ReadMe

Turnquist Foundation
1109 Rockledge Lane, unit 2
Walnut Creek, Calif. 94595-2824
U.S.A.

http://www.turnquist.org
e-mail staff@turnquist.org

fax (+1 503) 296 2333
voice (+1 925) 210 1603

By your authorized use of MasterMind Typing version 2.x, you accept a license for a single user on the following terms. Your organization's site license, if any, authorizes multiple users.

It is illegal to make, use or sell an unauthorized copy or imitation of the software. Copying is allowed only for backup or for a single user at multiple locations. Any copy must be complete, including all legal notices. You do not own the software, which embodies copyright matter and trade secrets. You must not decode, alter or reverse-engineer the software or make any effort to imitate it or aid another to do anything forbidden to you.

Subject to regular procedure, the licensor will refund the license fee upon the return of unsatisfactory software within thirty days, which is the exclusive remedy for product defects. You assume the risk of use and must test the software safely. There is NO WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR NON-INFRINGEMENT OR FITNESS for use and NO LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES EVEN IF THE LICENSOR HAD PRIOR NOTICE OF HAZARDS.

Your breach of any provision automatically cancels your license to use the software. For any objection to a license provision or any complaint about the product, your sole recourse is timely return of the software for a refund. Any dispute shall be decided according to the laws of the state of Delaware and is subject to binding arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association. In case of court action to enforce this agreement or an arbitration award hereunder, the prevailing party shall recover from the other all costs including reasonable attorneys' fees.

MasterMind Typing cuts work to about a fifth of any alternative for learning to touch-type. The magic is MasterMind's sensitive way of adjusting repetition for your progress. It reads your mind. In Phase 3, MasterMind enables you to dazzle friends with eloquent recitations, while you perfect your typing or for pleasure.

Your installation includes the document WhyHowMM.htm, which explains MasterMind psychology. For educators, WhyHowMM.htm also has advice about class management and a printable form for student records. There is no work to grade, because MasterMind ensures that all students succeed completely.

Turnquist Foundation maintains information about MasterMind Typing at http://www.turnquist.org.

MasterMind Typing incorporates runtime ToolBook under license from Asymetrix Corp.

It is conventional to enclose a key description in angle brackets, <>. For example, <backspace> is a single key, usually marked with a leftward arrow.

MasterMind Typing reacts to several, control keys that this manual does not explain for three reasons:
    the reaction is like any software;
    the controls vary somewhat with hardware; and
    demonstration is much better than words.

On the keyboard, these controls are the cursor arrows, <NumLock>, <Control>, <backspace>, <DELete>, <Home>, <End>, <PgUp> and <PgDown>. Likewise, we do not explain the mouse.

Please try these controls on your system with the guidance of a friend. If you have no qualified friend now, it is an opportunity to make a new friend. You will be asking for very little time.

<Shift>, <Control> and <Alt> are keys that have no action alone. They combine with other keys for special operations. The symbol + denotes combination, that is, actuation of two or more keys simultaneously. For example, <Control>+<Alt>+<DELete> means that one holds <Control> and <Alt> down while tapping <DELete>. Ctrl+Alt+Del, the same combination in abbreviated form, typically aborts all processing and restarts the computer.

A single-user purchase of MasterMind Typing is only US$29.95. During business hours on the U.S. Pacific coast, we welcome (MC, Visa, AmEx, JCB or Discover) credit-card orders by telephone at toll-free (+1 800) 617 7417 from the U.S.A. or Canada or (+1 925) 210 1603 from anywhere. With payment by credit card, http://www.turnquist.org accommodates online orders for delivery by download. With various ways of payment, our order.txt form facilitates written orders by e-mail, fax or paper mail.

The risk of e-mailing a credit-card number is much overstated. Really, it's safer than showing your credit card to a waiter or shop clerk. As a waiter more easily could, e-mail interception (in theory) could copy your card number for use in fraudulent purchases that would cost you only the time to disavow them as you have a right to do. In practice, we never have heard of such e-mail interception, especially not of a message to us.

Intercepting e-mail is technically feasible only if automated to parse a predictable, message format. E-mail to us mostly states no credit-card number at all. In orders including such a number, arbitrary formatting by the senders allows an automated reader no criterion for distinguishing the card number from other information. Our more paranoid customers, if they order by e-mail, send two messages with just half of their credit-card number in each. Our most paranoid customers send checks or money orders by paper mail.

When given in an Internet ordering procedure, credit card numbers are even more secure than in e-mail. Your browser encrypts the card number and uses the Internet's SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), so the authorized order-taker can decrypt it but an intruder sees only gibberish.

About matters apart from placing orders, please contact
    Turnquist Foundation
    1109 Rockledge Lane, unit 2
    Walnut Creek, California 94595-2824, U.S.A.
    e-mail staff@turnquist.org
    fax (+1 503) 296 2333
    voice (+1 925) 210 1603
    http://www.turnquist.org

Trouble for new Windows users usually concerns Windows rather than MasterMind Typing. Most Windows users have no retail ID number because their computer maker bundled Windows with the hardware. The computer seller might give free support in that case, but Microsoft does not. Microsoft offers pay-per-incident support:

Concerning Windows with a retail product ID number, limited free support is available from Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, and in other countries. Here is a partial directory.

US and elsewhere:
    Windows 3.x, (+1 425) 637 7098
    Windows 95, (+1 425) 635 7000
    Windows 98, (+1 425) 635 7222
    Windows Workstation NT, (+1 425) 635 7018

MasterMind Typing version 2.x for three or more users:
$25 per user for three to nine users
$20 per user for ten or more users
There is no recurring cost to maintain a site license.

With prepayment, take two percent discount. California customers add 8.5% sales tax.

For determining the license fee, "users" are the peak of simultaneous users at the site, determined by network-metering software (if installed) or by generous guess. Copies may exceed users. If MasterMind Typing goes onto a network with "metering" software that limits concurrent users, the licensee unilaterally decides the user allowance and sets one's meter thus. If no such meter exists, please tell Turnquist Foundation about your users' access and help us to guess the peak use.

The licensee gets a copiable program diskette (or diskettes) and a certificate authorizing the quantity of users. Except the increased use, the standard license terms apply as for single users.

Orders will be executed either with prepayment or when the customer issues an identifier on which to bill. Payment terms for open accounts: net 40 days. For late payments, the account service fee is 0.1% per day of lateness plus $50. Time runs from the invoice date to postmark of payment.

Please direct payment in US$ to Turnquist Foundation by check, money order, credit card (MC, Visa, AmEx, JCB or Discover/Novus), or deposit to account 121000248-0297-137945, Wells Fargo Bank, 1920 Tice Valley Blvd., Walnut Creek, California 94595, U.S.A. (Deposit to our bank may be costly, slow and problematic but is acceptable if it is your regular practice.)

If your system already contains MasterMind Typing version x.07 or later, please remove it before reinstalling. The procedure is under the subheading Uninstalling and Reinstalling. You can merely overwrite versions x.06 and earlier, which have no removal utility because they recorded nothing in the system registry.

The standard distribution diskette of MasterMind Typing is 1.44 MB (3.5-inch). If you got a diskette that your system cannot read, please contact the supplier.

Please protect your source file(s) before proceeding. If you acquired MasterMind Typing on a floppy diskette, please write-protect it. If MasterMind Typing arrived by electronic transmission (e.g., download), please follow the instructions about backup. To protect backup diskettes from magnetic fields, they must be in steel containers, not plastic or aluminum. A steel desk drawer or file cabinet is fine.

If MasterMind Typing is a downloaded archive-file, the prerequisite before installing is to extract the files that compose the archive. If the archive is *.zip, one needs an unZip utility. If it is *.exe, just execute it, for example, by double-clicking the file name in Windows. Setup.exe will be among the files so extracted. An *.exe archive may be so constructed that Setup (if you approve) follows extraction automatically; otherwise, one executes Setup.exe explicitly. Another type of *.exe archive, upon extraction, writes a diskette in drive A from which to run Setup.exe afterward. The diskette constitutes backup besides. Executing a *.exe archive will disclose its type safely and give procedural advice.

For automatic installation, please execute Setup.exe (under Windows, not DOS) from your floppy diskette or wherever you put the setup files. In Windows (95 or later), the mouse choices to begin setup from the floppy drive are:
Start, Settings (if present), Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Install (or Add New Programs).

If results are poor as rarely may happen, please scan the subheadings for pertinent advice.

MasterMind Typing will go into folder \MMtyp... or \Program Files\MMtyp... on the installation drive of your choice. The principal, installed files and approximate sizes will be:

If you have a separate ToolBook installation and are expert at sharing files under Windows, you may keep ToolBook files in a shared directory instead of the MasterMind Typing directory. File sharing is mysterious and varies with the versions of Windows.

If your system contains a prior MasterMind Typing version x.07 or newer, please remove it before reinstalling. To uninstall for this or any reason, the Windows route is Start, Settings (if present), Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs. Then follow the on-screen directions. If the prior MasterMind Typing is absent from the list of automatically removable programs, and there is no Uninstall icon for it in the programs menu, then deleting the C:\MMtype (or equivalent) folder is the only way to uninstall. Please use automated removal with installations that have it (version x.07 or newer), because folder deletion destroys references that the removal utility needs to tidy the system registry. If automated removal leaves the MasterMind Typing folder empty or nearly so, it is all right to delete the folder.

If your system contains a prior MasterMind Typing version x.06 or older, there is no automated removal for it. Nor is there any need to uninstall before reinstalling. The new installation overwrites the old. If you wish just to purge x.06 or older, delete the MasterMind Typing folder, such as C:\MMtype.

Deleting the MasterMind Typing folder will not remove icons from the Start, Programs menu. Windows' automatic removal of programs sometimes leaves menu vestiges too. To access the programs menu for maintenance, begin by clicking Start with the secondary mouse button. Then choose:
    Open (or Open All Users)
    Programs
    MMtyping (or MMTYPE)
Select an unwanted icon with a single mouse-click, then tap the DELete key.

If you uninstall MasterMind Typing but wish to keep using ToolBook, consider the .TBK extension. Installation may have associated .TBK with the ToolBook files in the MasterMind Typing directory if there was no prior ToolBook installation. In that case, to uninstall MasterMind Typing would disable ToolBook even if now installed elsewhere.

To check the effect of .TBK under Windows 3.x, choose
    Main, File Manager, File, Associate,
which produces a dialog box. In the space for "Files with Extension," enter
    tbk
Then tab to the space for "Associate With." You may clear the .TBK association by clicking "(None)" or may edit it to read
    \<path>\tbook.exe
where <path> is the directory or path for the ToolBook files, for example, TOOLBOOK.

To control file association under newer Windows versions is trickier. Experts may run REGEDIT or use
My Computer, View, Options, File Types.

MasterMind Typing self-adapts to whatever keyboard layout you choose in Windows, except for Asian languages with double-byte characters. If unsure whether MasterMind Typing will teach a keyboard of interest, please try it. Windows layouts served include U.S., Dvorak, all European, Arabic etc. Please also see the section Dvorak is Better than Sholes. The speed of learning with MasterMind, unlike other tutors, makes it practical to learn Dvorak even if you're already a touch typist.

U.S. keyboards have keys at some of their corners bearing symbols too useless for inclusion in English typing lessons. European keyboards have the equivalent keys in more accessible places and sometimes assign useful characters to them. Because these keys mainly serve non-English languages, MasterMind Typing presumes the European locations.

If your physical keyboard is U.S. style but you configure Windows for a language other than English, MasterMind Typing can misdirect you to one or two, European-style places where you have no key: the lower-left corner or the right end of the home row. Then you must find the usable key at another corner instead, ignoring MasterMind Typing's misdirection. For languages using larger alphabets, the European keyboard is better not merely with MasterMind Typing but also because the keys are easier to reach.

Under Windows 3.x, changing the keyboard via
Main, Control Panel, International, Keyboard Layout
also changes the MasterMind Typing lessons to suit.

Under Windows 95, 98 or ME, the equivalent procedure is
Start, Settings, Control Panel, Keyboard, Language, Properties, Keyboard Layout.

Under NT4.x or Win2000, it is
Start, Settings, Control Panel, Keyboard, Input Locales, Properties, Keyboard Layout.

Under WinXP, it is
Start; Control Panel; [Date, Time, Language etc. if categories are operative]; Regional & Language Options; Languages; Details.

If using a DvortyBoard with a mechanical Sholes/Dvorak switch, before changing the Windows keyboard please read about DvortyBoards in the section Dvorak is Better than Sholes.

Keyboard change affects Phase 1 lessons mainly. Because MasterMind Typing uses English for Phases 2 and 3, those lessons now only serve alphabets based on Latin. We would welcome inducement from local publishers to translate for other languages.

For touch typing with multiple keyboard-layouts and alphabets based on Latin, one needs Windows keyboards with a consistent arrangement of letters: either qwerty (standard Sholes) or qwertz. (French azerty layout lacks versatility.) Qwerty gives the better range of choices, unless one writes exclusively for the qwertz region of Germany and east Europe. For customarily non-qwerty languages, we recommend the following qwerty layouts.
For French: Canadian Multilingual
For German: Dutch

One may add a keyboard from the original Windows installation disk if needed. In Windows 9x or NT setup, please check "enable" for a taskbar button to facilitate keyboard-language change. This option is on the route to keyboard languages given above.

For multilingual writing with just a single keyboard layout, Windows augments some Latin-alphabet keyboards. The technique suffices at least for an occasional foreign word if the multilingual keyboard fits one's predominant language, or if the languages of interest have few extra-Latin characters. The multilingual keyboards have two ways to augment the character set. One way is to type a diacritic (typically ~ ^ ¨ ` or ´ ), followed by an appropriate letter, to print a symbol combining them such as é. To print the diacritic alone, one follows it with <spacebar>. The second way to add characters is by <rightAlt+printingKey> combinations.

The multilingual keyboards include US International, Canadian Multilingual, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese (Standard or ABNT2), Czech-Qwerty and Slovak-Qwerty. Brazilian Standard is unavailable in some Windows versions. We commend the Brazilian ABNT2 and Dutch keyboards because they enable touch typing with the diacritics of German and the Romance languages. For German ß, the Dutch keyboard's <rightAlt+s> is easier than <leftAlt>+0223 using the numeric keypad as Brazilian ABNT2 requires. But Brazilian ABNT2 excels for French and Portuguese because of its one-stroke ç.

We don't commend the other multilingual keyboards because, though their special characters are more abundant, the additions are mostly unreachable by touch. Also, apostrophe and quotation marks become unwieldy with Brazilian Standard and US International because of diacritics on the same key.

In a language without extra-Latin characters, such as English, one can touch-type on any multilingual keyboard. Otherwise, touch typing a second language on a single, multilingual keyboard may be practical or not, depending on the languages involved. One must change Windows keyboards, as described before, to touch-type both Norwegian and Spanish, for example, or to change alphabets as between Latin and Arabic. Even with language combinations for which a single keyboard enables touch typing, it may be better to switch among specialized keyboards because MasterMind Typing teaches them more fully.

MasterMind Typing does not teach diacritics or <rightAlt>+ characters. But one can learn the diacritics unaided where they are few enough, as for most languages. If you adopt a multilingual keyboard, we suggest that you mark the diacritic keys during your learning period, using adhesive labels from a stationer.

For details about alternative keyboards as of this writing,
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/wceddk40/htm/cmconkeyboardlayouts.asp
Alternatively, one may choose in Windows a keyboard of interest and diagram it by typing all rows in Notepad, taking care to test for combinable diacritics too. For example, we reproduce the Dutch keyboard below. The ellipsis mark … denotes an unused key. The physical configuration in the example is the original IBM PC standard, common in Europe and more usable than the US configuration. Some multilingual keyboards create an additional state using <rightAlt+shift>.

simple state includes combinable diacritics ¨ ´
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 / °
q w e r t y u i o p ¨ *
a s d f g h j k l + ´ @
< z x c v b n m , . -

<shift> state includes combinable diacritics ~ ^ `
! " # $ % & _ ( ) ' ? ~
Q W E R T Y U I O P ^ |
A S D F G H J K L ± ` §
> Z X C V B N M ; : =

<rightAlt> state includes combinable diacritic ¸
¹ ² ³ ¼ ½ ¾ £ { } … \ ¸
… … € ¶ … … … … … … … …
… ß … … … … … … … … … ¬
… « » ¢ … … … µ … · …

Character Map, a Windows installation option, is yet another way of adding characters to a single keyboard. Though the slowest, it accesses all possible characters. One may create a shortcut to Character Map, if installed, thus: Start, Find, Files or Folders, enter "charmap.exe" without quotes, click the secondary mouse button on charmap.exe when found, choose "Create Shortcut," and leave the shortcut on the desktop or move it into your programs menu.

Character Map offers a menu of maps, corresponding to the installed fonts, each map supplying a set of characters and two ways to apply them. One way is to copy selected characters from Character Map to the clipboard, from which <Ctrl+v> in another application retrieves them. Character Map also shows keystrokes in the form <leftAlt>+0xxx, an alternative way to make a special character by using the numeric keypad. <Alt>+numerals also make special characters from the DOS prompt according to code maps given in MS-DOS manuals, which differ from Windows.

If its window is too small to show all MasterMind Typing, click the maximize button near the upper right corner.

You may have other applications that require 256 colors for display, which usually is fine for MasterMind Typing too. The most reliable mode for MasterMind Typing is 640x480 VGA, 16 colors. The Windows 3.x way to change the display is
    Main, Windows Setup, Options, Change System Settings, Display.
The Win9x way is
    Start, Settings, Control Panel, Display, Settings, Change Display.
For NT4.x, it is
    Start, Settings, Control Panel, Display, Settings, List All Modes.

Among other causes, launch may fail if you installed MasterMind Typing under Windows 3.x, then later updated Windows without telling the Windows auto-installer to set up your old applications under the new operating system. In that case and maybe some others, the easiest cure is to run MasterMind Typing's Uninstall, then reinstall it. If reinstalling MasterMind Typing does not enable launch, please read on.

If it is unnecessary to specify a path because its own directory or folder is current, MasterMind Typing has a two-word startup command:
tbook mmtype
which works equally well if one includes the filename extensions, making the command:
Tbook.exe MMtype.tbk

Upper/lower case is insignificant. If your installation has all the files listed above under Installation, the probable cause of launch failure is a defective startup "shortcut" or (in Win3.x) Program Item entry, so Windows fails to find Tbook.exe or MMtype.tbk. For a typical installation, the startup command including path is
c:\program files\mmtype?.??\program\tbook mmtype
Please substitute for the italicized part the actual path to the folder that contains tbook.exe and mmtype.tbk in your installation, consulting a Windows advisor if necessary. The following details pertain to Windows 95 and later versions.

Please go to the MasterMind Typing folder, such as c:\program files\mmtype?.??. If it contains a file named "MMtyping," click it with your secondary mouse-button. Then choose Properties, Shortcut.

If there is no MMtyping file in the folder, look for the TBOOK file in the same folder or a program sub-folder. Click TBOOK with the secondary button, then choose Create Shortcut. (The icon that you get will be generic rather than the MMtyping keyboard.) Secondary-click the shortcut so created and Rename it as "MMtyping," then secondary-click it again and choose Properties, Shortcut.

Working with the shortcut's properties, the "Target" field needs the startup command with <drive> and <path> to TBOOK.exe in the form:
<drive>:\<path>\tbook mmtype
Upper/lower case is immaterial. The extensions, .EXE and .TBK respectively, are all right if present. If mmtype appears with its path prefix, it is redundant (because of "Start in") but harmless. The "Start in" field needs the location of the MasterMind Typing folder (which contains MMtype.tbk) in the form:
<drive>:\<path>

Unless you put ToolBook files into a folder shared by other applications, <drive>:\<path> for "Start in" should be the same as for "Target." For example, if "Target" is
c:\program files\mmtype?.??\program\tbook mmtype
then "Start in" must be
c:\program files\mmtype?.??\program

After making your "Target" and "Start in" entries, OK the changes and test the startup icon that you have just modified or created. If MasterMind Typing launches all right, you can copy its startup icon to another folder if you wish. Select the icon with a single mouse-click, then <Ctrl+c> will copy it onto the clipboard. Navigate to the folder from which you wish to start the program, and key <Ctrl+v> to paste the icon copy there. To access folders that compose the Start, Programs menu, secondary-click the Start button, then choose Open.

After automatic Uninstall, a startup icon or copy that you manually created probably will need manual removal.

On some systems, Windows printing may be painfully slow, taking many minutes before printing even begins.

If results are poor or none from any PRINT button within MasterMind Typing, one may change setup to make the printer emulate a model that MasterMind Typing recognizes. To help reverse the change conveniently, please leave the Windows printer manager as a minimized icon on the desktop. Generally, the steps are:

1. From your printer manual, ascertain the availability of emulation. Good choices to emulate are older printers that have been very popular, such as IBM Proprinter, HP LaserJet or Epson LQ.

2. The mechanism to choose emulation may be internal jumpers, DIP switches, a front-panel menu or whatever, for which one needs the printer documentation. Power off your printer while changing both the printer and the Windows software that drives it. Set the printer to an appropriate emulation or, if available, auto-selection of emulation.

3. In Win3.x, choose
    Main, Print Manager, Options, Printer Setup
or, for NT3.x,
    Main, Print Manager, Printer, Create Printer
or, for Win9x or NT4.x,
    Start, Settings, Printers.
Set Windows for what your printer emulates or a model of the same group. If the printer wanted is absent, follow Windows' on-screen guidance in adding to the available printers from its installation disk. If the procedure requires a choice of fonts, choose Courier.

5. Rather than exiting from the printer manager, one may minimize it for easier re-access. To minimize, click the down arrow (Win3.x) or minus sign (Win9x) in the window's upper right corner.

6. Power on the printer, or cycle power off and on if you never turned it off before.

There are two, standard layouts of keyboards for languages using the Latin alphabet. The common one is the awkward layout invented in 1872 by Christopher Sholes for the first practical typewriter, called qwerty layout because the top row usually spells "qwerty." Sholes variants include azerty for French and qwertz for German. The alternative and better layout is Dvorak, less known as we shall explain. Please set Windows to Dvorak layout by the procedure given in the Keyboard Compatibility subsection under "Installation" unless your keyboard itself does Dvorak.

"Dvorak" layout was designed jointly by educator August Dvorak and his brother-in-law William Dealey in 1932, Mr. Dealey being inspired by slow-motion films of typists in seminars on industrial efficiency. Dvorak principles include less and easier motion according to letter-use statistics and physiology. For example, 70% of Dvorak typing is on the home row, compared to 32% using Sholes. Much more than Sholes, Dvorak layout alternates hands to reach successive letters faster. Thus Dvorak makes typing much easier, reportedly increasing speed and accuracy by more than 60%. Presumably, this abates repetitive-motion injury too.

Sholes too based his keyboard layout on letter-use statistics and physiology, but for a purpose opposite from Dvorak and Dealey. Type bars in the 1872 Sholes machine jammed if the next bar hit before the prior one receded. Every later bar struck the jam instead of the paper, making the jammed letter print again. The type bars and printing were behind the paper, hidden from view. So, whatever he typed, a fast operator unwittingly filled the page with one letter. Sholes' artful cure was a layout obliging the operator to grope for each character, a delay allowing the prior action to vacate. For more about Sholes and Dvorak layouts, please browse to

Training is no longer a problem for those aware of MasterMind Typing which teaches the keyboard in about five hours or less, compared to weeks with other methods. For typists already Sholes-trained, to retrain is advantageous because Dvorak boosts efficiency forever. For novices, Dvorak is the clear choice.

Because touch typing is subconscious, it is impractical to alternate between Sholes and Dvorak keyboards. If retraining, please allocate a full day, including rest breaks, to ensure completion of all Phase 1 lessons at once. Then stay with Dvorak permanently.

Don't let the prevalence of Sholes layout intimidate you. Windows and other modern software remap keyboards at will. Better yet, a DvortyBoard™ keyboard has dual key-labeling and a one-touch, Dvorak/Sholes switch. The switch controls keyboard layout regardless of the software in use, covering situations where a software Dvorak option is clumsy or absent. Fast switching also makes it easy for Sholes and Dvorak typists to share a computer. If working with Sholes addicts, just take your lightweight DvortyBoard along. Then you can type Dvorak and keep your colleagues happy too.

DvortyBoards are affordable and work with any IBM-compatible PC. Please contact:

A DvortyBoard is mandatory for Dvorak typing in most languages, unlike English, because Windows' software Dvorak lacks extra-Latin symbols. There is a standard basis for Dvorak hardware because Windows offers a Sholes-like layout for every language that uses a Latin or extra-Latin alphabet. Much of Dvorak's advantage arises from common traits of language such as the alternation of vowels and consonants.

With a DvortyBoard set to Dvorak layout, unlike software Dvorak, one may choose any Sholes-like keyboard layout in Windows (see the Keyboard Compatibility subsection under "Installation"). This makes language-specific symbols available, partly relocated by the Dvorak conversion. MasterMind Dvorak will teach this Dvorak layout as converted by the DvortyBoard. Beware, the standard MasterMind Typing is not usable in the same way--it produces nonsense with a DvortyBoard set to Dvorak layout.

Dvorak conversion by the DvortyBoard is unsatisfactory for the French azerty keyboard because the resulting positions of "a" and "m" are awkward, especially "a." For good Dvorak conversion, French writers should choose in Windows the Canadian Multilingual keyboard because it conforms to the Sholes (qwerty) standard. Other than azerty, national keyboard variations do not impair Dvorak conversion materially.

After lesson setup, mouse function ceases. To start and stop a lesson, and during a lesson, please use the keyboard only. For instance, tap <Enter> with your right, small finger to start the lesson.