How to Use Klavaro: A Complete Walkthrough of All Four Modules

Klavaro is a free, open-source touch typing tutor that teaches you to type without looking at the keyboard through a structured four-module course: Basic Course, Adaptability, Velocity and Fluidness. Unlike browser typing games, it runs entirely offline on your computer, tracks your words per minute (WPM) and accuracy in progress charts, and adapts to almost any keyboard layout. This flagship guide walks you through the whole program — installing it, choosing your language and layout, working through all four modules in depth, reading your progress charts, and importing your own texts to practise with.

Before you start: install Klavaro

Klavaro is a desktop program, so the first step is to get it onto your machine. Windows users should follow our Klavaro for Windows setup guide, which covers the official 3.13 installer, the SmartScreen notice you may see on first run, and the high-DPI text fix. The installer itself is on our download page. Linux users can usually install Klavaro straight from their distribution’s software centre or package manager, and Mac users have separate routes, since there is no native macOS version. Wherever you install from, use the official source and, if you want certainty, verify the file first — our guide to whether Klavaro is safe explains the SHA-256 check.

Step 1: Choose your interface language and keyboard layout

On the main screen, two choices shape everything that follows. The first is the interface language: Klavaro is translated into more than 30 languages, and this also decides the language of the word lists used in the later modules. Pick the language you actually type in — if you write in English at work, train in English, even if it is not your first language. The second choice is the keyboard layout. Klavaro ships with ready-made layouts including QWERTY in many national variants, Dvorak, Colemak, AZERTY and QWERTZ, and it has a built-in layout editor, so you can adjust key positions or save a custom layout as a simple text file if your physical keyboard does not match a preset. Take a moment to get this right: training against the wrong layout teaches your fingers the wrong map.

Step 2: The Basic Course — learn every key position

The Basic Course is where touch typing actually begins. It introduces the keys in small groups and asks you to repeat short sequences until your fingers know where each key lives. The design starts from the home row — the resting position with your left fingers on A, S, D and F and your right fingers on J, K, L and ; — and expands outward from there. One deliberate quirk surprises almost every new user: the backspace key is disabled in this module. That is not a bug. Klavaro blocks corrections on purpose, because if you cannot delete mistakes, you slow down and aim properly, and accuracy-first is exactly the habit that later becomes speed. Work through the lessons in order, keep your eyes on the screen rather than your hands, and do not rush — this module is measured in days of short sessions, not in one sitting. Our dedicated Basic Course guide covers the module lesson by lesson, including how to tell when you are ready to move on.

Step 3: Adaptability — master your weak keys

Adaptability is the module most learners find hardest, and the one that does the most invisible good. Instead of words, it generates random strings of characters, weighted towards the keys you personally find difficult. Random strings feel unfair at first — you cannot guess what comes next, so each letter has to be found by touch alone. That is precisely the point: this module rewires slow, uncertain keys until they react as automatically as your best keys. A sensible target before moving on is around 98% accuracy on these drills; if you are far below that, your weak keys will keep taxing every word you type later. Short, frequent sessions work better than long battles here. The full breakdown is in our Adaptability exercises guide.

Step 4: Velocity — type real words at speed

Velocity is where practice turns into recognisable typing. The drills now use real words from your chosen language, so your fingers start learning whole-word patterns instead of isolated letters. This is the module where your WPM score becomes meaningful: Klavaro times your runs and records speed alongside accuracy in your progress charts. The healthy way to use Velocity is to treat accuracy as the gate and speed as the result — if your error rate climbs, slow down until the words come out clean, and let the pace rebuild itself. You can also feed the module your own material (see importing texts below), which makes practice words match the vocabulary you type every day. Our Velocity exercises guide explains language selection, imported texts and how to read your WPM figures in this module.

Step 5: Fluidness — paragraphs, rhythm and flow

Fluidness is the final module and the closest thing to real writing. You type complete paragraphs, and the training goal shifts from raw speed to rhythm: a steady, uniform pace with no bursts and stalls. There is one strict rule — spelling errors must be corrected before you can proceed, so the module teaches you to notice and fix mistakes without losing your flow. This is the exercise that carries over most directly to essays, emails, code and reports. Many learners keep returning to Fluidness long after finishing the course, loading texts from their own work. Details, including how the correction rule works in practice, are in our Fluidness exercises guide.

Reading your progress charts

Klavaro records your results and draws progress charts that plot WPM and accuracy over time for each module. Read the two lines together, never speed alone. A rising WPM with stable or rising accuracy means real progress. A rising WPM with falling accuracy usually means you are rushing, and your net speed — the speed that counts once errors are accounted for — may actually be going down. Plateaus are normal and usually break after a few more sessions; a chart that flattens for a week while you practise daily often just means your fingers are consolidating. If one module’s chart lags the others, that module is telling you where your next week of practice belongs.

Importing your own texts

The Velocity and Fluidness modules can practise with any plain text file (.txt) you select from your computer. This is one of Klavaro’s most useful features: you can train on the material you really type — a chapter of a report, your study notes, song lyrics, or code comments. Two practical tips. First, if your text is in a non-English language, make sure the file is saved with UTF-8 encoding, otherwise accented or non-Latin characters may display incorrectly. Second, longer texts work best for Fluidness, while shorter, vocabulary-dense texts suit Velocity drills. Start with the built-in material, then graduate to your own files once the basic finger patterns feel automatic.

A realistic practice routine

Klavaro is designed around short, regular practice rather than heroic weekend sessions. Fifteen minutes a day will build more durable muscle memory than two hours once a week. A simple weekly rhythm that works for most beginners: spend your sessions on one module at a time, in course order; begin each session with a few minutes of the previous module as a warm-up; and stop while you are still accurate rather than practising tired errors into your fingers. Above all, do not look down at the keyboard — if you catch yourself peeking, cover your hands with a light cloth or a keyboard cover. The first two weeks feel slower than your old hunt-and-peck typing. That dip is expected, and it is the price of breaking through it. If you are completely new to this, our guide to learning touch typing explains the underlying skill and its stages.

Common beginner mistakes

• Skipping the Basic Course because you “already know where the keys are”. Knowing and touch-typing are different skills; the course is what converts one into the other.
• Chasing WPM from day one. Speed built on sloppy accuracy has to be unlearned. Accuracy first, always.
• Looking at the keyboard “just to check”. Every glance re-teaches your eyes to lead and your fingers to follow.
• Jumping between modules randomly. The four modules are a sequence; each prepares the next.
• Marathon sessions. Tired practice stores errors. Short daily sessions win.
• Training on the wrong layout. If your selected layout does not match your physical keyboard, everything feels harder than it should.

One thing Klavaro does not train

Klavaro trains your fingers, not your spelling or grammar — it will happily let you type a wrong word very fast. Our recommendation for the other half of writing: a grammar checker such as Grammarly, which flags spelling, grammar and tone problems as you write in your browser, documents and email. Speed from Klavaro plus correctness from a checker is the combination that makes fast typing useful in real work.

Ready to begin? Get the program from the download page, start with the Basic Course today, and give your fingers fifteen honest minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Klavaro free to use?

Yes. Klavaro is free and open-source software released under the GPLv3 license. You can download it, use all four modules and keep it forever at no cost, with no account and no ads.

In what order should I do the four Klavaro modules?

In course order: Basic Course, then Adaptability, then Velocity, then Fluidness. Each module prepares the next one, so skipping ahead usually makes the later modules feel harder than they should.

How much should I practise each day?

About 15 minutes a day works well for most learners. Short daily sessions build muscle memory more reliably than occasional long sessions, and they are easier to keep accurate.

Can I practise with my own texts in Klavaro?

Yes. The Velocity and Fluidness modules can import any plain text file (.txt) from your computer. If the text is in a non-English language, save it with UTF-8 encoding so special characters display correctly.