Dvorak Update II
This Dvorak experiment1,2 has been going really well. I am actually approaching the speed at which I used to type using QWERTY, which was give or take 50 wpm. Not that impressive, I know.
I suspect my actual typing rate may be over 60 WPM, but there are a bunch of weird handicaps they impose on you at typingtest.com, which, in the interest of consistency, is the testing site
I always use. For example, once you hit space after a word, its spelling is recorded and cannot be modified. So, if you make a mistake, you aren’t allowed to go back and fix it. Also, the text they want you to type is above the entry field, which is kind of a pain. In practice, if you are transcribing something, it’s always next to your screen, so that’s not really accurate.
Anyway, below I have included a graph of my progress over the past couple months. As you can see, it’s pretty steady. I am hoping I will keep increasing at this rate until I reach about 70 WPM, and then I can boast that my typing is actually a skill. Not that I would ever want a job as a typist or transcriptionist, but it would be good for a writer or copyeditor.
February 6th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Typing skills turn me on. I think you’re hot. I might stalk you. Maybe I already am. Do you mind?
March 16th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Man, I love Dvorak. Been using it for about a year and a half or so now. Took me about 2 weeks to get used to it, and a month or so to get really comfortable with it. I’ll never go back to QWERTY as my main layout. I do use it occasionally, though, so I find DvAssist to be a super handy tool for switching back and forth quickly and easily.
http://www.clabs.org/blogki/index.cgi?page=/ComputersAndTechnology/DvAssist)
(Sorry about the full URL, not sure if HTML will work here…)