Dvorak layout is printed on the keyboard, so it’s easier if you’re not a touch-typist
Cons:
- 50 bucks for a keyboard?
Software
Pros:
- Easy to switch.
- Free
Cons:
- Won’t work in certain programs/OSes without tweaking
- Wrong layout printed on keys
Well, I hope that this was either informative, useful, or entertaining to everyone who read it. If you have any comments on my first guide, feel free to post them.
- Fibbi
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