In today’s digital age, typing isn’t just a skill; it’s a a bridge to broader learning and effective communication. Whether it’s for educational purposes, professional advancement, or even everyday social interactions, proficiency in typing is more crucial than ever. Recognizing this, educators and learners alike are on a constant lookout for tools and resources to enhance typing skills.
After covering the ultimate typing tools and resources teachers and parents need to teach their kids keyboard skills, in today’s post I turn to Mac users, there’s good news: a plethora of typing apps and typing games are available, specifically designed to cater to the macOS ecosystem. These apps not only make the learning process engaging and fun but also offer a structured approach to mastering touch typing.
From beginners to those looking to refine their skills, this collection of typing apps for Mac provides a comprehensive suite of tools. They come loaded with features like varying difficulty levels, fun activities, video tutorials, and step-by-step guidance, making them ideal for learners of all ages. Let’s dive into some of these tools and explore how they can help you, your students, or your kids develop this essential skill with higher speed and accuracy.
Typing Apps for Mac
Below is a collection of some of our favourite typing apps for Mac:
1. Typist
Typist is a popular typing app to use on your Mac. It offers an accompanying tutor that helps you learn touch typing. Typist provides a wide variety of typing lessons and courses that cover different skill levels. For instance, course T is especially useful for beginners while courses Q and S are good for those with some typing experience.
2. Animal Typing
Animal Typing is another good typing app for Mac users. It helps users develop their typing skills through fun and engaging ways. Depending on your typing skill, you get an animal and the faster you type the faster is your animal. Typos and inaccuracies reduce typing speed. Animal Typing also offers various other educational resources including 28 lessons for learning the keyboard keys, 32 lessons for kids under 12 years old, multiple keyboard layouts, dictation mode that pronounces the words to be typed, and many more.
3. Type to Learn
Type to learn is “minimalistic macOS utility for touch typing practice that lets you pick a text source yourself. Retype text to train muscle memory. Words per minute and accuracy meters help to track progress over time.”
4. Typesy
Typesy is a typing Mac app that helps you learn to touch type the right way using a mixture of games, video tutorials, exercises, lessons, and step-by-step guides. Typesy tracks your progress, adapts to your typing needs, and provides you with lessons customized to your skill level. Typesy also syncs across different devices. “Start training on one computer, and continue right where you left off on the next. You can share typing exercises with friends, work in groups, and even share your success on Facebook.”
4. Typing Fingers
Typing Fingers is a good typing app for Mac users. It offers various interactive and fun games to help you learn typing. The app includes 32 lessons organized along a gradual continuum of difficulty from simple to complex level. During the lessons, Dennis, the tutor, helps you ‘learn which fingers are for striking which keys.’ Lessons are divided into two main parts: the first part is concerned with learning the correct motion and memorizing letters and symbols. The second part is an interactive game that reinforces what is learned from the first part of the lesson.
5. KeyBlaze
KeyBlaze is a typing tutor software designed for learners at all levels. KeyBlaze starts with basic lessons on the home keys and neighboring keys, then progresses to more advanced typing exercises, including prose, poetry, and drills. It also includes typing tests to assess progress and a fun typing game to enhance the learning experience.
6. Mavis Beacon
A well-known name in typing software, Mavis Beacon offers a comprehensive program that’s beneficial for typists of various levels. The software includes detailed reports to track progress and custom lessons that adapt to the user’s skill level, making it a great tool for personalized learning.
7. Typing Instructor for Kids
Tailored specifically for children, this app turns learning to type into an adventure, complete with animated characters and exciting landscapes. It’s designed to teach kids essential typing skills through games and interactive lessons, making it perfect for keeping young learners engaged and motivated.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, mastering typing is an indispensable skill in our digitally-driven world, a fact that holds especially true in the educational sector. To support this essential skill development, there are a variety of tools and apps available, each tailored to different needs and preferences.
For Mac users, the array of options is particularly impressive, ranging from the comprehensive lessons of Typist and the engaging animal-themed learning of Animal Typing, to the minimalistic approach of Type to Learn, the diverse and adaptive features of Typesy, and the interactive gaming experience of Typing Fingers.
Each app brings its unique teaching style, ensuring that learners of all ages can find a method that resonates with their learning preferences. Whether it’s through fun games, structured lessons, or innovative exercises, these apps are designed not just to teach typing but to enhance speed and accuracy, thereby equipping learners with a vital skill that extends well beyond the classroom