TYPING MASTER ONLINE

1. Introduction 4. Exercise Types 4.1 Keyboard Exercise 2. Getting Started 4.2 Word Drill

2.1 Accessing TypingMaster 4.3 Sentence Drill 2.2 Registering As a New User 4.4 Paragraph Drill 2.3 Logging In As an Existing User 4.5 Review Drill 2.4 Changing Settings 4.6 Games 4.7 Lesson Exam

3. Studying 3.1 Choosing a Course 5. Troubleshooting 3.2 Starting a Lesson 5.1 ActiveX And Java Tutors 3.3 Completing Exercises 5.2 ActiveX Typing Tutor 3.4 Viewing Exercise Results 5.3 Java Typing Tutor 3.5 Viewing Course Results 5.4 Forgotten Password 3.6 Final Test 5.5 Problems With Logging In 3.7 Additional Tests 5.6 Typing Tutor Not Loading

3.8 Typing Games

Contents

Introduction Welcome to TypingMaster! This powerful typing tutor will help you improve your typing substantially whether you are a novice or a seasoned professional. TypingMaster has many courses that will satisfy

your changing needs as your skills and speed improve.

The complete touch-typing course will teach you the touch-typing technique starting with the basics and advancing step-by-step using examples, word drills and games to get you familiar with your keyboard. Courses to practice the special keys of the keyboard and the numeric keypad along with a course to increase your typing speed are also included. This manual will help you get started using the typing tutor. It explains all of the features and how you can improve your typing skills. Getting Started To access TypingMaster you will need a web browser, for example Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari. Accessing Typing TypingMaster Your Network Administrator, Course Administrator or Teacher will provide you with the link (URL) needed to access TypingMaster. Once you have the correct link, start the browser of your choice and enter the URL in the address bar or click on the link below.

http://online3.typingmaster.com/tmonline3/login?id=keng27mb7

Registering As a New User When taken to TypingMaster, you will first go on a login page. For security reasons, User ID and password are required to enter the courses. If you have never used TypingMaster before, you should log in as a new user.

1. Open the TypingMaster login page in your browser. 2. Click on the link "I am a new user" 3. Enter a desired User ID (this could be your first name, for example) 4. Enter a desired password. The password is case sensitive, e.g. TypingMaster is not the same as

typingmaster. 5. Re-enter password to double check you have entered the password in correctly - these two

fields match. 6. Enter your first name and last name, 7. Enter your email address. Be sure to enter a valid email address, as it will be used in case you

ever 8. Forget your password, or if your administrator needs to contact you. 9. Choose the group you wish to belong to. The default group will be pre-selected, only change this

if your administrator has specified another group for you. 10. Click on Create User to proceed.

All new users will be automatically taken to the Courses page. To read more about how to choose a course, see section 3.1 Choosing Course.

Logging In as an Existing User

If you have already registered with TypingMaster, you can log in by following these steps:

1. Open the TypingMaster login page in your browser. 2. Enter your User ID 3. Enter your password. 4. Click on Login to proceed.

NOTE: If you have already started a course, Studying -page will be the first page you are taken to then you log in. To read more about starting a course go to section 3.2 Starting a Lesson.

Changing Settings On the "Settings" page you can choose to change your Login ID, your first name and last name, your email address, which group you are in and your keyboard layout. You might not be able to change some of these settings depending on what your administrator allows. You can also change your password here. Remember that the password is CASE SENSITIVE, e.g. TypingMaster is not the same as 'typingmaster'. Re-enter your password to double check any typing errors, these two fields must match. Click on "Save" to make your changes. If all changes have been saved successfully, "'Settings Saved" will appear in green at the top of the page. If an error occurred, an error message in red will give you more information.

To choose which course you want to study, go to the Courses -page.

At the top of the page is the course language drop down menu. Use this to find a course in another language. Note, however, that typing is a keyboard specific skill, not a language based skill. If using a US or UK keyboard, it is recommended to take the course in English. Your administrator controls which languages are available and you may find that there is only one language option in the menu.

Below the language drop down menu is a list of available courses with a short description for each. You can also view the status, your progress and the time you have spent studying the course. To start a course, click on the "Start Course" button.

See below for a list of available courses.

Touch Typing Course

This course will teach you the basic touch-typing technique through 12 lessons. In each lesson you will learn two or more keys from the keyboard and then practice the use of these keys with word drills, paragraph drills and typing games.

Junior Touch Typing Course

This touch typing course is directed to the younger users of TypingMaster (ages 8-12). The lesson duration and the words used in exercises are shorter.

Speed Building Course

This course will increase your typing speed and confidence. You will focus on the keys for each finger, type longer texts and train with some of the most common English words.

Numbers Course This course will teach you how to type numbers on the number row.

Special Marks Course

This course teaches you how to use efficiently all the special marks on your keyboard.

Number Pad Course

This course will help you become a fluent user of the numeric keypad.

3. Studying

3.1 Choosing a Course

Note: Your administrator may not have all courses enabled.

When you begin a course, you will be taken to the Studying page. From here select which lesson you would like to study. Each course consists of lessons which, in turn, consist of exercises. Normally you should complete a course from the top to bottom. When you select a lesson by clicking on it the typing tutor will load. At the top of the page is your name, below that the name of your organization (specified by the administrator). Under "Current Course" will be the name of the course you are viewing, your progress within the course and the time you have spent studying. You can view more detailed information by clicking on "View results", or you can change course by clicking on "Change course". Change course will take you to the "Courses" page.

Under "Lessons" you can see all the lessons in that course and your status for that lesson (Not Started, In Progress, Passed or Failed). Click on the name of a lesson to start. The next lesson you should take will be highlighted.

Note: You may find that lessons are locked, there are 2 reasons why lessons may be locked:

TypingMaster is in trial mode. This is when no licenses have been purchased yet. The locked lesson will not be available until licenses are purchased. You can, however, preview each lesson, simply by starting that lesson.

Your administrator has set Lesson Lock. When this is enabled you must pass each lesson starting from the first to unlock the next one.

3.2 Starting a Lesson

When you start a lesson, the typing tutor application will open and you will be taken to the screen that shows the exercises of the first lesson. Note that when launching the typing tutor the very first time it may take some time to load. On "Course" page it is time to start drilling and practicing to learn efficient touch-typing. Each course consists of lessons which, in turn, consist of exercises. The name of the lesson is shown at the top of the page and exercises for that lesson are listed on the left hand side of the screen. The exercise you should start working on is highlighted. Exercise duration is shown next to the exercise link unless lesson duration has been set to unlimited by the administrator. To begin an exercise, click on the name of the exercise with your mouse. If an exercise is completed, a check mark will be displayed next to it on the exercise list. A blank circle indicates an exercise that has not been completed. For more information about different exercise types see chapter 4 Exercise Types.

After having completed the exercise you will be taken to the results page.

3.4 Viewing Exercise Results

3.3 Completing Exercises

The upper half of the exercise results page shows you the statistics: how much time was used to complete the exercise, your gross speed, accuracy and net speed. The bottom half of the screen shows the keys you are having trouble with and their difficulty index. The keys are arranged from the most difficult to the easiest. The difficulty index is based on the amount of mistyped keys and corrections that you have made.

At the top of the Results page is a drop down menu where you can select which course results to view. Only courses that you have started are available in the drop down menu. After selecting which course results to view, the general results for that course are shown; including the course name and the time you have spent studying the course. The Course Results also show gross speed, accuracy and net speed that you achieved in the latest lesson within that course (in other words, your latest result). Once you have completed the final test this field will show those results.

3.5 Viewing Course Results

Below this you can see what results you have achieved in each lesson within the course. Note that a lesson will only be shown if it has been started. TIP: Click on the 'Detailed results' link next to the course name to see full results for all exercises in a specified course.

At the end of the course is a Final Test. This exercise typing works just like lesson exams, copy the text shown. The program will then count your speed and typing mistakes. The important difference between lesson exams and final tests is that the speed and accuracy you type during a final test is used to test your learning after the course and the result will be the final result for the whole course.

After the exam, you will receive results on the outcome of the test. The duration of the test will be displayed along with information on Gross speed, Accuracy and Net speed.

Gross speed is the speed at which you typed. Net speed is gross speed minus the number of errors. Accuracy percentage is the percentage of words typed correctly.

The administrator may have set a minimum limit needed to pass the test. If you failed to meet these limits you will fail the exercise. If you fail you will be notified the speed or accuracy you need to pass the exercise.

NOTE: Not all the courses have final test in the end. Instead these courses have lesson exam at the end of each lesson.

3.6 Final Test

3.7 Additional Tests

Administrator can set up additional tests which will be visible under Typing Tests page. Typing tests are created to test your current speed. If no tests have been set up you will see a text 'No typing tests are currently available'.

KeyMan Typing Game Type changing letters to guide KeyMan through the maze. Eat all the energy pills while avoiding the evil typo ghosts. Get the special red pill and eat the typo ghosts for bonus points.

Bubbles Typing Game In this exciting underwater typing game your goal is to burst the bubbles before they reach the surface of the sea. Type the letter in the bubble to burst it. Watch out for the green and red ones - they rise quicker.

KeyBricks Typing Game Type letters to break all bricks of the same color. Clear screen to advance to the next level! Avoid single bricks with no same colored neighbors.

NOTE: TypingGames may not be visible if you are using a school account and your administrator has

disabled all games.

Once the typing tutor has loaded you will be taken to the exercise view of the chosen lesson. The exercise you should work on first is highlighted. If an exercise is completed, a check mark will be displayed along side that exercise. It is also possible to navigate between the exercises. If you wish to study a specific exercise, simply click on the exercise you wish to start. The exercises are made up of several exercise types. These basic exercise types are explained in this section.

4. Exercise Types

4.1 Keyboard Exercise

3.8 Typing Games

Keyboard exercises are designed to teach new keys. The screen in a keyboard exercise shows a keyboard with the keys that are currently being studied highlighted. During the exercise the key to be pressed is marked blue. Underneath the keyboard, two hands are shown. A blue dot indicates the finger you should use to press the key. This helps you memorize the locations of the keys and use all fingers effectively when typing. Remember, try not to look at your hands, just follow the on-screen instructions. At the top of the screen, the sequence of keys to be pressed is shown. At the right side of the screen the clock indicates how much time you have left to complete the section. After learning the new keys, you will copy words that are made up of these keys. This will help you memorize the new key locations.

In word drill, you copy words that are shown in the top half of the screen. Words are shown either one at a time or in rows of words. Your position in the original text is shown with a green letter and by removing the letters you have typed. The keyboard visual is still there to help you learn key positions without looking at your keyboard.

This exercise type puts emphasis on accuracy and all words need to be typed correctly. If you press a wrong key, the program will display a red warning and show the correct key to press and finger to use. If sounds are enabled, you will also hear a warning sound.

The right side of the screen contains information on how much time you have left to complete the exercise.

Sentence drill is similar to a word drill, only this time you need to type whole sentences after completing the drill type, Duration, Gross Speed, Accuracy and Net Speed of your typing along with written evaluations and a comment will be displayed after the exercise.

A Paragraph drill is quite similar to sentence drills. In the paragraph drill you copy a longer passage of text instead of separate words or short sentences. The main difference in the paragraph drill compared with the sentence drill is that the program displays your position by underlining the current word to be copied and you have to keep track of the position yourself. During the exercise you can make corrections to the word you are currently typing using Backspace (unless disabled by the course administrator). Once you press the space bar, the word is considered final and no corrections can be made. If you skip over one word in the source text, TypingMaster does not display an error although this is counted as one. This is to help you keep your typing fluent. If you jump over more than one word, TypingMaster displays the word typed as being incorrect and also shows your position in the original text.

4.4 Paragraph Drill

4.3 Sentence Drill

4.2 Word Drill

TypingMaster incorporates an intelligent Review Wizard that monitors your typing progress for that lesson. Based on the data it collects, the Wizard creates information on your problem areas.

The bottom half of the screen shows the keys you are having trouble with and their difficulty index. The keys are arranged from the most difficult to the easiest. The difficulty index is based on the amount of mistyped keys and corrections that you have made in the lessons, games and typing test.

On top of these statistics, an overall index of difficulty is given along with a written assessment on the need of review. If you have a high difficulty index and the program suggests that you review your problem areas, it's a good idea to follow this advice.

At the top portion of the Review screen, you can select the keys to be reviewed. The keys that are giving you trouble are listed to be reviewed as a default. You can also choose to practice on the keys you have already studied. In the third option, you can select the keys to be studied yourself by writing them on the space provided.

4.6 Games

4.5 Review Drill

Bubbles Game

In this typing game your task is to burst the bubbles before they exit the screen. To burst a bubble, you will need to press the letter that is inside the bubble. Each bubble that you burst gives you points. If you press a wrong key, points will be taken away. Red and blue bubbles are faster than the ordinary green ones and give more points. After missing six bubbles, the game ends.

WordTris game

This game is a variation of the classic Tetris. In WordTris you have to type the word shown in a bar and catch it by pressing Space before it hits the bottom. The game ends when 6 uncaught bars fill the box.

4.7 Lesson Exam

At the end of all lessons is a Lesson Exam. This exercise typing works just like paragraph exercises, copy the text shown. The program will then count your speed and typing mistakes. The important difference between paragraph exercises and lesson exams is that the speed and accuracy you type during a lesson exam is used to track your progress through the course.

After the exam, you will receive results on the outcome of the exercise. The duration of the test will be displayed along with information on Gross speed, Accuracy and Net speed.

Gross speed is the speed at which you typed. Net speed is gross speed minus the number of errors. Accuracy percentage is the percentage of words typed correctly.

The administrator may have set a minimum limit needed to pass the exam or test. If you failed to meet these limits you will fail the exercise. If you fail you will be notified the speed or accuracy you need to pass the exercise.

You can see the results for any completed lesson exams you have on the Results page.

Depending on what operating system and browser you use the typing tutor may look different.

Users with Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP/Vista using Internet Explorer 4 or greater may use the Windows ActiveX® typing tutor.

All other operating systems and browsers will use the Java® typing tutor.

There are some minor functional and technical differences between these two tutors. Below is information on these differences as well as solutions if you encounter any problems.

ActiveX typing tutor has a menu at the right side of the program screen. This menu is not available in the Java tutor and it provides some additional features specific for the ActiveX tutor. Below, you will find a list of all the different options in the menu with brief descriptions.

Course This item takes you to the course section where the exercises for the lessons can be accessed.

Review This item takes you to the review section of the program, where you can practice the weaknesses that TypingMaster has noticed during your studying.

Games From this menu item, you can access the typing games that come with TypingMaster.

Note: Some menu items may be disabled by your administrator Below are the descriptions of games that are unique for the Windows tutor. These can only be accessed from the Windows typing tutor in the Games menu tab. See section 4.6 Games for descriptions on the games that are available in the study material also in Java tutor. Clouds Game In "Clouds", you will see a blue sky with clouds rolling by. Some of the clouds will turn sunny and a word will appear under them. On the other hand some clouds will turn dark and stormy. You can catch both types of clouds by typing the word under the cloud. Try not to miss the stormy clouds, since after six missed stormy clouds, the game will end. On the other hand, the sunny clouds will give you lots of bonus points. You can move between the clouds at any time by pressing Enter to go forward and Backspace to go back. You can also use Space to go forward, but it will not work if a word is incomplete. ABC Game This simple game is a test in typing speed. The goal is to type to letters from 'a' to 'z' as fast as possible. Typing each letter gives you a score, the faster you type them the better the score. When you type a letter the bubble it is in will disappear and you can then type the next letter. The game ends when all the letters have been typed. As well as the letters 'a' through to 'z' you can select from other combinations including capital letters and numbers.

5 Troubleshooting

5.1 ActiveX and Java Tutors

5.2 ActiveX Typing Tutor

This typing tutor will be used when using non-Windows operating systems, such as Mac OS X, Linux and other UNIX operating systems. It will also be used if you are using a Windows operating system and another browser than Internet Explorer, such as Netscape or Opera, for example. Requirements are any Java 1.1 compatible browser. To make sure you have Java installed, you can find more about Java at: http://www.java.com Simply click on an exercise to start. To return to the exercise list click on "Cancel". To close the tutor, click on "Exit this lesson" or use the Close window icon (at the very top and on either the left or right of the window).

If you have forgotten your password or your User ID, please follow these instructions:

1. In the login page click on the link "Forgot ID or password?" 2. Enter either your email address (the one given during registration) or your User ID. 3. Click on Send by Email. 4. You will receive your new password via email with detailed information on how to proceed.

You can also get a new password by contacting your course administrator or teacher. They can enter in the new password you wish to use. You will need to change your password this way if you did not give

an email address when you first started using the program.

5.3 Java Typing Tutor

5.4 Forgotten Password

5.5 Problems with Logging in

Lost Password, see 5.4 Forgotten password Cookie problem. To use this product you need to have cookies enabled. For Internet Explorer

follow the following instructions to enable them: 1. Click on Tools > Internet Options 2. Click on the Security tab and click on the Default Level button. 3. Click on the Privacy tab and click on the Default button.

Bad link error. If you company or school has set up many accounts or you are using TypingMaster Online you may find that this error appears. To correct the problem be sure to click on the login link given to you, at the end of the link it should have something similar to: login?id=XXXXX where the Xs are replaced with numbers and letters.

Some common errors and their solutions: Loading the Tutor Takes a Lot of Time When waiting for the typing tutor to load for the first time please be patient. Depending on your network connection speed the typing tutor may take several minutes to load. After the first time the typing tutor will appear noticeably faster when loaded again. Error: 'Unable to start ActiveX component' If you receive the error 'Unable to start ActiveX component', please follow these instructions below. If you use Internet Explorer on Windows

1. In the Internet Explorer click on Tools > Internet Options 2. Click on the Security tab 3. Select the Internet zone 4. Click on the Default Level button 5. Click OK 6. Reload this page

If the error still occurs you can try installing the typing tutor. If you choose this option you do not need to change any settings in Internet Explorer. NOTE: You must have Administrator privileges on the computer to run this installer. If the computer is your own (e.g. your computer at home) you should not have problems, but if you are using a computer in a class room or in a secure environment you may need some assistance installing the typing tutor, ask you teacher or Network Administrator if you are unsure. To install the typing tutor all you need to do is click on the install this required ActiveX component link that appears when you see the Unable to start ActiveX component error. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the install. Alternatively if adjusting your settings does not work you can try the Java tutor. Look for the Start Java Tutor heading on the error page with instructions and a link to start the Java tutor. If you use Opera web browser Users of the Opera web browser may also encounter this problem; this is due to Opera pretending to be Internet Explorer. Opera users either clicks on the Start Java Tutor that appears on the bottom of the

5.6 Typing Tutor not loading

error page, or in Opera 7 go to the File menu and down to the Quick Preferences; there make sure Identify as Opera is selected. Return to the Studying page and try launching the lesson again. If you use some other browser or operating system In this case the error is most likely caused by your course administrator locking the tutor to the ActiveX only. Please consult your course administrator to resolve the issue. Error: 'Unable to use Java' If you receive the error 'Unable to use Java' and you are using Internet Explorer click on Tools > Internet Options and click on the Security tab. Select the Internet zone and click on the Default Level button and click OK. If you are using Netscape or another similar browser make sure you have Java set as Enabled (often a check box in the Preferences). If you do not have Java installed please see the error instructions on where to download it.