How to Learn Dvorak

Question

What are the best tutorials for dvorak? Right now I am a qwerty user and I want to improve my typing speed and make my hands not hurt when I am done typing.

Answer 1

These are some nice tutorials to learn Dvorak:

http://learn.dvorak.nl/

http://www.powertyping.com/dvorak/typing.html

http://gigliwood.com/abcd/

Answer 2

I know this isn't what you asked, but you should be appraised that the commonly held (among some geeks) view that the Dvorak keyboard allows one to type faster appears to be a complete myth.

Summarizing that article (it's quite long, well referenced, and contains lots of discussion of direct evidence):

First, the claims for the superiority of the Dvorak keyboard are suspect. The most dramatic claims are traceable to Dvorak himself, and the best-documented experiments, as well as recent ergonomic studies, suggest little or no advantage for the Dvorak keyboard.

My personal experience says that changing systems when you already know one will impose a huge cost. I wouldn't necessarily discourage someone from learning Dvorak if they were just learning to type, but I would never recommend to someone who already typed on QWERTY to switch.

Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.

Answer 3

I switched to Dvorak in high school (about 9 years ago) and have never switched back. You will definitely pay a penalty up front that may not pay for itself for years to come. I had a lot of free time in high school, so it was worth it for me to make that investment then.

I think of it like using a nice bed or office chair. I'm going to spend hours at a time using these objects. The investment will pay off at some point. All in all it depends on how much you type. Since you are at this site, I'm going to say it is probably worth it.

In my case, I don't think I type any faster than I would otherwise, the return on investment comes with the ease of typing. You will definitely notice that it is easier to type. It's hard to communicate to Qwerty users because there are so few words that can be typed in the home row. When I type in Qwerty now though, it is so jarring to leap between keys in the top and bottom row, or hit 3-4 consecutive keys with the same hand, because it just doesn't happen in Dvorak. It seems trivial and there's no objective way to evaluate that benefit, but I feel it is worth it.

Unexpected penalties: shortcut placements, accidentally stranding your grandmother at the windows login screen because she can't type her password, inconsistent VNC/remote desktop interaction, remapping keys to use WASD in the latest FPS, wonky vim/nethack keyboard navigation. Unexpected benefit: effectively prevents anyone else from using your computer unless you install the alternate format.

Answer 4

I took about 3 solid weeks and forced myself to switch while on the job (a useless government job where I would do whatever I wanted) 4 years ago at age 36. I used this course. It was painful during that time (I practiced almost solid 8 hours per day), but I was reasonably proficient after such a short transition period. I became fully proficient after doing normal tasks (not practicing particularly for Dvorak) after about 8 weeks. I'm glad I switched.

I wanted to comment on the post above that supposed to fully debunk the dvorak claims, but I don't have privileges to comment it appears. Concerning speed, I think the proof is in the pudding (tried to post a link to the world typing speed holder, but again, I don't have rights). Concerning ergonomics, I don't care what some study shows, I can often use common sense; with much less finger and hand movement, I'm quite sure there will be less risk of RSI over a lifetime of using keyboards.

The odd thing is that this is less of an issue now (when a significant percentage of the population uses keyboards every day) as it was pre-WWII when very few people used keyboards.

Answer 5

This may be very basic, but PowerTyping has some decent looking interactive tutorials. They also have some games, which may be a bit juvenile, but could help reduce the boredom index.