Keyboard has arrived!

My funky Kinesis Advantage keyboard arrived at work this afternoon. Too late to try it out properly, but it feels comfy just sitting with it.
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The Need For Speed

Looks like the Dvorak layout has arrived in muscle memory. I've noticed a substantial improvement in speed and accuracy this week. Still making some typos, but I seem to (usually) spot them as soon as I type them.

Yesterday I managed to write a nine-page report in just a couple of hours. That's something I couldn't have contemplated only a week ago.

So, four weeks from starting Dvorak, and I doubt I'll return to QWERTY.

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Workplace assessment

I had a visit from the Occupational Health workplace assessor today. She suggested a few immediate changes:

• Lower my chair so that my thighs are horizontal. Very uncomfortable. Soon raised my chair again.
• Use the detachable wrist rest on the keyboard and move the keyboard further away. This felt like I was stretching out too much, so that was quickly reversed.
• Raise my adjustable desk. That actually hurt more, so it's back down to very low again.
• Move my monitors about. So now, rather than having one monitor head-on and one off to the side, when I look directly ahead I now see the join - i.e. I have to turn to see either monitor. Unchanged for now but let's see how it goes.
• Take anti-inflammatories (i.e. ibuprofen). I'd been worried that this might mask problems and make them worse later, but maybe it's ok.

Since then I've lowered the chair a touch and removed its arms. I was a bit surprised that she didn't suggest that.

I'm being referred to the OH physiotherapy service, and OH are going to look at providing me with a new chair, as the seat of my current chair is too short and doesn't tilt forwards, which I need.

They're also going to look at what alternative keyboards are available. I'd like to try one from Kinesis, as that looks like it would keep my wrists and forearms at the angle I find comfortable.

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Breakthrough

This morning I came to my work Mac and tried to log in. The keyboard map is set to QWERTY on the login screen but switches to Dvorak afterwards.

For the first time, I couldn't remember how to type my password in QWERTY!

I'm still making typos, but speed is now starting to pick up, and when I stop to wonder where a key is, it usually seems quicker to just go ahead and trust my fingers, which are starting to learn.

However, I'm still getting pain and odd sensations in my hands, so I have an appointment with an OH workplace advisor on Wednesday.
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The Dvorak layout

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard

The fastest recorded typing used this layout. See Wikipedia's page on Barbara Blackburn.
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Officer Crabtree

Five days into cold turkey.  More or less know where the keys are now - it's actually easier to type with my eyes closed!

Have just sent out first email with typos: "Startung next week - all diaries seem fill this week". Only needed to say "wook" to turn into Officer Crabtree from 'Allo 'Allo!

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Adventures with Dvorak

No, not the composer, just the keyboard layout.

I work in IT, and have always been able to type pretty fast and accurately.  Some years ago I started to get a niggling ache in my wrists when typing. I switched to split QWERTY keyboards - some Microsoft models, then the very nice Logitech Cordless Desktop Comfort Pro, which I used at home and work.

At some point I experimented with the Dvorak layout, but it seemed to be awkward for programming, and since the Logitech had seemed to relieve the pain, I took it no further.

Fast forward to last summer. A coffee incident meant a new keyboard. The new Logitech Wave promised the latest in ergonomics, and it did seem quite comfy - or so I thought.

Well, the old wrist ache started to come back. I don't do so much programming these days, so I decided to give Dvorak another try. The Mac has a useful Dvorak/Qwerty mode which keeps QWERTY for command-key shortcuts which are hard-wired in my brain!

It became apparent that the Wave keyboard wasn't helping. My wrists were still kinked and I was cheating on learning Dvorak by hitting keys on the wrong half of the keyboard. So I dug a spare Cordless Desktop Comfort Pro out of storage and resolved to go "cold turkey" on QWERTY.

I have a colour Dvorak chart pasted above each monitor but haven't labelled the keycaps themselves. I installed dvorakng to learn the layout (via MacPorts); I've completed the lessons now with a 95% hit rate - not bad, but it still means 1 in 20 keypresses are wrong.  However, the most frustrating bit is the speed - average 1-2cps if I'm lucky! Think I might be using the chart as a crutch but I will be keeping it around for a while.

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