Reprinted from TidBITS by permission; reuse governed by Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 3.0. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the entire TidBITS archive, visit http://www.tidbits.com/ iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 Virtual Keyboards Now Support Dvorak Josh Centers Almost every computer keyboard in the English-speaking world uses the 19th-century [1]QWERTY layout. But you may not know that there's an alternative: the [2]Dvorak layout, which was developed by August Dvorak in 1936 (happily, it has nothing to do with tech curmudgeon John C. Dvorak). Dvorak is not nearly as popular as QWERTY, but its adherents claim that it requires less finger movement and is thus more efficient and ergonomic. Personally, I've never bothered with Dvorak, largely because it would require fighting muscle memory when using any other keyboard in the world. However, if you long ago made the switch to Dvorak but are frustrated by the QWERTY layout of the iOS and iPadOS onscreen keyboard, I have good news: you can now use Dvorak on your iPhone and iPad. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > English (US) (or whichever keyboard you use) and choose Dvorak. The next time you display the onscreen keyboard, it will be in the Dvorak layout. This setting won't change the layout of a physical keyboard attached to your device. To change the layout of a physical keyboard, go to Settings > General > Hardware Keyboard > English (US) and choose Dvorak. (Changing or ignoring the keycaps is up to you.) I'm skeptical of whether a virtual Dvorak keyboard will provide the same benefits as a physical one, seeing how Dvorak was designed for touch-typing efficiency. It's also [3]debatable whether Dvorak is all that superior to QWERTY. However, after trying Dvorak on my iPhone, I understand how frustrating switching between layouts is. References Visible links 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_keyboard_layout 3. https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/17/18223384/dvorak-qwerty-keyboard-layout-10-years-speed-ergonomics Hidden links: 4. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2022/10/Select-keyboard-layout.jpeg 5. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2022/10/Dvorak-iPad-scaled.jpeg .