Just switced to Dvorak.

[wolf]

Rajagra, if you swapped the Ctrl and Fn keys on the bottom left corner, you'd have the same layout of those keys that I do.  That made reaching the Ctrl key quite difficult, curling my finger under and frequently missing it, so I just swapped it with the caps-lock key.

Where you have your backspace, I now have Ctrl - will be a lot easier as I use Ctrl a lot and it's now right next to a home key.  

Just did some more tweaking and I'm now getting used to using right thumb for backspace, left for shift - for the very logical reason that I remove my right hand from the keyboard a lot to use the mouse - so having to move my left hand away from the keys every time I need to  shift-click something using the one shift key I had on the right of the board, was a rather silly way to do it.

So I remapped the keys so that my previously remapped shift and backspace keys are swapped.  Now I don't have to move my left hand to shift-click while using the mouse.  Can Ctrl-click a lot easier now, too.

[hoggy]

I was having lots of pain from QWERTY so I want to switch for comfort.

Try typing less.  I use macros and text expansion software to do some of the work for me.  Check out texter and autohotkey.

I'm saving about a third of my keying this way.

[hoggy]

After 5 days of having the backspace at the usual capslock position, it's as if it was always there.  Speeds up my pitiful typing - Highly recommended.

[wolf]

I'm getting used to having the ctrl there - a lot easier for copy and paste (which we do a lot of at work).  

Can understand what you mean, hoggy, within a few days of moving the backspace under my thumb it was automatic to hit it if I made a mistake.

Now getting used to the fact that I swapped my remapped shift and backspace over.

[ds26gte]

After 5 days of having the backspace at the usual capslock position, it's as if it was always there.  Speeds up my pitiful typing - Highly recommended.

Well, I tried it, since I don't really need the CapsLock position for Control.  (After some time with Mac OS X and its Cmd key, I have come to appreciate putting Control immediately left of the space bar.)

However, rapidly ran against a snag: Backspace on the CapsLock position doesn't key-repeat, at least on Ubuntu.  When I do delete something, it is usually a swath of contiguous characters, and having to press Backspace separately for each of them is painful.

[Octoploid]

Well, I tried it, since I don't really need the CapsLock position for Control.  (After some time with Mac OS X and its Cmd key, I have come to appreciate putting Control immediately left of the space bar.)

However, rapidly ran against a snag: Backspace on the CapsLock position doesn't key-repeat, at least on Ubuntu.  When I do delete something, it is usually a swath of contiguous characters, and having to press Backspace separately for each of them is painful.

Code: [Select]

xset r 66
should do the trick.

[DreymaR]

I'm getting used to having the ctrl there - a lot easier for copy and paste (which we do a lot of at work).

I've done pretty much that with my 'extend' CapsLock key mappings: Hitting Caps+Z sends a System 'Undo' for instance. Saves the left hand a lot of jumping and twisting down to the bottom left corner, which in my opinion more than makes up for the little finger's extra work as an allround magic key extend "caster"!

[wolf]

The original location of my Ctrl key is such that it was hard to hit because I was shooting blind for it - obscured by my left hand and nestled between a Fn key and the "Windows" key.  Now, it's a quick reach to the side from a home key and I've got it.

Really great improvement when half your day is spent copying the contents of emailed requests into the fields of the job tracking program...

[DreymaR]

I see; that Ctrl key does look a bit lodged-in there.

What I'd try would be the 'A-Frame' ergonomic mod. Then you'd get a better left wrist angle and the Ctrl key would be back in business as far as I can see - at the cost of a little more left pinky work (mine's plenty strong enough but YMMV) and moving the question mark (an acceptable price in my opinion but a bit confusing the first couple of days).

As for Backspace, I have that on the home position of my right pinky. I never mi**** it there, and I never mi**** the Caps key so it's a very safe mapping. Del sits one row up so that's quite easy to use too.

[wolf]

What is an "A-frame ergonomic mod"?

[ricercar]

What is an "A-frame ergonomic mod"?

I'd imagine it's bending a keyboard into unnatural positions.

[wolf]

When butchering the above image to match my work machine's keyboard, I noticed that my keyboard had one more key to the left of the space on the bottom row than the illustration: Fn, Ctrl, Win, Alt, Numlock and the blank key.  That means not only is the Ctrl jammed between two keys (one of which gives disastrous results if accidentally pressed) the bloody thing is narrower than all the other keys.

Attached is the butchered image showing the layout of my board - complete with Numlock and shift keys prised off (and one of those shifts relocated) and appropriately resized keys in the lower left of the board.

Thankfully no one uses my machine but me, generally.

[wolf]

I'd imagine it's bending a keyboard into unnatural positions.

OK, doing that as a mod could be interesting - a logistical nightmare unless you were making your own pcbs.

[DreymaR]

What is an "A-frame ergonomic mod"?

Sorry for not being more specific.

But googling 'a-frame ergonomic mod' did bring up the right answer, if six positions down the page:

http://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?pid=6257



Benefits:
- Much improved left wrist angle
- Easier reach for the B key (which is a fairly common letter)
- Keeps the same fingering as you're used to for most important keys
- The relatively common /? key is taken from the weak right pinky to the strong right index finger
- Shorter right pinky stretches to the Shift/Enter/Backspace(!) keys

Prices to pay:
- The = [ ] keys change hands (not a big deal in my opinion but YMMV)
- Somewhat more load on the left pinky
- Longer left pinky stretches to Tab/Shift/Caps (the new LShift stretch is the same as the normal one on an ISO board)
- The relatively common /? key needs to be relearnt

[wolf]

Thanks, DreymaR, that link clears it up nicely.  Some really interesting ideas on that thread, too.

The on-going quest to make what we have work best for us - brilliant.

BTW, your colour-coded pics on that thread made it extremely easy to see how the layouts are supposed to be used.