why are the letters in the typewriter or keyboard not in alphabetical order?

Answer 1

When typewriters were first invented the fast typers would jam the mechanisms, as commonly used letters were near eachother.

The standard QWERTY layout was designed to stop that happening.

Answer 2

Back when there were typewriters (manual old fashioned ones, not electric ones,we are talking back in the 1800's here) you would press a key to type a character and the metal piece would come up with the character on it and strike the ribbon which imprinted the character on the paper. Anyway, back when typewriters were invented the letters were in alphabetical order from A to Z. As people became more and more proficient in typing, they obviously began to type faster and faster. Because of how typewriters were designed then, if you typed too fast the metal things would get hung up on each other and the typewriter would jam up. This became a common problem back in the day and nobody could figure out how to solve it as people were just typing way too fast and messing up their typewriters. Finally they came up with an idea to shuffle all the letters around randomly to make people slow down in their typing. Eventually this was standardized into the QWERTY keyboard. So from the age of manual typewriters to the electronic age, we still have the same keyboard.

Answer 3

The current keyboard layout, called the QWERTY, was developed over a hundred years ago by typewriter inventer C. L. Sholes.

It was chosen over the obvious alphabetical order because the old mechanical typewriters used long bars to print the letter on paper, and these bars would get stuck if the typewriter was typing English words very quickly. To reduce the bar clogging, Sholes placed letters that would be used together most often as far apart as possible, like the letters "T" and "H".

And since that day we have been stuck with this layout, phasing it out would be too difficult since we've been used to it for generations.

Answer 4

Hi, am sorry but most of the above answer are incorrect. Originally the first typewriters were in alphabetical order but just at the start of the first world war we were concerned over important documentation getting into german hands so a coded keyboard was invented.

The keyboard was invented by a team of scientists from Saudia Arabia headed by Qwerty Uiop with his 2 assitants Asdfgh Jkl and Zxcv Bnm

All past typewriters were destroyed and the new ones stayed

Translate the letters back starting with A for Q and W for B when you type something normal and see what you come up with.



Let me know what you get lol

Answer 5

the guy who invented the keyboard gathered pointers on which letters are used the main (like in wheel of fortune, while the contestants are playing for the vast prize they get the letters r,s,t,l,n,e cuz they're elementary). while typing those letters your palms do no longer might desire to go around the board as lots. the reason being that back while typewriters have been first invented, it substitute into researched what the quickest association for the keys could be. i think this modification into pronounced as the dvorak keyboard. besides, early typewriters weren't in a position to sort very rapid and so as that they could jam up lots. so yet another association had to be got here across, purely this time it had to be the least helpful so as that individuals could sort slower, and consequently reason much less jams. it particularly is how we've been given the 'qwerty' keyboard that we nonetheless use on the instant. back interior the days.....it substitute into in alphabetical order.

Answer 6

The American QWERTY keyboard was designed to make it easier to access the letters as used in the English language (other languages use non-QWERT keyboarrd layouts). If the keyboard was alphabetic it would not be so easy to type as the layout is designed for a two handed typist! A good typist develops a rhythm that both the machine and the operator find convenient.

Answer 7

When typewriters were originally invented, the looked at the keys that were most frequently used, and moved them around to slow down the typist (sound insane but its true).
They had to do this because the old typewriters tended to stick when two keys were pushed too close together. By slowing down the typist, they could prevent the keys becomming stuck.

Answer 8

The keys were placed most used in the center of each hand and spread out radially. This is why you find the French clavier is different to the UK and US one. In fact they are now realizing in France that the French keyboard is so bad that to operate the numbers you have to stop typing and to do such things as the @
you have to use both hands completely(as we do for €). There are now problems with the qwerty keyboard as well so expect to see a "Euro" keyboard in the not too distant future, possibly also the dropping of accents.

Answer 9

When the typwriter was first invented it had the alphabet in the right order but typists learnt to type faster than the mechanism could cope with. The Qwerty keyboard was developed to slow typing down.

Answer 10

This is the way they have allways been i don't find it a problem but i think i would if they were to change them. If you look at an old type writer you will see that they are also the same.