As you may know the dvorak layout is optimised for the English language. 70% of all keystrokes hits the home row, compared to only 30 - 35% for the qwerty layout. Other optimisations like frequent shifting between the left and right hand as well as more logical letter placement is also benefits of dvorak. On the downside it is not a well spread standard and some applications may have been optimised for qwerty in terms of placement of keyboard shortcuts for example.
However if one spends a great deal of time at the keyboard writing massive amounts of text, switching to the dvorak layout may be the right thing to do. Many dvorak advocates claim that your typing speed is increased if you switch to dvorak. This is generally not true, it will increase the comfort, but if you are a good qwerty typist already it is unlikely that your speed will increase. You will not be writing slower though, except during the training period of course.
How good is dvorak for the Swedish language then? Well first it must be modified to put in the letters å ä and ö. With the help of statistics on the language I have solved the problem in the following way, other layouts given for comparsion:
without shift: with shift: with altgr: Swedish dvorak layout §1234567890+´ ½!"#¤%&/()=?` __@£$__{[]}\_ öåäpyfgcrlq¨ ÖÅÄPYFGCRLQ^ ___________~ aoeuidhtns-< AOEUIDHTNS_> ___________¦ ',.jkxbmwvz *;:JKXBMWVZ ___________ American dvorak layout 1234567890[] !@#$%^&*(){} ',.pyfgcrl/= "<>PYFGCRL?+ aoeuidhtns- AOEUIDHTNS_ ;qjkxbmwvz :QJKXBMWVZ Swedish qwerty layout §1234567890+´ ½!"#¤%&/()=?` __@£$__{[]}\_ qwertyuiopå¨ QWERTYUIOPÅ^ ___________~ asdfghjklöä' ASDFGHJKLÖÄ* ____________ <zxcvbnm,.- >ZXCVBNM;:_ ¦__________
If you run Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 95/98 or Windows 2000 you should download the WindowsNT4/95/98/2000 keymap. If you run unix you should get the unix package instead (it contains files for X-windows and bash, plus some installation tips). Of course, you should also rearrange the keys on the keyboard. The Swedish print on the keys will fit the layout. Not all keybords have identical shaped keys on every row which will cause problems when you move them around.
The difference between American and Swedish dvorak is about the same as between American and Swedish qwerty. Swedish dvorak has in practice the same performance on the English language as the native version.
Back to the main question, how good is dvorak for the Swedish language? 60% of the keystrokes hits the home row, an truly optimised Swedish keyboard layout would be able to increase that number to just under 70%. The balance between left and right hand is unchanged and the hand switching frequency is slightly increased (which is good). The letters 'h' and 'u' are not very much used in Swedish, which causes the 13% smaller hit-rate on the home row.
However, the performance is in my opinion good enough for keeping the standard layout. An efficiency extremist would switch the places of 'r' and 'h' which would rise the hit-rate close to the 70% limit. The letter 'l' is arguable also a bit bad placed since it is used quite frequently and must be pressed with the right little finger.
It may be interesting to note that qwerty is slightly better at Swedish than English. About 40% of the keystrokes hits the home row. This makes the difference between qwerty and dvorak smaller for Swedish than it is for English.
Q. Why should I learn the Swedish version of dvorak?
A. Since the qwerty layout is better on Swedish than English and the
opposite is the case for dvorak, the gap between they two layouts are
not gigantic (50% more home row hits with dvorak). While it is
perfectly ok to learn the layout, it may not be worth the effort if
you just type Swedish texts. If your output includes both English and
Swedish, I would recommend dvorak.
Q. Why should I avoid learning dvorak?
A. If you will work on several different computers or it is not
possible to use dvorak most of the time by some other reason, it may
not be worth the effort learning it. If your typing mostly is done in
command shells, dvorak will probably not help you. Also if you are a
programmer that never writes comments nor documents your code, you
will probably not benefit from dvorak. You probably should stop
programming too.
Q. How much time will I need to learn dvorak?
A. It depends on how much you type of course. I would recommend you to
allocate a month when there is no hurry when typing. Then just
type. You will be terribly slow the first week, but after that first
week you will probably be fast enough not to be frustrated. Then you
may need three more to gain the old qwerty typing speed.
Q. Will I forget qwerty when I have learnt dvorak?
A. No. Well, I did not, I use qwerty-machines now and then without
experiencing much problems, I need to look at the keyboard when I type
though. I must confess that I was never that good at qwerty even before
I switched to dvorak.
Q. Why is Q moved compared to the american version?
A. The alternative is to have the full stop key or similar at the
position. In an early version of the layout that was the case, which
could lead to an overloaded right little finger. The letters s and l
are slightly more used in Swedish and that together with a rather
common key as full stop or comma is simply too much for the little
finger to handle. Q is used once in ten thousand letters in common
Swedish, and about one q in is found among thousand letters in English
texts.
Q. Will my collegues hate me if I use dvorak?
A. Yes.