Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Platinum 20

Typing is a skill that I never took the time to learn in high school. I never thought I'd need it. As an adult, I have found that typing is a necessity. For an at-home business like medical transcription, typing well and accurately could mean the difference between an average business and ever-increasing profits. This article gives suggestions for those who have lived with the "hunt and peck" method most of their lives and people who have been taught how to type but want to increase their speed and accuracy. For those of you, like myself, who have grown frustrated with how long it takes you to type a document, now is the time to learn the proper technique. I must warn you: it will be a challenge. Your brain and your hands have grown accustomed to typing the wrong way. The one problem with learning a bad habit is that you have to unlearn it. To improve your typing speed, invest in typing tutor software. These programs teach keyboard and number pad memorization. Learning proper finger placement on the "home row" is essential to typing success. With the proper foundation your typing speed will increase. Two programs on the market today are MacMillan Typing Tutor 9 for the PC and Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 17 for PC and MAC. I learned how to type properly using Mavis Beacon software. The program takes you through the basic principles of typing, using fun games and timed tests at every level to increase speed and accuracy. Once a particular level is mastered the program allows you to move on to the next. For those who need a refresher course to increase typing speed, online services are available to assist you. The key to your success is practice, practice, and more practice. Typing speed tests to increase your speed are available free on the Web. You are given a sample paragraph to type. Once you are done and hit "submit", the speed and accuracy of your work are translated into WPM (words per minute). You can practice with as many paragraph samples as you want. A key to success in a typing dependent business it to increase your speed. No matter which category you fall into, consistent practice will determine how much your typing speed will increase. Once success is achieved, a monthly practice session or two wouldn't hurt to keep up your skills. For more information on starting a medical transcription online information and help getting started as an MT visit - http://www.askthemt.com/ - an informative website dedicated to answering all your medical transcription questions Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Platinum 20 Maximize productivity with the #1 typing authority - Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing®. Improve keyboarding speed and accuracy with detailed assessments, customized lessons and games in 2 weeks guaranteed! Maximize your productivity with Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Platinum 20! The most comprehensive typing instruction system now includes updated learning tools, an improved user interface and even more features to guarantee typing improvements in just 2 weeks. In addition to Mavis Beacon's personal typing instruction, detailed reports illustrate overall progress and assist in identifying specific strengths and weaknesses. 16 Arcade-style typing games, including multi-level games. 430 Personalized lessons, exercises and tests. Offers typists of all skill levels and ages a brand new learning experience with greater benefits and increased efficiency. Whether you want to learn essential keyboarding skills or improve overall typing efficiency, Mavis Beacon will guide you step-by step on your road to success! Improve speed and accuracy with detailed assessments, customized lessons and skill-building games. In addition to Mavis Beacon's personal typing instruction, detailed reports illustrate overall progress and assist in identifying specific strengths and weaknesses. Powerful learning tools, along with this detailed reporting will help typists excel at their own pace. Hard work is rewarded with "recess time" and certificates of completion. Cool tools such as "import your own MP3 files" and fun arcade-style games enrich the learning experience. Redesigned with advanced technology and updated with even more features--Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Platinum 20 offers typists of all skill levels and ages a brand new learning experience with greater benefits and increased efficiency. 430 Personalized lessons, exercises and tests 16 Arcade-style games, including multi-level games Detailed tracking and progress reporting New content--type jokes, riddles, recipes, song lyrics and more Type in English, Spanish & French Choose from new music options or import your own MP3 files and type to your own tunes New Certificates of Completion Hybrid--Works with Microsoft Vista & Mac OSX Universal certified Platinum Exclusives Unique Custom Lesson Designer Learn to type in English, Spanish & French New multi-level arcade-style games Import your own text as Word.doc formats--be productive while practicing your typing skills Choose to type from hundreds of interesting articles, stories and emoticons Learn with Mavis Beacon and achieve noticeable results quicker than any other typing program--guaranteed.

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Platinum 20 Picture

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Platinum 20 Picture

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Platinum 20 Photo

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Platinum 20 Pic

Most helpful customer reviews

86 of 87 people found the following review helpful.
Much Improved, this is the best program now days
By WDB
This program is MUCH IMPROVED! If you'll see my review of Mavis Beacon 17 I believe it was, you can see where I pointed out this programs flaws. However, these have all been resolved and this program has become satisfactory in every way in my opinion.
Mavis Beacon 20 (I have only tried the platinum edition) also has a new practice feature which I haven't found anywhere else, where you can choose from a huge selection of articles where you just type right along with the text while the text you type appears in the lines in between the text to type (no looking halfway down the screen to see mistakes), errors appear in red and make a little noise to let you know that they have occurred. This is a great practicing tool for after you learn all the keys and want to stay sharp. I should also add that these articles are legitimate or legitimate style articles that are actually interesting and fun to type (such as outtakes from Ben Franklin's biography, to scientific articles, many topics) unlike those boring, fake ones that usually are in place on typing programs (which make you feel like you're back in elementary school) and you can even import your own text.
This has really been turned into a very fine program and out of all the programs out there (I've tried alot of them) this one without question gets the highest recommendation. All features have become very practical and user friendly. There's also a ten key learning portion of the program (as with the older versions as well) The interface also has been spiffed up very nicely with pleasing graphics a whole array of new and actually fun games. Bravo to Broderbund for setting the bar to new heights in this program.

---------------UPDATE------------------

I've got to admit, I learned all of the keys typing on mavis beacon 17, but I doubt that it's any harder on MB 20. The main thing that was really lacking on MB 17 (besides being a junky program) was that you couldn't repeat lessons, which you can now do on MB 20. If you're looking for a program with no small glitches but is much more boring and with less features, then you should look into TypingMaster Pro which you can demo, which is a fine program by the way and If MB is too difficult for you then TypingMaster teaches two keys at a time, however I can't remember how many MB would jump up at a time, however you could always just repeat lessons until you get it. Overall if I was having to spend money on something that I was planning to use for a long time, I would pick Mavis Beacon any day simply because of the practice feature, which I use EVERYDAY. On any other program, after you've learned all the keys, the only thing you can do to practice is to take the final tests over and over again. Unless you go right into a daily regimine of heavy typing, then you will get rusty real fast and this feature makes for an easy and interesting way to stay sharp. You can try a flash demo of MB 20 from their web site. Also, There's an annoying feature on mavis beacon where a hand is displayed on the screen typing the keys as you type, this can be turned off in the options. If you look, there's actually not a whole lot out there to choose from when it comes to typing programs, but I've tried about every one I could find, and this would easily be my choice. If people who don't like it find a more useful program, then they should list it in the comments for this review. I'll finish by saying that TypingMaster might be a little easier to learn on, but I own both of them and still use MB everyday and deleted TypingMaster off of my computer a long time ago. It may all depend on how you want to use it.

---------------UPDATE------------------

The lessons plan showing how many new keys per lesson can be viewed in the screenshots shown above on this page.

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful.
Disappointing...
By Bill
I purchased this about two weeks ago, planning to finally learn to touchtype. Perhaps this is the best package out there, but I am quite disappointed with it. The lessons start off comfortably, with a introdution to the resting position keys, followed by drills using those keys. But on my copy of the program, after introducing the first two keys that are not directly under the resting position (the "e" and "i"), the lessons and drills jump to a much more advanced level - requiring the use of many letters not introduced yet. Perhaps my package is uniquely buggy, but since there's no customer service at Broderbund's website, I'll never know.

For a package that's at version 20, I'm very disappointed.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful.
Avoid This If Don't Already Touch Type
By Gary B. Gordon
As a previous review stated, the product stops teaching one keys after E and I. Apparently it was never tested by anyone at the beginner level.

There is no easy way to report this to the publisher as well.

Very disappointing.

See all 30 customer reviews...