Colemak (or Dvorak) | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

Hey guys,

Given that we all type for a living (or at least for a side hustle), I was wondering how many of you use the "alternative" keyboard layouts of either Colemak or Dvorak, or indeed any others.

My current typing speed is around 65 WPM, but it seems that I could improve that to about 90+ and reduce the stress on my fingers, hands and wrists by learning Colemak.

Has anyone done this? Did they see the benefits.

Thinking about the payback time, say I write around three 3000 word articles per week. Based on the typing speed alone, this currently takes me 9000/65 = 139 mins. If could you get my writing speed up to 100 WPM, say, that would only take 90 mins – a saving of around 50 mins. Therefore, if it took me 20 hours to learn Colemak, that would be paid back in about 6 months…

Thoughts? 

I haven't tried a different keyboard (though the qerty issues I teach for my main job) but…

Have you tried to approach the issue of typing speed by getting Dragon Naturally Speaking and dictation the first version of your articles? It gives speed and a nice conversational quality to writing.

Maria