Is it worth switching to Dvorak?

Question

I've occasionally thought about trying the Dvorak keyboard layout to improve my writing speed. However, I wonder if the speed gain is really worth the initial learning curve.

I'm curious if anyone knows of studies that tested people switching from Querty to Dvorak. Specifically, how long does it take the average person to recover their previous speed, and how much does their speed improve overall?

I would also be interested in any anecdotal evidence by those who have made the switch (or attempted it and reverted back to Querty).

Answer 1

Personally I switched to Dvorak about six years ago, and I've found it to have been a net positive over all. My typing speed is about the same as before, though oddly my error rate has gone down. On the other hand, I haven't had any serious wrist pain since I switched.

There are some downsides to switching.

• It seems to take about two months to get back up to the speed you were before changing over.
• Your QWERTY typing speed will suffer unless you put time into working with both.
• You're also going to have to learn how to type without looking at the keyboard as the odds are pretty good you're not going to be able to change the key labels. (You can find blank keyboards if the mismatch is a problem)

If you do try to change over, I'll warn you that the third week or so will be the worst. You'll kind of know where everything should be but you'll have a hard time finding it. Typing will be a huge pain for a few days as everything starts to properly shift around in your head. If you can get through it though, it will get better after that.

Answer 2

It's been a while since I've seen research on this, but the consensus that I hear from other programmers who have tried Dvorak (we tend to spend all days in front of keyboards and therefore tend to be picky about the keyboards we use) is that:

• There is little difference in speed, or if there is, it isn't enough to justify the cost in learning it in and of itself.
• However, it does provide significant benefits in terms of preventing repetitive strain injury (carpal tunnel and the like).

Another thing to take into consideration is that Dvorak keyboards are somewhat hard to find. So when you get used to it, it's difficult to say, go to the library and use the keyboard there.

Answer 3

I'm just starting to learn the Dvorak layout (I'm at about 15 WPM touch typing after around 5 hours of practice over the last few days), but have not yet decided whether or not I will stick with it permanently. (Edit: After 2 weeks of using Dvorak, I'm up to about 35 WPM). This site has a useful trainer for learning it. Here are my thoughts so far:

The Bad

• At the moment, Dvorak is painfully slow considering I type over 70 WPM using qwerty. Its probably not worth trying to switch to Dvorak unless you're willing to put up with it long enough get decently fast.
• I use the standard Windows keyboard shortcuts (ctrl-c, ctrl-v, etc.) heavily. Dvorak moves these keys to the right side of the keyboard, which is extremely inconvenient for people like me. However, there seem to be some good ways to work around this. I returned the shortcuts to their original locations by installing this layout, which was one of several solutions posted on this thread.
• After getting used to Dvorak, it takes several minutes to switch back to querty (which may occasionally be necessary). I've been using Dvorak almost exclusively for about 2 weeks now. I just took some 3 minute typing tests using querty and scored 25 WPM, 46 WPM, and then 55 WPM. I'm guessing I'd be back up around 70 WPM again if I typed in querty for a good 30 minutes or so, but I'm sure my top speed in querty will degrade some over time as well.

The Good

• So far, it does seem like Dvorak would be more comfortable to type in than querty. I have definitely noticed that many common digraphs are more natural to type in Dvorak.
• The more you type, the more potential for long term benefits. I type a lot, so I'm willing to put in a fair amount of effort for relatively small gains.

Edit 2:

It's been a while since I wrote this answer, but if I remember correctly I stuck with Dvorak for a couple months. I used it almost exclusively for the first 3 or 4 weeks, and then switched back to qwerty for programming on my computer at school while still using Dvorak at home. I wasn't a fan of some of the places the symbols that are used often in programming got moved (like the semicolon). I kept using Dvorak at home and qwerty at work/school for at least a month or two. It was easy to switch between them since I used them both regularly, but I probably didn't get as fast at Dvorak as I would have had I stuck with it exclusively. I think in the end I got up to about 55 WPM in Dvorak.

I ultimately gave up on Dvorak at home as well because there were always small, annoying side-effects of using it that would crop up somewhere sooner or later. I refused to stick with normal Dvorak since it messes up ctrl-c and other shortcuts that I want easily accessible with just my left hand. I tried the hybrid layout I linked above that keeps the querty virtual key codes but remaps the character codes to Dvorak. That worked fairly well in most situations, but I ran into an application or two that I used often that ctrl-c was still messed up for (I don't remember which application). Perhaps that program used character codes instead of virtual key codes for its internal keyboard shortcuts or something.

So, I went looking for another solution that wouldn't have that side effect. I eventually set up an AutoHotkey script that remapped all the key-presses involving the ctrl, alt, or windows key modifiers back to qwerty. That worked even for the application that caused problems with the hybrid layout, but ended up causing problems in computer games. In many games, you hold ctrl or alt to do something (i.e. crouch) while pressing other keys. But, once I was holding ctrl or alt, the script mapped all the other keys back to qwerty, effectively scrambling all my movement and other controls. I could temporarily disable the script while playing games, but that's just another small annoyance.

A final gaming-related drawback is that you either have to remap all the keys for every new game (somehow they never have defaults for a Dvorak layout), or temporarily switch back to qwerty when playing games. Games like (Starcraft II) that have bajillions of keyboard shortcuts for every command/unit/ability in the game can be a real pain to remap.

Answer 4

I switched to Dvorak about 4 years ago due to some pain in my wrists. It took me less than a month to regain my old speed, maybe three weeks. This was the same for everyone I knew who switched cold turkey; people who went back and forth with QWERTY during the transition period took two or three months to become proficient (or gave up). After less than six months, my wrist pain was virtually gone, and has remained gone (disclaimer: I used to play guitar and video games more frequently as well, so I'm not certain this was the only factor).

I had read on a pro-Dvorak site at the time that most people get a 30% speed gain. I was in the lower 70s with QWERTY and am now in the upper 70s, so for me it was more like 10%. Still, over the course of the last 4 years, I've probably made up for the slowness of the month when I switched. Think of it this way: you already know how to type, so switching is essentially rebuilding your muscle memory. Since your fingers will be travelling a shorter distance under Dvorak, once your muscle memory gets to the same point you're at with QWERTY, you'll be faster by definition.

If you're going to switch, my advice would be the following to try to reduce the learning curve:

• Don't switch back and forth until you've got Dvorak down. All major OSes have fairly straightforward ways of switching to Dvorak; learn them and use them, even if you're borrowing a machine.
• Print out a diagram of the key layout and put it up next to your monitor. This is better than relabeling your keyboard, in my opinion, because then you will get out of the habit of looking down to see where you are (which should also improve your speed, even if you decide to go back to QWERTY).
• Try to time the switch around a time when you're going to be using a computer frequently, but not for anything time sensitive. I work in IT, and I timed my switch around a stretch when I knew my primary task was going to be working with numerical data. Be prepared to send a lot of one-word e-mails! If you've got to do a large amount of time-sensitive typing, you'll be inclined to switch back and forth, and that will be problematic.
• There are a number of online keyboarding exercises designed for Dvorak - use them! I actually observed noticable speed gains daily using these. I don't have any of the links any more, but I don't recall them being difficult to find.
• Be wary of keyboard shortcuts. As others have mentioned, many application specific keyboard shortcuts are in part based on the physical location of the key on QWERTY, so depending on what else you do, it could be problematic. (I've gotten used to the cut/copy/paste type functions and many shortcuts in Vi, but there are some applications where I just switch back to QWERTY if I'm not going to be typing words.)

I've become enough of a Dvorak evangelist that it's become a sort of joke among my friends and family. I honestly think it's the best computer-related decision I ever made, and I've gotten a great ROI.

Answer 5

I'm a developer and blog writer. I switched to Dvorak 10 years ago and never looked back. It took a little bit to teach myself how to type but it was totally worth it. Speed has increased a great deal and the amount of pain in my wrists and shoulders was drastically reduced within weeks, and stayed that way.

Speed increases relate more to standard language typing rather than programming due to the fact that Dvorak actually puts some commonly used programmer keys in odd places. The ';' for instance is in an inconvenient place and it's like '.' to developers.

Yes, it is VERY worth switching. Was for me anyway.

Answer 6

Consider whether you're likely to do a lot of typing on other people's or public computers where you won't be able to switch the layout--if that's a common occurrence, then the hassle of switching back and forth may make it not worth it.

More importantly, is your typing speed currently a limiting factor to your writing? Do you compose sentences significantly faster than you can type them? (If you're typing up longhand manuscripts, it might make a big difference!)

Answer 7

I'm a programmer and I made the switch about six months ago. Switching has increased my speed significantly, but I think that this is because I couldn't touch type before hand. The main difference though, has been that typing in the dvorak layout is much more comfortable than qwerty.

You don't need to buy a dvorak keyboard in order to switch. My keyboard has the qwerty layout printed on it. I think that it would actually be counter productive to get a keyboard printed with dvorak's keys.

The downside as others have noted is that it is annoying to have to use qwerty on other computers.

If you do decide to switch then make a complete break from qwerty.

Answer 8

At a work where I answered 100+ emails a day, I found that my hands hurt a lot less after switching to dvorak. It causes less strain on the hand, in other words.

Answer 9

Trying to switch is totally worth it. I tried to switch form qwertz to Neo (a German variant of Dvorak). I practiced it several weeks, but then decided against it and switched back to qwertz. I touch-typed before that switch, nevertheless my writing speed enhanced significantly.

Right now I try it again. Because programming with qwertz is a PITA. Look at it as brain calisthenics. It won't hurt ;)

Answer 10

Having grown up with piano lessons and computer games, I used to be able to type 110-130WPM on a QWERTY keyboard. Now, after 4 months of DVORAK, I'm at about 60WPM DVORAK and down to 90WPM QWERTY. Thus, so far it has definitely cost me tremendously in terms of speed. However, the novelty of it and knowing I'm the only one who can use my laptop more than makes up for the difference :)

Answer 11

I just made the switch a couple of weeks ago. I am typing a bit faster now. I avereged 69 wpm on QWERTZ and I am at about 57 on Dvorak. Switching to Dvorak can be challeging but it gets easy pretty fast. One thing that helped me switch was getting stickers for my keyboard s. They were about 3$ per sticker set and went on top of the normal qwerty layout but were clear with the letter or symbol in the bottom right corner. It was nice because it made it easy to see both dvorak and QWERTZ but not stint my progress. I like it so far and I think Ill stick with it.

Answer 12

I am always curious about efficiency, so I tried switching to Dvorak about four years ago. Here are some notes:

• I didn't switch the keys since I knew I would be working on multiple keyboards; instead I printed out a cheat sheet.
• It took me about 3-4 weeks to get up to Qwerty speed (60-65 wpm for me). The first week I was a painful 10 wpm.
• Then I surpassed my speed and now have visited 75 wpm.
• The weirdest thing that I wish Dvorak had done differently is putting all the vowels right next to each other. I still mix them up sometimes.
• I know the guy's tests were dubious, but that doesn't mean his system was.
• There is lots of debate about this: some people say Dvorak absolutely makes you go faster, others think it's psychological. For my part, I tried to be very open-minded about it and just see what happened, and I did go faster. That's about as much as I can argue.
• I also don't believe that Qwerty was literally made to slow you down. You see all sorts of conflicting views about this as well. My best analysis says that it's a myth that Qwerty was designed to slow you down (though it was made to alternate left and right hands).
• I'll also mention, while I'm at it, that I believe that neither Qwerty nor Dvorak is right for devices, because they are both ten-finger systems, whereas devices don't work that way. Which is why we developed Modality typing.
• Everything else said, though, I'm definitely a Dvorak supporter. Not a huge evangelist, though I do talk about it here and there (like here, for instance).

So, hopefully that helps muddy the waters for you!

Answer 13

Dvorak is a bit outdated, and not all the assumptions he made have proven correct over time (such as penalties for same hand). For a more modern take, which favors same hand inward rolls, look at Colemak . It is absolutely worth the effort to learn either as an improvement over qwerty, but if you're going to go to this amount of trouble you might as well get rid of a few other issues sorted, such as the staggered key layout. Keyboards like the kinesis advantage (https://www.kinesis-ergo.com/shop/advantage2/) have the keys arranged in a grid, and combined with colemak have totally revolutionized typing for me.

One big advantage with using an alternate keyboard that I've found is that I never lost any qwerty skills. I use qwerty at home, and colemak on my kinesis keyboard at work. The physical differences appears to have separated the muscle memory into two entirely different skills which don't collide. A bit like learning piano playing not causing you to lose typing skills, maybe, because it feels different.

it took me about a week or two to get started properly with the layout, and about 6-8 weeks to come up to a useful speed. After 6 months I'd become a bit better than my qwerty best but seem to have stopped getting faster (been using colemak several years now). however, I notice a MASSIVE improvement in comfort, which was worth the change all by itself. There is an enjoyable slickness to colemak which has to be experienced. Some people have gone on to incredible speeds with colemak, sadly I'm not one of them and topped out at around 80-90wpm, but the comfort factor alone never caused me to regret the switch, not once.

Answer 14

Dvorak is unbelievably more efficient. You simply travel less distance to type most words. It seems like a no-brainer to me. That said, I'm at week 5 and am just now getting back up to speed. Learning to switch is painful!

Answer 15

I don't know if speed would be improved since I am still learning. My feeling about DVORAK is that wrist pain is reduced. Trade-off is that you have to spend some time to get accustomed to the new thing

Answer 16

I learnt Dvorak several years ago, but switched back to QWERTY because of the difficulty of switching back if I was using someone else's computer. I might try it again if it really does reduce wrist strain. I have a co-worker who is a bit of a Dvorak evangelist.

Answer 17

The superiority of Dvorak keyboards has been largely reputiated in the last 20 years. The old original study was flawed in that Dvorak experts were self-selected and motivated to learn and practice, and it was promotional material not peer reviewed study.

A “modern” keyboard is ergonomic in terms of finger strength and motion range, and doesn’t have the same issues as pre-electric keyboards.

You can get the same benefit by getting a high-quality conventional keyboard with switches that have the desired mechanical feedback and don’t wiggle (not a flat laptop-style keyboard); and practice and drill your typing as if you were a beginner again.

It’s best if you can’t see the keys at all. Either make an open-sided box to cover it, or go for the Das Keyboard unmarked keys like I did.

Using a typing tutor program that identifies your weak points and adjusts to practice that more, you will bet as fast as you can be. This is the real thing that makes the difference. You can do that with a conventional layout and don’t have to use a different layout to “learn again”.

It’s the practice and motivation that makes the improvement, not the different layout.

Answer 18

First used Dvorak when I was working as a programmer in the early 1990s. It was on MacIntosh, where OS support was far better than Windows. I made the switch to control carpal tunnel, which was bugging me even though I was pretty young at the time.

When I shifted to Windows, I also shifted back to qwerty because I couldn't stand how inconsistently Windows implements keyboard layouts. Keyboard layout support improved with Windows XP. In 2011, the amount of time I was spending on a keyboard was getting closer to what it was when I was a programmer, and age made me even more susceptible to carpal tunnel, I switched back to Dvorak.

I use the Kinesis Freedom 2 keyboard that is split into separate halves. They are willing to custom program the hotkeys strip so that keys are mapped naturally using Windows, but the hotkeys are set to map to the correct commands when the keyboard is mapped to Dvorak. They charged me a reasonable amount to apply the custom firmware. I pay the same amount each time I buy a new keyboard.

I did have one Freedom 2 keyboard that I mapped to behave as Dvorak when Windows was set to qwerty. This was necessary for entering passwords because Windows machines had a BIOS hardwired to qwerty. My most recent couple laptops respect Windows keyboard mapping in the BIOS during startup so I no longer need that keyboard.

Answer 19

I am not a programmer, and have been at about 90 wpm's on Qwerty for most of my professional career (27 yrs). Most of the typing that I do is in the form of white papers, emails, and essays. I am in the midst of switching to Dvorak, and have found that physically changing my keyboard to the split keyboard is what has helped me start to progress. I just have both connected to my main machine at home, one programmed with Qwerty and the other with Dvorak. I will be moving more and more onto the Dvorak keyboard and eventually drop it altogether. I have arthritic hands, and flirting with carpal tunnel. So this should help. I will try to remember to come back here regarding speed, as I consider my qwerty speed to be above average.

Answer 20

Maybe learning Dvorak increases your typing speed over time, I don't have an opinion about that. However, I don't know what line of work you are into, but is typing speed really the limiting factor on your productivity?

As a software developer and fairly slow typer myself (two fingers) I never ever thought "Tjeez, I could have achieved more today if I could type faster". Difficulty understanding or solving the problem at hand is most of the time the productivity bottleneck. Other times it's (too much) procrastination. But typing speed is never the factor holding down my productivity. Also when writing emails, essays or stackexchange answers I spend more time thinking/formulating sentences in my head than actually typing.