Why are the letters on the keyboard not in alphabetical order?

Answer 1

The 'QWERTY' keyboard is from old typewriter keyboards. To avoid the most popular keys hitting each other as they printed onto the paper, the popular ones were kept apart.

This cut down on the number of times the keys jammed the typewriter up

Answer 2

Because of the way words are written.

Fore example, before a R, you never have a Q, but E is really frequent before a R.. For this reasy, E and R are side by side.

Letter placement differs a little bit depending on countries. But they are placed this way for a reason. take the word, reason. Reas, the first 2 letters, R and E are next to each other, A and S are next to each other which are also just one row below R and E. On an alpjabetical keyboard, you would move your finger more, preventing you from achieving crazy typing speed. Keyboards were invented way before computers. Typing machines.. And secretaries had to type real time what they heard. A kind of speed that could never be reached with letters placed alphabetically. The hardest part is just to learn the placement, but once learned, you can type much faster than on an alpha keyboard.

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All answers above are wrong! An alpha keyboard is much slower than the US standard one. The placement of letters make a much better use of using your 10 fingers at the same time than the alpha placement. Just think about it. Unless you want to type your ABC really fast....

Also, all these people just red the first few line of the qwerty definition of Wikipedia. Qwerty also has been optimized for letter placement. It doesn't make sense, since WHEN did you write a word that began by ABC or GHI !

The world record is not on an abc keyboard.


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COMPUTERS DON'T JAM! If the writing model could be improved, it would certainly not follow the ABCDEF model! It might just improve on the qwerty one.

Wikipedia isn't a bible

Answer 3

Its because the original keyboard, the typewritter, it had the letters placed the way they are so it slowed the typer down. This helped so the typewritter wouldn't get the letters stuck when trying to type. They continued this onto the computer. Now a days, its more of a hassle, and they do offer better keyboards so you can type quicker, just the original has remained popular.

Answer 4

Because originally they were rearranged to slow down a typist due to the typewriter keys getting stuck.

Now, it's because that's the way it's been done forever. In alphabetical order, people wouldn't be able to type faster though. The fastest "standard" is Dvorak, but rearranging the keys for each language to yield the absolute best keyboard layout actually lets us know that Dvorak is close to the perfect keyboard layout.

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

the keyboard is setup in the most effective way in the keyboard alphabetical is just not the best way it is easier to type this way. Sorry that is the best way I can explain it, I know it sounds a little confusing.

Answer 6

Originally, the keys were arrayed alphabetically. Given the frequency of use of some of the more common letters, the bars for adjacent letters would often collide before hitting the inked ribbon and would jam the machine.

Answer 7

I know it has something to do with the frequency a certain letter is used. For example, the ones used the least (Z, X) are in the lower left corner while those used more often are in the middle and clustered closer together

Answer 8

way back in the old days when there were typewriters, if you were to push 2 kes at once on to quickly after another one, it would jam. The guy that invented them calculated the amount of average uses of letters and the speed your fingers travel at to create a "keyboard" that would jam the least amount of times. Everyone was used to it when computers came along that they just kept the layout.

Answer 9

It has something to do with the way it was invented: When it was being built some of the keys only fit in certain places. So the keyboard remained like that. Everybody got used to the keys being that way.

Answer 10

the letters are arranged in what's called "qwerty" format. They used to be different, but writers started typing too fast so they designed it this way to intentially slow them down. The problem was that the typewriters were getting jammed. Nowadays it wouldn't be a problem to switch back, but it's kind of like the metric system, it's never gonna fly in the US.