Comparison between QWERTY and Steno

Aspect	What you are used to with QWERTY	What you need to know about Plover
Input	Direct, Single-key input. The letter you press is what you get. Press the key for what symbol you want to input: letter numbers punctuation white space (tab, carriage return, space, etc)	Translated, Multi-key input. The keys you press will be translated via a dictionary if possible. Press the keys (note: multiple; see chord) for what you want to input: letter number punctuation white space phoneme/syllable prefix suffix word phrase any combination of the above command (Plover) It’s “translated” because what the chords output depends on the dictionary you are using.
Keyboard Layout	keys represent letters, numbers, punctuation, or white space ~104 keys press SHIFT to access more symbols	keys represent phonemes 22 keys Press * to create additional chord combinations
Hand Positioning	Fingers rest directly on top of keys: left fingers: on a,s,d,f left thumb: over space bar right fingers: on j,k,l,; right thumb: over space bar	Fingers rest in between keys: left fingers: between q/a,w/s,e/d,r/f left thumb: between c/v right fingers: between u/j, i/k, o/l, p/; right thumb: between n/m
Movement	single letter key presses, one key at a time	multiple keys pressed at the same time. To achieve this, movement will often involve simultaneously pressing down with fingers of both hands using thumbs (unlike in QWERTY where they are only used for spaces) simultaneously pressing down on two adjacent keys with a single finger
Word Spacing	press spacebar, tab, or enter as necessary	spaces are put in automatically. Word boundaries need to be taken into account. ‘in’ as in ‘insect’ would be different than ‘in’ as in ‘in here’. Also 'it is a live wire' would be different than 'it is alive'. spaces, tabs, and line returns are now briefs
Ergonomics	keyboard is at elbow level forearms extended	keyboard is lower than elbow level closer to the body
Error Correction	backspace	‘*’ to remove previous stroke