Dvorak & Me -- Three Months Later© by Holly Lisle
All Rights Reserved
Life is full of simple joys, and moving my fingers once again
over the keyboard without struggling for every key is one of them.
Doing it without the pain that I was previously experiencing is
another, and the relief I've experienced since I moved from QWERTY
to Dvorak has been immense. I'm still not going to set the universe
ablaze with my speedy typing, but I'm competent again, and that
is, for the time being, pleasure enough.
So what about Dvorak? Why is it better, why is it worth turning
some portion of your life into hash over, why not just stick to
QWERTY, which is the apparent no-brainer (since every computer automatically
comes with a QWERTY keyboard, and you can wear out a set of tires
trying to find a place that stocks a Dvorak one)?
Others have enumerated far better than I can all the worthwhile
reasons for changing---the biggest two reasons for me were that,
first, if I changed, the Dvorak keyboard promised to decrease the
amount of effort I had to expend to get in a full day's work by
some gawdawful number like six-hundred percent (it kept that promise)
and second, I hoped it might alleviate my wrist pain (it has so
far put an end to it entirely.) Has it been worth the frustration
and the anguish I described a couple of
months ago? Absolutely---I figure that I've extended my typing
life by years, and in doing so extended my career and my ability
to take care of myself and my family by that same number of years
(all other things being equal, of course.)
If you want to find out about the Dvorak keyboard and why it is
different, and why it is worth your time, start with this link to
Introducing
the Dvorak Keyboard. From there you can explore a number of
links that will introduce you to other people who, like me, have
taken the plunge. I haven't yet found anyone who, having switched,
would consider for a minute going back.
If you just want to hear about how I switched, stay right here.
(And if you don't want to hear about either of these things, skip
to the next essay. There are plenty of things here that aren't
me raving about how much better my life is since I switched
my keyboard.)
My investment was minimal---a copy of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing
for around $45 dollars---and my time and tears. You don't have to
buy a new keyboard. You don't have to get new software. You don't
have to do anything except decide in advance that you're going to
make this change come hell or high water, because it will be good
for you. Do hold that thought in mind---It will be good for me---because
hell and high water will both come. Then you switch, and you grit
your teeth, and you make yourself stick with it by whatever means,
psychological, physical, or spiritual, you can contrive.
I use Windows 95, so physically all I had to do to acquire a new
Dvorak keyboard was go into Windows Control Panel, click on Keyboard,
and under the Language tab, click on Properties. That took me to
the choices between English (United States) and English (United
States) Dvorak. One click, one Apply, and my keyboard spoke a foreign
language. After that all I had to do was learn it. (There are Dvorak
keyboards out there, but I have a Microsoft Natural, and they don't
make one. And I wasn't going to give up my Natural.)
Learning the language was, of course, tougher. First, to make
myself keep my head up, I drew a little diagram of the keyboard
with all the new keys colored by finger placement (red for index,
green for second, yellow for third, blue for pinkie.) The thumb
on the spacebar I figured I already had cold, and there were times
when I was grateful that I knew that. I taped that along the top
of my monitor, right in the center. Not elegant, but there are still
days when I can't remember where the * key is, for example, so it's
still there.
Then, because I know me, and I knew from the start that if I gave
myself a chance to back out when things got miserable, I'd take
it, I took a flat peach nail polish and painted over the keys on
my keyboard. No more falling back on QWERTY. I went over the peach
with clear nail polish. I can recommend Sally Hansen Hard as Nails---I
haven't used it on my fingernails, but it covered the keys on my
keyboard beautifully, and so far has resisted chipping and peeling
through about half a novel. And it doesn't ever feel tacky or stick
to my fingers when they get hot and sweaty (yeah, they do that when
I've been doing a lot of typing.) Sally Hansen would probably die
to find out about my irreverent and unlovely use for her product,
but what the hell. Whatever works.
My bridges effectively burned, I sat down with Mavis Beacon, and
when I needed to work on the book, I kept my eyes on my keyboard
diagram and felt my way along one slow, painful letter at a time.
I'll admit I could have done the entire thing without Mavis Beacon,
and saved myself $45 bucks, but I would have learned a lot slower,
and I would have struggled a lot longer, and I wouldn't have had
the opportunity to zap ants with a chameleon's tongue ... and have
you really lived if you haven't done that.
I've made the change completely now, and no trace of the old typist
remains. Three months after I first made the jump, I cannot type
at all on a QWERTY keyboard. I have to hunt and peck because the
M and the A are the only keys I can find without looking. (Those
two are the same on both keyboard layouts, and you'll like them
almost as much as you like the spacebar.) Since the only keyboard
I have to type on is my own, this QWERTY aphasia is no handicap
for me. If you're considering making the jump and have to move between
a work system and a home system, and you can't configure your work
system the way you want, you can still switch. There are people
who describe their own experiences with switching who shuttled between
a Dvorak system at home and a QWERTY system at work for years, so
it can be done. I wouldn't want to do it. I like Dvorak too much.
But it can be done, and any damage you can keep from doing to your
hands and your wrists is all to the good.
Dvorak isn't the cure for cancer, I know. It won't feed the starving
masses, or give shelter to the homeless, or put a Congress with sense
into office. It will reduce your workload. It might (along with other
common-sense precautions) prevent you from developing repetitive stress
injuries in your hands and wrists. It might alleviate or eliminate pain
you already have from too much typing. (It did for me.) It will (eventually)
make typing more fun for you. Really, I think that's more than enough
to get from a simple change of keyboards.
That Our Reach Exceed Our Grasp>>
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