N.B: In this section it is described how to change a word using SpellRight's own internal modification-functionality. However, a user familiar with ResEdit will probably find it quicker to do the changes directly with ResEdit.
N.B again: You can also use the SpellRight Guide which can be found in the Apple Guide menu (if you have Apple Guide installed) when SpellRight is running, to get help with the following procedure.
If you aren't happy with a built-in word or a word in an external word-file, you may change it using the command "Change Word…" in the Changes-menu. You can choose to change the picture and/or the word and/or the sound.
Do this: First make sure you are using the word-set in which the chosen word can be found. To to that, you look in the File-menu; if you see the command "Import Words" you are using built-in words, if you see "Built-in Words" you are using words in an external file.
Now select the command "Change Word…" in the Changes-menu. After entering your administrative password, the "Change Word" dialog will appear. In this dialog you should first select the word you wish to change. You can either enter the name directly or pick it out in the pop-up menus. (If you cannot find the word in the pop-up menus, you are probably using the wrong set of words.)
Then, select what you want to change: picture and/or word and/or sound.
Click OK when ready.
Picture: If you checked the picture check box, the "Change Picture" dialog will appear. There you see the picture you are going to replace. You can choose between pasting in a new picture or importing it from an PICT-file.
If you want to paste it in, you must have copied it before you selected the command "Change Word…". If you didn't, abort by clicking Cancel, copy the picture and select the command "Change Word…" again. If you have copied a picture (and it is in PICT-format in the scrap) you can simply paste it in by clicking on the Paste-button. If the program is protesting it may be because your graphic-program didn't save the picture in a PICT-format in the scrap (very unlikely), or because the picture is very small or large (regarding diskspace not size). To minimize the amount of used diskspace, I suggest using icon-size (32 x 32 pixel) pictures. Of course, if you insist on using huge pictures, you can. It's your harddrive:)
If you instead choose to import the picture from a PICT-file, click the Import-button, and select the file. Again, I strongly suggest using small pictures.
No matter which method you chosed, the picture should now have appeared in the dialog. If you are happy with the result, click OK. Otherwise cancel.
Word: If you checked the word check box, the "Change Word" dialog will now appear. There you see the word you are going to change. Write in the new word. You cannot use more than 10 letters and only characters from the english alphabet. Click OK to accept and continue. Cancel to abort.
Sound: If you checked the sound check box, the sound recording dialog will appear. Record the sound and click OK. Leave the old sound untouched by clicking Cancel.
Finally, the "Result" dialog appears. In it you'll see the new word, picture and you can listen to the new sound by clicking the sound-button.
N.B: In this section it is described how to change a word using SpellRight's own internal modification-functionality. However, a user familiar with ResEdit will probably find it quicker to do the changes directly with ResEdit.
N.B again: You can also use the SpellRight Guide which can be found in the Apple Guide menu (if you have Apple Guide installed) when SpellRight is running, to get help with the following procedure.
If you want to add a new word either to the built-in words or to words in an external word-file you can use the command "New Word…" to do that.
Do this: First make sure you are using the word-set in which the chosen word can be found. To to that, you look in the File-menu; if you see the command "Import Words" you are using built-in words, if you see "Built-in Words" you are using words in an external file.
Now select the command "New Word…" from the Changes-menu. The "Choose Level" dialog will appear. Select the level, and click OK.
Picture: Next, the "New Picture" dialog will appear. You can choose between pasting in a new picture or importing it from an PICT-file.
If you want to paste it in, you must have copied it before you selected the command "Change Word…". If you didn't, abort by clicking Cancel, copy the picture and select the command "Change Word…" again. If you have copied a picture (and it is in PICT-format in the scrap) you can simply paste it in by clicking on the Paste-button. If the program is protesting it may be because your graphic-program didn't save the picture in a PICT-format in the scrap (very unlikely), or because the picture is very small or large (regarding diskspace not size). To minimize the amount of used diskspace, I suggest using icon-size (32 x 32 pixel) pictures. Of course, if you insist on using huge pictures, you can. It's your harddrive:)
If you instead choose to import the picture from a PICT-file, click the Import-button, and select the file. Again, I strongly suggest using small pictures.
No matter which method you chosed, the picture should now have appeared in the dialog. If you are happy with the result, click OK. Otherwise cancel.
Word: Then, the "New Word" dialog will appear. Write in the new word. You cannot use more than 10 letters and only characters from the english alphabet. Click OK to accept and continue. Cancel to abort.
Sound: If your Mac have sound recording facilities, the sound recording dialog will appear. Record the sound and click OK. Click Cancel if you do not wish to add a sound.
Finally, the "Result" dialog appears. In it you'll see the new word, picture and you can listen to the new sound by clicking the sound-button.
N.B : You can also use the SpellRight Guide which can be found in the Apple Guide menu (if you have Apple Guide installed) when SpellRight is running, to get help with the following procedure.
It is very simple to add new crosswords to SpellRight once you have constructed the crossword (which isn't always that easy). The constraints for the crossword is that it should consist of max 6 x 15 squares, only contain clues that points straight to the right or downwards (no bent arrows), and it cannot contain word-separators shorter than one square. (It will be clear soon, believe me)
Do this: I now expect that you have already constructed your crossword on a piece of paper, and is only going to enter it into the program.
Choose the command "Create Crossword…" from the Changes-menu. After entering your administrative password, you'll be asked to enter a name for your new crossword. Do that, and click OK. The "Create Crossword" dialog will appear.
To start entering clues and letters, first move the active yellow square to the square where you wish to start. You move it by clicking in the crossword, or by using the arrow-keys.
Then choose between entering a picture-clue, a word-clue or a letter.
Picture-clue: Click on the Picture-button. You'll now see all the built-in pictures that you can use as picture-clues (actually you only see 86 of them, but you can see them all by scrolling with the arrows). Choose a picture by clicking on it, or cancel by clicking Cancel. If you only want a "Word-separator", click on the black square just in front of the last arrow. If you selected a proper picture, you now have to select an arrow for the clue. (the arrow shows in what direction the word should go) Select one by clicking on it. This brings you back to the crossword, and you should now be able to see your picture-clue or word-separator. To see the picture better, click on it while pressing the option-key.
Word-clue: Click on the Word-button. The "Change Word" dialog will now turn into a "Enter Word-clues" dialog. Here you may enter two word-clues; one vertically and one horizontally. If you only wish to use one, leave the other blank. Click OK. This takes you back to the crossword and you should now be able to see the word-clues. To see them better, option-click on the clue.
Letter: Enter a letter in the active square by either clicking in the alphabet or by typing it with the keyboard.
If you change your mind regarding the content of a square, simply make it active again and change the content.
Continue like this until you have filled all squares. You have to enter something in every square. You may save an uncompleted crossword and finish it later. If the crossword isn't complete it can only be opened with "Modify Crossword" while a saved complete crossword can be opened with "New Crossword".
If you are familiar with Apple's resource editing program ResEdit, it is often easiest to do modifiactions to the application and word-files directly with ResEdit. The exception to this is the modification and creation of crosswords which is easiest managed from within SpellRight.
In this section, the important resources are described and instructions for doing changes are given.
N.B: ResEdit is a powerful program and it is very easy to totally ruin a file or application. Make sure that you know what you are doing before trying this, and always work on a backup copy. Never change or remove resources that you do not know what they are used for. That will in most cases cause an application-crash.
The important resources:
PICT: Here are all the pictures that illustrates the words in the spelling game and that are used as picture clues in the crosswords. Level 1 words have resource ID 128-227, level2 words ID 228-327, and level 3 words have ID 328-427. With resource ID>1215 there are some dialog related pictures. N.B: Do not remove these. The program will certainly crash if they cannot be found.
STR#: Here there are lots of resources. But the important ones for doing changes are: ID=128, Level1 word. ID=228, Level 2 word. ID=328, Level 3 word. ID 500 -> 1000, word-clues in crosswords. ID=2001 contains the administrative password. Resources with ID>2000, contains various dialog, alert, and balloon help strings. (Hands off)
CRWD: These are all the complete crosswords that can be opened with "New Crossword". Resource ID>=128 without gaps.
SCWD: Saved half-solved crosswords.
UCWD: Uncompleted crosswords created with "Create Crossword…".
Make changes:
Add a new word: Add a new PICT resource after the last existing resource at the relevant level. N.B: There mustn't be any gaps. Add the word to the STR# list. Lastly, add the sound last among the snd-resources.
Example: Add a new word to level 1. Before the word is added there are resources from 128 to 188. We paste in a new PICT-resource with ID=189, we write in a new word at index 61 in the STR#-128 resource. We record a new sound and add it as a snd-189 resource. Save.
Change picture, word and/or sound: Replace the relevant picture in PICT, word in STR#, and sound in snd.
Create New Crossword: This is easiest done from within SpellRight. However, if you like to solve puzzels, you may find it amusing to crack my coding of the crossword.
Rename a crossword, saved crossword or uncomplete crossword: Change the name of the relevant CRWD-, SCWD-, or UCWD-resource, but DON'T FORGET to change the name of the STR#-resource with the same name.
Throw away crosswords, saved crosswords, or uncomplete crosswords: Remove the relevant CRWD-, SCWD-, or UCWD-resource. If there will be a gap in the sequence, try filling it in by moving the last crossword into the gap. (The crosswords are mostly referred to by name so their specific ID-number isn't important.)
Modify Crosswords: This is done from within SpellRight.
Replace Sound Effects: Replace the snd-resource with ID>1127. If you wish to replace them only temporarily and keep the original ones, you may put the original resource at resourceID=origID + 500. You may then restore the original effects by using the command "Use Original".
Create New Word-files: Create a new file in ResEdit. Set creator to 'STAV' and type to 'WORD'. Add at least one word and picture at every level.
Change/check the administrative password: Change/look at STR#-2001.
11. About Preferences
To change the preferences you use the command "Preferences" in the menu "Changes". The following preferences can be set for SpellRight itself:
Allow recording own sound: The child may record her own sound to words in the spelling game.
Allow spelling help: The child may use the spelling help.
Allow "Save Crossword": The child can save half-solved crosswords.
Allow "Throw Crossword": The child can erase previously saved half-solved crosswords.
If an external wordfile is open at the time you use the "Preferences" command, the settings will only affect the open file. In that case you can only change the two first settings above (the crosswords are all in SpellRight).
Besides these preferences, the following settings are also saved separately in SpellRight and every external wordfile: the color of the word, alphabet and letter-bars, sound on/off, speech on/off.
12. System Requirements
To use SpellRight you need a Mac with 68040-processor (Color Quickdraw) or better, System 7 or later, Sound Manager 3.0 or later, and a color screen that handles 640 x 480 resolution or better.
If you have Apple Guide installed, you can use the SpellRight Guide.
If you have Speech installed, you can use it to read out the words.
SpellRight needs at least 1.1 MB RAM but prefers 1.5 MB.
13. Registration
SpellRight is a Shareware program. This means that you can use it for 30 days without paying. If you wish to continue using it, you must pay. When you register you also get access to all the built-in words, crosswords and modification features.
Instructions:
Mail the registration fee in cash (N.B DO NOT MAIL NON-SWEDISH BANK CHECKS) directly to
Peter Peldán
Västergården 271
S-186 37 Vallentuna
Sweden
Supply your name, address, email-address and tell me which program (version) you are registering.
After processing your registration I will mail (email or snail) you a registration code uniquely created from your name. When you enter your name and the code in the registration dialog that appears at SpellRight's startup, the program will automatically give you access to all the built in features.
The registration fee is:
Single User Licens USD 15
Site Licence USD 150
Single user licence is valid for one copy of SpellRight on one Mac. Site Licence is valid for an unlimited number of programs on an unlimited number of machines in one company, school etc within a range of 160 km (100 miles).
14. Legal Mumble Jumble
I do not guarantuee anything, and disclaim all responsibility for problems caused by SpellRight. The program is used at your own risk.
I claim all rights to the program and do not allow any distribution of it other than purely non-profit. I allow inclusion on CD-ROMs and similar as long as the entire distribution is supplied: SpellRight application, SpellRight Guide, Doc Part I, Doc Part II, ReadMe file.
15. Help with problems
If you have any problems with installing or running SpellRight, have comments, critizism, suggestions or similar, please feel free to contact me at
email: peldan@physto.se
snail mail: Peter Peldán
Västergården 271
186 37 Vallentuna
Sweden
Web: http://hem2.passagen.se/peldan/
I promise that I will answer all email very soon and all snail mail in due time.
