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Frequently-used pairs of letters were separated in an attempt to stop the typebars from intertwining and becoming stuck, thus forcing the typist to manually unstick the typebars and also frequently blotting the document. (The home row (ASDFGHJKL) of the QWERTY layout is thought to be a remnant of the old alphabetical layout that QWERTY replaced.) It also alternated keys between hands, allowing one hand to move into position while the other hand strikes a key. This sped up both the original double-handed hunt-and-peck technique and the later touch typing technique; however, single-handed words such as "stewardess" and "monopoly" show flaws in the alternation.

It has often been noted that the word "typewriter" can be typed entirely using the top row of the QWERTY keyboard: it has been speculated that this may have been a factor in the choice of keys for ease of demonstration.

Minor changes to the arrangement are made for other languages; for example, German keyboards interchange the "Z" and "Y" keys both because "Z" is a much more common letter than "Y" in German (the latter appearing seldom except in words of Greek origin), and because Z and A often appear next to each other in the German language; consequently, they are known as QWERTZ keyboards. French keyboards interchange both "Q" and "W" with "A" and "Z" and are known as AZERTY keyboards. Also, Portuguese keyboards have an extra key: the letter C with cedilla (Ç) key after the L key, while other Latin languages have other small variations on QWERTY. See Keyboard layoutComputers and other typing devices offer many different keyboard layouts for people to be able to input data in different languages. The standard English keyboard layout is known as QWERTY. Various alternatives to the QWERTY layout have been suggested, ma for more information on this topic.

Tests have shown that other arrangements of keys leads to more efficient typing of typical English text. The Dvorak Simplified KeyboardThe Dvorak Simplified Keyboard is a keyboard layout designed by Drs. August Dvorak and William Dealey in the 1920s and 1930s as an alternative to the still-popular QWERTY layout. It has also been called the Simplified Keyboard or American Simplified Keybo arrangement (designed by Drs. August DvorakAugust Dvorak ( May 5, 1894 October 10, 1975) was an educational psychologist and professor of education at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. He and his brother-in-law, Dr. William Dealey, are best known for creating the Dvorak Simplifi and William Dealey and patented in 1936Events January-February January 15 The first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio, for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company. January 20 Death of George V of the United Kingdom. His son Edward VIII succeedes him as King of th) has had some success in this regard, but the QWERTY arrangement remains the most popular, largely due both to market inertia and to tests showing little significant performance difference between those who first learned to type on QWERTY and those who first learned to type on Dvorak. The single greatest benefit reported by Dvorak users is the comfort Dvorak provides.

Sholes himself patented a key arrangement similar to Dvorak's, but it never became popular.

For a QWERTY typist to switch to Dvorak requires more effort than initially learning to touch-type, because of having to retrain the fingers' muscle memory. Computer users also need to unlearn the habit of pressing key-shortcuts (for example: ctrl-c for copy, ctrl-x for cut). It is not unusual to find Dvorak typists who also touch type the QWERTY layout, for convenience owing to QWERTY's ubiquity.