UK Dvorak Keyboard Layout

I use the Dvorak keyboard layout, but Windows does not include a United Kingdom variant. I've therefore created one, which is available for download from the Attachments section below. This is based on the United States Dvorak layout included with Microsoft Windows. My layout modifies Shift-3 to type the pound sign (£), swaps the @ and " keys and moves # and ~ to their standard UK location.

UK Dvorak layout

UK Dvorak layout with Shift held down

Installation Instructions

Download the "United Kingdom-Dvorak.zip" file from the Downloads section below and extract it on your computer. From the extracted folder, run setup.exe. This will install the new keyboard layout on your computer. You can then select it from the Control Panel. On Windows 7, these settings are under "Change keyboards or other input methods".

Further Information

I've tested this layout using Windows 7. However, it should work with Windows 2000, XP and Vista as well.

This layout was created using the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator tool. The source file, ukdvk.klc, is available in the Downloads section below. If you're not happy running executables from random pages (and you shouldn't be!), you can use the tool and my source file to create your own.

This is based on the United Kingdom Dvorak layout that is included on UNIX/Linux systems that run XKeyboardConfig.

An alternative version which maintains more of the standard UK punctuation keys is available from http://www.tarind.com/ukdvorak.html.

What is Dvorak?

Dvorak is an alternative to the standard QWERTY keyboard layout. For more information, see the Wikipedia article.