What is a good "learn how to type" program?

[gt24]

I have a friend who went through a pretty bad keyboarding class in high school that essentially taught her nothing. Now that she is at the same university that I am at, she wanted to learn keyboarding properly. She learned that the university doesn't teach this class and that no other universities in the area do either. It was recommended that she buy a keyboarding program to teach her.

So, thus, I am curious... what is the best "learn how to type" program out there? I would like both freeware and shareware alternatives...

I hope that when the program tells her not to look at the keyboard that she will obey the command... sigh... anywho, what programs do you know of?

[threeme2189]

if you want to consider learning to type with the Dvorak keyboard layout i recommend the web based ABCD (A Basic Course in Dvorak) it can be found here:
http://gigliwood.com/abcd/abcd.html

[gt24]

She wants to learn QWERTY first... :) but still, neat program...

[anon1]

I have a friend who went through a pretty bad keyboarding class in high school that essentially taught her nothing. Now that she is at the same university that I am at, she wanted to learn keyboarding properly. She learned that the university doesn't teach this class and that no other universities in the area do either. It was recommended that she buy a keyboarding program to teach her.

So, thus, I am curious... what is the best "learn how to type" program out there? I would like both freeware and shareware alternatives...

I hope that when the program tells her not to look at the keyboard that she will obey the command... sigh... anywho, what programs do you know of?

I'm personally a fan of Tux Typing (http://tuxtype.sourceforge.net/), just because it teaches you to type, and you get to play with little Tux's. :) It is created for children, however, she just needs to learn the letters (which the game teaches you), and then it will work fine. She can practice typing words/phrases/etc. after she learns the letters from the game.

[WejRepus]

i always liked "Typing of the Dead" :)

[Scott9027]

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.

I recommend IM programs, that's how everybody I know learned how to type.

[delman]

I learned through actually having to type stuff for an actual purpose faster so I would recomend like posting on forums or IM since it basically gives a person motivation to be able to type faster.

[gt24]

Typing of the Dead has got to be one of the stranger games I have ever heard of...

As for typing because she needs to, typing in IM, she already does that and it isn't improving her speed (in fact, IM conversations are on the slow side and don't even begin to mention her annoyance at typing papers).

As for Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, that sounds like what she needs.... and it lead to a ton of typing program reviews in a quick Google search.

http://typing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/?ttreng=1&ttrkey=mavis+beacon+teaches+typing

I'll have to study that list in more detail soon. It is all shareware but I suppose you get what you pay for. :)