Everything You Need to Know About Workman
Workman is an alternative keyboard layout created in 2010 that prioritizes reducing finger strain by weighting key positions differently than Colemak or Dvorak. It treats the top-center keys as easier to reach than the bottom-center keys and avoids lateral index-finger stretches.
Best for
Best for typists who want a long-standing ergonomic alternative with standard shortcut access and a gentler visual jump than some newer community layouts.
Main challenge
The main Workman challenge is settling into a different rhythm than both QWERTY and Colemak while resisting the urge to judge the layout before the new reaches become automatic.
History and Origin
OJ Bucao created the Workman layout in 2010 and published it at workmanlayout.org. Bucao developed Workman after using Colemak and noticing that certain finger movements — particularly lateral stretches to the center column and downward curls to the bottom row — felt more strenuous than the movement metrics suggested. The layout was named for its goal of reducing the physical work each finger performs.
Workman was one of the first layouts to challenge the common assumption that all home-row keys are equally comfortable. Bucao argued that the center column (index-finger inner reach) is actually one of the hardest positions to hit cleanly on a row-stagger keyboard, a critique that later influenced the Colemak-DH mod.
Design Philosophy
Workman assigns an effort score to each key position that accounts for finger strength, reach direction, and the row-stagger geometry of standard keyboards. Unlike models that treat all home-row keys as equal, Workman penalizes the center column and rates the top-row keys under the index and middle fingers as easier than their bottom-row counterparts.
The result is a layout where high-frequency letters avoid both the center column and the bottom corners. The home row contains A, S, H, T, G, Y, N, E, O, I — keeping most vowels on the right hand and common consonants on the left, similar to Dvorak's general approach but with different specific placements. Same-finger bigrams are minimized, and the layout avoids placing common letter pairs on adjacent fingers in the same direction.
Who Workman Is Best For
Workman appeals to typists who are specifically concerned about finger strain rather than raw speed. It is a good fit for people who have tried Colemak and found the center-column keys uncomfortable, or who want an alternative that was designed with row-stagger ergonomics in mind from the start.
Typists who experience finger fatigue, particularly in the index fingers
Users who tried Colemak and disliked the center-column reach for D and H
People who want an alternative to QWERTY designed specifically for row-stagger keyboards
Typists who prioritize comfort over minimal change from QWERTY (Workman moves more keys than Colemak)
Switching from QWERTY to Workman
Workman moves more keys from their QWERTY positions than Colemak does, so the initial learning curve is steeper. Most learners reach functional speed (30+ WPM) within 2–3 weeks and recover their full speed in 2–3 months. Unlike Colemak, Workman does not preserve the QWERTY positions of Z, X, C, V — so keyboard shortcuts will need to be relearned or remapped.
SureTyping's lesson paths provide a structured Workman curriculum that progresses from home row through each row systematically. The AI trainer tracks your accuracy on each key and builds follow-up drills from your weakest positions, which helps you push through the mid-transition plateau.
How to Practice on SureTyping
Start with the home-row foundations to establish the new finger positions, then work through the upper and lower row stages. Because Workman moves more keys than Colemak, the full-keyboard stage benefits from extra repetition. Use custom training to maintain focus on the keys that moved farthest from QWERTY — these tend to be the last ones to become automatic.
Tracks
Lesson curriculum
422 lessons — View allLesson Stage
Individual Home Row Letters
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Foundations
Home Row Combinations
Early lessons that build finger anchors, repeatable reaches, and the first real words.
Lesson Stage
Individual Top Row Letters
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Upper Reach
Top Row Combinations
Lessons that add upper-row travel, alternating-hand rhythm, and controlled reach.
Lesson Stage
Individual Bottom Row Letters
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lower Reach
Bottom Row Combinations
Lessons that strengthen precision on the lower row and improve edge-key control.
Word Building
Word Building
Lessons that turn letter control into common words, bigrams, and connected phrases.
Lesson Stage
Fluency Review
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Capital Letters
Capital Letters
Lessons that teach opposite-hand Shift technique for capitals before moving into full mixed-text fluency.
Lesson Stage
Shift Technique
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Speed Drills
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Accuracy Training
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Real-World Typing
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Endurance
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Weak Key Recovery
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Full Keyboard
Mastery
Lessons that combine punctuation, numbers, symbols, mixed strings, and speed-oriented review work.
Lesson Stage
Punctuation & Numbers
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Casper Test Typing Prep
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
JavaScript code typing
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
TypeScript code typing
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Python code typing
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Java code typing
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Code: C
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Code: C++
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Code: C#
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Code: Go
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Code: Rust
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Code: Ruby
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Code: PHP
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Code: Swift
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Code: Kotlin
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Code: SQL
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
HTML & CSS code typing
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Code: Bash
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Kira Talent Typing Prep
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Duet Typing Prep
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Snapshot Written Follow-up Prep
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
GRE Analytical Writing Typing Prep
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
LSAT Writing Sample Typing Prep
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.
Lesson Stage
Coding Assessment Typing Prep
Part of the SureTyping guided lesson path.