Mavis Beacon's first name was taken from Mavis Staples, lead vocalist for the Staple Singers. Crane, who was then a partner in Software Toolworks, invented the sobriquet. She was introduced to Les Crane, the former talk-show host, while he was shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. The original photo of Mavis Beacon was of Caribbean-born model Renee L'Esperance. This program is also used in many schools and homes to improve typing skills.
MAVIS BEACON TEACHES TYPING FOR MAC FREE FOR MAC OS
(The 2011 Ultimate Mac Edition for Mac OS X, published by Software MacKiev, also includes two-player competitive typing network games, integration with iTunes, Dvorak keyboard support, practice typing song lyrics, RSS news feeds and classic novels.) A certificate of achievement can be printed by the user upon the completion of tests. It also includes a number of typing games of which some versions have been included since the first release. The program includes a number of speed tests and constantly tracks the user's words-per-minute typing speed. The current Windows and Mac versions are published under the Brøderbund trademark by both Encore and Software MacKiev. Earlier versions were made for Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 400/800 (version 1 only), Apple IIGS, Atari ST, Mac OS, Windows, Palm OS (version 16), and Amiga systems. Later versions supported only QWERTY until the 2011 Ultimate Mac Edition from Software MacKiev which returned full Dvorak keyboard lessons to the product. An early version supported both QWERTY and the alternative Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout. Editions of Mavis Beacon are currently published by Encore Software (hybrid Mac and Windows) and Software MacKiev (Mac OS X only) and are available throughout the retail sales world. The original version was written for MSDOS by Norm Worthington, Walt Bilofsky, and Mike Duffy. The typing program was initially released in late 1987 by The Software Toolworks and has been published regularly ever since. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing is an application software program for teaching touch typing.