Longtime readers know that about three weeks ago, I began relearning how to type using the Dvorak keyboard. It was a snap decision which made starting this year’s NaNoWriMo novel a very hard at the beginning. But I managed to slog through, and within 6 day’s of switching, I was up to about a third of my old speed.
This was pretty cool. For many it takes two weeks or more to even become proficient enough to bang out an email or have an instant-message conversation. But due to my daily writing practice of 1,669 words of fiction per day (as per the official NaNoWriMo schedule), I was forced to speed up.
One doesn’t realize the importance they assign to their keyboarding speed until they are crippled somehow. Maybe it’s just geek-types like me who experience such deep-seated feelings of impotence, but to someone who types for, increasingly, the better part of my his day, the experience can be earth shattering.
It feels SO good to be able to write a quick 500 word blog post, or fire an email off to a friend instead of calling. One thing I will say about writing fiction while trying to learn a new layout, is that it shortens your phrases down to monk-like brevity. I have always been able to fire off words, glibness being my strong-suit. But faced with the inability to type them and move on, I was forced to rethink them. Analyze them. Craft them.
My hope is that some of this in-mind editing has remained.
So I did a typing test of my recent speed, and I am much closer to where I began. At 60 wpm, I am 2/3rds of the way to my original 90 wpm with querty.
But how fast am I with QUERTY?
0 wpm. I tried recently to type on Chanterelle’s computer, and all I could do was stare hopelessly at the foreign-looking keys. I am sure with enough clacking though, my muscles would remember.
Here are some quick tips for those looking to switch as quickly as possible to Dvorak:
- Plan something BIG (like NaNoWriMo) about a week into your relearn, that will require alot of writing. This pushes you to keep going when it gets hard.
- DON’T switch back to QUERTY. It can be really hard to resist the temptation to switch back to QUERTY during your relearn period when you feel you’ll look stupid if you don’t answer your email faster, etc. But don’t do it. Focus on the idea that every keystroke you are forced to make today, however hard and miserable, is a step toward learning a new and superior way to type.
- Use typing software. It’s not the cheaper option (the only Dvorak teaching software I know of is this one) but it is the better option. It is very worth it, and it will help you learn the proper ways to hit the keys (which you probably learned incorrectly the first time).
- Don’t switch your keys around. Consequently to what people might think, it’s actually more effective not to switch the physical keys on your keyboard to Dvorak because you will actually learn to touch-type. Otherwise you’ll be too tempted to rely on the keys, and learn ineffective finger habits.
Learning Dvorak is awesome. It truly does feel better on my fingers. I have seen a very noticeable difference in the tension of my hands after typing all day. Chanterelle used to need to massage them constantly, but Dvorak has helped them alot.
So, when will you switch?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Cool, my friend was just telling me about davork, he said it was supposed to be faster, i guess he was right.
Scientifically it makes sense that it is faster because the frequently used keys are all on the home row. But it takes quite a while to get back to your normal rapid speed. This is because typically you have had 10+ years to ingrain QUERTY into your physiology. And maybe only a couple of weeks with Dvorak at first. That’s what makes it a little slower (or the same) for so long.