My First Dvorak post ever!

[Mikrondel]

Hey, guys! I've decided to switch to the Dvorak keyboard layout for a bit. Gosh there's a lot of key-hunting, but learning a completely new keyboard layout is brain sharpening!

This post has taken ages to write, but I'm doing it because Dvorak is way better than Qwerty.

I just pulled out all the keys from an old keyboard and stuck them in Dvorak-style.

[earlofqb]

Uhh... you do realize that a Dvorak keyboard can be found at your local "nerdlinger" store for around 100 usd (no clue why the different setup requires more money...).

Anyway, I tried a spiffy little online game that is supposed to teach you how to use Dvorak using your standard QWERTY keyboard. It does work, although I think it messed up my QWERTY skillz too much! Instead of quickly typing this like I'd normally do, I'm still sort of in QWERTY-mode. The fun of remembering my first years of typing, oh the magical million mistakes per minute!

[Homeloaf]

100? As in "One hundred dollars?" Holy crap on an organ donor's keyboard. (See, I can make bad puns.)

[Ildûrest]

Speaking of organ donors...

This is an in-joke, so it won't be as funny due to the fact I need to explain it to you.


Anyway:
Someone was giving a debating report for our school (You do have inter-school debating in the US, right? Right??) and the topic was "organ donation should be compulsory"
Now, this guy said, "Unfortunately, our team lost, despite [our school]'s great experience with organ donation"

That referred to the fact that about a year ago, a rich person who used to go to the school donated a pipe organ to the school. Lol.

P.s., on Dvorak, lol is written using opposite hands, so it's faster to type. w00t

[mopsy]

(googles Dvorak)

Holy wow. That looks not fun to learn. I like my basic keyboard.

(blinks)

[earlofqb]

Actually, Dvorak is quite fun to learn, and some time I'll buy me a keyboard of it.

Until then, this will have to teach me it. Its that spiffy online thing I was telling you about last night. Through the magic of HTML (or whatever encodes that page), it will translate your QWERTY keyboard into Dvorak (at least, so long as while you're typing in that little text box on the page).

You can purchase a Dvorak keyboard for 10 usd at eBay.

I recently found Keytweak, a free program that will allow you to remap your keyboard any way you want it. If you want to alphabetize it all, that'll do. If you want to ruin your mom's life by making every key the A key, that'll do too

[mopsy]

At the reconfiguring the keyboard I'm at a tossup... Do I ever want to use the computer again, but miss out on the laugh?

Or do I want to roll on the floor for a good hour as she tries to figure out why her keys respond wrong...


For those of you that didn't realize this I was joking, I couldn't do somthing like this to my gramma as I like waking up each morning.

[Ildûrest]

You could always blame it on a virus or some such.

Then there's the old classic: Prise out the M and N keys and switch them round.

[mopsy]

Hmm... Good idea.

The final problem I see is that I use the computer for gaming purposes. Does anyone know if that program allows profile switching, or somthing to that extent?

[Mikrondel]

You can switch between input locales in a flash. I expect Keytweak will fit itself into that, or have options of its own.

(I.e. when you want to use it, fix the keyboard up, but stuff it again when you leave)

You can also turn yourself into the hero; in front of a (large) audience, do 50 useless things including typing stuff in the command prompt and then you just perform the keyboard shortcut to fix it; you'll be hailed as a virus-bane and über-good-guy.

[earlofqb]

Well, Keytweak does offer a "panic" button, which resets the values to their default (well...) values. So, if I remapped it all to Dvorak and then hit panic, it would revert to your standard QWERTY. Unfortunately, I can't find anything (either in the help file or in the program itself) that allows profile switching, which would make re-mapping 50 times easier to do (as you'd just click "Dvorak" to switch to Dvorak, instead of manually re-inputting the keys each time).

One final problem, Keytweak will only work with Win 2k and XP. This is because Keytweak uses a spiffy feature unique to those 2 operating systems.

Before I forget, you need to re-boot the comp when using Keytweak. Perhaps I should've mentioned this earlier, for it would've dispelled a lot of these questions (because if you can't quickly switch, you probably wouldn't play tricks on folks).

For now, I'll look for something like Keytweak, but will use same-run updating (ie changes without re-booting) and will use profiles. If not, I'll throw out the final dir! for us all. Are we not members of a forum dedicated to programming (mostly in QB, although we've often dabbled in C programming). Thus, couldn't we make this a little project of ours? If I can't find anything to fit the above requirements, I'll try to find places where we can find out how to do this (such as this site, even though it would obviously fail the "same-run updating" requirement as it tells how to modify the Registry). Should be fun to try, even if we can't figure out how to do it.

[Mikrondel]

If it's Dvorak you want, don't bother with keytweak. Windows' input locale system allows you to change between any installed input locales (i.e. keyboard layouts) instantly either through the taskbar or a shortcut key. It only affects the current program (but you can change the default one when programs start up).

I think we should find (or make) a Windows input locale maker, at least at first.

[earlofqb]

My keyboard doesn't offer this feature. No clue why, as I've checked everywhere I've been able to think of (control panel -> keyboard, control panel -> accessibility options, control panel -> regional and language options, control panel -> system, and I even checked TweakUI (unsupported MS tweaking program, spiffy stuff in it)). So, for me, Keytweak is the only option it seems.

As far as making our own, it is still a spiffy idea, the only problem is that as far as I can tell, system-wide changes like this require registry access. So, we could do something like "Keytweak with profiles", but as far as same-run updating, that'd be impossible.

[Mikrondel]

It's definitely there on Windows 2000 or XP, but should be on 98 as well.
It's in Keyboard under the Input Locale tab for me.

[earlofqb]

I don't have "input locale" on there, just "Speed" and "Hardware". Neither of my tabs mentions anything about "regional settings", "language options", "input type", "keyboard layout", etc. Not even a "QWERTY or Dvorak" button. Hardware has "Troubleshoot" and "properties" (which doesn't mention anything about keyboard layout, only about drivers (which lists only their locations) and more troubleshooting). Bugger on Windows XP, Canadian Edition!

Perhaps someday I'll purchase that Dvorak keyboard I saw (if I can find it again). It would definately have the proper drivers for it, as well as have the physical layout right in front of me. Anyone have 100 usd (plus shipping) that I can, uhh "borrow"?

[fulvius]

Keep it up, typing is a fun and worthy endeavor.

The keyboard is changeable to dvorak under Windows XP in the Regional and Language options under Languages; hit the "details" button for text services and input languages, and add "United States - Dvorak" under Keyboard Layout / IME dropdown menu with the add button on the right.

I can type approximatley 100 wpm in dvorak, pushing, on a 1 minute test, but I used to be able to type 100 in qwerty. I seem to be at a speed wall dispite rumors that dvorak allows for much faster typing and the fact that the fastest typing records are set with dvorak. I will say dvorak tends to be faster for bursts of speed and small words, however, and possibly with training I could get faster with dvorak than the physical limits of qwerty allow; I think both are excellent typing systems.

I cannot type faster than 20-25 wpm right now in qwerty, and that's looking at my keyboard. This is disadvantageous if using a computer that can't conveniently be switched to dvorak, although most fully installed PCs can. I recommend learning without worrying about buying a dvorak keyboard if you are already a skilled typist. Do an internet or bit torrent search for a good typing tutor or buy one that looks good and set it to teach you dvorak.

Oh, if you wish to posess a dvorak modified keyboard, flat keyboards without rounding can be reorganized freely. I just use my qwerty keyboard though; the problem is when you retrain yourself you can forget qwerty if you don't make it a priority to know both systems, then you have lost typing ability on systems that don't posess dvorak!

[earlofqb]

Thanks for the information. I did what you said, and am now typing this using Dvorak. It's quite fun!

However, it is sort of difficult to tell your mind what's there vs what you see. I see the letters qwerty on the keyboard, but am typing ',.pyf. That's the advantage of a Dvorak keyboard.

I'll definately have fun tonight breaking out the Dvorak feature of my "Typing Tutor" program (by Mavis Beacon(R)). I always thought you needed a separate keyboard for that, and now that I know you don't, I feel quite the fool. Still, I'll keep looking for a Dvorak keyboard, as then I'll have the fun of testing the knowledge of my "1337 friends" with typing and computer hardware stuff.

Again, thank you for the great information.