[CW] Prosigns & Phillips Abbreviations

[David Learned]

Neal, I have to agree about QWERTY boards. As a kid I learned OWERTY from =
my mother's Women's Day magazine because I wouldn't have been caught dead =
in a typing class in high school. Through the years, the more nervous I =
got about typing fast and accurately (mostly QRQ CW), the more I'd peek at =
the keys. And I never got very fast.=20

Not with Dvorak. A look at the keys  is only confusing. I took the =
DvortyBoard tutorial, and in about 6 hours on a weekend (a reasonable week =
end project) I learned the keys. The guy at the company that I talked with =
said that his wife, a touch typist, took one hour to learn the board and =
never turned back. Check out this URL for more information on Dvorak and =
Dvorak boards: http://www.tifaq.com/keyboards/dvorak-keyboards.html=20

 I think I paid $50 for the tutorial on a diskette and one DvortyBoard a =
couple of years ago. With their board, when you turn on your computer, the =
board is a default QWERTY board. That keeps the shouts and recriminations =
at a minimum from the XYL and the kids if you share a computer. Same at =
work. The Dvorty user simply toggles to Dvorty configuration with the =
right upper key on the board when he/she wants to use it.

 For my Sony notebook I have simply made the choice of 'American Dvorak =
101' (or close to that) in 'keyboard' in 'control panel.' That stays until =
you change it. And this is what you do if you have  to do any lenghty =
typing on someone else's machine. I have been able to go to meetings and =
make a fairly complete text of lectures with my notebook in my lap and not =
looking at the screen. I was amazed how well I could sense errors and =
correct them without looking at the screen. Of course I edit the first =
time I read the notes later on, too.

The secret? All of the vowels are under the left hand in the home =
position, and all of the most frequently used consonants are under the =
right-hand fingers or within short reach from either hand. Common =
punctuation is all a short reach up from the left hand home keys. Very =
ergonomic. Microsoft even has left-hand Dvorak and right-hand Dvorak as =
choices in the same menu if one side is impaired.

I understanf there are some local school systems now in the Seattle area =
which are teaching typing with DvortyBoards, so kids never have to learn =
the old system.=20

Enough already! As you can tell, I'm sold on the system.=20

Dave Learned
W8DFI