Switch to the more ergonomic Dvorak keyboard
Most people use the QWERTY keyboard. Many of them think the keyboard was designed for faster input. However, the truth is that the QWERTY keyboard derived from early-day typewriters and its layout was designed to slow you down so that keys were not clogged when you typed really fast. Modern keyboard no longer has this problem, however the original design still remains.
A much better keyboard layout is the Dvorak layout. It puts often-used letters on the home row where your fingers rest or are close to the home row. For example, the vowels 'a', 'o', 'e', 'u' and 'i' conveniently take the place of 'a' (unchanged), 's', 'd', 'f' and 'g'. It also arranges the letters such that you can type with alternate hands to reduce fatigue. With this layout, your fingers move less and are strained less.
If you use keyboard extensively in your daily work, then it is much better for you to invest the time and efforts to switch to the Dvorak keyboard. You don't need to buy a physical Dvorak keyboard because you can do it through software means easily under different operating systems:
- Under Mac OS X, you can navigate to the top left of the screen, click on the Apple sign, then go through System Preferences -> Personal -> International -> Input Menu -> Dvorak.
Make sure you also choose "Use one input source in all documents" and "Show input menu in menu bar".
- Under Linux/FreeBSD, you can define two aliases in your
$HOME/.bashrc
file:
alias asdf='setxkbmap dvorak'
alias aoeu='setxkbmap us'
So you can switch between QWERTY and Dvorak keyboard layouts easily. The
setxbbmap
command comes with X11 and you can check its manual page to see where you can find
the various keyboard layouts to choose from.
- Under Windows, go through "Start" -> "Control Panel" -> "Regional and Language Options" -> "Languages" -> "Details" -> "Settings" -> "Add", and then choose "English (United States) - United States-Dvorak" from "Keyboard layout/IME."
You may consider printing the Dvorak keyboard layout as a handy reference during the transition period.
References
- A Basic Course in Dvorak by Dan Wood: I used this when I switched to Dvorak years back. It provides step-by-step practising exercises. Highly recommended.