Bruce’s Unusual Typing Wizard has not been updated since 2006, and while that would disqualify most software immediately, I’d like to make an exception in this case. The program works worked flawlessly on my 64-bit Windows 7 edition and should run on pretty much any other Microsoft operating system as well.

The program offers two options to learn to type. First the typing lessons which starts a series of lessons that help the user learn to type, and typing practice which users can use to practice typing regular sentences.

The program teaches the use how to type. Each lesson starts with an introductory screen. The first lesson for instance explains where the fingers have to go on the keyboard.

The typing tutor then displays words, phrases and even individual letters and characters in the interface that the user has to type. The next letter is always highlighted on the virtual keyboard in the program interface. It indicates the next letter, errors, the overall percentage and the typing speed in words per minutes.

Approximately two new keys are added per lesson to slowly improve the typing of the user. It has to be noted that the typing lessons only work for US keyboard layouts as special chars like the “;” may not be next to the “l” in other keyboard layouts. While it is possible to edit the sentences of the Typing Practice module, it is not possible to change the keyboard layout or edit the typing lesson layout.

Regardless of those limitations, Bruce’s Unusual Typing Wizard is a handy software to learn how to type faster. Windows users can download the application from the developer website.

Typing software is also great for kids who are making their first experiences with a computer system. Rapidtyping Typing Tutor is one of those typing software programs that can be used by adults and kids alike. It comes with a colorful interface that is showing an underwater environment that rewards the student with scenery changes and additional animals that are shown on the screen.

Adults can look behind this and concentrate on the typing software. Before it starts the user has to pick a fitting keyboard, the Typing Tutor is supporting several types of keyboard layouts like QWERTY, QWERTZ and AZERTY.

The typing software is using lessons to tutor the user. They begin with combinations of four characters (letters, syllables, numbers, special chars) that have to be typed repeatedly in alternating order before it is showing complete texts.

An extensive set of statistics is recording the progress of each lesson over time showing valuable information like time needed and characters per second for the lesson which should hopefully improve over time.

The typing software uses profiles to distinguish users which makes it excellent for families with several kids.