Dvorak vs QWERTY

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DVORAK and QWERTY are keyboard layouts for the English language.

Contents 1 Popularity 2 Ergonomics 3 Performance 4 Preference 4.1 Shortcut Keys 5 Regional Differences

[edit] Popularity

QWERTY keyboards are far more popular than DVORAK keyboards. Many people do not even know the existence of keyboard layouts other than QWERTY.

[edit] Ergonomics

DVORAK keyboards allow for more comfortable and swifter finger movements when typing in the English language. This may also affect typing speeds positively, but its main attraction lies in increasing typing comfort and reducing strain on the typists' hands. While the QWERTY keyboard is known for favoring the left hand for more popular characters, DVORAK keyboards are laid out in a manner that facilitates consecutive keystrokes to be executed by alternating hands, and favors the right hand for the more frequent characters.

[edit] Performance

Although keyboard typing speed varies from person to person, it is generally held that DVORAK keyboards allows people to type faster than QWERTY keyboards.

The fastest typer in the the world uses a DVORAK keyboard.

[edit] Preference

Although the DVORAK keyboard layout allows people to type faster, it is still taught less than the QWERTY layout because of QWERTY's immense popularity. The speed advantage that DVORAK gives is only marginal, and users accustomed to QWERTY keyboards may take a up to a month before their Dvorak typing speed becomes faster than their QWERTY typing speed. Most of that time getting acclimated to the DVORAK layout will be spent typing more slowly than with a QWERTY keyboard, as well, which serves as a significant discouragement.

[edit] Shortcut Keys

Another major hindrance to the adoption of Dvorak keyboards is the ubiquitous implementation of shortcut keys that assume use of QWERTY keyboards. For example, Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C, and Ctrl-V (Undo, Cut, Copy, and Paste, respectively) are all conveniently located on the bottom row of the left hand in the QWERTY keyboard. Changes in layout and the effect they have on issuing commands via keyboard become still more dramatic with applications such as Emacs and Vim.

[edit] Regional Differences

Users of British English should note that the Microsoft Windows environment does not offer a Dvorak layout with the pound and euro currency symbols. To be fully effective, users in this locale should install a .dll file created by the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator tool.