One of the most useful courses I took in high school was typing. That first became evident when I went to college and had English papers to type. It was then useful in my first job, but I think I really came to appreciate it when I first started using personal computers in the early 80’s. You communicated with the computer through its keyboard. And the better you could type, the better you could communicate.

With programs like TypingMaster, anyone can become a proficient touch typist in a few weeks, I think. But you have to work at it. It isn’t magic; it isn’t something you absorb. It is something you attain through completing the lessons that the program leads you through.

You start with positioning your hands in the home position and then practice typing simple two and three letter combinations. I am a fairly good touch typist, but I have fallen into some sloppy habits over the years. I am using the program to retrain myself, and what amazes me is how tired my hands get while doing the exercises. I have to remind myself to sit correctly and try to relax my arms and shoulders as I type.

Next, you practice typing short strings of characters that require you to occasionally reach up one row from the home row like "lassie". Again, although I am considered an "Expert" by the program, my arms and hands are quite tired by the end of the exercise. I am simply not used to typing for a five minute stretch without a break.

The program gives you a break between such exercises by offering you a typing game. The first such is the Bubble Game where bubbles float up, some with letters associated with them. As soon as you see such a lettered bubble, you are supposed to type in the letter. This is quite easy for an experienced typist—until the lettered bubbles begin to come fast and furious. The next such games consists of clouds floating by, some with words under them. But you have to do a bit more here than simply type in the words as you see them. You must first select the cloud with a word by using either the space bar to move forward or the backspace key to move backwards to it—only then will typing in the word get you points. So you see, these games are not really all that relaxing.

Then it is on to typing short sentences like "Kafka is as sad as a fake jade lass." Nobody says that what you type in practice has to make sense. That finishes lesson 1. And on the last exercise I typed a net speed of 47 words per minute. My goal is to get above 60 words per minute by the end of the lessons.

After mastering the home position, you move on to keys above or below the home row. First you work on r and u in combination with the keys you have already learned. And here is when I began to make a few errors. Next it is on to another sentence test, where I manage to up my speed and accuracy a bit. And this is followed by the balloon game.

Next there is a paragraph test, which is the closest thing to a real-life typing test that I have had so far, in that the sentences in it almost make sense. We are still only using the middle two rows. I had a gross speed of 53 wpm and a net speed of 43 wpm with a 94% accuracy. I am not yet back to my high school speed, but I am only on lesson 2.5 of 12.

In addition to the Complete Training course, there are the Numeric Keypad course, the Refresher course, the Special Marks course, and the Typing Training for Typists course.

Along a different line there is ProTrainer, which is described by the company as follows :

I let the company describe it since I haven’t tried it yet. That will come after I have completed the 12 lessons.

TypingMaster 2002 is a good program with a non-cluttered interface. If you want to become a better typist, the price is right at their web site. TypingMaster 2002 with ProTrainer is $39.90, and TypingMaster 2002 Standard is $29.90 as online downloads. If you prefer to order the program on CD, add $5.00. http://www.typingmaster.com/.

They even have a free online typing test at the site. So go to the site and see if you even need the program. You may already be a world class typist. But I doubt it. u