Dvorak Page

Since 1999, I have been using the Dvorak keyboard layout. Why bother re-learning how to type? Because it annoyed me to use something every day that was specifically designed to hamper the user! As the story goes: early typewriters had a problem with jamming when the user pressed two nearby keys within a short time. In a classic example of technology driven design, Christopher Sholes (a typewriter maker) had a friend design a keyboard layout that tried to minimize the chance of jamming. Such a design also has the effect of maximizing the time it takes to type (it can be proven using a human factors concept called Fitts's Law).

The Dvorak keyboard layout, in contrast, was designed with the user in mind. Its virtues have been explained elsewhere -- faster speed, less hand motion, lower injury risk, and an efficient and satisfying left-right-left-right typing "rhythm" created by having vowels on one side and most frequently used consonants on the other.

I created this page mostly for myself -- to have a centralized place to download Dvorak software keymappings for times when I have to use a computer other than my own. Here they are:

• UNIX keysym.ms.dvorak (see included comments for usage instructions)
• Win32 Kbddv.kbd -- Install in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM and select in Keyboard Control Panel, Language. Note: does not affect DOS applications. (blah)
• Macintosh (OS X and Classic) -- not needed, it's built into the system!!

Finally, there is a company called Dvortyboards that makes hardware keyboards with Dvorak keycaps. Unfortunately, they have taken a keymap designed for ergonomics and applied it to a keyboard designed for low cost. The product (at least the "standard dvortyboard" version) is of the cheap membrane variety that requires a lot of key force, and probably negates any health advantages of using Dvorak. For now I will stick to the excellent short-travel keyboard on my PowerBook and be content with having the keycaps arranged in a silly way. :-)

Questions or comments? Leave a note in the guestbook or E-mail me.