Why is the keyboard not in alphabetical order?

In this article we will discuss about “Why is the keyboard not in alphabetical order?” Learn about it, QWERTY was the first typing layout invented in the 1870s to complement typewriters. It works very well with typewriter. Another alternative to QWERTY is the Colemak Keyboard. Colemak keyboards are quite similar to QWERTY keyboards, which makes it easy for users to switch from QWERTY to Colemak.

qwerty keyboard layout

History behind QWERTY Keyboard:

American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes is credited with inventing the QWERTY keyboard. Sholes filed a patent to develop his keyboard in 1867. An earlier keyboard developed by Sholes was alphabetical and the letters were placed like keys on a piano.
The idea was that everyone was familiar with the English alphabet, so it would be easier for them to type if the keys were arranged alphabetically. However, this design had a fundamental drawback: letters on the type-bar would collide if adjacent letters were typed simultaneously or in rapid succession.

Why is keyboard not in alphabetic order?

Because they use the Qwerty pattern originally developed for mechanical type-writers. The logic of the Qwerty layout was based on the use of letters in English rather than the location of letters in the alphabet. The QWERTY keyboard, when it came to popularity, was the only keyboard of its kind. This meant that all typists were trained in QWERTY, which became the norm.


Reasons : why keyboard not in alphabetical order?

Here some reasons we show you :

  • Reason is because of the time of manual typewriters. When it was first invented, they had keys arranged alphabetically, unless configuration was desired upon convention.
  • Of course humans have learned to overcome this barrier system of adaptable type and now (some people) type faster than they can talk, or even think. Because when typing in English (don’t know about other languages) you use some characters (such as vowels) far more often than others (such as Z or X), and the keyboard has to be changed to the most frequently used keys. Designed to help you reach it most easily.
  • The ‘computer’ keyboard is derived directly from the older typewriter keyboard. Since the original typewriters were mechanically slower than the significantly faster typists, the keys were arranged to slow down the typist.
  • This is because the third and fourth fingers of the left hand use the common letters, a, s and e. Because typists have been trained on qwerty keyboards since the 1860s and no one bothered to train them again.
  • The ‘qwerty’ keyboard was designed for use on typewriters to allow frequently used letters to be spaced apart, to avoid colliding or jamming of the most commonly used ‘hammers’.
  • Use the Qwerty pattern originally developed for mechanical type-writers.
  • The logic of the Qwerty layout was based on the use of alphabets in English rather than the location of letters in the alphabet.
  • The “qwerty” keyboard arrangement stems from mechanical typewriters. The keys are arranged to make fast typing difficult as older typewriters jam easily.
  • However, to truly take advantage of it you have to learn to type and stop looking at the keys and move away from one finger. Once you learn to touch you’ll be surprised how you used to manage before.
  • They are arranged randomly because manual typewriters would jam if the user typed too fast – so the arrangement was intended to slow down early typists. Now, of course, we are able to type blazingly fast.
  • The keys on the Qwerty board were designed to be used when the typewriter is operated mechanically.
  • The Qwerty typewriter keyboard was designed to keep commonly used letters away from each other to avoid jamming. Computer keyboards followed as people got used to it and didn’t want to re-learn typing, whether alphabetically for a keyboard or one on one that included easy access to all commonly used letters. be in places.
  • The most frequently used letters were evenly spaced on the keyboard to reduce the amount of time the printing hammers would jam. Due to the fact that the eras of typewriters and computers largely overlapped
  • In early typewriters, the keys were alphabetically arranged, but it was found that this arrangement made the keys jammed very easily. To prevent this the keys were moved around so that weak fingers were needed again and again. This meant that people typed at a speed that the machining could handle
  • By using all this logic qwerty keyboards were designed and it is made for very fast typing.

Conclusion :

All applications are based on the QWERTY keyboard, because they are believed to provide the fastest possible typing. It’s actually an efficient layout for keyboard thats why keyboard not use in alphabetical order. QWERTY become the standard for keyboards.