Learning Colemak
A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to learn Colemak. I figured that if I was going to be typing for the rest of my life, I should use a keyboard layout that was more efficient and ergonomic. Colemak seemed like the right fit for me.
*This post is for people who are looking for resources about learning Colemak. If you need convincing:
Your fingers on QWERTY move 2.2x more than on Colemak. QWERTY has 16x more same hand row jumping than Colemak. There are 35x more words you can type using only the home row on Colemak. -Colemak.com
That said making the jump from QWERTY to Colemak is not easy. When I started learning Colemak a few years ago, I was practicing Colemak a little each day and switching back to QWERTY for work. Switching between the two keyboard layouts didn’t work for me. I eventually gave up on Colemak.
Going Cold Turkey
A little over a week ago I made the switch to Colemak cold turkey. I had a break from work and decided to switch while I have less daily emails and messages.
So far, my progress has been steady, and I am developing new muscle memory.
Planning
Keys
On Macs, Colemak is built into the OS. You can go to System Preferences >> Keyboards >> Input Sources and click the plus to add Colemak. Make sure you uncheck “Automatically switch to a document’s input source.” It will keep the keyboard layout set per application, and you will have to switch each application.
I bought a key cover for my MacBook and keycaps for my mechanical keyboard
- KB Covers Colemak
- WASD Colemak Keycaps
Colemak Key Cover & Key Caps
The KB cover fits flush, and I can close my mac. I barely notice that it is there.
Mechanical Keys
From WASD, I ordered the 104-Key Custom Cherry MX Keycap Set. On the product page, in the second step, you can select the “Alphanumeric Layout Style.”
Side note: buy some “Keycap Stabilizer Inserts.” They go under your larger keys and attach to a stabilizer spring. I couldn’t get my old stabilizers inserts out of my old keys without breaking them. You’ll have to figure out how many you need, depending on your keyboard.
Learning Colemak
Once my keys were set up, I made the switch to Colemak. In my head, I thought a few hours a day would be enough practice. My goal was getting to 25 wpm in a week and 50 wpm in a month. Also, I figured I could iron-out my poor typing habits (using the wrong fingers on keys and not using the right-hand shift).
Before I started learning Colemak, I researched the Colemak website and Colemak Reddit (r/Colemak).
Morning and Night
I practice each morning and night using a few different online typing courses:
Typing Cat
Typing Cat is the primary site that I use. They have a basic course, an advanced course, user-generated custom courses, typing tests, tracking, and more.
I each day I work through variation these different courses:
- Basic https://thetypingcat.com/typing-courses/basic
- Advanced https://thetypingcat.com/typing-courses/advanced
- Ngrams (user-generated) https://thetypingcat.com/custom-typing-courses/ngrams
- Tests https://thetypingcat.com/typing-speed-test/1
Keybr
Keybr is a site that forces you to meet a proficiency before moving you on to more keys (you can adjust the number of keys in the settings). I like the idea, but Keybr seems to weigh heavily on speed. I felt that I was building bad habits and getting frustrated while learning Colemak. Now I only use Keybr for short periods of time, 15–20 minutes. Once I have learned to type faster with Colemak Keybr will probably be a better tool.
Keyzen-Colemak
Keyzen is a fun tutorial for learning Colemak. It is pretty simple and worth a pass through to change things up.
10 Fast Fingers
I saw people from /r/colemak posting screenshots of their speed scores from 10 Fast Fingers. I have done a few speed tests on this site, but don’t use it much.
Ztype is my favorite typing game, so far. It’s a fun change of pace and you can upload your own words.
Progress After Two Weeks
I averaged about two hours of typing practice each day. My Colemak typing accuracy and speed has steadily increased. I started at about 10 wpm, and after two weeks I can type about 25–30 wpm.
In conclusion, making the change from QWERTY to Colemak has been hard, but I feel it is well worth the effort. I am happy with my progress and know I will continue to improve.
