Or you can display a replica of the keyboard with transparent hands that type along with you, showing you the correct finger positions (which is, frankly, a little unnerving).
Whenever you want to use Coach, just right-click the Mavis icon in the Windows system tray to call up a thermometerlike gauge that measures your speed in words per minute. Or play Shark Attack, where you must correctly type words such as electroencephalograph or risk being eaten by Jaws.īrøderbund has improved Mavis's Personal Coach applet, which lets you refine your typing while you work on other projects in a word processor or other apps. When you type one correctly, a chameleon slurps them up with its tongue. Once you've completed a few drills, Mavis suggests you take a break to play a typing game such as Chameleon Picnic, where letters march across the screen on the backs of ants. And even if you already know your way around a spacebar, Mavis can still teach you a thing or two about speed and accuracy. It'll teach you proper typing technique and help break you of all those bad habits you've acquired over the years. If you're strictly a hunt-and-peck typist but need to start churning out papers by the ream, Mavis is a must. Her best-selling learn-to-type CD, now in its 12th edition, defines the genre of typing-instruction software. Mavis Beacon is the Betty Crocker of keyboards.