Home Page
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The Icon Bar
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Content List
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Find page
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Preferences
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Create test page
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Test notes
Home Page
The Home Page of the Virtual Trainer series products provides you with the following information:
- The list of courses you have installed and added.
- A Go button that enables you to start your study.
- A short summary of study planning information for each course.
- A short summary of your progress in all installed courses.
- Links to three detailed reports (Summary, Tests, and Content) about your progress in each particular subject.
- Links to the Sybex Web site, where you can find helpful information about Sybex products, and to an information page for other titles in the Virtual Trainer series.
- An Add/Remove courses button, which will transfer you to a screen where you can add or remove courses. (This requires that course to have been installed already.)
Icon Bar (at the top of the Virtual Trainer screen) |
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Return to top |
The Icon Bar allows you to enable or disable different features of the program, to navigate through the content, and to access different functions. The Icon Bar buttons and their functions are described below.
- Home button
This button transfers you to the Home Page.
- Find button
This button displays the Find page.
- Preferences button
This button displays the general Preferences page.
- Plan button
This button displays the Study Planning page.
- Testing button
The flashing of this button means that you are now running a practice test or that you have suspended a practice test. Clicking this button while it flashes will transfer you to the incomplete practice test.
- Reports button
This button changes the Content area to display the Reports folder.
- Previous button
This button displays the previous item in the Content List in the Content area.
- Next button
This button displays the next item in the Content List in the Content area.
Using Previous/Next buttons on the Icon Bar will move you back and forth through a predefined sequence of screens within the study guide.
Using Back/Next on the browser toolbar is not recommended, as it may take you out of your course altogether.
If you wish to go directly to a screen you have visited in the current session, choose the History option from the pull-down menu at the top of the Content List, and then click the screen you want from the list presented.
The Content List on the left of the screen is the primary navigation tool. Along with the Icon Bar, the Content List allows you to adjust any characteristic of the program and to navigate around the various topics and tests. You can see the following folders within the Content List:
- Intro sections folder
This folder contains an introduction, which describes the product's main features and explains how to use them. This section can be opened at any time.
- Full content folder
This folder contains all the content of the subject you are studying, structured into topic sub-folders, where the appropriate pages are accessible.
- My Study Plan folder
This folder contains the content already filtered for you by the program and reflects the condition of your study plan. Folders within it can be organized according to preferences chosen during your personal study plan creation.
Done folder contains the content you have read and tested successfully.
This Week folder contains the content that should be reviewed during the current week according to your study plan.
Week of Month folder contains the content that should be reviewed by the time indicated in the folder's title.
Depending on which study plan parameters you choose, some Week of Month folders may be empty. This happens because the minimal unit for planning is a single chapter. One chapter cannot be subdivided among different Week of Month folders. If a chapter requires more study time each week than you have allowed during the creation of your study plan, only the first Week of Month folder will contain this chapter, and subsequent folders will be empty.
Note that the name of a Week of Month folder can be modified when you set up your study plan by using the study plan name field.
- Exploration folder
This folder contains an additional activity related to the course you are stydying.
- Tests folder
This folder contains all of the information about your tests and is structured with the following subfolders:
Completed Practice folder
This subfolder contains all practice tests that you have done along with your answers. You can follow the pathway that you took through the tests including answers given to each particular question.
Completed Timed folder
This subfolder contains all timed tests that you have done along with your answers. You can follow the pathway that you took through the tests including answers given to each particular question.
To be done folder
This subfolder contains all the tests required to be done according to the Full Content List.
Custom Tests folder
This subfolder contains references to the Create test page and all custom tests you have created.
Review Tests page
This page allows you to access the study tests any time you want to test your knowledge.
- Reports folder
This folder contains a Summary Report, a Summary Test Report, and a Summary Content Report, all of which reflect your current progress. This folder also contains subfolders for Practice Test Reports and Timed Test Reports. These subfolders hold reports about all the tests you have passed.
- Content list pull-down menu
The Content List pull-down menu allows you to select the following modes for the Content List:
List All Contents - includes all folders described above.
History - changes the Content List area to display a list of content pages visited during the current program session.
My Study Plan - changes the Content List area to display only the content of your study plan. If the plan isn't created, the Content List will contain only one item, Create Study Plan.
This page provides the ability to find all descriptions and definitions of the most significant terms and words in the subject you are studying. Complex search query and full text search are not supported. Only predefined (pre-indexed) words are available for search.
To find an entry in your study guide:
- First type a single word into the Find Word box or use the scrolling menu list to look for a word.
- Select an Index Category in which you want to find a word (All or Key Terms or Topics).
- Select the Find In area - Full Content or Study Plan.
- Click the Find button.
- If the entered word is not found in the index, the search engine will change the word to show the word nearest in similarity to the one entered. It will then use this substitute for further searching.
As a search result, the program will display a list divided into categories (Key Terms, Topics, and Index links) with links to the pages where the required word has been found.
In case no appropriate word matches a search request, the system will display the "No items found" message.
To make your work with the program more comfortable and efficient, the following parameters and features can be tuned by your preferences:
- Skins
You can change the look of your study guide screen by selecting any of the options shown in the menu list. The Skins preferences allow you to choose one of 2 color schemes. When a color scheme (skin) is selected from the list of available skins, you will see the preview of this scheme in the preview box. To change a skin, scroll down and click the Apply button.
- Fonts
Font size preferences settings allow you to choose one of the following sizes of font for the content frame:
Smallest
Smaller
Medium
Larger
Largest
The preview box beside these choices shows the result of any font size changes. To change font settings, scroll down and click the Apply button.
Note: This option is valid only for the content frame and does not affect the listing on the left of the screen and the Icon Bar.
- Tests
The Tests section will allow you to adjust some parameters of the testing system and the amount of test-related data displayable by the Content List.
The "Take into account NN topics in my Done folder" parameter allows you to control the size of review tests.
The Test appearance in my Content List fields allow you to control the number of reports related to the passed tests displayable by the Content List.
The Icon & Sound responses in Practice Tests selector allows you to customize icons and sounds to be used in the tests.
To save the changes you have made to this page scroll down and click the Apply button.
This page allows you to create your own custom test.
To name the test, type its name into the "Custom Test name" text entry field at the top of the page. Below that is the entire list of sections that can be tested. To include a section into the test, check the box for that section. To save the created custom test, click the OK button at the bottom of the page. The test will be saved and will appear in the Custom Tests subfolder of the Tests folder in the Content List.
Use either the Previous/Next buttons on the Icon Bar or the Content List to navigate between questions. When you are done, click the Finish Test button.
There will be several questions in the test. The time remaining will be indicated in the upper right corner of the testing window.
For each question, click the answer you think is correct, and then click the Enter button.
Please do not use all capitals when typing text responses to questions - doing so may not leave enough space for the full answer.
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