Qwerty Words Mac OS

Yes, many keyboards, not just qwertz, have extra small letters at the right edge of certain keys. This always means you use the option/alt key. Right and left option are both the same on a Mac. You must have the same thing for €, right? Specifically, the QWERTY keyboard may gradually attach more positive meanings to words with more letters located on the right side of the layout (everything to the right of T, G and B).

Qwerty Words Mac Os X
Qwerty Words Mac Os Download

The Dvorak keyboard, named for its inventor, Dr. August Dvorak, wasdesigned with the goal of maximizing typing efficiency. For over a century,typists have been using the qwerty keyboard arrangement, a hack that wasimplemented to work around the mechanical limitations of early typewriters.

Contrary to popular opinion, the qwerty design was not actually invented toslow typists down. Rather, the layout was intended to place common two-lettercombinations on opposite sides of the keyboard. On manual typewriters, eachkey is mechanically connected to a lever that has the reversed image of aletter on it. If a typist were to hit two keys on the same side of thekeyboard in rapid succession, the second lever on its way up would hit thefirst on its way down, the keys would become stuck together, and the typistwould have to stop typing and unstick the keys. The qwerty layout was a cleverdesign that minimized this problem. However, now that most of us use computers(or electric typewriters that don't use levers), the problem of keys jamming isno longer a consideration. Also, computers now enable us to switch layoutswhile continuing to use the same equipment.

Most people learn to type on a qwerty keyboard. New typists learn theqwerty arrangement because that's most likely what they'll encounter on theexisting equipment they'll be using; new equipment is standardized to theqwerty arrangement because that's what the vast majority of us know. Mostpeople are reluctant to switch because they're afraid of how long it will takethem to learn the new arrangement, and of the additional effort of having toswitch layouts on all of the equipment they might encounter.

Dvorak's Claims

According to Dvorak, prior to World War II, researchers had found thatafter three years of typing instruction, the average typing student'sspeed was 47 net words per minute (NWPM). Sincetypists were scarce during the war, the U.S. Navy selected fourteen typists fora 1944 study to assess whether Dvorak retraining would be feasible. Dvorakfound that it took an average of only 52 hours of training for thosetypists' speeds on the Dvorak keyboard to reach their average speeds on theqwerty keyboard. By the end of the study their Dvorak speeds were 74 percentfaster than their qwerty speeds, and their accuracies had increased by 68percent.

Dvorak attributed the increase in accuracy to the fact that on keyboard,that the most common digraphs (two-letter combinations, such as 'ed')in English would occur with a minimum of 'hurdling' (having to jumpover a key as if it were a hurdle), and would use stronger fingers rather thanweaker ones. Dvorak estimated that the fingers of an average typist in his daytravelled between 12 and 20 miles on a qwerty keyboard; the same text on aDvorak keyboard would require only about one mile of travel. Dvorak believedthat hurdling and awkward keystroke combinations were responsible for most ofthe common errors typists make. His list of the mostcommon typing errors on the Dvorak and qwerty keyboards is interesting.

Unfortunately, subsequent investigation has shown that at best, theexperiments in the Navy study were biased, and at worst, fabricated. See Typing Errors, from theJune 1996 issue of Reason Magazine for athorough discussion of this topic, as well as more information about the early history of the typewriter and the qwertykeyboard. In the mid 1950s, U.S. Government's General ServicesAdministration commissioned a study by Earle Strong to confirm Dvorak'sresults. Strong's study, which included proper controls and which was set upto allow direct comparison of qwerty and Dvorak data, found that aftersufficient training, Dvorak typists were able to match their previous qwertyspeeds, but not surpass them. Furthermore, additional qwerty training forqwerty typists resulted in a greater increase in speed than additional Dvoraktraining for Dvorak typists who typed at a similar rate. These results wouldsuggest that Dvorak's claims of faster and more efficient typing are bogus, andswitching layouts on the basis of speed and efficiency would not make sense.

My Own Experience

Having heard Dvorak's claims, but not the modern-day scientific analysis ofhis experiments, I decided to switch to the Dvorak layout in the late 1980s,when computer software (specifically version 10 of the X Window System) made itfairly simple to remap the keyboard layout without making any hardware changes.It took a few months for my Dvorak speed to catch up to my qwerty speed. Ifound the Dvorak layout to be more comfortable and less effort.

For a period of four or five years, I used the qwerty layout at work (on ashared DOS computer), and the Dvorak layout at home, spending about half of mytyping time on each. During that time, my Dvorak speed increased to 90 wpm,and my qwerty speed reached 80 wpm. My accuracy improved slightly on bothlayouts. On the Dvorak layout, my most common typos are reversing two letters,whereas on the qwerty layout, it's more common for me to hit the wrong keyaltogether. (Note also that several people have made the claim that it'simpossible to be able to switch back and forth between different keyboardlayouts. That certainly hasn't been my experience, and I'm always happy todemonstrate for non-believers.)

The greatest benefit I've found from the Dvorak layout is that, in additionto feeling more comfortable, the typing-related discomfort I was beginning toexperience in my wrists and forearms diminished, even though the amount oftyping I was doing remained constant. Once my workplace switched from DOS toWindows and I was able to use the Dvorak layout everwhere, those problemsvanished and have not returned. I believe that Dvorak's claims that his layoutrequires less 'hurdling' over keys and less total finger travel aretrue, and that this is more or less directly responsible for the reduction inRSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) symptoms that I have experienced.

Recommendations

Was making the switch worth it? Yes, because of the ergonomic benefits.

Would I recommend it to other people? Yes, particularly if you have RSIproblems from typing. When you first make the switch, the unfamiliar layoutwill slow you down, helping your injured arms and wrists heal. Once yourDvorak speed catches up with your qwerty speed (which it eventually will), youwill likely find typing more comfortable (or at least less uncomfortable), andit may be less likely that your RSI will recur.

How to Remap Your Keyboard

Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, and ME

From the 'Start' menu, select 'Settings' and then'Control Panel'. From the Control Panel, double-click on'Keyboard'. From the Keyboard folder, select the'Language' tab and click on the 'Properties' button.Select 'United States-Dvorak' and then click on the 'OK'button. Windows may ask you for the installation CD to copy the dvorak driver.

Windows 3.1 and Windows NT 3.51

Select the 'International' icon from your control panel. Thenselect 'keyboard', and 'US-Dvorak'. This may require youto install the Dvorak keyboard DLL from your Windows install disks.

Macintosh

On computers running Mac OS 9.x and later, select the 'AppleMenu', then 'Control Panels', then 'Keyboard', andthen select 'Dvorak'. There is a second 'Dvorak' layoutwhich reverts to qwerty when the command key is held down.

Macintosh, NeXTSTEP, DOS, and handhelds running Palm OS

Note: I have downloaded the following binary files from the net,but haven't tested them. I have no idea how well they work. Caveatemptor.

Macintosh: I'm told the following works for Macintoshes running Mac OS 7.x: dvorak-macintosh.hqx
DOS:dvorak-dos.zip
Nextstep:dvorak-nextstep (uuencoded binary file)
Palm: If you use the Palm Portable Keyboard, download and install ppk-dvk.zip, produced by Don Singer. (I got it from Lennart Floreby's Palm Pilot Page.) Note that Singer believes that the locations of the period and comma keys should be reversed, and that Microsoft is responsible for the change. I do not know whether or when these keys may have been switched, but if the change did occur, it certainly predates Microsoft.

X Window System

X Window System users (UNIX) can make the translation by running xmodmap onan appropriate keysym file. Here are some platform-independent ones. To usethem, simply save the appropriate file and give it as an argument toxmodmap.

keysym file for the Dvorak keyboard (I've rearranged the order to compensate for weirdness on some Hewlett-Packard workstations.)
keysym file for Dr. Dvorak's left-handed keyboard, designed for people who have lost the use of their right hands.
keysym file for Dr. Dvorak's right-handed keyboard, designed for people who have lost the use of their left hands.

You're also welcome to copy and use my keymap bourneshell script, which does the dirty work for you.

For those who would prefer to purchase a hard-wired keyboard, keyalt.comsells a keyboardthat can alternate between the Dvorak and qwerty layouts via a switch.

Teaching Yourself Dvorak via the WWW

Dan Wood has created a WWW coursefor teaching yourself Dvorak. Just switch your keyboard to Dvorak, go tothe web site, and you're ready to start typing.

References

August Dvorak, Nellie L. Merrick, William L. Dealey, and Gertrude CatherineFord, Typewriting Behavior, American Book Company (New York:1936), p. 184, 503.

R. C. Cassingham, The Dvorak Keyboard, (Arcata, California:Freelance Communications, 1986; ISBN: 0-935309-10-1), pp. 21-26, 41-43.