RapidTyping Portable

RapidTyping is a popular typing tutor program. RapidTyping Portable is a fully portable version of the educational freeware, one that runs directly from a portable device such as a USB drive on any Windows machine, but without having to be installed or leaving files, folders, or registry entries behind when you close it. This makes it a great choice for students, who can use the same program at school and at home.

We downloaded and extracted the program’s zipped executable and associated files, which we saved to a Portable Apps folder on the desktop that we use specifically to keep track of tools like RapidTyping. Although it’s portable, this tool has all the features of the installed version, including a multiuser capability. Also like the installed version, RapidTyping Portable sports a colorful, easy-to-manage interface that is designed to be as simple to use as possible. We could rapidly select between Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert levels as well as various lesson groups. Clicking icons on the left edge let us toggle quickly among the tool’s main view, the stats page, and the lesson editor. The stats page displayed our results in words per minute or characters per minute, as we chose, and also displayed accuracy, lesson duration, and other useful data. Using the Lesson Editor, we could create custom lessons that let us focus on areas of weakness, such as a tendency to hit one wrong character. We could also change the program’s background image by clicking Wallpaper.

As with many typing tutors, RapidTyping’s color-coded keys, choice of keyboard configurations, and other options will make it easy for beginners to get started as well as enable experienced students to hone their skills. It’s highly recommended for students, professionals, or for anyone who wants to brush up on his or her typing skills.