Macintosh

At 9:34 PM -0500 2/6/02, Audra Morrison wrote:
Just wanted to let you know the deal for changing to Dvorak in Mac's OS X.

Go to System Preferences, Click on International, and click on the Dvorak keyboard you want in the list (United States is the only one selected by default).

To switch between US (QWERTY) and Dvorak, press Command+Option+Space. There'll be an icon in the top bar - the US flag in QWERTY, a black and white "DV" in Dvorak.

Regarding one-handed layouts in OS X, on July 24, 2003 Krishna Sethuraman wrote:
MacOS 10.2 allows you to [add layouts] per Apple's [developer] technical note 2056: drop the 'DI Dvorak Left Hand' and 'DI Dvorak Right Hand' files from the Dvorak International distribution into /Library/Keyboard Layouts, and rename the files with a 'rsrc' extension.

Reboot (logging out may be sufficient); they will appear in the System Preferences->International keyboard layout menu (this worked for me in 10.2.6).

MacOS 8.5 and up have Dvorak layouts built in. Use the Keyboard control panel to select a layout. If you select more than one layout in the control panel, the selected layouts are listed in a menu on the right end of the menu bar. You can also enable a keyboard shortcut to switch between selected layouts.

For older Mac systems, a number of alternative Dvorak keymaps are available. I found most of the ones on this page at ftp://ftp.uu.net/archive/systems/mac/info-mac/cfg (try your closest Info-Mac mirror).

For System 7 and above, most keymaps can be installed by dropping the keymap icon onto the System folder. To switch keymaps, use the Keyboard control panel. Systems prior to MacOS 8.0 don't have a keyboard menu option (except via a ResEdit hack that I've forgotten), but System 7 does let you enable a keyboard shortcut to rotate through the installed keyboards. The catch is you have to copy your system file and pull out all the layouts you don't need. Some older Dvorak utilities provide other keyboard shortcuts for switching layouts.

In case you can't get to an Info-Mac mirror right now, I've put some selected Mac keymaps in my home page directory. You can download from the following list if your browser will save HQX to a file. You can use Stuffit Extractor or BinHex 4.0 to extract any of these.

Disclaimer: I haven't tried all these. Right now I'm using the Dvorak International version.

Dvorak International (18 KB).

Layouts for System 7 and up. The docs claim it is ANSI standard, but it actually has improved bracket placement. It includes Dvorak layouts for both hands and versions for left or right hand only.

German Dvorak layout (14 KB).

The description is also in German!

Electric Dvorak (41 KB).

Layouts with installer and FKEY switcher for older Mac systems. Also works for System 7. The docs have an old address for Dvorak Intertational, use the new one.

QDvorak (9 KB), by Quinn.

System 7 layout with some enhancements, especially for folks who want command-keys in QWERTY.

If you are brave and you want to roll your own keymap arrangement, you can use Apple's ResEdit program to open a copy of your System file and modify the KCHR resource. Newer versions of ResEdit have a neat interface for this, but don't ask me how to use it! (I'm a hex-dump kind of guy.)

Hard-wired Macintosh-compatible Dvorak keyboards are also available. Try Keytime (Tel: 206-522-TYPE).

Back to Introducing the Dvorak Keyboard.