Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Platinum V20 (Mac/PC) (CD-ROM)

Not perfect but a big step forward from Version 16 This is a good program which will introduce you to touch typing and then allow you, with perseverance, to progress to pretty well any level you desire. The program monitors your progress and tailors the lessons appropriately. Having used earlier versions of this program, the Amazon Vine Program offered a good opportunity to review the latest incarnation. I was immediately impressed by version 20. It seems noticeably faster to load than version 16 and I found the layout to be much clearer. One of the improvements is the provision of a 'curriculum map.' In the past you followed the lessons which Mavis provided with little idea of where you were going or how far you had come. Now you can see a schematic diagram which shows which lessons have been completed, the one you are currently working on and where you go from here. As always, the program provides statistics to show how long you have worked at your typing, keys which you are proficient with, your average speed and so on. Currently my typing speed is being displayed as a negative number - so there does appear to be a bit of a bug here. The information provided for this product proudly announces that there are 12 games. There actually appear to be 16! And, reading through the help screens, informs you that your computer must have Adobe Reader in order for the program to run. Apart from this, it does seem to cater for both PC (XP and Vista) and Mac (though it is worth noting that the bonus disk with the Microsoft Word tutorial will only run under Windows). In my experience, Mavis Beacon has always had a few quirks. However, this seems to be the most stable version which I have used. It is also worth noting that the program shows the '@' and '#' keys to be above the number keys '2' and '3' respectively. By the time you reach these symbol keys, you should be able to easily accommodate this. The other question which needs considering is how much one should expect to pay for a program like this. For me, a price in the £10-15 range, would seem fair. The typing tutorial itself is very good. With perseverance, it should lead towards becoming a competent typist.

Should Greatly Improve Your Typing I would describe my typing as intermediate but a little rusty from not working for six years. If you already have good keyboard skills - by good you ought to be typing with all fingers and looking at the screen - then this program will improve your speed and accuracy. If you are a two finger typist and tend to be looking at the keyboard whilst you type then you will probably get fairly irritated by Mrs Beacon and start off with much slower results than you normally would type. You have to be disciplined in that you keep your fingers on the `home' keys and start off with the `Lesson Area' of the program so that you really familiarise yourself with the keyboard without looking at it. The temptation is to quickly move on to the typing games, which is fine if you are just trying to improve speed and accuracy if you can already type, but all the games require your eyes to be on the screen otherwise you die or crash, so you really need to bottom the basics in the `Lesson Area' The CD was very easy to load onto the computer - it more or less does it itself - and the program itself is very user friendly and easy to understand. The graphics are bright and brash, if a little childish, and of the sixteen different typing games there's bound to be at least half a dozen that become your favourites.

Great. To begin with I wasn't to sure if I would find this product enjoyable or not, as I have never used anything similar before. I have now used this product for a couple of weeks, and I must say I have found it fun to use, and I have definately improved my typing skills. I Highly recommend it.

Great simple software but has a few bugs... I haven't realy used many of these typing software packages, to be honest maybe only once before, so the whole program was pretty new to me. From the start its very simple to setup and run, getting around the menus are a doddle and digging deep into the exercises are easy. It features a ton of exercises and fun games to help you through the learning experience. It features a great tracking feature to watch your progress over the courses and can help give you an idea on what your failing or excelling at. I have used it a few times now and have found it pretty helpfull, but my biggest annoyance are the freezes, i aint entirely sure why its happening although there are reports online in forums of several freezes, this for me is a bit of a low are hindered the whole experience...

Excellent but for the dated grapics I have been typing for many years, and have know the basics of tough typing, although I have not been able to apply them; so I have been unable to type without looking at the keyboard. One obvious problem with this being that I would not notice mistakes until long after they were made. So I finally decided to do something about it; Mavis Beacon to the rescue! Once loaded the programmes is very easy to use; and it starts with some quite basic lessons using just a few keys. As the lessons progress so more keys are introduced. Every so often the routine of exercises is broken with a typing "game" of one form or another. There are also tests which assess whether or not you are ready to pass on the next level. The lessons are tailored to the user's ability based on an initial typing test. The programme also allows the user to dictate to a certain extent, with the choice of taking a lesson, going to the practice area, playing a game, or customising the lessons. There are also various charts which show, for example, ones progress, or which keys one knows well and which ones need more practice. While one is typing an on-screen keyboard shows the correct finger to use for the key required. How does it work in practice? With spending only about 15 minutes a day and without too much effort, after a week I noticed a marked improvement in my typing. After two weeks I had more that doubled my speed and considerably improved my accuracy. Obviously giving more time daily would mean even faster progress, but one of the attractions of such a programme is that one can dictate for oneself how much time is devoted to it. While the lessons are not exactly all fun, they are not tedious either and offer plenty of variety. My biggest criticism is the graphics; they are very dated and rather basic, and it's not a familiar Windows format. The on screen font used could have been better chosen; I had difficulty distinguishing between a capital and lower-case "L". Another niggle, this being an American product, the keyboard is set to the American keyboard layout, so the position of the " and @ characters is switched. So on these points as far as I am concerned it looses one star; but otherwise it is an excellent way to improve ones typing skills.