Learn How to Type Accurate and Fast Online, For Free

Have you been meaning to learn how to type, but never seem to get around actually starting the lessons? Wish you could bang out dozens of words per minute, but don’t want to shell out for typing software? Well for those of you who were not lucky enough to spend a few hours per week under the expert guidance of Mavis Beacon during your high school years, TypingWeb is here to fill the gab.

TypingWeb is a web application that offers a wide variety of typing exercises from beginner to advanced, right inside of your browser window. You can register with the site in order to keep track of your progress, or go through the lessons without registering.

Tips for Learning to Type

Here are a few tips for mastering the skill of typing:

• Don’t look! If you catch yourself cheating, tape a sheet of paper to the top of your keyboard and let it rest on top of your hands as you do the exercises.
• Concentrate on accuracy first, then work on speed.
• Read fast to boost your typing speed. While doing the speed drills I read ahead and try to type fast enough to catch up to my train of thought.

Advanced Typing Exercises

TypingWeb isn’t just for beginners — the site also offers advanced exercises for veteran typists to stretch their fingers. I did some of their accuracy and speed drills, and topped out at 101 WPM with 98% accuracy. I will admit that my performance dropped to around 50-75 WPM with 98% accuracy for exercises with complex usage of numbers and special characters… I have never been very good at no-look typing on the number row.

Twitter users: how fast do you type?

So Of Zen and Computing is wondering — how fast do our readers type? Give some of the TypingWeb speed drills a try (located under “Intermediate Course”) and tell us how you did via Twitter (@ozac). We’ll publish some of the responses right here.

Quickly Generate Lorem Ipsum Text in a Microsoft Word Document

Microsoft Word 2007 has a simple shortcut that lets you generate Lorem Ipsum filler text with just a few keystrokes. You can enter the =lorem() function to generate a block of filler text, or provide arguments to the function to customize its output.

The complete function for adding a custom block of Lorem Ipsum filler text to your Word document is as follows:

=lorem(Number of paragraphs, Number of lines)

Just enter this function (starting with the equals sign) and hit Enter to generate your filler text. The parameters are optional, but allow you to specify how many paragraphs and lines of text should be generated. If this function does not work, click the Office Button, click “Word Options”, click “Proofing”, click “AutoCorrect Options”, and make sure “Replace text as you type” is checked off.

For more information about generating random text in your office documents, see the Microsoft Office KnowledgeBase article “How to insert sample text in Microsoft Office Word 2007”. It contains more information about the =lorem() function as well as instructions for inserting random text in older versions of Microsoft Word.

You can also generate Lorem Ipsum text using one of many online generators such as the Lipsum generator.

Mark Points on an Excel Chart with a Vertical Line

“How To Add a Vertical Line to an Excel XY Chart” by The Closet Entrepeneur provides instructions for marking points of interest on an Excel chart with vertical lines.

This tutorial may be particularly interesting to anyone who plots a series of data points over time with Excel. Using these instructions, one can mark “points of interest” along the X axis of an Excel chart in order to give context to the data. The author illustrates this by plotting his RSS subscribers over time, and the inserting a vertical line that shows the point at which is site was featured on a popular blog. The line can help to explain fluctuations in your data, and can be especially helpful when you are putting together a report that will be read by other people.

C++ Basics

1. Introduction
• 1.1. Why do people program?
• 1.2. What is C++ & OOP?
• 1.3. What do I need to program?
2. Your first program
• 2.1. Running a C++ program
• 2.2. C++ program structure
• 2.3. Comments
• 2.4. Libraries
• 2.5. Functions
• 2.6. Streams
• 2.7. Return

3. Number Systems
• 3.1. Decimals
• 3.2. Binaries
• 3.3. Hexadecimals

4. Exercises
• 4.1. EX 1 : Running
• 4.2. EX 2 : Typing
• 4.3. EX 3 : Converting

5. What now?
• 5.1. Good programming sites
• 5.2. Good books on C++


1.INTRODUCTION

1.1. Why do People Program?

Each person can have his own reason for programming but I can tell you that programming is one of the best ways to gain a deep understanding of computers and computer technology. Learning to program makes you understand why computers and computer programs work the way they do. It also puts some sense into you about how hard it is to create software.

1.2. What is C++ & OOP?

C++ is an extended version C. C was developed at Bell Labs, in 1978. The purpose was to create a simple language (simpler than assembly & machine code...) which can be used on a variety of platforms. Later in the early 1980's C was extended to C++ to create an object-oriented language. O(bject) O(riented) P(rogramming) is a style of programming in which programs are made using Classes. A class id code in a file separate from the main program - more on classes later. OOP in general & C++ in particular made it possible to handle the complexity of graphical environments. (like windows, macintosh..)

1.3. What do I need to program?

Well, you need a computer and a compiler to start with but you also need some curiosity and a lot of time. I guess(!?) you have a computer. You can find different compilers for free from borlands website (Check 5.1). If you have the curiosity but lack in time read stuff at lessons and detention hours. Read whenever you find time. Having a good C++ book (check 5.2) also helps a lot. (and is much better for your eyes) One thing not to forget: No tutorial, book, program or course makes you a programmer in 5 days. YOU make yourself a programmer. NO compiler writes an entire program for you, YOU write the program.

2. YOUR FIRST PROGRAM

2.1. Running a C++ Program

Read this part carefully: A C++ program must be compiled and linked before it can be executed, or run, on the computer. A great lot of compilers do this automatically. So what is a compiler? A compiler is a program that translates C++ code into machine language. Machine language is the language consisting of 1s and 0s, and is the native language of a computer. A typed C++ program is called the source-code, and the compiled code is called the object code.

Before the object code can be executed, it must be linked to other pieces of code (e.g. included libraries) used by the program. The compiled & linked program is called an executable file. Finally, the program is executed by the system. It's output is displayed in a window.

2.2. C++ Program Structure

All C++ progs contain statements (commands) that tell the computer what to do. Here is an example of a simple C++ program:
/* Downloaded from code.box.sk
We own you program */

#include

int main()
{
cout<<"We own you"; // the first statement return(0); // the second statement } Run the program. It should display : We own you The structure of a simple C++ program is: /* Comments : Name, purpose of the program your name, date, etc. */ #include

int main()
{
statements; // comments
return(0);
}

Now we will have a closer look on the structure:

2.3. Comments
Comments are used to explain the contents of a program for a human reader. The computer ignores them. The symbols /* and */ are used for the beginning and end of a comment for multi-line comments. // symbols are also used for commenting. All characters on a line after the // symbol are considered to be comments and are ignored. Most newbies think that commenting a program is a waste of time. They are wrong. Commenting is very important because it makes the code understandable by other programmers and makes it easier to improve a program or fix the bugs in it. You'll understand better after trying to decipher a hundred pages of code you wrote a few months later.

2.4. Libraries

Look at the program above. Following the opening comment was the line:

#include

This line simply tells the computer that the iostream library is needed therefore it should be included. A library is a collection of program code that can be included (and used) in a program to perform a variety of tasks. iostream is a library - also called as a header file, look at its extension - used to perform input/output (I/O) stream tasks. There are a lot of non-commercial C++ libraries for various purposes written by good guys who spent more than enough time in front of their computers. You can find them at code.box.sk. Also references to all libraries used in the tutorials can be found on the net.

2.5. Functions

The next line in the program was:

int main()

Which is the header of the main function. Makes sense? No? A function is a set of statements that accomplish a task. A function header includes the return type of the function and the function name. As shown in the main() header, main returns an integer(int) through return(0). So all the functions that have an integer as the return type returns integers. Very clear. The statements in a function (in this case the main function) are enclosed in curly braces. The { and } symbols indicates the beginning and the end of statements. More on functions later.

2.6. Streams

What is a stream? In C++ input/output devices are called streams. cout (we used above) is the c(onsole) out(put) stream, and the send (insertion) operator is used to send the data "We own you" into the stream. In the first statement:

cout<<"We own you"; The words following the << 0 =" 1." 2600 =" 2" 33 =" 3" 110 =" 1" 1b =" 1"> Very good content. Has message boards.
http://www.borland.com --> Free, shareware & commercial compilers.
http://www.cprogramming.com --> Some original tuts.
http://www.planet-source-code.com --> One of the biggest code archive.

5.2. Good books on C++
Printed:
C++ - How to Program One of the best books written on C. Great for all levels of programming.
C++: The complete reference An overall C++ & STL reference
A Guide to Programming in C++, Lawrenceville Press My first book on C++, "borrowed" lots of definitions from there :)

Online books:
Thinking in C++ is nearly the best one on C++, a must-read. You can find many online netbooks from code.box.sk

Thanks to:

-->Cube, to provide such valuable information in the boxnetwork sites.
-->all guys at Neworder's Message board, for asking tutorials.

Ke Bea(!?) to:
-->all friends in the Koch Part-time Prison.