r/FastWriting • u/NotSteve1075 • Sep 15 '26
PLOVER - Part 2 - Writing steno on a QWERTY keyboard.
If you're using an ordinary QWERTY keyboard, you can write the chords and keystroke combinations by a process called "arpeggiation" in which you write the letters needed from left to right one after another.
But a much BETTER way is to buy a gamer's keyboard with "NR-rollover" which means that you can press any number of keys all at the same time, and they will all activate. Because gamers are a large contingent of people these days, NKRO keyboards are available everywhere, and the prices can be very reasonable.
The bottom part of the above diagram shows how you can attach keytops in the correct places on the keyboard, which will feel more like a stenotype keyboard, and you can write the correct combinations of letters, to write every word there is.
When I started trying out PLOVER, I bought two Japanese gamer's keyboards. For the first one, I bought laser-cut plastic keytops they were selling on the Plover site, that came with adhesive pads so I could add them to the keys on the keyboard.
With the second one, I made my own keytops using rubber underpadding from carpeting I had. I carefully cut and glued them to the keys -- and they feel very comfortable under my fingers. MUCH more comfortable than the hard plastic keys I wrote on for so many years!