Why are the keys in the keypad not arranged in alphabetical order? - Quora Quora Update Cancel Question merged You were redirected because this question was merged with Why is the keyboard layout Q-W-E-R-T-Y and not simply A-B-C-D-E-F? Answer Wiki QWERTY was concocted back in the 1870s to mechanically separate the common letter pairs that used to frequently jam on the originally alphabetically ordered typewriter layouts. Here's what that original layout looked like: Despite being much faster to learn and easier to use, this semi-alphabetic layout would often jam (note the position of the T, H & S keys) when users typed too quickly. As anyone who's used a typewriter will tell you, even one single jam or simple typo, would require unjamming the keys, ripping out the old paper, washing the ink off your fingers, inserting a new sheet, and starting all over again. So - without worrying about ergonomics or suability - they just started moving keys around until the number of jams dropped to an "acceptable" level. History disagrees with Shisrail's answer below. This logical, intuitive alphabetic keyboard WAS fast. Too fast for its own good, in fact.

If QWERTY was so easy, why did 100s of typing schools pop up all over the world? Why did people have to enrol for a minimum of a year to get their speed and accuracy to even a basic level? Why does it take most people months of lessons and 100s of hours of practice (or even years of self-teaching) to master this confusing letter order? Is QWERTY logical? Yes... but only from a mechanical engineer's perspective. Intuitive? No freakin' way. For most people, the learning curve for QWERTY is so slow and frustrating, once you've mastered it, the thought of relearning another layout would be considered a fate worse than death. But guess what? Quietly, stealthily, the entire planet DID adopt an alphabetic keyboard. And we all mastered it in just a few minutes. Here's a picture of the keyboard that more people on the planet use than any other: Written Dec 1, 2012 The current layout is inherited from typewriters, where keys were arranged to prevent jamming.

This explains why keys are not in the proper sequence as the alphabets, as well as why they are arranged on diagonal columns (to give space for the levers). Contrary to the popular belief, the QWERTY keyboard was NOT designed to slow typists. and ~dcreh... provide further details. 1878 Typewriter Patent Drawing, featuring the QWERTY Keyboard. Years after its introduction, it was considered important enough to include in a patent. Written Nov 21, 2015 There is a good historical reason for this. In early days of typewriter (in mid 19th century) the keys were arranged lexicographically. The earliest popular design had only 2 rows with 13 characters each. However this arrangement caused 2 major problems : The type bars of the most commonly used combination letters of the alphabet (like TH and ST) was positioned close together, so when the keys were hit right after the other in rapid successions, the metallic arms / type bars responsible for creating an impression on paper would jam.

In early typewriters printing point was located beneath the paper carriage, invisible to the operator - which forced the operator to raise the carriage in case of collision / mishaps between typebars. Print on paper was due to Ink ribbon placed between typebar and paper. The typebar collides with paper with ink ribbon in between. If the frequently used keys are placed together - certain portions of ribbon (like st) would dry out relatively earlier - causing relative fade prints in those letters. This problem was quickly resolved with better quality ink ribbon - which caused internal diffusion of ink and ink quality was always evenly distributed throughout the ribbon. So as Mayank Bhura suggested, a frequency study was conducted and multiple designs were made to ensure the bars won't collide. Some early designs similar to qwerty : Here is a patented design which gained some popularity - Within a decade or two Qwerty became very popular. The Qwerty design isn't perfect. For example only one vowel 'A' is in the home row even though 40% of words contain it. There number of other statistical flaws. But still it allowed people to type faster. When modern keyboard came into picture - Qwerty design was continued.

However, the modern keyword don't face any problems like typebar mishap. However, once modern keyboard came into picture it faced a lot of resistance for Qwerty lovers. One serious competition came from the Dvorak design - which was developed in 1940s. Tests have proved that Dvorak is faster than Qwerty. It is especially popular among programmers who use a lot of non-alphabetical characters like punctuations and numbers too. Medically, Qwerty causes a lot of stress on fingers too. Also since most of the users are right handed - the Dvorak keyboard was optimised such that right handed people works more than left handed. Contemporary Keyboard designs are much more elegant. Some even have 2 different parts to provide an optimal slope for fast typing. Updated Dec 17 During my college, one of the my professors told me regarding this. He was a lecturer of Computer Science. First of all, these keys (pattern) appeared first on the typewriters, not on a computer key board. The reason lies in how typewriters works, let's have a look. In typewriters (manual, not electronic), in order to type any alphabet, we hit a key.

A chain of mechanical systems works in a manner, that with every hit one of the type bars rise up and strikes to the ribbon; behind which paper is there and the type bar leaves an impression of embossed alphabet on the paper. By the time we hit other alphabet, type bar come back to its original position. In very initial stage, typewriters had alphabets in the original sequence. Some what like this: The problem with this pattern was, that it was easy to remember and to use. People were able to type fast and hence, begin typing very fast. So fast, that type bars did not get much time to come back to original position and type bars started to stuck with each other. We should keep in mind that initial typewriters did not had excellent technology. To resolve this issue, few intelligent people ( Sholes and Glidden) worked and created a complex pattern of alphabets. This pattern was not that easy to remember and typing with same give enough time to type bar to reach its original position. Later on same pattern was adapted in computers and commonly known as QWERTY. QWERTY - Wikipedia Initially even computers did not has as good RAM as today.

I remember computers with 128 mb or 256 mb of RAM (in early 90s). May be, that ram might not be good enough to cope up with typing speed, if old unjumbled pattern of alphabets were used. You can see, typing number is not a problem, as a word has certain spelling and that spelling applies universally for that word. Therefore, we get in to habit of remembering and using same spelling, which makes typing faster. But, numbers may differ every time also they are not that frequently used. Therefore, we have numbers in a single line in typewriters. However, on a computer keyboard, numbers are written in format of calculator. As, computer as a machine is also used for calculating. There was a time, when it was a matter of debate that computer should have numerals in calculator format (starting from bottom line) or phone format (starting from top line). At that time, facilities like online fax were in place. Calculator format: Why Do We Use a QWERTY Keyboard? Why Do We Use a QWERTY Keyboard?

4.5k By Lauren Drell 2012-09-18 14:15:14 UTC Does the arrangement of letters on a keyboard baffle you? Well, it's been that way since Christopher Sholes invented the typewriter in 1868 ( U.S. patent 207,559 in 1878). Though there seems to be no logical reason why our keyboards bear such a weird matrix of letters, QWERTY keyboards have quite a rich history, and the layout is something we've grown accustomed to. Sholes allegedly studied common letter combinations and then arranged the keys so as to separate commonly used letter combinations to slow down typists and thus prevent his newfangled machine from jamming. There's no documentation to support this statement, though Sholes' attempt to slow you down does make your 85 words per minute typing skills sound a bit more impressive. Even though typewriters have evolved since the release of Remington's Sholes & Glidden model in 1873 — and we no longer have to worry about keys jamming on our smartphones — QWERTY endures. But not without controversy.

Anti-QWERTY Keyboards There's actually a school of thought against the QWERTY arrangement — the Dvorak, Colemak and Capewell keyboards arrange letters and characters for more efficiency, but after 150 years of training our brains and our fingertips for QWERTY, these ergonomically designed keyboards haven't achieved critical mass. It's not surprising they haven't — could you imagine relearning to type on this keyboards? Here's a rundown of QWERTY's top competitors (some of which are available for implementation on your smartphone, in case you want to convert). Dvorak: Dvorak is the earliest challenger to QWERTY, having been patented by Dr. August Dvorak and his brother-in-law, Dr. William Dealey, in 1936. The Dvorak layout is more efficient and requires less finger movement than QWERTY, which boosts typing speed and also reduces the risk of long-term strain from typing. On the Dvorak, commonly used vowels and consonants are in the middle row, so you can type around 400 words just on that row, as compared to about 100 on QWERTY keyboards.

Colemak: Colemak was released in 2006 as an ergonomic and efficient alternative to QWERTY and Dvorak, and it's named after its creator, Shai Coleman (combined with the "k" of Dvorak). The Colemak saves your fingers from doing excess movement — your fingers move 2.2 times more on QWERTY than on Colemak, and there are 35x more words you can type using only the home row on Colemak than on QWERTY. Capewell: Michael Capewell developed the Capewell-Dvorak keyboard, which he found to be more comfortable than the Dvorak, and he's developing an algorithm for a more "evolved" keyboard layout . His goals are to minimize finger movements, which Capewell expects to amount to 48% less than on QWERTY, a feat he'll accomplish by maximizing common letter combinations, such as AS, WE, FE, LI, IOU, WER, REA, ON.

For those who rely on keyboard shortcuts, rest assured that Capewell will keep Z, X, C and V keys in the bottom left row, so you can CTRL+Z/X/C/V as you always have. They May Be on to Something... Though these keyboards may look wonky and could take some getting used to, the Dvorak and ilk are indeed more conducive to fast typing — we entered some text from Mashable's "about" page and analyzed it on various keyboards. Here's how it breaks down — it's clear that QWERTY is the least efficient keyboard layout. We're either gluttons for punishment or hopelessly devoted to QWERTY. Do you (or would you) use a QWERTY alternative? Tell us in the comments. The Dvorak Keyboard The Dvorak Keyboard ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) [ + 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ] = " < > P Y F G C R L ? ' , .

p y f g c r l / A O E U I D H T N S _ a o e u i d h t n s - : Q J K X B M W V Z ; q j k x b m w v z The Dvorak keyboard, named for its inventor, Dr. August Dvorak, was designed with the goal of maximizing typing efficiency. For over a century, typists have been using the qwerty keyboard arrangement, a hack that was implemented to work around the mechanical limitations of early typewriters. Contrary to popular opinion, the qwerty design was not actually invented to slow typists down. Rather, the layout was intended to place common two-letter combinations on opposite sides of the keyboard. On manual typewriters, each key is mechanically connected to a lever that has the reversed image of a letter on it. If a typist were to hit two keys on the same side of the keyboard in rapid succession, the second lever on its way up would hit the first on its way down, the keys would become stuck together, and the typist would have to stop typing and unstick the keys. The qwerty layout was a clever design 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 is no longer a consideration. Also, computers now enable us to switch layouts while continuing to use the same equipment. Most people learn to type on a qwerty keyboard. New typists learn the qwerty arrangement because that's most likely what they'll encounter on the existing equipment they'll be using; new equipment is standardized to the qwerty arrangement because that's what the vast majority of us know. Most people are reluctant to switch because they're afraid of how long it will take them to learn the new arrangement, and of the additional effort of having to switch layouts on all of the equipment they might encounter. Dvorak's Claims According to Dvorak, prior to World War II, researchers had found that after three years of typing instruction, the average typing student's speed was 47 net words per minute (NWPM). Since typists were scarce during the war, the U.S. Navy selected fourteen typists for a 1944 study to assess whether Dvorak retraining would be feasible.

Dvorak found that it took an average of only 52 hours of training for those typists' speeds on the Dvorak keyboard to reach their average speeds on the qwerty keyboard. By the end of the study their Dvorak speeds were 74 percent faster than their qwerty speeds, and their accuracies had increased by 68 percent. 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 jump over a key as if it were a hurdle), and would use stronger fingers rather than weaker ones. Dvorak estimated that the fingers of an average typist in his day travelled between 12 and 20 miles on a qwerty keyboard; the same text on a Dvorak keyboard would require only about one mile of travel. Dvorak believed that hurdling and awkward keystroke combinations were responsible for most of the common errors typists make. His list of the most common typing errors on the Dvorak and qwerty keyboards is interesting.

Unfortunately, subsequent investigation has shown that at best, the experiments in the Navy study were biased, and at worst, fabricated. See Typing Errors , from the June 1996 issue of Reason Magazine for a thorough discussion of this topic, as well as more information about the early history of the typewriter and the qwerty keyboard . In the mid 1950s, U.S. Government's General Services Administration commissioned a study by Earle Strong to confirm Dvorak's results. Strong's study, which included proper controls and which was set up to allow direct comparison of qwerty and Dvorak data, found that after sufficient training, Dvorak typists were able to match their previous qwerty speeds, but not surpass them. Furthermore, additional qwerty training for qwerty typists resulted in a greater increase in speed than additional Dvorak training for Dvorak typists who typed at a similar rate. These results would suggest that Dvorak's claims of faster and more efficient typing are bogus, and switching 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 of his 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 it fairly 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. I found 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 a shared DOS computer), and the Dvorak layout at home, spending about half of my typing 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 both layouts. 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 key altogether. (Note also that several people have made the claim that it's impossible to be able to switch back and forth between different keyboard layouts.

That certainly hasn't been my experience, and I'm always happy to demonstrate for non-believers.) The greatest benefit I've found from the Dvorak layout is that, in addition to feeling more comfortable, the typing-related discomfort I was beginning to experience in my wrists and forearms diminished, even though the amount of typing I was doing remained constant. Once my workplace switched from DOS to Windows and I was able to use the Dvorak layout everwhere, those problems vanished and have not returned. I believe that Dvorak's claims that his layout requires less "hurdling" over keys and less total finger travel are true, and that this is more or less directly responsible for the reduction in RSI (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 RSI problems from typing. When you first make the switch, the unfamiliar layout will slow you down, helping your injured arms and wrists heal.

Once your Dvorak speed catches up with your qwerty speed (which it eventually will), you will likely find typing more comfortable (or at least less uncomfortable), and it 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. Then select "keyboard", and "US-Dvorak". This may require you to install the Dvorak keyboard DLL from your Windows install disks. Macintosh On computers running Mac OS 9.x and later, select the "Apple Menu", then "Control Panels", then "Keyboard", and then select "Dvorak".

There is a second "Dvorak" layout which 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. Caveat emptor. 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 on an appropriate keysym file. Here are some platform-independent ones.

To use them, simply save the appropriate file and give it as an argument to xmodmap. 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 bourne shell script , which does the dirty work for you. For those who would prefer to purchase a hard-wired keyboard, keyalt.com sells a keyboard that can alternate between the Dvorak and qwerty layouts via a switch . Teaching Yourself Dvorak via the WWW Dan Wood has created a WWW course for teaching yourself Dvorak . Just switch your keyboard to Dvorak, go to the web site, and you're ready to start typing. References August Dvorak, Nellie L. Merrick, William L. Dealey, and Gertrude Catherine Ford, Typewriting Behavior , American Book Company (New York: 1936), p. 184, 503. R. C. Cassingham, , (Arcata, California: Freelance Communications, 1986; ISBN: 0-935309-10-1), pp.

21-26, 41-43. Stan Liebowitz and Stephen E. Margolis, "Typing Errors", Reason Magazine Dvorak keyboard typing vs. qwerty how do they compare? do these tests and see Dvorak Keyboard Typing vs. Qwerty Look at These Tests Dvorak vs. Qwerty typing: How Do They Compare? Do these tests at home and see. The comparative work required to do tasks using both the Dvorak keyboard, and the standard Qwerty system are summarized in these pictures. For discussion, and tests that you can do yourself, see below. Most do not realize just how much your fingers do the walking, to type this ordinary business letter, or email of about 1/2 page. Using the Dvorak keyboard, this letter had the fingers 'walking' 87 1/2 Ft. This letter is reproduced below. The Dvorak user was able to quit and go home, but as you can see, the person using the Standard Qwerty keyboard, had to yet 'walk' the length of this 4 bedroom suburban home, with 2 car garage. The total distance covered was 144+ Ft.

No wonder the standard Qwerty system leads to hands hurting, jobs lost, things like RSI and Carpel tunnel, and painful hands in later life. 'Walk' your fingers across a table, or floor, to illustrate this. But, the Dvorak keyboard is free, and available to all. Discussion, Tests, and demonstrations: See below: A Discussion, then, A short study showing relative finger movement between Dvorak and Qwerty with the 12 most common words, in which Dvorak used 1/3 the finger movement of Qwerty. Finger movement compared between Dvorak and Qwerty on a randomly selected paragraph, the amount of movement over the keyboard 'traced' by colored thread, and tallied for each finger. The results showed that in typing a 62 word paragraph, and then an excerpt from a business letter, Dvorak used between 35% to 20% less movement, and saved almost 6 feet of finger movement, out of the 16 feet of finger movement needed to type these short paragraphs with Qwerty. This is the 'minimum' of difference.

In actual practice, nearly all would show more savings, with a range of up to about 50%. Finger movement added mathematically on a larger sample of a common business letter, randomly selected, This letter, though less than a page in length, had, for some, a savings of up to 56 ft in typing distance. The most efficent typists would still save almost 30 ft. .----------------------------------------------------- Discussion You see on this site claims about 'more speed, less movement', and the advantages of Dvorak over Qwerty. Here are some tests to show 'what and how much'. In typing paragraphs of the type usually found, one can save between about 50%, which is worth 30 minutes of finger movement per hour typed, or 4 hours in an 8 hour day, or- At the low end one can save at least 20% of the distance that fingers move over the keyboard, not as much, but certainly still worthwhile, as this means 12 minutes per hour, or a 1 1/2 hour reduction in an 8 hour day. These were results based on the shortest distances possible required to type the sample paragraphs.

In actual use, and the varied movement of different individuals, the distance saving would usually be more, and often could be up to around 50%. Finger travel can be measured, speed, while many have claimed an increase, or even doubling of their former Qwerty speed, is too dependant upon personal training and efforts to be in the scope of these examples. There have been several studies exploring the comparison between Dvorak and Qwerty. From the US Bureau of Standards, the US Navy, to several academic studies, the results and percentages vary, yet the Dvorak comes out on top. Here is a study I did to show just how much Dvorak is better. While not a formal study, it is a good demonstration, easily duplicated at home or for a science fair project. I also found a Dvorak advantage of 35 - 50% when typing samples of not only English, but also limited samples of German, Portuguese, and Spanish. The distance that fingers move when typing is for many, easy to underestimate. On a small 62 word paragraph, fingers were required to move a distance of 16 feet across the keyboard, using Qwerty.

With Dvorak, the same sample took about 10 feet. The difference was thus 6 feet of movement saved. This same paragraph is about a minute of work for many typists. One can go from here to have the kind of distances covered in an hour, or a days, work. That 35% to 20% can literally represent hundreds, if not thousands of feet 'walked' by fingers in the course of computer or typewriter use, in even a day. On one common business letter that was less than a page in length, Dvorak cut off 56 feet of distance that fingers would have to 'walk' in typing it. Skeptics, even if you cut this in half, you still have over 28 ft. distance that you save with Dvorak, which is also a 28ft.added penalty for staying with Qwerty. Consider also that nearly all typists would be walking more than that. I invite those who want to see all of this as a mere academic exercise to draw a 20 ft line on the floor, and walk your fingers the length of it.

These differences can mean the difference not only in time saved now used for other things, but for some, the difference between typing with pain or not, or with some, even typing at all. Some have even kept employments that they otherwise would have to abandon because of their switch to Dvorak. Any possible, or probable, effect of the less movement reducing, or preventing, carpel tunnel, or RSI injuries would be worth the switch to Dvorak. ------------------------------------------------------ The variance of the results are due to factors such as typing style, and the language style used. This is the movement pattern that almost every typist, on any keyboard, is taught to use. One starts at the 'home position' keys, reaches for a letter, and then quickly returns to the home position. Used by most beginning typists, this pattern of finger movement is often carried, by habit, to some degree, even when more experienced. In typing paragraphs, the advantage of Dvorak over Qwerty can be a 50%, or more, reduction of movement. This is a picture of the more efficient movement pattern that many experienced typists strive for- moving from letter to letter in the most direct, and shortest distance possible, without wasted motion.

If you could use this more efficient pattern, the Dvorak advantage over Qwerty in finger distance movement is 35% on many samples. Yet one cannot, since all fingers are interlinked, and one finger's movement has an effect on the movement on the others of that hand. Most typists, if the next letter typed is with another finger or the other hand, the last finger to type will return to the home row rather than 'wait' for the shortest path to the next key for that finger. This, as well as 'carryover' habits learned as beginners, for most experienced typists there will be a greater difference in efficiency between these two keyboards. A common difference between Dvorak and Qwerty, using this minimum required movement on several sample paragraphs was approximately 35%. If one counts the additional movement of returning to the home row, and other movements made in varying amounts by different individuals, this can, and often do, range up to 50%, or more. Writing style can have an effect on finger on keyboard movement. In paragraph A, below, A --But Nunez, who fell a thousand feet in the midst of a cloud of snow, survived.

Stunned, but without a bone broken, he rolled to gentler slopes and lay still, buried amid the white masses. He worked free of the snow. Below him he saw another steep precipice, but with a sort of chimney cleft down which a desperate man might venture.-- Dvorak required 35% less of the minimum movement to type this paragraph than did Qwerty. In paragraph B, below, B -- Have you ever wondered why every time your copy machine goes on the blink your copier service company's phone is busy or the repairperson won't be able to get to your business for at least a week? -- Dvorak had 20% less of the minimum movement required to type this one question than did Qwerty. 0 5 1/2 From this, fingers 'walk' three times as far with Qwerty than with Dvorak, on these 12 words, but does not account for the other attributes of ether keyboard.

( Dvorak keyboard why it Works ) ---------------------------------------- The Thread Test 2.) As the study above is obviously limited to the most common 12 words, the 'Thread Test' was done with 'real' and 'ordinary' words, sentences, and paragraphs. This material was 'randomly' selected to avoid as possible, preference for words that would 'favor' ether layout with a 'home row' advantage. Dvorak can reportedly type 5000 words on the home row alone, Qwerty types less than 300 on the home row, so the Dvorak advantage would be statistically inherent in the English (and Spanish) language. Imagine that while running your hand across a table, you left a 'trail' of string, that marked the path of your fingers travel, similar to tracing your fingers through a dusty surface. Then you could measure the length of the 'trail' to see where and how far you have moved. This is the premise of the 'Thread Test'. There are several ways to measure movement in industrial studies, from time lapse photography, to computer programs, etc, yet this demonstration is cheap, easily duplicated by most, and visual, providing a kind of time lapse record of finger movement.

This method is best used with short samples only, as longer samples will have so much thread wrapped around the pins that as the thread is increasingly spooled around the pins, the increased circumference of additional wrappings will invalidate the measurements. This is designed as a demonstration for those who want to easily and cheaply see for themselves the differences between the keyboards. This might also be a good science fair project. The keyboards used are one and the same. The keyboard was originally in Qwerty, then changed to Dvorak by prying out the keys and rearranging them into Dvorak, as per the directions in the section ( Dvorak keyboard buy or make your own) Both layouts were copied on a photocopy machine, at 100%, life size, and glued to a board. Get a keyboard that you are willing to experiment with, possibly from a secondhand store, and photocopy it at 100% life size, then convert it to Dvorak using the directions in the section 'Dvorak keyboard buy or make your own'. Then copy it again.

Glue the 2 copies that you have just made to a piece of cardboard then label for 2 identically sized examples of both Dvorak and Qwerty. Get some map pins or similar, and place one in the center of each key. These will guide the thread that you will use to measure the length of finger movement. Make a 'thread pen' from a spool of thread, a paperclip, tape, and a soda straw, the thread running from the spool through the straw to the board. The straw pushing on the spool is to provide even tension on the thread. The keyboard diagrams that have the guide lines used for training and illustration divide the keyboard into the sections or letters that are typed by each finger. (Print a Dvorak keyboard diagram) Note the letters typed by each finger. Since many would find this task both exceedingly tedious and error prone, use the feature in your word processor that lets you 'edit' and 'find and replace'. On the test sample that you select, use the ï¿½find and replace allï¿½ feature to automate this job. For the left middle finger, the keys are E, D, C for QWERTY, and . E J and .

for DVORAK. Replace the letters and punctuation found in that section with underlined letters. Example: On the test sample that you select, use the ï¿½find and replaceï¿½ feature to automate this job. Tie the beginning of your thread to the first key so marked, and ï¿½drawï¿½ the thread with the ï¿½thread penï¿½ that you have made to the next letter marked and so on until all in that section are connected by the thread, in the same sequence that they appear. Secure the end, cut, and do likewise for the other finger sections. You will end up with a thread trail that looks similar to the pictures above. The division of labor between fingers was done according to the chart ( Print a Dvorak keyboard diagram ) for Dvorak. The one commonly prescribed for Qwerty is almost identical. (the 6 is sometimes assigned to the right hand). The downward movement of the keys, which on modern keyboards is typically 3/16", was not counted, as this is equal on both. Of course, the total keystrokes are the same in both.

Here are the results showing the comparative distance, in inches, covered by each finger on a test paragraph in both Dvorak and Qwerty: Hand Left Right Sample Total Finger Little Ring Middle Fore L Total Fore Middle Ring Little R Total Dvorak 0 7 1/4" 6" 24 1/2" 37 3/4" 44 3/4" 20 3/4" 14 1/4 12 1/2" 92 1/4 130" (10.8FT) Qwerty 2 1/2" 15 3/8" 29 1/2 51" 98 3/8" 54 5/8 21 1/8 21 1/8" 2 98 7/8 197 1/4" (16.4 FT.) Dvorak movement difference compared to Qwerty 2 1/2 Less Luckier, New Mexico, 34321 Dear Ms Alexandria: Have you ever wondered why every time your copy machine

 goes on the blink your copier service companyï¿½s phone is busy or the repairperson wonï¿½t be able to get to your business for at least a week?

If your company is like most, every lost day of your copying capabilities can spell headaches, delays, and increased expenses from having to send materials out to be copied. Rest easy. Anderson Copy Repair guarantees you that when you use us as your copier service company, weï¿½ll be there when you need us with the solutions to your copier problems. Our trained staff of service repair people has years of experience under its belts, experience that gets your machine off the blink and back into A-1 condition. Whatï¿½s more, thereï¿½s no risk that you will be without a machine for long. While our service people are servicing your machine, weï¿½ll provide you with a temporary machine until yours is up and going. Most repairs will take less than an hour. But just in case, there will be a top-of-the-line machine at your disposal. Anderson Copy Repair specializes in servicing small businesses like yours. Iï¿½ve enclosed a partial list of our current clients. Feel free to check our reputation with any of them. I think youï¿½ll find the response is unanimous praise.

As a special offer to new customers, we are offering a 6-month contract for copy repair service at our 3-month rates. But the offerï¿½s only good if you sign up by May 31. Simply fill out the enclosed postage paid card, mail it back to us, and weï¿½ll get you started on worry-free copier service. Act now to get the special introductory offer. End Sample Qwerty keyboard - about qwerty typing keyboard and how to learn typing instructions - little finger Thumbs of both hands are on space bar Key board picture - has a color code. Keys of one color are typed by corresponding home row key finger. For example left hand little finger is above a home row key "a" and handles all the keys of the same color: A Q 1 Z shift key, tab, etc... Home row keys of a keyboard - are keys above which your hands are positioned. You have home row keys assigned for each hand. From home key you reach to a key you want to type and return back to home key. Home keys are your base from where you reach out and return to.

Usually, one of home keys, one for each hand, has a little dent which lets you know, without looking, that your fingers are positioned above the key board correctly. Capital keys - To type capital letter you have two options. To type one capital letter press and hold down a "shift key" and press the desired letter. To type more capitals press the "Caps Lock" and continue typing. All letters will appear in upper caps. Note if you type capital letter with "shift key" and Caps Lock "on" it will appear in lower case. Keyboards have usually built in light which lets you know if your Caps lock is on or off. Rhythm - you must learn to type with even rhythm. Good even rhythm will rid you of tension, anxiety and will minimize mistakes made. Instead of focusing on "quick where is the next letter" even rhythm will let you focus on what to type. If you slow down to achieve even rhythm you will in effect speed up. Errors - acceptable number of typing errors is one error per minute regardless of how fast you type. wpm - words per minute typing rate. Word is consider to be 5 key strokes including spaces.

If you type 50 key strokes per minute your typing rate is 10 wpm. Why is qwerty keypad the way it is ? What is the logic behind arranging the alphabets the way they are? Who designed it? - Quora Quora Sadly, ergonomics and usability had nothing to do with it. It was, as Robin states, to mechanically separate the common letter pairs that used to jam on the originally alphabetically ordered typewriter layouts. Here's what that original layout looked like: Despite being much faster to learn and easier to use, this semi-alphabetic layout would often jam (note the position of the T, H & S keys) when users typed too quickly. So they just kept moving keys around until the number of jams dropped to an "acceptable" level. If QWERTY was so easy, why did 100s of typing schools pop up all over the world? Why did people have to enrol for a minimum of a year to get their speed and accuracy to even a basic level? Why does it take most people months of lessons and 100s of hours of practice (or even years of self-teaching) to master this confusing letter order? Logical? Yes...

but only from a mechanical engineer's perspective. Intuitive? No. Written Sep 19, 2015 It hasn’t been done randomly or just for fun, it has a very distinct and purposeful reason behind it. The current format of the keyboard was devised long back in 1870’s by a gentleman named Christopher Sholes for the then typewriter. Though, it definitely was not the first format to come up, it didn’t take much time to switch to this one. Starting with lexicographic order i.e. A-B-C-D-E-F, after various trials and errors and taking hundreds of cases, Christopher Sholes gradually reached the Q-W-E-R-T-Y. It was really well received (evident from the fact that we still use it). When the typewriter was invented, it used a metal bar to hold the character alphabets and the other end of the bar was attached to a linkage carrying a carriage with the coated ink. When a key was struck, it would emboss its character on the paper placed beneath the carriage. However, when an operator learned to type at a great speed, a certain flaw was noticed.

When two letters were struck in quick succession, the bars of the typewriter would entangle and get jammed. Christopher Sholes found a way out. He proposed that the letters of frequently used letter pairs should be in different rows. For example, ‘C-H’, ‘S-T’, ’T-H’, ‘W-H’ and more. He also formulated that to speed up the typing process, there has to be a regular alternation between two hands. So observing thousands of words, he placed the letters in way that most words would make use of both hands. He also observed that almost every word in the dictionary carries a vowel. According to him, the most frequently used vowel was ‘A’ and the most frequently used letter (non-vowel) was ‘S’. So he placed ‘A’ and ‘S’ together and chose to keep less common letters like ‘Q’, ‘W’, ‘Z’, ‘X’, ‘C’ around these. This was complemented by placing fairly common letters like ‘M’, ‘N’, ‘L’, ‘K’, ‘O’, ‘P’ at right extremes to create a perfect alternation between both the hands.

All these factors tested with thousands of trials gave us the format that we still use and perhaps would be using till eternity. :-) Written Dec 31, 2014 · Upvoted by John Lambie , Keyboard and interface designer - inventor of the Dextr keypad for touchscreens 1. Take a look at the first 6 letters in the first row of your keyboard, ie., the top row. You will see qwerty one after the other, that is one important fact about qwerty keypads. 2. And the other thing about the qwerty keypad is, you will get the vowels very quick at your fingers while you're typing so that you can type at a faster rate, I think it is not necessary to tell you that, almost every English word contains vowels. I hope this made some sense. Math Keyboard layout for QWERTY on Windows – description and download Math Keyboard layout for QWERTY keyboards on Windows The Math Keyboard layout supports all characters defined in the international mathematics standard ISO 80000-2 and a small collection of other characters.

Most associations are intuitive, based on either the shape of the character (for example, AltGrï¿½A produces ∀) or the initial letter of its name (for example, AltGrï¿½I produces ∆, increment). For some charï¿½acï¿½ters, key combinations are needed; for example, ` R produces the right arrow →. The layout can be used on any QWERTY keyboard, but it works best on a US keyboard. Download the layout The layout delivered as a zipped file. Unzip it and run the setup.exe file; the installation may take a minute or so. Consult Windows Help for information on assigning shortcuts to keyboard layouts, so that you can switch between layouts with keyboard commands. Meanings of keys in the AltGr state. Character repertoire For the main set of characters supported by the layout, see Mathematical symbols in ISO 80000-2 – a test page . The use of these characters is described in detail in the e-book Writing Mathematical Expressions . Some additional characters are included, due to their common use or due to a natural assigment to a key.

In particular, all superscript and subscript digits can be typed using the normal keys 0 1 2… together with AltGr (“right alt”) for superscripts and Shift AltGr for subscripts. US keyboard as reference This description of the layout uses the common US keyboard as a frame of reference. You can use it on any QWERTY keyboard, but you need to take differences in account when interpreting the instructions. For example, a reference to the grave (backtick) key ` means the key in the upper left corner of the keyboard. In non-US keyboards, the key may well have other engravings than the US keyboard, which has the grave (`) and the tilde (~) there. The layout is somewhat more difficult to use on non-US keyboards, because you need to remember some differences. For example, the key that produces the minus sign (−) is the one on the right of the 0, with the hyphen engraved on it on US keyboards, so we denote it by - but it has for example the plus sign (+) in some other keyboards. In that case, the user needs to remember that the plus key produces the minus sign.

If this is too awkward, consider creating a variant of this layout, adapted to the physical keyboard you use. Common US keyboard. The Alt key on the right of the space bar is used as AltGr key when using the Math keyboard layout. Key principles Most keys have their normal meanings as in US keyboards, when used as such or with the Shift key. Some keys produce a mathematical symbol similar to the character they produce on US keyboards. For example, the hyphen key - produces the minus sign (−). There is normally no use for a hyphen in a mathematical expression. Similarly, Shift 7, which produces & on US keyboard, produces logical and, ∧. Superscript and subscript digits can be typed using the keys 0 1 2… together with AltGr (“right alt”) for superscripts and Shift AltGr for subscripts. Superscript minus and plus can be typed similarly using the two keys to the right of digit keys, - and =. Double-struck symbols like ℕ are produced using Shift AltGr and a letter key.

The key in the upper left corner, which is the grave (backtick) key ` in the US keyboard, is used as as escape mechanism: when you press first that key, then some other key (possibly modified with the Shift key, a special character somehow associated with the character that appears in the key cap of the the latter key. For example, `ï¿½N produces the NOT SIGN (ï¿½). Notes The Math Keyboard layout was implemented using the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator ( MSKLC ) on (32-bit) Windows 7. The layout contains only a two Greek letters: π as AltGr Shift D and δ as AltGr P. Greek letters can be conveniently typed using the standard Greek keyboard layout in Windows. If you use it on a QWERTY keyboard, the A key produces α, the B key produces β, etc., with just a few non-obvious assignments: θ ≘ U, η ≘ H, ξ ≘ J, χ ≘ J, ω ≘ V.

Table of key assignments The Maltron Letter Layout Advantage The Maltron Letter Layout Advantage +44 (0)1785 785525 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The Maltron Letter Layout You have probably noticed that many of our dual-hand keyboards are available with the Maltron letter layout as an alternative to QWERTY. The Maltron letter layout was developed by us as an alternative to the QWERTY layout, which was designed to slow down the typist to avoid jamming the mechanism on early typewriter keyboards. Consequently, the QWERTY letter layout that we all know (and love?!) is by design incredibly inefficient and forces unnecessary strain and movement of the hands and fingers. The Dvorak keyboard layout goes some way towards addressing this issue and is certainly an improvement over QWERTY, but the Maltron layout goes a big step further. The Maltron letter layout is based on extensive frequency of use (fou) analysis, and places the most used letters and functions where the fingers and thumbs may easily and comfortably reach them.

For anyone used to QWERTY (or Dvorak), the Maltron layout is a radical change, and will require some retraining. However, this can usually be achieved within just a few weeks. A free Maltron layout training course is available under the Training section of this website. You will wonder how you ever managed to type using QWERTY, but don't take our word for it; have a look at some testimonials under "General Info" on the main menu above. Combined with the highly ergonomic shape of our 3D keyboards, you will have the ultimate in typing comfort. You can read an in-depth paper on Maltron keyboard development here . 11 Table 1: Maltron and Qwerty Comparison The above table shows the great difference in number of words and length that result in the optimisation of the frequency of use for the Maltron keyboard layout over the traditional Qwerty keyboard layout. The first four rows show substantially greater number of words possible from the Maltron letter layout. The last three rows show how few words can be made with the Maltron layout without the use of the home row or full width of the keyboard compared to the Qwerty layout.

With the Qwerty layout the left hand has a greater loading than the right hand.

Question: On a QWERTY keyboard, which letter lies between X and V?
Answer: C