I use Workman.
EDIT (2024-08-10T19:23Z): I should clarify that I am referring to the layout that you use for a physical computer keyboard, not a mobile/virtual keyboard.
I’ve tried Dvorak and Workman but switched to Colemak-DH about a year ago just for fun and to try something new (I have a split ortho keyboard with XDA keycaps so the profile is uniform).
Works great, but my typing speed dropped by about 40 WPM from the low 110s to the mid-70s and I haven’t had enough time to practice and get back up there. Previous layouts have required at least a few months of practice with Monkeytype or Keybr and I’ve been too busy.
Also made a huge effort to switch to Colemak-DH a few months ago then started moving around a bunch with little space to setup my split ergo and will take a huge hit getting started again :/
I’ve tried Dvorak and Workman but switched to Colemak-DH about a year ago
What’s your preference of the 3?
Hmm, you know, I think I liked Workman the most. Colemak has been the most difficult to adapt to, but I’m not sure if it’s because I had been away from QWERTY for so long (Colemak has a lot of keys in common with QWERTY) or because the layout has keys in locations that I don’t find the most intuitive.
Honestly, if I’m still hovering around 80 WPM for much longer it might actually be a good move to switch back to Workman, lol. Dvorak was probably the best IMO for reducing finger and wrist movement and strain if that’s a concern for you.
I personally went from QWERTY to Dvorak to Colemak to Workman. I probably stayed on Colemak for the least amount of time. I’ve been on Workman for quite a number of years, now.
Been trying Colemak-DH but I’ll have to use it for at least half a year till I can give it a proper review
Dvorak. The same as others have posted, I started to type for a living and started to feel the numbness in my hands as I read up on RSI. I switched to Dvorak on my phone then eventually to desktop.
I’m willing to take a gander at the Workman layout.
I swear if one of you French bastards says AZERTY, I’m gonna bring the hammer down.
AZERTY-BE 🇧🇪 With all the text written in English as it’s used by french, dutch and german speaking people. For some reasons most of the symbols are at different places than the AZERTY-FR
I now just use EurKey (Qwerty) with a very nice Alice (Arisu) keyboard. If that was all I was using I would probably try the eurkey variant of Colemak(-DH) at some point.
I like my keyboards like I like my Captain Bluebear characters. Qwert Zuiopü.
dvorak.used to feel keyboard strain after typing for a long time, dvorak fixed that
Dvorak with some custom bindings for German diacritics and the Euro symbol, e.g. AltGr+a gives me ä.
Furthermore, my layout behaves like QWERTY when I told down Ctrl, so that shortcuts like Ctrl+C are still easy to press.
Switching to Dvorak immediately removed any pain I had started experiencing more and more often typing with QWERTY. In the long run it also improved my typing speed. I can usually achieve between 130 and 140.
Nice there is a great keyboard layout creator for windows.
If you use linux do you mind sharing your custom layout and how you did it?
On Windows it’s pretty easy. On Linux I found some shady kernel monkey patch for the Ctrl feature, but I don’t remember where.
Unfortunate :/
And the custom Dvorak layout with the umlauts on linux?
Never managed to make one. I just use KDE compose.
Let me know if you find something, though!
My username should be a giveaway…
QWERTY.
I tried Dvorak when I started having RSI issues, but found no improvement after a year, so I switched back. Others clearly have different experiences. 🤷♂️
ANSI QWERTY TKL. Despite living in Germany, where we usually use ISO. I got used to it when I spent a year in the states and realized how useful it is for writing code. Now I have the differences to the German layout memorized pretty well so I just switch in software whenever I need German characters like ä or ß.
My own custom layout that tries to find a compromise between not fucking too much with the left side keys because of hotkeys, typing en and my mother tongue, and programming.
Also use 28 keys split keyboard, so some macros for some keys.
Dvorak to touch-type but qwerty on my phone’s virtual keyboard.
Dvorak for over thirty years; always used swipe typing with QWERTY on mobile devices
Dvorak, but the one that uses UK punctuation.
It doesn’t exist on Windows. Did you know that making custom keyboard layouts on windows is a pain?
QWERTY on a cheap Dell keyboard I’ve had for 12 years.
I’m sure some of the alternatives are objectively superior, but with all due respect to enthusiasts, I’m simply not passionate about it and have yet to be convinced that the time and pain spent on getting used to a new layout would actually be worth it in the long run.
