Dvorak Keyboard Layout

[Penguin]

Ever hear of QWERTY UIOP? It's the name of your keyboard, and it's costing you at least 20 words per minute, along with associated typing errors.  In fact, it was designed to slow you down by placing common keys far away from each other.  Dvorak, on the other hand, is the correct setup, and does not require any new equipment (only a paperclip to yank up keys). 

My questions-

Who here has heard of Dvorak?
Who here uses it?
What are your opinions on it?
Is it possible to know both layouts for versatility and speed?
How do I set it up for Vista?

-Penguin

[Skuzzy]

You cannot move the keys around on a keyboard and expect the operating system to know about it.  It takes a new keyboard, or hacking up the operating system to assign new characters to the original scan codes.

[NormH3]

"remap the keyboard" is the term you are looking for. A search might give you your answer. I'm a 2 finger typist so I dont think a different keyboard will help me. been doing it this way for over 30 years now.

[Penguin]

Really?  Weird.  It shows me in the control panel that I can change the layout of the keyboard.  That's where the problem is, I can't get it to recognize the new settings.  How do I remap the keyboard? 

-Penguin

[dedalos]

Really?  Weird.  It shows me in the control panel that I can change the layout of the keyboard.  That's where the problem is, I can't get it to recognize the new settings.  How do I remap the keyboard? 

-Penguin

http://www.microsoft.com/enable/training/windowsxp/keyboardlayout.aspx

[Skuzzy]

Thank you ded.

[Penguin]

I use Vista, though.

-Penguin

[dedalos]

I use Vista, though.

-Penguin

Should be very similar.  Set the control panel to classic view (or what ever they call it lol).  Should look very similar after that.

[dedalos]

Thank you ded.

Funny actually, someone was asking about it here this morning lol

[Banshee7]

In high school, we had to pass keyboarding to graduate.  In that class, the final was to type a couple paragraphs that were in our book and average no less that 55 words per minute with less than 6 mistakes, and there was a cover over the keyboard so you couldn't look down to type.  You had to know the keyboard and be able to type without taking your eyes off of what you were copying into a word document.  I think I'll keep using the keyboards layout I learned.

[Penguin]

But with Dvorak, that would be a breeze.

-Penguin

[Banshee7]

But with Dvorak, that would be a breeze.

-Penguin

I don't see how rearranging a keyboard would make you type faster.  You still have to learn the position of each key.

[Lusche]

I don't see how rearranging a keyboard would make you type faster.  You still have to learn the position of each key.

One of the ideas behind alternate layouts is to make the key more accessible for writes not using a 10-finger system. For example by arranging the most used keys on the middle row and putting rarely used keys into more "remote" areas.

[bcadoo]

But with Dvorak, that would be a breeze.

-Penguin

Somehow unlearning 30+ years of qwerty to learn a 'new' keyboard layout just doesn't appeal to me.  If you really think it will help you....go for it!

[Babalonian]

Only problem I see is if your computer runs into a problem and you need to do some stuff to fix it in DOS or safe mode, you'll need to keep a QWERTY board stashed somewhere.  If they start manufacturing alternative layout styles that look apealing to me I may give it a try, but pulling apart a QWERTY with a paperclip doesn't seem the way to really do it for me, ontop of as apealing as learning a new layout apears to me.