I am proposing here a variant for the Dvorak keyboard adapted to Spanish keyboards, where some symbols, especially those on the number keys, are not the same as in the English keyboard (www.shiar.org/happy/txts/dvorak.php).
In www.shiar.org/happy/txts/dvoraklv.php#spanish a Spanish variant is proposed, but the one shown here keeps the layout and configuration of the keys which are not letters or common punctuation (period, comma, hyphen) according to the standard Spanish qwerty keyboard. This means that, if the actual keys are physically interchanged in a qwerty keyboard, the existing labels are still valid; in any case, the placement of the less used characters (and, therefore, those harder to remember, such as foreign accents, square brackets, etc.) does not change with respect to the Spanish qwerty keyborard.
The characters obtained by pressing the different keys independently are
displayed in black and grey, without or with caps shift respectively. In dark blue and light
blue are shown the characters obtained if AltGr is pressed
as well. Note the exchange of the R and H keys with
respect to the standard Dvorak layout, and the placement of Ñ and
punctuation marks. As can be seen, many symbols used in several languages are
available with just a couple of key presses.
The same image in svg format: dvorak-es.svg or pdf format: dvorak-es.pdf
Another image that can be useful to make labels and stick them on the keys, in order to have always at one’s fingertips the equivalence Dvorak–qwerty (thanks to José Salavert), it is worth mentioning that these are the only keys whose placement changes:
The same image in svg format: dvorak-es-qwerty.svg or pdf format: dvorak-es-qwerty.pdf
It must be noted that the layout here proposed is based on the original Dvorak layout for English, trying to keep the differences at a minimum. One has also the possibility to design different layouts optimized for writing Spanish, such as the one proposed in www.geocities.com/tecladodvorak/.
Configuration on Linux
Recent X.org versions have already available this keyboard layout as a
variant for es. This means that, with an updated Linux distribution
(at least: Mandriva 2007, Fedora Core 5, Debian Etch), it is possible to choose
the “es(dvorak)” keyboard layout just like any other one. In
kde, for instance, one
can select the “dvorak” variant from the “es” keyboard
in Control Center > Regional & Accessibility
> Keyboard Layout.
For distributions that do not yet include this variant, it is enough to add
the contents of the file dvorak-es to
/etc/X11/xkb/symbols/pc/dvorak (the exact location may vary with
the distribution). In this way one adds the “es” variant to the
“dvorak” layout; this is usually more convenient, given that older
versions of kde do not
allow to alternate different variants of the same keyboard layout, which makes
it more cumbersome to switch the Dvorak and qwerty
layouts.
I have also created a configuration file for composed keys (Compose) for dead keys (accents) and the
MultiKey key (right Win for me). This file replaces
/usr/share/X11/locale/[locale_name]/Compose, after a back-up
copy of the original. This file is optional, however.
Additionally, it is possible to modify /etc/X11/XF86config (or
/etc/X11/xorg.conf) and change the XkbLayout to
"dvorak(es)" or "es(dvorak)" instead of
"es" (or whatever). This will set the Spanish Dvorak layout as the
default layout for the whole graphic environment.
Diego Fernández has kindly written a configuration file for
loadkeys that allows he activation of this layout in a text console
too. The file is dvorak-es.kmap.gz, and it can
be leaded with loadkeys /path/to/file/dvorak-es.kmap.gz. The file
can instead be copied to /usr/lib/kbd/keymaps/i386/dvorak/
(Mandrake 10.1) and then it is enough to run loadkeys dvorak-es. To
activate this layout at boot time, the above command can be included in some of
the boot scripts or, in Debian-based distributions, run install-keymap
dvorak-es.
Configuration on Windows
In just a week, I have received two adaptations of the Spanish Dvorak layout
for Windows. Alberto Torres sent me the file dvorak-es-win.zip, while Alberto Fanjul did the
same with kbdDkSp1.rar. Both files are configurations
created with Microsoft
Keyboard Layout Creator and include a self-installing msi file. Once the layout has been
installed, it can be selected in the language bar like any other layout (to
activate the language bar in Windows XP, a visit to Control Panel
> Regional and Language Options is needed).
Configuration on Mac OS X
José Salavert has also sent me a configuration file for Mac OS X, created
with the Ukelele program. According
to his words, it follows this keyboard layout, except for the key combinations
with AltGr (but ~ is on the 4 key and
€ on E. The file ES
Dvorak.keylayout must be copied to /Library/Keyboard Layouts/
(or ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts/ for a single user). After
rebooting, the layout can be activated in the International section
of the system configuration.
Learning and practising
To practise with this Dvorak layout, I have also created a configuration file
and a set of “lessons” for KTouch (ktouch.sourceforge.net), which have
already been included in the official version 1.5. For oldevr versions, the
files can be copied to the ~/.kde/share/apps/ktouch/ directory. The
file dvorak-es.keyboard contains the keyboard
configuration (depending on the system configuration, it might be needed to use
the utf-8
encoded file: dvorak-es-utf8.keyboard).
The file dvorak-es.ktouch contains the lessons,
which include Spanish and English words. For newer KTouch versions,
there is also the lessons file in xml format (thanks to Diego
Fernández): dvorak-es.ktouch.xml.
For Windows, it can be interesting to use Microsoft Visual Keyboard to get oneself used to the Dvorak keyboard, since it shows a picture of the keyboard on screen while typing, avoiding the need to look down at the keyboard.
Summary
- Keyboard map: dvorak-es.pdf [56.0 kiB]
- Configuration for
loadkeys: dvorak-es.kmap.gz [1.3 kiB] - Configuration for
xkb: dvorak-es [2.9 kiB] - Composed keys configuration: Compose [9.5 kiB]
- Configurations for Windows: dvorak-es-win.zip [13.4 kiB], kbdDkSp1.rar [129 kiB]
- Configuration for Mac OS X: ES Dvorak.keylayout [40.3 kiB]
- Configuration for
KTouch(included in version 1.5): dvorak-es.keyboard [3.8 kiB], dvorak-es-utf8.keyboard [3.8 kiB] - Lessons for
KTouch(included in version 1.5): dvorak-es.ktouch [24.0 kiB], dvorak-es.ktouch.xml [30.0 kiB]
