A standard QWERTY keyboard is designed according to how which letters are most commonly used in language. The letters on the top line in the middle tend to be used the most then it works down and to the sides. ERTYUI being the easiest keys to get to with the index and middle fingers and so on. A few years ago somebody redesigned the layout of the keyboard splitting the letters in half and putting each block of letters apart. also the layout of the letters was changed slightly after a little research and it was found that not only was this new way faster to use , it also eliminated repetitive strain experienced by people who type alot. Unfortunately the new way was seen as too radical from the QWERTY setup and was never brought into main use.

One expalnation that I have seen is that it helps to prevent the letters form jamming on typewriters. Letters that are commonly typed together, such as "e" and "d" are separated to lessen the chance they will jam. Keyboards of course inherited this design from typewriters. It would be very confusing to a person who learned to use a typewriter to change if the letters were arranged differnetly on a keyboard.

From http://www.xpertkeyboard.com/history.htm: -=begin quote=- In 1872, Remington produced the first mechanical typewriter, patented by C. Latham Sholes. Soon typists were going so fast that they were able to jam the keys which flew up to hit the typewriter ribbon. In the late 1870's: the "improved" Qwerty layout was designed to slow down typing, so those pesky keys would not jam anymore. -=end quote=- In 1936, Dvorak "fixed" things, and moved stuff to make typing easier and faster, and to reduce "strain" (dawn of carpel tunnel syndrom?). The link above is actually from a site talking about a patented new layout, that sounds sort of cool, but seems aimed at "hunt and peck" typists. (I've been touch typing since my buddy talked me into taking typing in high school in '82. In addition to an invaluable skill, he and I were the only boys in the class! Thanks again, Mark!)

As already stated in other answers, the Qwerty layout, named after the six letters on the left of the top row, was designed around 1878 to slow down typing and stop the mechanical keys from jamming on typewriters. Electronic keyboards have no mechanical speed limitations, so why do we not have alphabetical layouts on keyboards today? There are probably two main reasons for this: First, resistance to change (example: lack of acceptance of good homerow-oriented keyboards, like Dvorak, from 1936), and second, alphabetical layouts are probably no faster than Qwerty. Typing speed depends on the frequency of letters and key sequences. A complete set of letter and sequence statistics may be found at: http://www.xpertkeyboard.com/sequence.htm. Typing is fastest when sequences are struck by opposite hands, even when reaching across rows. The mind and hand can "preset" key sequences for maximum speed. Touch typing can help overcome speed limitations from awkward key sequences, but few keyboard users have those skills. Most words in English and other languages interleave vowels (v) and consonants (c). That is, letter patterns are typically: vcvccvc, etc. An alphabetic keyboard forces vowels and frequent consonants to appear in particular locations on both left and right sides of the keyboard. Vowels and consonants cannot be separated on different sides of the keyboard, as needed for maximum speed. Although alphabetic keyboards have been patented as early as 1984 and as late as 2000, and are available on the marketplace, they have not made a serious challenge to the standard Qwerty layout from 1878.

The QWERTY keyboard layout was designed so that successive keystrokes would alternate sides of the keyboard so as to avoid jams in manual typewriters. Is frequently said that the design was also created to make people type slower. First designs of manual typewriters using keyboards with letters on alphabetical order could not keep up with the speed of fast typers and the QWERTY keyboard layout was designed to reduce jamming. See: http://home.earthlink.net/~dcrehr/whyqwert.html Later a layout called Dvorak was introduced to allow faster typing and reduce fatigue but has never got widespread use. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard The QWERTY keyboard layout survived the era of electrical typewriters and the digital age because it was the first standard design. Being first counts.

because this guy, [look can you spell type writer only useing the first row,] whanted to write type writer fast

Because humans have the choice to allow a outdated ( bad ) design to live on for two reasons, money and familiarity. Some sources say A Hungarian, Mr QWERTY who laid out the keyboard but did not patent the typewriter was reasponsible. Did his name happen to get spelled out by chance?

because the main keys are in a comfortable place please rate my answer usful

I want a normal keyboard too....but we are all used to this one so we better just stick with it.

It is to do with old type writers, having the abc form made people type too fast too easy and they kept jamming or breaking, the letters were then rearanged to the standard qwerty keyboard as it is today and the problem was solved. Or so my mum told me! :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY a good read

Just to be bloody awkward, IMO

They actually did it so when you type with two hands, letters that are used in words next to each other a lot are not close to each other on the keyboard to make it easier for typing. Notice how few letters in a row you generally type with the same hand.

The QWERTY keyboard layout was devised and created in the 1860s by the creator of the first modern typewriter, Christopher Sholes, a newspaper editor who lived in Milwaukee. Originally, the characters on the typewriters he invented were arranged alphabetically, set on the end of a metal bar which struck the paper when its key was pressed. However, once an operator had learned to type at speed, the bars attached to letters that lay close together on the keyboard became entangled with one another, forcing the typist to manually unstick the typebars, and also frequently blotting the document. A business associate of Sholes, James Densmore, suggested splitting up keys for letters commonly used together to speed up typing by preventing common pairs of typebars from striking the platen at the same time and sticking together. The effect this rearrangement of letters had on maximum typing speed is a disputed issue. Some sources assert that the QWERTY layout was designed to slow down typing speed to further reduce jamming. Other sources assert the rearrangement worked by separating common sequences of letters in English. Ostensibly, the hammers that were likely to be used in quick succession were less likely to interfere with each other. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY

Last time I looked they are...just not in order....and if you haven't noticed, there are symbols too, plus a bunch of keys that make your computer do strange things...I don't go near those:)

because people like to mess with other people

If it was you fingers would get awfully tied up in typing words. It is simply an electronic typewriter. When typewriters were first invented they wee designed so that they were as ergonomic as possible. This simply carried over with the invent of computers.

Because language isn't in alphabetical order. The keyboard was designed so that the letters that are used most frequently together, are put close to each other. This allows for faster typing while putting less stress on your fingers.

The keyboard was designed for old-fashioned mechanical typewriter to keep the most frequently used keys *away* from each other, because on such typewriters nearby keys were much more likely to jam than distant keys.It is *not* designed to speed typing up: on the contrary, it is designed, if anything, to slow it down, or at least to generate a regular speed rather than allowing bursts of very fast typing which would jam the keys. See http://home.earthlink.net/~dcrehr/whyqwert.html for more.

It's arranged the way it is because some letters are used a lot more frequently, while others are not. If it was alphabetical, some of the letters we don't use that often would be more easily accessible than others we do.

It used to be that the keyboards were alphabetical, but typists would get to fast and break the keyboards. They decided something had to be done, so they re-arranged the keyboard and came up with the "QWERTY", I believe it's called. " The first commercially successful typewriter was developed by Christopher Latham Sholes in 1873. Originally, the keys were arranged alphabetically. However, a problem soon arose. People became so adept at using the keyboard that the keys would stick or jam when struck in quick succession. In order to overcome this problem Sholes decided to make the job of typing as slow as he possibly could. His solution? He placed the most frequently used keys as far apart from each other as he could. His keyboard became known as the QWERTY keyboard. So, that is the reason why your keyboard is formatted the way it is. Ironic, really – considering that every other aspect of your computer is streamlined for maximum efficiency and yet you have to labor over a 127 year old system designed specifically for inefficiency. And inefficient it certainly is. For one thing, QWERTY was not designed for touch typing, which came much later. For keys that are not in the middle or home row it is necessary to reach across diagonally. This is difficult and leads to a high error rate. " Copied from http://njnj.essortment.com/keyboardhisto_rdqo.htm

Because they are arranged in such a way as to have the most used keys in the easiest position to use.

Originally the keyboard was laid out alphabetically. Typist soon learned to type so fast that the mechanical hammers would jam, not having the time to fall back after making their impressions against the ribbon. To slow down the typists and prevent the problem with the hammers jamming, the QWERTY keyboard was invented. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY#History_and_purposes

When typwriters came out, they were in alphabetical order. Many letters are that are close to each other in the alphabet are used quite frequently. Because of the way the striking arms are placed inside a typewriter, if keys that are close to each other are struck in very close sequence, they get ctuck on each other. So in order to fix this problem, the Qwerty inventer placed combinations of letters that are close to each other further apart than they were. So that the keys are being struck from further positions than with the ABCD Keyboard. Typing fast is easier when the keys don't get stuck on eachither. It was not done to slow typists down, rather to keep the keys in the machine from sticking. That actually speeds things up. It's pointless now, but that's the way keyboards have looked for so long that it was never changed.

Because the keys we tend to hit the most, become too close together and awkward to type with if it were in alphabetical order.

MONKEYS THROW POOP!

there is a keyboard that does that, but the typical keyboard is the Qwerty Keyboard, which the letters are spread out and arranged by how often they are used, to maximize speed of typing.

When the first typewriters were invented, the keyboard was laid out differently that the modern ones of today. The keys were alphabetical and designed to be easy to use. However as people became familiar with the keyboard layout their typing speed increased considerably and the first machines in use simply could not keep up with the speed of the typist. In other words, the typist could type faster than the machine she was using was able to cope with. So a new keyboard layout was designed and called the QWERTY Keyboard with the aim of reducing typing speed to a level that was compatible with the machines in use. Of course, much as changed and modern typewriters are computers are now able to keep up. The layout of the keyboard remains the same today simply because of the preference of consumers. A few years back Microsoft did attempt to promote a new type of keyboard with a totally new layout designed to offer better speed, comfort and easy of use. Keys were arranged into two main groups and the product was marketed as the future of keyboard layout. However, the idea failed to catch on with the public - the keyboard layout may well have been faster & easier to use once the user was accustomed to it, but people just did not like it - hence the reason for the QWERTY keyboard still being in use today.

have no idea +5

When typewriters were first developed the keyboard layout was a deliberate ploy to slow down typing so that the mechanical levers didn't foul each other.

I heard it was because the inventors wanted you to make fewer typo's as commonly used letters needed to be separated from each other.

because this one is ergonomically correct, the letters are at the best place for fast typing, its fluent, if it was alphabetical it woul take ages and become very tedious

The original typewriters had mechanical arms with letters on the ends that came up and struck ink saturated ribbon and the paper to make an image. When you got going at a good clip, the arms would get twisted together (I had two of them, and they did it to me all the time). The QWERTY keyboard was created to slow the typist down so that the arms wouldn't tangle. Of course, the problem is that once you master the keyboard, you can type just as fast anyway. In fact, eventually your hands know the shape of the words just as they do when you are writing manually, or like your mouth knows the shape of spoken words, and you can type as fast as you think even with a QWERTY keyboard. That lead to the development of typewriters where the letters were struck from a ball or a wheel and eventually to the development of computers. When these newer technologies were invented, everyone who would be using them was used to a QWERTY keyboard, so the new technologies were built with a QWERTY keyboard to accommodate them, rather than retrain every typist. If everyone had been forced to retrain, the newer technologies would have flopped. So succeeding generations of young people have been trained on the QWERTY and the keyboard continues.

thats a good question, maybe its easier for us to type that way