MecaNet

Pros

• It's easy to use.
• It includes great lessons and tutorials.
• Graphical hands show proper finger placement.

Cons

• It doesn't include a lot of English texts.
• There is not a lot of support documentation.
• The interface could be more appealing.

Mecanet is a small but good program that teaches people how to type and improve their overall proficiency. It is free and available in English as well as Spanish. One of the coolest features of this program is that it shows you where to put your fingers in relation to the keyboard. It also charts your progress and can be used to check speed and accuracy as well.

This is a totally free program that includes a range of lessons, and following the tutorials is just like being in a typing class. You learn how to avoid looking at the keys as you type, how to "feel" your way around the keyboard, and the software helps you to improve confidence through a number of interactive exercises as well.

The animated hands help to illustrate where fingers should be placed and what keys they should strike. This is a nice little enhancement that students can use to learn proper techniques that will ultimately lead to faster speed, better accuracy and anatomically-friendly movements.

The biggest problem with this program is that it does not contain a lot of English texts and samples that are interesting. It seems to have been developed in Spanish and made available in English later. The result is that English speakers will probably get bored with using this program after they have gone through the basic lessons.

There are some other typing programs out there that offer better samples and exercises for intermediate and advanced users, but this is a great tool to use in order to get started. It is not hard to install, and the software is designed to be used right away. You don't have to play with a whole bunch of settings to get the program to work, and it is not hard on slower systems with limited resources.

Don't expect much in terms of support or updates, and the interface is not as eye-catching as some of the other programs out there. However, this is a nice and stable tool, and it's completely free!

Pros

• It's easy to use.
• It includes great lessons and tutorials.
• Graphical hands show proper finger placement.

Cons

• It doesn't include a lot of English texts.
• There is not a lot of support documentation.
• The interface could be more appealing.