If you're preparing for that data entry interview and want to make a good impression, or simply want to improve your typing skills, you can either get some books and someone to read the text out loud to you and measure your writing time with a stopwatch, or you could use a program that helps you in this mission.

I have come across KP Typing tutor, a smart little program that helps you take typing lessons, and improve your speed.

What's nice about this program is that it's compatible with both QWERTY and DVORAK keyboard layouts. While QWERTY is used by the majority of people mainly due to its history and wide spreading, DVORAK has been developed by Dr. August Dvorak in order to improve typing efficiency, and reduce the related stress and discomfort.

So, if you're a hard core QWERTY user, you can get used to DVORAK, and improve your skills even more.


Learning how to type

The program is divided into five sections: course, sentence drills, free drills, paragraph drills and a game section.

You can setup different users, each one with a different keyboard layout and related settings.

If this is one of the first times that you've used a computer keyboard, and don't know much about the keys' placement, use the Course module first. Here you'll have the chance to get familiar with the keyboard layout. There are 217 steps in this section, and if you don't like some of them, you don't have to take them all: simply navigate through the steps using the left and right arrow keys, or go anywhere in the course by pressing the Insert key. You have to type random characters (in a rather repetitive way), so that you can get used to faster repositioning your fingers on the keyboard.

After each step is completed you get a message box that informs you about the keys per minute speed, your accuracy and your overall typing speed (as a standard, it's measured in Words Per Minute - WPM).

Once you've gotten through the learning stage of your typing career, you can move on to the Sentence drills section. Here you can test your skills with sentences. This section will help you get used to typing normal words, assuming that you had already learned how to position your fingers, in the previous step.

Next, if you're bored of all those formal sentences that the program feeds you, you can practice on your own sentences or words, in the Free drills section. You can insert text of a maximum length of 256 characters, and then measure your speed.

Also, if you want a more thorough check of your skills, you can go to the Paragraph Drills section, and either opens a text file, or paste the text from your clipboard memory and practice with it. The program features sample texts that you can work on, but just as well, you can load your own file.

For each of these sections you get two different views: one for the original text, and one for your text. As you type, you can see your progress in the original text, thanks to the interactive cursor that advances through it as you type. Also, should you mistype a letter, it will be highlighted to you so you can quickly return and correct the mistake (if you want 100% accuracy) or just see your error (and learn from it) and move on, so that you get a WPM rate as high as possible.

Also, you get a window with the keyboard layout which flashes the key that needs to be pressed next. Also, on the keyboard's sides you can see two figures that want to resemble your hands (it took me a while to figure it out), and suggest what finger you should use to press the indicated key.

It would be nice if the program would suggest where to keep each finger on the keyboard, for better results.

After all this hard work and learning, the program rewards you with a word game, in which you have to stop the evil words from getting to your "base" by typing them. After you do this they freeze their movement, and a saving missile is sent to destroy them.

All in all, it's both fun and educational to work with this program, whether you're a beginner, or a professional typist.


The Good

The program supports DVORAK keyboard layouts, as well as many languages (useful for those that use diacritic characters). The program's sections are structured progressively so that beginners can use it easily, and professionals can skip a few stages and move right to the advanced sections.

The Bad

The interface is old looking and has a roughly cut and unfinished look. The colors are dull, but at the same time eye resting so the esthetic sacrifice is worth it.

The Truth

It's worth downloading and testing your typing skills with this program. You will definitely improve your speed, and if you think you're better than us mere mortals, give the featured game a try and prove your point.


Check out the screenshots below to see the program in action: