Updated 18 Aug 2014

Startwrite Review

Admin @ 12:09 pm

With Startwrite software, create letters and numbers for students to trace using any of the common handwriting styles – block print, manuscript, cursive and more. You can insert pictures beside your traceable text, and the software comes with a small clipart gallery. (They also provide ready-made worksheets for you to download and print, which they update periodically, but as a Montessori teacher I haven’t found these particularly useful. The worksheets tend to be cute in a way that detracts from their purpose.)

StartWrite has various, well-thought-out settings for how to display letters. Choose whether or not to include a dot showing the starting point for the letter, directional arrows, and the type of line – solid gray or black or a dashed line of your choice of densities, or outlined for children to write inside.

Some of what I expect in modern software is missing, such as many common keyboard shortcuts found in other software. Also I have encountered a display problem that I work around by saving the file, then closing and reopening it, whereupon everything displays correctly.

That said, the software has improved dramatically since I first started using it a few years ago, and even back then it was adequate for its task. All in all it works quite well, and newer versions may have already overcome my objections.

Download Startwrite’s free trial to see if it meets your needs.

For more information, go to the StartWrite website.

Comments are closed.