Nowadays, most people are using the QWERTY keyboard layout, because the QWERTY is the default the keyboard layout for nearly all the computers.
But is the default one the best? Probably not…
Here is a heatmap for the QWERTY keyboard layout (from Keyboard Heatmap Visualization), and where the color depth represents the frequency of the key is pressed during the daily typing.
The QWERTY layout was designed in the 19th century. Colemak is a modern alternative to the QWERTY and Dvorak layouts, designed for efficient and ergonomic touch typing in English. Learning Colemak is a one-time investment that will allow you to enjoy faster and pain-free typing for the rest of your life. Colemak is now the 3rd most popular keyboard layout for touch typing in English, after QWERTY and Dvorak and comes pre-installed on Mac and Linux systems. — www.colemak.com
And here is the heatmap of the Colemak keyboard layout (from Keyboard Heatmap Visualization).
Two heatmaps’ contrast shows that the Colemak keyboard layout seems to have a more concentrated typing area for both hands, therefore using Colemak layout could increase the efficiency of typing. BTW, there are still many other keyboard layouts, but I’ll not introduce here, you can check them and their heatmaps out through visiting the Keyboard Heatmap Visualization.
Then how would I be able to switch my keyboard layout to the Colemak one? And can I still keep the QWERTY because I want to switch back sometimes?
Of course!
For Windows OS: Since it does not have build-in Colemak layout, so we can visit Colemak, then click on the “Download” under the “Navigation” in the left column. Once the download is ready, you could open the folder, and click on the “setup.exe” file. And when the setup process is finished, you can now switch between the Colemak and QWERTY keyboard easily by pressing the shortcut: ⊞ Win + Space bar.
For Mac OS: Luckily, Mac OS has many build-in keyboard layouts including Colemak and Dvorak, etc. So you can directly visit System Preference -> Keyboard -> Input Sources -> + -> English -> Colemak -> Add, then the setup is done. you can now switch between the Colemak and QWERTY keyboard layout easily by pressing the shortcut: Ctrl + Space bar.
How can I practice and be familiar with this new keyboard layout?
I highly recommend this website for practicing typing: www.keybr.com, because in this website, you could not only choose different keyboard layouts, but also customize the typing difficulty and certain typing keys that you want to practice. And you could always see the keyboard layout that you choose when practicing on this website, it is so helpful right?
I also want to mention that I suggest you better not forget the use of QWERTY, because now, most people are still using it, not Colemak or other keyboard layouts. And if you do so unfortunately, you would probably not able to use others’ Window-OS-computer in the future.
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