Officially Switching To Colemak
Few months ago, I wrote about different keyboard layouts and planned to switch to Colemak. I wasn’t able to completely switch, mainly because I am a programmer, and wasn’t able to give Colemak enough time. I tried it couple of times but postponed complete switching.
Couple of weeks ago I tried Colemak again, but this time I went cold turkey. The best way to start Colemak is to download typing lessons from it’s site and try first few lessons (they recommend going through first three lessons in one sitting). It helps get the hang of new layout.
Learning a new layout when you are already used to one is not very easy. Just as everyone had told me, first few days felt like walking thorough mud, my fingers were not able to type at the speed my mind and body was used to, it had that dream like effect where you are moving in slow-motion and can’t move fast no matter how hard you try. Don’t let me discourage you though, as that’s just for first few days, after that your fingers and mind start getting used to new layout and it becomes easier. My typing speed with Colemak is now almost equal to what it was QWERTY (though I make lots of typos at that speed, so, I go bit slower) and my speed and efficiency is still increasing.
It could be just a psychological effect but it feels my hands are less strained than how they were with QWERTY. Even though it’s a great layout and I will highly recommend it to everyone, but switching layout is just not for everyone. There are many people who type by looking at the keys, it won’t help them much, similarly, those people who don’t type much, the incentive of learning new layout is very low for them. But anyone who is using QWERTY, types a lot, or have ever complained about RSI, should definitely give it a try.
Being a Dvorak user, I can sympathize with you. It took me a whole month of very slow typing to get used to Dvorak.
Why switch to DVORAK or COLEMAK when QWERTY is such an established and universal layout?
Sure, the other two may be better, but I don’t see why the world should switch to it
@Awais Imran
First, we aren’t forcing anyone to switch to anything, but we are free to choose whatever we want for ourselves, though people should know there are better alternatives available.
Second, if we don’t move to better things, we would still be living in caves, wouldn’t we? After all, it was an established and quite universal way to live.
Hey I’m a dvorak user since a couple of months and I would like to try colemak too (mainly because of unix’s ls -s command), but later because I have too much work these days. I can only say, there is no psychology around it, you are definitively making much less effort in writing and your hands are much more relaxed. The effort is definitively worth doing.
Good luck!
One really nice thing about learning both Colemak and Dvorak is how most typing is done on the home row. Unlike some people, I was fortunate not to have much proficiency with Qwerty when I tried both alternatives so I wasn’t held back by old habits. Ultimately, I decided to go with Dvorak mainly because I found it more comfortable than Colemak but I read that the folks who like Colemak like it a lot and find it very comfortable to use. Perhaps it is just a personal preference but the hand alternation of Dvorak is something I really like.
Either way, no layout can replace good posture, proper keyboard height and how you hold your hands but if both formats lead to less people suffering from repetitive injuries and taking proper typing more seriously there is room for both layouts in this digital age.
Options are a very good things and now we have two great alternatives to a lame layout that wastes a homerow key on the semi colon.