The Arabic typing tutor pro software runs natively on Windows (7 and above) / MAC (10.6 and above)

Published: Jan.2015

Introduction

It is our pleasure to introduce our new release of the Typing Tutor software system 2014 to enhance typing speed for secretary and computer using employees. Currently, the Arabic language files are available, but it is planed to produce soon the typing tutor for other languages.

With the new Typing Tutor system 2014, it is possible to manage typing students in secretary learning institutes either local or over the Internet. The new version supports network database usage and sharing. It uses an SQLite database file that could be shared on a network drive. The software manage database calls through elite short time queries and then closes the connection; this way it permits users to use the same file in an almost simultaneous fashion.

By default, when the software starts for the first time, it creates a user called “user1” with password “1” , where it is recommended to change the user name and password or to delete it and create a new user from the beginning.

Upon creating a user called “Admin”, it will have rights to monitor other users’ progresses. Thus, we recommend the administrator to create it and set a strong password. However, we don’t create it automatically for simplicity reasons.

The graphical user interface (GUI) has a new drop down list on the right down side in which it shows available keyboard training languages and the associated interface language. In the following figure, it shows the Arabic typing tutor is available in two GUIs; English and Arabic ones.

The software supports creating unlimited number of users; the more the possible for the database engine to managed. Only a user with his password is allowed to delete his account or change the password. If the password is lost, it is not possible to determine it reversely, because it is encrypted with a one-direction encryption in the database file. Therefore, please make sure to store your password in a safe place; otherwise an Administrator may contact us for a paid support in such a case.

Upon switching to the Arabic interface, the window direction is flipped. The GUI text and all training materials are translated into Arabic. It uses embedded translation files.

If you want to localize the typing tutor into your language: i.e Danish or Irish .. etc. Please contact us to provide the required files and translating software.

Administrators and users are allowed to change the database path, this is a new feature to support results sharing over intranets or internet.

After login, the software starts its main screen with 7 buttons

1- Lessons: Click this button to start the lessons. In the demo version there are 2 lessons and in the full version there are 19 lessons.

2- Training: There are more than 13 training levels; this number varies between keyboard training languages, now it is possible to add new lessons and trainings with minor update

3- Games: There are two playing games, either falling letters or flying letters in space, in an amusing way.

4- Tests: To evaluate the current situation, there are 10 tests, the last 3 tests use the full keyboard.

5- Reports: This button shows different reports for the current user.  Only the Administrator (user Admin) can see reports of all users.

6- Setting: To change some setting of the software

7-Register: Registering the software activates the demo version (2 lessons and 1 Test only) to the full version (19 lessons and 10 tests).

De-registering the software is a new pending feature will be made in the near future to enable installing the software on different PCs.

1- Lessons

The lesson window shows a keyboad with color for each corresponding figure responsible for clicking such a key. If user selects the Arabic GUI from the login window, lessons would be in Arabic. However, if user selects English GUI, lessons would be in english as shown later. User is allowed to make a mouse click upon keyboard key to see ist corresponding finger as will be shown later.

This screenshot shows lesson 1 in English, as per choosing the English GUI from the login menu.

Click on any key on the illustrated keyboard to see the color of the corresponding finger.  Each finger has a color and number as shown in Figures.

Another example is illustrated by clicking a key to be pressed with little finger on the left hand.

2- Practise

Clicking Practise button shows the following window, in which text exists to be retype it. Correct text and wrong text appear in green and red respectively.

Upon clicking a wrong letter, a side window appears showing the finger should have been used to type that letter. If the user closes this window manually, it does not open again with each letter.  The practise window shows a timer-illustrating amount of time consumed while typing; it shows percentage of correctly written letters and speed in strike per Minuit.

3- Test Button

Test button opens a window similar to practise, however it does not show the side window of the finger should have been used to type last mistake. There are 10 tests; each test covers a certain number of lessons. Tests from 1-3 cover lessons from 1-4 and so on.  In the elementary tests, it trains using letters. However, from test number 2, we managed to select meaningful words with the letters to be trained. This way, a western student may learn new words at the same time. For a secretary job, employer may jump a head into last 2 tests for evaluating an applicant’s capability.

4-Games

Now it is time to learn with fun! We have newly introduced 2 typing games.

Before the game starts, one has to select the required training letters from the following window. Clicking a letter selects it; while clicking it once more deselects it. The selected letters appear on the right side as shown in Figure. It is possible to select letter groups from the drop down menu; these letter groups are used in lessons.

The first game is a falling letters game; in which one has to click a letter before it reaches the ground. Letters are packed into balloon shapes, when they reach the ground they animate as if the balloon is emptied from its air and converts into black smaller object till they disappear.

The second game is much attractive, where each letter is put into a ball in space. At the background, there are some space stones and some small 3D rotating objects. At certain instances a green circle catches a random ball, the green circle rotates around it for a small time, in which user hears an alert. Within this small time, user has to click the shown letter, otherwise the green circle disappears and it is not possible to click it until the green circle reappears. For correct hits, user is given a higher score.

5-Report

5.1- Lesson reports

User Name:

The upper left part of the screen shows the current user in a disabled drop down list. This drop down list is enabled for Admin only. Admin can select different user and monitor his progress.

Overview:

This screen shows user progress over time. The screen illustrates lessons that user read. If the user reads the same lesson more than once, a bigger circle is illustrated. The x-axis shows the number of days from the first start; i.e in the shown figure, user read lessons from 1-10 after 7 days from the first start and he read lesson 4 more than twice represented by a bigger circle.

Repetition:

This report shows lessons that were repeatedly read. The x-axis shows lesson number and y-axis shows number of repetition of reading it.  In the plotted graph, the first lesson was read about 11 times, while the second lesson was read 8 times .. etc.

5.2- Training reports

These reports show the training progress.

Summary

The summary button shows a table with the data of training, the training lesson, average speed, percentage correct and the percentage completed, this should be 100% if user trained the full text.

Daily control

On the x-axis we see days, since the first starting date (shown in the label of x-axis Feb 2. 2014). A bigger circle means more repetition. The y-axis represents the lesson number. Illustrated in figure that at the first day, user trained lesson 1 and lesson 2, 3 and 4. In day 3, user trained lesson 1 more than 3 times and in the same day he trained lesson number 2 fewer than lesson 1.

Touch typing analysis

This report shows how fast current user presses trained keys. Results are collected during text practise. In the report, a virtual keyboard is illustrated with colored keys. Each trained key is given a certain color that represents how fast the user presses this key (latency).  Untrained keys are not colored. The color axis is shown below the keyboard. Fingers that are trained and got light and fast enough are given light colors, while still heavy fingers are given dark colors.

Finger Analysis

This report shows latency of fingers. Values for each finger are calculated by averaging latency of all trained keys that correspond to the same finger.

5.3- Test Reports

Test reports show results collected from conducted tests. Tests are analyzed to provide detailed results. The summary button shows all the conducted tests, their details and their dates. User has to select a certain test in order to show the detailed analysis result. The software was programmed in a way for interviewing secretaries and/or applicants. An applicant has to conduct some tests and each test should be selected in the summary to show its details. Test reports show latency of trained keys and how fast the applicant presses the keyboard. This is shown in the report of touch typing analysis keyboard (see the following Figures). The latency is shown on both hands as an average value of latencies of tested keys that are tobe pressed with the same finger.

Summary

Touch typing Analysis

Results of the pressed keys are shows, empty one were not pressed .. For secretary evaluation, one should test the last 2-3 tests.

Finger analysis

Changelog:

Jan 2015 - Removed many bugs and enhanced the installation script - Stable Release