Hi everyone. I recently purchased an ErgoDox, and as soon as it’s built, it’ll be time to start making decisions.
For starters, which layout should I learn?
I’m leaning towards Workman, but very open to the wisdom of the wise folk on GH.
If anyone’s willing to help, I’d very much appreciate it. Think of me as an unformed lump of clay — although, actually, my ex-wife wouldn’t have said clay.
But I am unformed — I’ve never learned to type properly, and have hunted and pecked with two fingers for way too long.
I choose to see this as an advantage right now – no muscle memory to trick me when I start learning Dvorak, Colemak, Workman or whatever.
So, which should it be?
I write novels full time, so I guess my needs are a bit different than most people's. I write a LOT of dialogue, so need to use ' and " a lot, and I write a LOT of short sentences. So, lots of commas, full stops, and capital letters too. Also I use lots of ellipses, em-dashes and hyphens. Plus I start new paragraphs much more than most people do when they type.
I use a few shortcuts a lot, for italics for instance, and arrow keys when editing. But I rarely use numbers or F-keys.
I’ve been typing around a million words a year, plus doing a lot of editing of course, but hope to at least double that now I’m really full-time, and without developing any RSI.
I don’t need to type super-fast — but if I could get to a consistent, accurate 50WPM that would be fantastic.
I have no need to use anyone else’s keyboard or computer, ever — I work from home or wherever I choose to be. My whole office consists of a Macbook Pro and a keyboard, and no one else touches it. So no limitations there.
I suppose I’ll use an Apple trackpad when I’m editing — which I do lots of — but am very open to ideas there too. It’d be great to get this really sorted, as I’m either writing or editing six or seven days every week, between seven and eleven hours a day.
I plan to learn on the ErgoDox, then switch to an Axios or Keyboardio 01 once they become available. (Or something else if it makes sense.)
I have large hands, but my dexterity is pretty ordinary. After reading a lot here and applying it to my own situation, Workman seems to make sense to me. Fiddling about on a typing tutor site, I did seem to have the most difficulty getting at the bottom row with my middle and ring fingers.
But all this is guesswork, and I’m hoping to get some great advice from the very knowledgeable people here.
So, as a complete blank slate, where should I begin?
