4. Changing the options

Changing the voice and rate of speech

Use the “Speech” control panel to change the voice and rate of speech. A shortcut to the “Speech” control panel can be found under the Edit menu. Macintalk Pro voices, (Victoria, Bruce, Agnes), and Macintalk 3 voices (e.g. Fred, Kathy, Cellos, Whisper) have different rules for pronunciation so they will speak some words differently. Macintalk Pro often is better at pronunciation by rule then is Macintalk 3. This is a good factor to keep in mind when creating tests if the users may be using different voices. The the owl animation works better with Macintalk Pro voices.

On some Macs, Macintalk Pro voices tend to click when they are used in Master Spell when Virtual Memory is on. If you find these clicks annoying (as I do), then turn off Virtual Memory using the Memory control panel.

I have done all I can to overcome any problems with understanding what Macintalk Pro and Macintalk 3 voices are saying by adding clarifications for all of the Master Spell words. Just think of the foreign voice as someone with a strange accent which you have to get used to.

Admonishing Remarks and Sounds option

You may disable the end test crybaby sound and all of the sampled sounds that are otherwise played for misspellings by unchecking the Admonishing Remarks and Sounds checkbox by selecting the Preferences item of the Edit menu. The option basically removes all “negative” remarks and sounds which many Austrailians and New Zealanders in particular find unflattering.  The spoken remarks for misspellings are also more forgiving and encouraging. This might be useful for some younger children who might find the sounds and remarks a bit intimidating.

Speak Letters as Typed

Master Spell will speak each letter as it is typed. This feedback is intended mostly for children and may be very cumbersome to adults and fast typists so it is an option. This option can be found under the General tab of the Preferences which is found in the Edit menu.

Talkative option

Master Spell is most interactive in pretest activities and giving you status at the end of the drill with the Talkative item checked. Uncheck this option by selecting Preferences from the Edit menu if you want a faster paced drill process.

Check for Proper Case

You may allow Master Spell to check for proper case such as in the case of proper nouns such as “January” or “Arctic” with the Check for Proper Case option checked. In this case if you submit “arctic”, it would be counted as incorrect. Uncheck this item if you want Master Spell to completely ignore case.

Hide Desktop

With the Hide Desktop option checked, Master Spell will draw a solid color for the entire background outside of the Master Spell windows. These colors are selected randomly and can be changed to another randomly generated color by clicking the solid color background.

Choose Class at Startup and Pupil Logoff

With this option selected, when Master Spell is launched or when a pupil logs-off, the user is immediately asked to select his/her class.

Password Requirements

You may turn the passwords requirement for the teacher and pupils on and off individually in the Preferences. See 5. Passwords

Pupil Restrictions

All pupil restrictions can be set from within the Preferences dialog. This includes:

• Disable New Pupil Creation
• Lock Test Selection
• Lock Number of Words
• Lock Integrate Troublers
• Disable History Clearing
• Disable Pupil Password Changing
• Disable Drill Cancellation

With "Disable Drill Cancellation" checked, users will not be able to cancel in the middle of a drill. However they could just quit Master Spell without finishing the drill. This is an option to make it harder for users to falsify their Drill Log.

• Disable End of Drill Retry

With "Disable End of Drill Retry" checked, users are denied the chance to retry for half credit, words they spelled incorrectly.