Master Key is not a typewriter
It is not the aim or intention of this program to teach typing on a typewriter. Therefore, returns are only used to mark the ends of paragraphs as all computer automatically wrap type from line to line. To use returns for every line on a computer is to constrain your ability to easily format your text later. The delete key is allowed and even encouraged to some extent. Although it is optional to disallow it in the Preferences on the Rules tab.
Learning a new keyboard
Beginner typists should begin with the progressive unit for the keyboard they wish to learn such as 1-Learning QWERTY or 2-Learning Dvorak. Proceed through the drills to accumulate mastery minutes. You are free to take diversions such as ParaTyper in between drills or try a drill generator drill which has your vocabulary such as in 1.1-QWERTY Drill Generator. At your option, Master Key can constrain to a linear path through a progressive unit. You can find the option on the Rules tab of the Preferences. Not all Drills are available before Master Key is registered and the registration code is entered. See 12. Master Key is Shareware for more details.
Practicing for 20-30 minutes a day will work well. You can keep working longer but a lot of the time great strides are made the next day after you give it a rest.
Achieving Mastery for a Drill
Mastery is the goal for which you must accomplish the words per minute speed goal with a 98% accuracy (missed keys after corrections) and 5% or less error rate (missed keys despite corrections) for 10 minutes. Or meet the accuracy and error rate requirements and exceed the speed goal by 10 WPM for one drill. If you disable backspace in on the Rules tab of the Preferences, the accuracy requirement is reduced to 95%. Progressive units such as 1-Learning QWERTY have predetermined speed goals but other drills allows you to set your own speed goal. The 10 minutes are accumulated as mastery minutes and are totaled from the entire history.
In order to achieve Mastery for a particular Drill you must accumulate 10 Mastery Minutes. In order to receive Mastery Minutes, you must fulfill four qualifiers for that number of minutes on the same drill.
1. You must match or exceed the words per minute speed goal.
2. You must match or exceed 98% accuracy (95% with backspace off in the Preferences). Accuracy in Master Key is defined as the final resultant accuracy of your text after corrections.
3. You must stay under or meet a 5% error rate
4. You must accomplish the above three for 10 minutes on that named drill OR you can shortcut that by exceeding the speed goal by 10 WPM or more in one drill.
There are different sounds for when you achieve Mastery Minutes or Mastery of a drill. The blue text at the bottom of the History Window will tell you in addition to the Mastery pane in the History window.
Once Mastery is achieved, the Print Certificate… button will become active and a certificate can be printed. This button will always be dimmed prior to Mastery of a Drill.
Improving speed
Drill generator drills are a nice diversion to practice with your own speed goal with the key vocabulary you currently have learned. Typists who already know the keyboard can choose Full Keyboard and keep notching their speed goal up themselves. Or they can choose one of the entertaining texts while typing.
Master Key also allows for any plain text file to be used as a Drill. Just save the file as a plain text file from any word processor, TextEdit or WordPad, and drop it in the Drills folder or one of the Unit folders in the Drill folder. The file should have a .txt extension on it for Master Key to see it. You may also create your own Unit folders in the Drill folder to keep your own drills separate from those that ship with Master Key. Larger text files will bring up a window for you to choose a page of that document to use as a drill and there are also filters to clean text to make a better drill in case you use a downloadable books such as from Project Guttenberg.