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TYPES OF KEYBOARD LAYOUTS
There are three types of keyboard layouts that are commonly used nowadays. They are QWERTY, DVORAK, and
Colemak. Let us discuss them one by one.
Qwerty Keyboard Layout
It is the most efficiently designed standard keyboard layout used in countries, that use Latin-based alphabets. This
layout is seen in most of the PC’s, laptops, virtual keyboards, smart TV, smartphones, etc. The name of this layout
comes from the first six alphabets on the left side of the keyboard.
The earliest typewriter keyboard with QWERTY layout was designed by an American inventor—Christopher Latham
Sholes, with the aim to reduce the jamming of type bars and speeding up the typing process.
Dvorak Keyboard Layout
This layout is also designed for Latin-based alphabets and is an alternative to QWERTY layout. It was created by August
Dvorak in the 1930s. The main advantage of this layout is that, it requires less movement of fingers, thus reducing the
typing errors which in turn helps in increasing the typing speed.
Colemak Keyboard Layout
This layout is also designed for Latin-based alphabets and as a modern alternative to the QWERTY and DVORAK layouts.
It was created by and named after Shai Coleman in 2006. This layout comes pre-installed on Mac, and Linux supported
systems. It reduces the pain from typing and speeds up the typing process.
Apple keyboards and modern laptops keyboards do not have a num lock key and therefore
only have numbers as top row to use.
Data Entry and Keyboarding Skills 199

