Azabat Talking Touch-Typing Tutor - Advanced

RUNS FROM CD - NO INSTALLATION REQUIRED

This programme begins where the original typing tutor ends. You should already know where the keys are and want more practice to build up your speed.

The Azabat Advanced Touch-Typing Tutor has 5 sections:-

Stage 1: Letters Only
In this section you use the 26 letter keys. It is divided into five parts, which are called Practice, Exercise, Test, Exam and Remedial. You can remember this by the handy acronym P.E.T.E.R.
- Practice: whenever you press a key in this mode I will tell you which key it is. It's a chance for you to warm up and practise your letter drills.
- Exercise: I will say a letter at random and you should press the key. If you make a mistake you will be asked to repeat it until you get it right. If you hesitate I'll repeat the letter and if you wait longer I will tell you which hand and finger to use and where to find the letter. The first exercise lasts for one minute and if you complete it you will be told your typing speed and accuracy. You will then do another exercise, which lasts for two minutes, followed by a third, fourth and fifth exercise, which last for 3, 4 and 5 minutes each.
- Test: similar to the exercises in that I will say a letter at random and expect you to press the key. However, I won't tell you whether or not you are correct and will move on to the next letter after each keypress.
- Exam: you are asked to type a word at a time but you don't need to worry about capitals or punctuation.
- Remedial: I'll evaluate your performance and if I spot any weaknesses, such as letters which are commonly mistyped or confused - for example, the N and the M - then I'll give you a range of remedial exercises which focus on the weaknesses.

Stage 2: Capitals and Punctuation
This works like stage 1 except it mixes capitals and lower-case letters as well as numbers and punctuation. It uses the same 5 parts but is obviously much more difficult. In the exams you are asked to type short sentences, which are well-known proverbs, including capitals and punctuation.

Stage 3: Shortcut Keys and Combinations
This section concentrates on popular shortcut keys and the additional keys, such as function and navigation keys. It follows the Practice, Exercise and Test formats mentioned above and covers the most common shortcuts and combinations, such as Ctrl-C, Alt-Tab, Alt-Esc.

Stage 4: Introduction to Braille
In this section you use six keys on the home row to represent the dots of a Braille cell. The letters F, D and S represent dots 1, 2 and 3 respectively while dots 4, 5 and 6 are the letters H, J and K. You can press the keys in any order but you should release them together to indicate the character is finished. This covers Grade 1 Braille, including some of the punctuation, and follows the same format as stages 1 and 2 above.
Please note: Some keyboards do not allow you hold down multiple keys and are not suitable for use with Braille-type input. To check whether your keyboard will work, go into your word-processor and press the letters S, D, F, J, K and L one at a time but do not release them until you've pressed all 6 keys. If all the letters register then the keyboard has "six-key rollover" and should work fine. If only 3 or 4 of the keys register it will not work with that keyboard. The problem is the keyboard, not the operating system, and plugging in a different keyboard with "six-key rollover" is the only solution.

Stage 5: Spelling Tests
There are 3 types of spelling test:-
- Right or wrong: in this test, a word is spelled out and you have to decide if it is spelled correctly or incorrectly.
- Multiple choice: in this test, you have to chosen which of two versions is the correct spelling.
- Straight spelling: in this test you are asked to type commonly misspelled words.
Each test has 10 questions and you receive feedback both during the test and at the end.

This product is Vista and Windows 7 compatible