Re: New dvorak user!

Jenny,

I tried Dvorak but it didn't stick for me. It's true that you can type long stretches and not feel fatigued, but I was having trouble switching back and forth, and I needed to work on other people's machines.

However, I am still very interested in alternative keyboarding and mousing. 

For me, an "ergonomic" keyboard was more helpful than the Dvorak layout. There are people in this group who like other keyboards, but the best ones for me are in the group that includes the Microsoft Natural, and similar ones.

They separate your hands, let your wrists extend straight instead of bending outward, and roll your thumbs up and your wrists away from the flat-on-the table configuration.

I also recommend a more ergonomic mouse than the ones that most people use.  I was having pain in my right wrist a year and a half ago when I bought my first Wow-Pen Joy.  

http://www.wow-pen.com/new/products/wow_pen_joy.htm

It helped immediately, and I later got one for work. Sorry, it's for righties only, and it's not wireless.

Microsoft has a "Natural Mouse" that looks like it has the same hand configuration. The idea is that your right hand is no longer facing palm-down, but rotated a little bit ... not quite to a handshake position, but in that direction.

Another thing to look into, especially if you're left handed: Windows lets you plug in more than one mouse at a time. I left my regular mouse on the left side of the keyboard, and it comes in handy for a few tasks where I want to click and do something with my right hand.

Steven

--- In [email protected], "Jenny" <strangeseraph@...> wrote:
>
> Hi everybody. I am typing this very slowly but I'm new here and wanted to introduce myself. My name is Jenny and I'm a writer and I'm hoping that learning a new keyboard will help me in a few ways. One, it will teach me to slow down and actually look at what I'm writing and thus reduce my spelling errors. Two, hopefully it will reduce the pain I get in my hands, especially the right hand which I use for the mouse despite being left handed due to the fact that I've always had to use righty mouse in all the places I've used computers in the past (school, library, etc) its just easier that way. But my right hand has paid the price for it. Maybe I'll try changing my mouse too. Finally, I think using dvorak will be a fun experiment, a real change in my routine.
> 
> Well that's it, this post took me 40 minutes to write. o-o
>