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Typing Tutors have previously been dull and uninspiring, but with Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor learning to touch type can productive as well as fun.
Learning to type accurately whilst not looking at the keyboard is perhaps one of the most useful and productive skills any computer user can learn, yet how many users get by with just using a couple of fingers and with eyes glued to the keyboard? Not only is this method slow and unproductive, but a literal minefield full of spelling mistakes and capitalised sentences. Correcting these typing errors can take time, attention and energy away from the work in hand. The answer is to learn to touch type correctly but in these fast digital times, there never seems the opportunity to pause a moment and go back and learn something we should perhaps have done at the beginning. With Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor you can go back and learn to touch type, but without the stress and frustration of early typing programs. The Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor software has been available for over ten years and has developed into a mature and complete typing course. Although first released in 1995, it was the addition of a cartoon Viking character as the tutor in 1998 that gave the program its unique slant. Later multi-lingual support was added as well as on-line testing for typing beginners. How Ten Thumbs WorksEach session takes place with your tutor - the Viking - who walks you through the best habits to adopt as you begin your course. You start off by indicating your typing level and then you are introduced to the basics of good posture and lesson times. Before you begin to type, you first learn the letter placement on the keyboard and then gradually get to introduce the letters into words as and when you are comfortable. To help avoid the problem of looking at the keys as you type, Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor places a keyboard on the screen so that you learn to feel the layout of the keys rather than look for them. Each lesson is concluded with a review of your progress and a score for your accuracy and typing skills in relation to the goals you set at the beginning. The Viking will make suggestions as to how to further improve and you will also have the opportunity to relearn specific keys, as well as play typing games and re-assess your goals. If you want a break from the lessons there is a practice wizard that allows you, at any point, to go back over certain keys or to practice alongside song lyrics from your iTunes library. You can also choose to import your own texts to type, or learn by typing in song lyrics that the program will collect for you. With Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor learning is simple and fun and its easy to stay motivated because improvements are seen from the first day. Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor is available for all the following platforms: Mac OSX, Windows and Linux and is available as a trial download.
The copyright of the article Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor in Computer Software is owned by Paul Read. Permission to republish Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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