Name: Jeffrey Bryant User id: 6657 Website:

I originally learned touch-typing with QWERTY in high school in the early 2000s, and before that I used some technique I came up with myself when I was younger. I have been typing primarily with the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard since I switched (practically cold-turkey) from QWERTY in early December, 2012. I am also in the early stages of learning Colemak as a secondary keyboard layout. I do not plan on going back to the old layout for anything more than nostalgia purposes, an occasional classic PC (typically DOS) game, and extremely brief sessions on computers I don't own. My plan is ultimately to be able to switch between the two fully-optimized layouts at will, typing fluently in each.

My original average speed in QWERTY had a range typically from 50-60 WPM (occasionally even higher, but more often toward the median), which I intend to at least match and possibly surpass in both Dvorak and Colemak. I am aiming for a rock-solid average of around 60-65 WPM, minimum, in both layouts with minimal typing errors. I have not yet given Colemak a serious amount of practice since I am still heavily focused on improving my Dvorak performance; as a result, my speeds with it are still very low. However, this will all soon change as I steadily approach my goals with the Dvorak layout and focus shifts to improving my Colemak skills.

The intention is for Dvorak to become my fallback keyboard layout, effectively taking QWERTY's former place. A combination of Dvorak and Colemak will be used on my own machines to maintain familiarity with each, and also to switch things up a bit. As the more common and widely available layout, Dvorak will be used whenever possible on machines I don't own, and QWERTY will be used sparingly (ie. a Google search or two of a few words length, max). Any time I need to type more than a sentence or two on computers other than my own I will be heading to the control panel and switching the keyboard layout to Dvorak.

Major progress updates:

Dvorak: My current overall speed tends to level out somewhere in the high-50s to mid-60s range. I have reached and pretty much surpassed my old QWERTY speeds. However, I feel that there is still plenty of room for improvement. I intend to increase this further, and it seems to be gradually happening all on its own since I have been using Dvorak as my primary layout.

Colemak: Currently in the early stages. Still quite slow, but getting noticeably faster. Accuracy also seems to be making a sharp increase. Speed tends to average in the mid- to high-20s. [Note: My Colemak practice can currently be considered to be on hold, though it seems that my performance when typing with the layout hasn't really deteriorated since I last practiced it.]

My keyboard collection:

Unicomp "Classic 101" Buckling Spring USB Keyboard w/ Dvorak Layout

Topre Realforce 104UW USB Keyboard w/ Variable Key Weighting

Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2 w/ Topre Key Switches