Self-improvement, dvorak-style

Saturday, August 12th, 2006

I haven’t learned anything new about typing since high-school, so I decided it was about time I switch to the Dvorak keyboard layout. I was in a coast-to-coast flight when I was bored enough that practicing typing in a new layout seemed like a good idea. Since then, I’ve put about 4 hours of practice time into it. The typing tutor I’m using (ktouch) has taught me the home row so far. I’m somewhat worried about the transition. What if I forget how to do qwerty? Will I have to have a few months of hunt-and-peck, index finger typing during the transition?

I have to say that already it feels a lot more comfortable.

As I type this (in qwerty fashion), I have my dvorak layout taped to my monitor. I have my keyboard set to switch between the two layouts by pressing both ctrl keys at the same time. And I’m alerted to the fact that I’m in dvorak mode by the scroll lock LED, which is otherwise useless to me. Someday, I’ll find a use for the numlock LED…