Dvorak vs. Qwerty

Dvorak vs Qwerty is an Opera widget that demonstrates their differences. Dvorak and Qwerty are two different keyboard layouts.

These days, Qwerty is the popular choice, and I don't think I have seen a Dvorak keyboard in person ever. However, proponents of the Dvorak layout, also known as the American Simplified keyboard, claim that it reduces errors and it can increase typing speed. There have also been claims that typing on a Dvorak keyboard doesn't cause repetitive strain injuries.

The widget itself presents two on-screen keyboards, one using the QWERTY layout and the other one using the DVORAK layout. You can easily switch between them, but you can't see them both at the same time. You can type using your normal keyboard layout in both modes. And as you type, you will see the distance your fingers travelled using the QWERTY layout and the distance travelled using the DVORAK layout. In most cases, there is a great difference. For example, in writing "Hi, how are you", my fingers travelled 9 centimeters using DVORAK, versus 16.5cm for QWERTY. That is quite a difference.

In short, this is a nice widget that illustrates the differences between the aforementioned keyboard layouts. It is a shame that you have to install Opera just to try it.