Practise Typing

Practise Typing helps you brush up on your typing skills. This free educational tool from Grey Olltwit is suitable for US K-12 and UK Key Stages 1-5. It's easy to use, effective, doesn't have adware, and (best of all) it's completely free. Developer Simon Hensby provides a lot of documentation and support delivered in a personable manner. The program runs in just about any PC, from aging machines running NT and 98 to the latest Windows 8 installations.

Like many educational programs, Practise Typing's default layout is a fullscreen view to encourage focusing and reduce distractions, although we're glad the title and menu bars remain visible. But a genuine fullscreen view with a greatly expanded keyboard display is available on the Options menu, along with sound effects and a tool for adding text files. Practise Typing's 3D simulated keyboard is quite nicely rendered in the regular or fullscreen view. Stacked windows display the target text and typing -- a proven layout that most typing tools follow.

We browsed the drop-down list for some sample text to practice with. There are only two more controls with hot keys: Close (Esc) and Pause (F3). You can type with your keyboard or with your cursor by clicking the simulated keyboard, so Practise Typing makes a pretty good mouse practice tool, too. Practise Typing is a free program that can help you polish your typing skills.