Customer Reviews

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 15 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Especially if you are a beginner. There's no manual, no documentation, the lesson plans don't include drills, and the onscreen moving fingers on the keys are too opaque -- you can't tell which finger is on the desired key. Some simple coding to change the color of the finger along with the key would be really helpful.

The beginning lessons are too advanced (even if you tell the program you are in the children's age/lesson range,) and omit the very basic instructions that a true beginner needs. Add a few annoying installation quirks (manual placement of desktop icons, and a "personal coach" that automatically runs in the background) and you're left with software that is a total waste of time and cash.

The whole program is bulky and clumsy -- and if you are using Windows XP, expect to see momentary freeze-ups of your monitor as the program lurches in and out of execution.

I love this program, and have logged over (can you believe it) 14 hours of total lesson typing time so far (think about it, that is huge). I will probably double that before I stop using it. I am now typing between 22 words a minute for really hard lessons (lots of punctuation and numbers) to close to 40 for easy words and sentences. I am thrilled. I am nearly 40 years old, and to finally be able to type is really a dream come true. Thanks Mavis.

Here is the good and the bad.

Mavis goes a little fast in the beginning to learn the keys. You might need to open another user and just start over again to get more drill time before advancing. This is easily done, and no big deal. Anyway, more drill is always good.

Once I learned the keys, this is where Mavis really shines. Mavis encourages you with her sweet voice, and I like that. She always varies the lessons, so it stays interesting and challenging They really crammed so many different texts into Mavis, that there is always new material to learn. Riddles, Shakespeare, famous quotes, bizarre difficult word lessons, cute stories, and more. She is almost limitless in this regard. Sure some lessons get repeated, but there is SO MUCH material, I am always amazed that there is more and more new stuff I have yet to type and I have type a solid 14 hours so far. This is a Big Plus.

After time, Mavis get addictive, I really look forward to sitting down and typing. It stays fun, and this is key. By getting me to type a lot with it, I keep improving. No other program has as many lessons in it, and will stay as interesting. It is not really the best graphics of all the typing programs, but it really does have the most material to learn from, and done in a way that you slowly keep getting better.

I guarantee you this, if you are disciplined and do not look at the keys, and if you regularly sit down and work with Mavis for 10 minutes to an hour a day, you will become a typist for sure. I never though I could learn at my age, thanks Mavis!

Firstly, This program has major flaws. If it were not for the fact that compusa pushes it then it would not have even as many customers. It has a defect that causes an 'ergonomic break' window to pop up when the program is not running (at least for windows XP). Second, the programmers at broderbound were too lazy to switch one of the internal screens/windows to say something '...Mavis Mecon 12' when in fact it is version 15. They put makup on an old program and are selling it for much more. The lessons are alright but I am sure that this program is not the best- It simply can't be.

This program is very good. It teaches you the basics and even records everything you do. You take tests based on how well you are doing on practice quizes. If you are working hard, Mavis herself lets you play a typing game. There are a set of hands and a keyboard that stay on the screen all the time so that you can see where to place your fingers and these hands move to the right keys so that you know where to go. This is the greatest program!

For $10 it's not bad. Have a computer with XP and it works fine.

Great product for the price, we have it on our class computer, the kids love it. When we built new computers for the room, I had to have the same program so it wouldn't cause the children any problems. Product arrived swiftly in perfect condition. Thanks Amazon! Les Brown

The program only worked one time. Seems there is a problem if you have Windows XP home. Seller referred me to manufacturer for solution. Not solved yet...

This is a very good typing program. You learn very fast and easy. I type right now 50 words per minute and I'm loving it. Their games makes typing fun and enjoyable. I suggest to get this one. If not this one then get the Dexule edition which i think is even better!

How hard would it be to support DVORAK? A hundred lines of code would probably do the trick, since no new graphics would be needed. Just cross-reference the keys to make finger positions right, and you're done. They're resting on their laurels, selling a clumsy DOS program that takes over your monitor as if it were still 1989.

There are a lot of reasons why I don't like this product but here are the main ones in no specific order: (1) It lacks focus: I do not understand their teaching strategy (speed or accuracy) (2) I found the content quite depressing: the material Franklin's diaries and excerpts from "Sleeep Hollow" don't help with the already difficult task of learning to type (3) It's not as 'smart' as it should be. (4) It kept pushing me to learn new keys when I was quite happy to continue developing my level of skill & comfort with what it had already shown me. (4) It kept praising me when it was quite obvious to me that I was not making any progress whatsoever.
If any reviewers know of good typing products could they guide me/us to them please.