Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 15 Deluxe

by The Learning Company

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00006VL68
• Item model number: 385478
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 1, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,761 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #80 in Software > Education & Reference > Typing
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Boost efficiency and enhance productivity with excellent keyboarding skills. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 15 Deluxe is an ideal tutorial program for any keyboard user. Featuring customized lessons, motivating speed tests and progress reports, dictation practice, and more, this versatile program is equally effective for the young student typist, the busy executive, or the professional administrative assistant seeking to improve their skills.

An array of Deluxe-only features makes Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 15 Deluxe the most effective, most complete typing tutorial ever. Achieve correct posture and safe keyboarding habits with ergonomic videos and checklists. Practice anywhere by downloading the software to your Palm Powered handheld computer (Palm compatible keyboard required). Plus, put your newfound typing skills to work using additional software for business letters and resumes!

• NEW! Explore 24 additional custom lessons!
• Use the customized lesson designer to import, export, or modify lesson content - a great way to keep the learning lively!
• Download the software to your Palm Powered handheld computer (Palm compatible keyboard required) - ideal for go-anywhere practice!
• Follow ergonomic videos and checklists to ensure that your typing habits are as healthy as they are efficient.
• Experience the benefits of enhanced Adaptive Response Technology. The software continually monitors your progress, automatically adjusting the lessons to provide ongoing challenges.
• Listen to typing instructions and view Quick Help files in both Spanish and English.
• Track your accomplishments and stay motivated with tests, progress reports and certificates.
• PLUS! Write compelling letters and design an outstanding resume with additional software: All Purpose Letters and All Purpose Resumes.
• Achieve perfect typing technique by following onscreen guide hands.
• Enjoy eight arcade-style activities that make learning to type a game!
• Access an on-screen manual featuring the One-Hand Typing Method for typists with the use of only one hand.

Wasted hours, error-ridden documents, endless frustration... poor typing skills can be a costly liability. Whether you use the keyboard for school, for work, or just for fun, trust Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 15 Deluxe to make you the best typist you can be.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Do not buy this software, August 27, 2003

By 

Gayle (Santa Rosa, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 15 Deluxe (CD-ROM)

If you are a beginning typist (or a proficient hunt and pecker) this software is absolutely terrible. There is no direct access to the lessons and practices so you can only go at a predetermined pace that is somehow built into the software. And if due to some glitch in the software, the program loses the level to which you have achieved, then it starts you all over again at the very beginning and there is nothing you can do about this.

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Read this before Buying, December 26, 2003

By 

Mark Shultz "Mark S." (NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 15 Deluxe (CD-ROM)

If you are a beginner, DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT. I recommend, TypingMaster.

Using this software, You can only go at a default pace set in the software. You cannot change the lesson time or repeat lesson rate. Forget about practice an extra set of keys.

The one nice thing for advanced users : You can make your own lessons (even a simple *.txt will work). But as a beginner, I don't have the time to do it.

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pretty but vapid, June 23, 2003

By 

Srnorty - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 15 Deluxe (CD-ROM)

When I started using this package I had already learned basic touch typing (ie just the letter keys and basic punctuation) from a program that I downloaded free from the internet. Mavis Beacon is cerainly a much more polished product than I was using before, but there doesn't seem to be anything under all the window-dressing.
My main complaint is that it simply doesn't give a decent chance to practise something before moving on. So, instead of mastering each key and then progressing on to the next, you find yourself getting more and more bewildered and frustrated. As there is a time limit to finishing the exercises, which if you fail you have to begin again all over, you find yourself making a lot of errors, which simply reinforces the bad habit.
Why this was became a little clearer to me when I looked at the diagnostic screen. It assigns each key to one of three levels - those you know well, those you aren't quite so sure of, and those you need to practise. All well and good, you may say, the only trouble is that it is just plain WRONG! It told me that keys that I had been typing quite happily for months were in need of practise, while some of those new ones that I repeatedly typed incorrectly, I apparently knew very well.
On the plus side, the games are quite fun, and each one practises a different aspect of typing(ie speed, rhythm, accuracy) which is a good idea.
In conclusion, if the designers of this had spent as much time getting the fundamentals right as they spent working on its presentation, this could have been a very good package. Ultimately, though, its just too frustrating to be of much use.