Colemak + kinesis anyone?

[theleo]

Hey guys,

Does anyone use colemak here

I've learned Colemak a few years back. I went from 65wpm to about 80wpm (It's a nice layout). I seem to be capped at 80 x_x thou.

I'm considering getting one of those Kinessis keyboards. Does anyone have experience with that combination? Does it improve typing speed at all?

If you're a colemak/dvorak user, what sort of speeds do you achieve? I've always been curious as to whether it'd be possible to improve typing speed by some other more superior keyboard layout .

[spiffytippy]

Hi

The Kinesis Advantage https://www.kinesis-ergo.com/shop/advantage-pro-for-pc-mac/ is great for typing.

First: The curved key composition in matrix style greatly reduces the need for finger travel. At the beginning I often hit the cursor key when trying to hit the comma (it is one row below the comma). It really makes a huge difference.

Second but also great:
Thumb usage. Thumbs can do more than just hit space. Space, Enter, Del, Backspace. That makes typing that much easier. No more moving the whole hand. For real, everything can be done without moving the hand. My palms just rest in one place, the do not need to turn or slide.

Typing with the kinesis in comparison feels like taking a break.

There is just one con for me as a programmer: I need to traverse the text a lot and use Ctrl, Shift, Alt and the cursor keys in all combinations a lot. This is cumbersome on the Kinesis for me, since I have a lot of veeeeeeeery established workflows with my fingers, e.g. left hand holding alt+shift and right hand moving cursor, then, ctrl end, or sth. It was just too different for me so the switch was very difficult for programming. I gave it up and use it for long texts only. For that, it is nearly perfect.

The Kinesis Advantage Pro has a supereasy key layout function. You can customize your keyboard on the fly. Hit Macro+F12 (I think, but there is a sticker underneath the keyboard with the instructions) then the source key then the destination key. Thats it.

For programming i use the https://www.trulyergonomic.com/store/index.php. It is a compromise at comfort (no curving, but matrix and thumbs can access 3 to 5 functions and backspace and del is left to the index fingers left of the H) but WAY better than any normal QWERTY keyboard. Hand movement is minimal but still needed. But all my memorized workflows are possible. Best idea of this keyboard, shift to the homerow on both sides.


tl/dr:
For typing texts use the Kinesis Advantage (Pro).
For programming use the Truly Ergonimic.
You will become faster and have more ease of use.

[Leondre]

Started Colemak about a month and a half ago. Averaging about 83 on the normal tests. Hopefully still going up though.

Just using a ducky shine 3, so a standard staggered layout.