Less than a year ago I got a set of ErgoDox EZ clone PCBs and finally admitted something to myself: I could not actually touch type on QWERTY.
I had been faking it for years. So I did some reading, saw the case for Dvorak, and started over from the home row.

The trainers I tried all fed me the same word lists and told me my WPM.
None of them told me the thing I actually wanted to know: which keys and which transitions are costing me, in errors and in hesitation, so I know what to drill next. So I built it for myself :shrug:

It's called r3wi. What it does:
Watches which keys and transitions actually slow you down or trip you up, and builds your next drill around those instead of a fixed word list.

It's layout-aware, so the diagnostics know your finger map. It is not scoring you as if you were still on QWERTY.

One thing that made me smile while building it: on Dvorak the home row spells real words from the very first stage (the, that, he, on). On QWERTY the same row has to reach for thinner stuff (ask, flask, salad). The trainer shows you that gap directly. The argument for Dvorak, sitting right there in stage one.

No AI. Just Python and math.

It's free. No login, no ads, nothing to sign up for, nothing to sell.
It's alpha (or earlier), so expect rough edges.

r3wi.com

I'm not selling anything. I genuinely just want to know if it's useful to anyone but me. What's good, what's bad, what's missing. Dvorak specific feedback especially, since that is what I built it around.

One note for the mods: I messaged you about a week ago to check if this was okay to post and haven't heard back, so I hope it's alright to share.

Happy to take it down if not.

Thank you.

I broke my collar bone a couple of weeks ago and had to get a "hook plate" put in. So, arm is essentially pinned ty my chest/midsection for the next 12 weeks. Which means, two-handed typing is a no-go. Including any WASD games. Boo.

As soon as I was injured, I started fantasizing about learning right-handed DVORAK and how much easier it woud make my life. But, as soon as I started trying, I found it was a lot harder than regular DVORAK was (as far as I can remember from 17 years ago.

DVORAK was easier to learn, because it forced me to use touch-typing. I always used the hunt/peck method with QWERTY, but touch typing was just easier to learn the layout. Unfortunately, there's nothing like that to help you sort of orient your position on the keyboard using right-handed DVORAK. And having 4 rows seems to make it more difficult.

Have any of you learned either of the one-handed layouts? Did you have similar troubles? Did you find any tip, tricks or workarounds to help you through it?

i use german layout and windows doesnt support it so i basically have to keep my qwertz at an okay standard. im still a beginner so id really like to get some good advice. i have about 70 wpm on qwertz and ab out 50 on dvorak but ive only started about a month ago. i dont want to go under 45 wpm on qwertz but in that case is it realistic to get really fast on dvorak? i mean if i get to 75 then its kind of not worth it so i could just dedicate all my time into qwertz and get good there. what would you recommend? and also whats your best ways to build speed?

Hello World! Paolo from Italy here.

Starting to use Dvorak keyboard right now. It is also useful for the Italian language.

Not difficult transition at all.

Cheers!

Hi guys! I'm looking to switch my desktop's keyboard to a Dvorak layout because I'm one of those people who always wants to try new things (I recently switched to CachyOS (Arch-based Linux distro) after using Windows my whole life) and am wondering what sorts of hardware is needed for switching to Dvorak (if any, other than keycaps)? I saw in another post in this subreddit a diagram of QWERTY keycap profiles and their Dvorak compatibility and Cherry was in the red (which makes sense, Cherry is very particular about angles), the problem with this is that out of the 3 or so profiles I've tried so far (Cherry, SA, and DSA) Cherry has by far been my favorite and I feel I type the best with Cherry profile keycaps. Does anyone have recommendations for Dvorak layout Cherry profile keycaps for a 60%?

I've been full time Dvorak for over two years now. In regards to his original design philosophy he and team almost nailed it, which is impressive for the 1930s. While there are arguably better layouts today, it's surprising how well Dvorak holds up in the charts, and it's unsurprising how poorly qwerty holds up.

Assuming original design intent, it's nearly flawless but of course there's the one big oopsidoodle. My own heat maps on my Moonlander confirm "I" gets about double the use of "U". One of the reasons I chose Dvorak is because of support. I use a firmware programmed keeb but I am in IT and want to be able to utilize baked in software defaults if I ever need to on other people's computers (rare but a possibility). I am also homeschooling my daughter and teaching her Dvorak for this same reason. It just makes my eye twitch a little bit knowing I and U should be swapped. with that being said how did Colemak get a variant so quick and we haven't?

Those of you who learnt Dvorak after previously using qwerty, are you still able to type with qwerty? Are you able to switch between the two easily, or are you now stuck on Dvorak?

Edit: ignore spelling mistake in title

The shift key needs the same finger as the ‘/“ key, so it’s impossible to hold both down to get double quotes

Link - https://github.com/clicolourize/dvorak-typing-trainer

This is exactly the typing trainer I wish I had back in 2009 when I switched to Dvorak (forced myself to learn the key locations the hard way). Gives a visual Dvorak keyboard on the screen. You can run it locally offline on your computer, and there's even a live demo here.

Enjoy!!

I’m looking for a typewriter-style keyboard for my laptop, but I type ot DVORAK on my phone and tablet. I doubt I can get used to QWERTY again. Anyone know of a typewriter-style keyboard that’s in DVORAK?

Hola, hace tiempo que estoy usando el teclado Dvorak en variante español y estoy pensando en cambiar de laptop, pero el problema es que el archivo que use para poder descargar esta variante en español (descargue aquí mismo en Reddit) ya no funciona. Me gustaría saber dónde podría descargar esta variante para Windows 11 o alguna aplicación para poder recrearlo yo mismo. Muchas gracias.

I've been using swype on my phone with dvorak for over two years ago but I finally finished the course at learn.dvorak.nl so now I can type dvorak on my desktop. Despite finishing the course though, I'm still a bit slow with typing. I find this interesting because on my phone I'm fine and I swype quite fast, I always know where each letter is. But the programming for typing is obviously radically different in the brain. Just thought that this is kinda interesting and wanted to share. Have a great day.

For context, I'm a uni student, I type 150ish wpm in QWERTY (peak 179), and I'd like to experiment a bit with a different layout to see whether I'd be able to easily break 200. Is Dvorak good for this? Would you recommend another layout (Colemak etc.)?

Would this switch make me noticeably slower in QWERTY? I really don't want to lose my ability to touch type _at all_ while I am in the process of switching...

I bought this a long time ago to try to learn the new layout. But I never really got the hang of DVORAK, so it's been in my closet for ages. These days I just use a split ergo mechanical keyboard, Corne 46 layout and it's good enough for me.

switched from qwerty about a month ago and finally feeling comfortable with dvorak. was at 85wpm on qwerty so dropping to like 15wpm the first week was painful lol

things that actually helped:

1. blank keycaps from day one. forces you to commit instead of cheating with glances
2. dont try to go fast early on just focus on accuracy and muscle memory. speed comes naturally after
3. typequicker has good drills for the weird letter combos that dvorak uses. helped me figure out which keys i was still hesitating on
4. practice real sentences and paragraphs not just typing tests. the hand alternation feels way better when youre typing actual thoughts
5. biggest annoyance is keyboard shortcuts being in different spots. still havent decided if im remapping them or just dealing with it

honestly the first 2 weeks suck but after that it starts clicking pretty fast. still not back to my qwerty speed but getting close

my reason for switching is purely for the fun of it and to seem cool