Learning Colemak

Maintaining skill in both layouts

When I first started learning the Colemak keyboard layout, I tried to maintain a skill in both QWERTY and Colemak simultaneously. This was actually not too difficult to do since Colemak keeps many keys in the same place, and the result after 30 days of practice was 104 WPM for Colemak and 95 WPM for QWERTY (down from 104 WPM at the start).

After this little experiment, I discovered a nice way to switch to Colemak on other computers that did not have it installed: simply type in http://www.ryanheise.com/colemak.exe (provided that computer has Internet access) and the layout will automatically change. For computers without Internet access, you might carry the exe on a USB disk. Now, I do not bother with QWERTY anymore (although it seems my fingers still have the muscle memory).

For those interested in maintaining a skill in both layouts, my strategy was to type in QWERTY for about 5-10 minutes each morning immediately after waking up, and then to switch to Colemak for the rest of the day. You may find it surprisingly easy to switch back and forth.

Tips for learning

• After the plateau at 50 WPM, I decided to pay attention to my weaknesses, and I noticed that my most commonly mistyped character was "G". After simply focusing on "G" as I typed, my speed instantly jumped up into the 60s.
• When I got into the 90s, progress was quite slow getting up above 100 WPM. What helped was to practice by typing with a steady rhythm, using the same amount of time to think about each character. This forced me to take the time I needed to catch common mis-presses before they happened, something that I think would have taken much longer to correct otherwise.
• Now that my speed is above 100 WPM, my typing technique works something like this: by default, force myself to type at a steady pace -- but, when I see words or strings of words that I know I can type very quickly (e.g. using known finger rolls) then I remember to speed up on those, -- and, when I see words that I know I have problems with, I remember to slow down and type carefully. This, I have found, is the fastest way for me to type, as it tends to eliminate a lot of wasted time introducing and correcting mistakes. However, it requires being aware of your strong and weak words.

What is my current typing speed?

My current typing speed record can be watched below. It was set at the hi-games.net typing test.

Keyboard bindings for Vim

Vim is an extremely efficient text editor that I use for writing emails and editing any sort of text file. Vim's commands are all controlled from the keyboard: 'd' for delete, 'w' to move the cursor forward one word, 'dw' to delete the text moved over by 'w', '2dw' to delete two words, etc. Left/Down/Up/Right navigation is located on the QWERTY keys H/J/K/L so that the typist's hands never need to reach for arrow keys or the mouse. Unfortunately, these navigation keys are not so intuitive under Colemak and so I needed to find some more appropriate mappings. After experimenting with many alternatives, here is what I finally decided on and am very happy with:

noremap n j|noremap <C-w>n <C-w>j|noremap <C-w><C-n> <C-w>j
noremap e k|noremap <C-w>e <C-w>k|noremap <C-w><C-e> <C-w>k
noremap s h
noremap t l

noremap f e
noremap k n
noremap K N 
noremap U <C-r>