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+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | The SPELLBOUND! Spelling Tutor, Version 1.10 | | Copyright (C) 1988-1990 By Kenneth R. Casey, Jr. | | Portions (C) Copyright 1982-1988 The Microsoft Corporation | | All Rights Reserved. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+ The SPELLBOUND! Spelling Tutor Version 1.10 is being released under the shareware concept. You may evaluate the program for a period of 21 days to determine its worth. After this trial period you are asked to register your copy with SPELLBOUND! Software. Many months of work went into this program, during which the author's finances suffered greatly. If you can afford to register, PLEASE DO. The author, knowing what it is like to do without, understands that not everyone can afford to register. If you are unable to send the $25.00, please send what you can, (even a thank you card is better than nothing), with a note explaining your circumstances and an exception will be made. Schools and institutions MUST register. To register your copies, just print out the form near the end of the documentation or create a facsimile and send it with the proper amount to: SPELLBOUND! Software P.O. Box 158 Shepherd, MI 48883 If you do not register your copy, -- and still have a conscience, -- please at least help out by distributing the program to bulletin boards and/or shareware distributors so that others might register. It won't make it right between us, but we DO care that you can sleep at night! The author's daughter Shannon, the prime beta tester of the spelling tutor, and for whose spelling improvement this project was begun, won her class spelling bee this year. It really works! ========================[ BUG FIXES, UPDATES ]============================= The latest version of the program can be gotten from the following bulletin boards: Michigan Data Central BBS -- Mt. Pleasant, MI 517-773-0644 24hrs 300/1200 8-N-1 Mainstream Computers BBS -- Alma, MI 517-463-8474 24hrs 300/1200/2400 8-N-1 The "D-Board" -- Mt. Pleasant, MI 517-773-9055 24hrs 300/1200/2400 8-N-1 You may also leave messages to Ken Casey on any of these boards. =============================[ REQUIREMENTS ]============================== The SPELLBOUND! Spelling Tutor requires at least 384k of memory, DOS 3.00 or higher, a CGA, EGA, or VGA graphics monitor, and one of the following systems: 1) Two 360k floppy drives. 2) One hard drive. 3) 720k or greater single floppy drive. 2 It will not run on MDA Monochrome or Hercules systems unless you use one of the CGA simulators, such as the excellent shareware program, SIMCGA, available from many quality bulletin boards and shareware distributors. ==========================[ LICENSE AGREEMENT ]============================ Hereinafter, "THE SOFTWARE" shall refer to "The SPELLBOUND! Spelling Tutor", Version 1.10, and "THE AUTHOR" shall refer to Kenneth R. Casey, Jr. This is a legal agreement between you, the end user, and THE AUTHOR. By continuing to use the THE SOFTWARE, you are agreeing to be bound by the terms of this agreement. If you do not agree to the terms of this agreement, promptly destroy all copies of THE SOFTWARE and any accompanying documentation. THE AUTHOR grants to you the user, the right to use one copy of THE SOFTWARE on a single terminal connected to a single computer (i.e. with a single CPU), for an evaluation period of 21 days after which you must pay for the program by registering the program with the AUTHOR. Registration entitles you to telephone support and the use of a single copy of the program. THE SOFTWARE is owned by THE AUTHOR, and is protected by United States copyright laws and international treaty provisions. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble THE SOFTWARE. THE SOFTWARE may be freely distributed on computer bulletin board systems in its original form with all of its files intact. It may also be distributed by scrupulous shareware distributors, providing no more than $3.95 is charged for the service of providing a single copy of THE SOFTWARE, and providing that the purchaser is made well aware that what he has purchased is the service of duplication and distribution, and not a license to use the software. ==============================[ DISCLAIMER ]=============================== This program is provided "AS IS" without any warranty, expressed or implied, including but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitfulness for a particular purpose, with respect to the software, the documentation, and the media upon which it is conveyed. In no event shall SPELLBOUND! Software, Kenneth R. Casey, Jr. or their suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of or inability to use "The SPELLBOUND! Spelling Tutor" Version 1.10, even if SPELLBOUND! Software or Kenneth R. Casey, Jr. have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you. 3 =============[ FEATURES OF THE SPELLBOUND! SPELLING TUTOR ]=============== UNIQUE TEACHING METHOD! While in TUTOR mode, the student is not allowed to misspell the word. In conventional spelling methods the student is allowed to misspell the word, allowing for a period of time in which the student believes he has formed a proper memory image of the word. This is confusing and necessitates the inconvenient step of having to "unlearn" the wrong spelling. By prohibiting improper keystrokes from being displayed on the screen, SPELLBOUND! insures that the only spelling the student will ever see is the correct one. When in TEST mode, evaluation is not done by individual letter, but by word. The student is allowed to type in invalid characters and the word is evaluated only after pressing ENTER. While in TEST mode, a record of the student's scores is kept. TEN OR TWENTY WORD SETS SPELLBOUND! allows you to configure it to test on sets consisting of either ten or twenty words. For smaller children with shorter attention spans, the ten word set option is provided. For older students, the twenty word set option might be more appropriate. Since the grading is done on a percentage basis, this will have no effect on scoring. USE YOUR OWN WORD LISTS! SPELLBOUND! allows you to create your own word lists. There is no special formatting required. Use actual text from the student's current reading if you wish. All punctuation, numbers, symbols, etc. will be ignored and the words will be grouped into sets of 10 or 20, depending on what you have in your configuration. Use the onboard Mini Editor to enter the words, or use the Dos Command option from the Main Menu to run your own word processor. A special function is available from within SPELLBOUND! called the Word List Processor, which will gather words from text files of any format, (lists, letters, Grandma's jam recipe, -- anything containing text!) sort the words, delete duplicate words, and print them sequentially numbered by sets of ten or twenty to a file you specify. The list may be sent to a printer and used as a reference from which to assign word sets. When you use the SPELLBOUND! Mini Editor, you will be prompted to run the text file you have created through the Word List Processor. ON BOARD MINI EDITOR! Create word lists -on the fly- with the SPELLBOUND! Mini Editor. Words can be entered in any format to be used with SPELLBOUND! or optionally run through the Word List Processor to remove possible duplicates and form them into discrete numbered sets. Just press F9 to start up the editor! SPELLBOUND! CREATES A LIST OF DIFFICULT WORDS FOR EACH STUDENT! Whenever the student misspells a word, that word is appended to a file called STUDENT.ERR where "STUDENT" is the first eight letters of his name. The file will contain the date and time of the errors as well, for teacher information. This file may then be cleaned of duplicates by using the Word List Processor function from within SPELLBOUND! The date, time and etc. will be ignored by the Word List Processor. This way the student may be tested exclusively on words with which he previously has had difficulties. This makes the most of the valuable time the student spends learning to spell. 4 SPELLBOUND! CREATES EXHAUSTIVE REPORTS ON EACH STUDENT'S PERFORMANCE! Records are kept of all the students' work in SPELLBOUND!. Records may be viewed individually or printed out to a printer, a file, or even to the screen. The records menu always displays the average score for the previous 10 sessions. VOLUMINOUS CONTEXT-SENSITIVE HELP FROM WITHIN THE PROGRAM! Help is available in the form of a one line help box just under the menu box, which displays help for the currently highlighted selection. If more help is desired, a help window may be popped up with context-sensitive help by pressing the F1 key at any time. Press any other key to exit the help screen. COMPLETE SECURITY WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD PROTECTION! The Teacher and each student may be required to use a password to gain access to the menu/records program so that unauthorized users may not view a student's progress. The Teacher may print out the students' passwords in the case one is forgotten. If the wrong password is entered more than once for a given name, a file called SPELLSEC.LOG is updated with the name of the person to whose records access was attempted, and the password which was tried. This alerts you to any attempted security violations. 3-D USER-FRIENDLY MENUS! SPELLBOUND! was designed for use by people with little or no computer experience. It observes widely held DOS conventions which are used in other DOS applications. Help is on the F1 key, ESC backs you up in the program, F10 is the exit key, etc. All of the configuration, viewing and printing of reports are navigable by use of the up, down, left and right cursor or arrow keys. Just highlight the selection you wish and press the ENTER (carriage return) key. Alternatively, each selection has a number just to the left of it which may be pressed in lieu of the cursor and ENTER keys. This facilitates the execution of a selection by using just one keystroke! A small help window is located just below the window, and continually offers one line of instruction on the highlighted selection. For those who like bells and whistles, unique transparent shadowing is used in the menus which give a true 3-D effect. Windows which pop up over other boxes cast a longer shadow than the boxes underneath. Sound effects are available as well but may be turned off at any time. SPELLBOUND! CAN BE COMPLETELY CONFIGURED TO EACH USER! All of the colors, sound effects, and options such as word length, flash rate, use of animated graphics, source file, number of word sets, etc. are completely user configurable. Each student may adjust all of the colors used in the program. Alternatively, he may opt for the default configuration or one which the teacher has set up for him. His personal configuration will be saved in a file in the data directory called STUDENT.CFG where STUDENT is the first eight letters of his name. When the program starts, the student is asked to type in the first eight letters of his name. The program will then load his configuration, his performance records (if any) and the colors, etc. will be those he saved in the previous session. 5 EASY TO USE MAINTENANCE FUNCTIONS! All the students in the class may be displayed at one time. All the Teacher needs to do to examine the student records is highlight the name with the cursor (arrow) keys and press ENTER and the student's records are loaded and ready to view or print reports. Alternatively, the Teacher may highlight the name, press the SPACEBAR to mark one or any number of names, and then press F6 to delete all the marked names. Additionally, you may reverse the marks with the F7 key. That way you may mark only the students you do not wish to delete. INFORMATIVE REPORTS Two types of reports are printed. There is a an individual student report, which lists each record of each session and averages his grades for you. There is also a report generated for the entire class. This report gives the number of sessions each student performed, the score for the most recent session, and the average for all of his sessions. At the end of the report, the class average is given. ===========================[ WHEN HELP IS NEEDED ]=========================== Context-sensitive help is available from within the Menu program, and general help is available from within the Spelling program by pressing the F1 key. There is a unique help screen for each selection within the Menu program. Just place the selection bar on the option for which you desire help, and then press F1. A pop-up help window will then appear. To exit the help window, just press any key. =============================[ INSTALLATION ]============================= Attention: The SPELLBOUND! Spelling Tutor is distributed in one of two ways. Via diskette, and via a single compressed file using one of the shareware ZIP or ARC utilities. To install from the diskette, use one of the methods following "PREPARATION:". To install from an ARC, ZIP, or LZH format file, it is assumed that you have progressed beyond the "novice" stage, in that you are competent to handle these types of files. The Spelling Tutor may be dumped into its own directory if you are only going to have several students. Name the new directory whatever you wish and edit the PATH environment variable in AUTOEXEC.BAT to append the new directory. To start the Spelling Tutor for this new directory, change to the directory using the "CD" command and then type: SPELL. If you wish to have several classes of students, each class MUST be in its own directory so that reports etc. may be done for each class. In this case, consult the chart which lists the files pertaining to the PROGRAM directory (into which go all of the executable files and their configuration files,) and the DATA directory (which will contain the student's data files, configuration files, error lists, and personal progress reports). This chart is just a few pages hence. Alternatively, dump the files onto a single diskette and follow the directions below. PREPARATION: The entire installation procedure is given in the file, README.1ST on the distribution diskette. Because of the importance of the following items, they will be gone over here, but this information is contained in README.1ST as well. It is important to follow the instructions in README.1ST in order to effect a proper installation. 6 Installation is accomplished via one of the two batch files included on the distribution diskette. FINSTALL.BAT installs onto two floppy systems, and HINSTALL.BAT installs onto hard drive systems. For Hard disk installation it will be necessary for you to add the following line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, or to enter it at the DOS prompt before running SPELLBOUND! SET PATH=drive:\path; or: PATH drive:\path; If you already have a path command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT, it will be necessary to append the new path to the old. If for example, your PATH were: SET PATH=C:\DOS;C:\UTIL;C:\WP You may append the new path by appending a semicolon and then the new path thus: SET PATH=C:\DOS;C:\UTIL;C:\WP;C:\SPELL When SPELLBOUND! starts up, it will check the program directory to make sure that all of the files it needs are in the program directory. If it finds any missing, it will alert you as to the name of the missing file. THESE ARE THE FILES WHICH SHOULD BE ON THE DISKS AFTER INSTALLATION: =============================================================================== PROGRAM Directory =============================================================================== DRIVE A: for floppies. C:\SPELL for Hard drive. =============================================================================== AUTOEXEC.BAT -- Initializes environment, starts SPELL.EXE. (FLOPPY ONLY!) CONFIG.SYS -- Sets FILES and BUFFERS. (FLOPPY ONLY!) BRUN45.EXE -- Run time module. SPELL.DTA -- Contains screen, help, various messages etc. SPELL.EXE -- Menu, Configuration, Editor, Records module. SPELL000.EXE -- The Spelling Tutor module. SPELL001.EXE -- The Word List Processor module. DEFAULT.CFG -- Default configuration for use with SPELLBOUND! SPELL.CFG -- Retains name of last person to log in. (Created) =============================================================================== DATA Directory =============================================================================== DRIVE A: for floppies. C:\DATA for Hard drive. =============================================================================== PASSWORD.LST -- Optional name for student password file (Created) CLASS.RPT -- Report on entire class performance (Created) SPELLSEC.LOG -- Logs incorrect password attempts after second try (Created) STUDENT.CFG -- Contains the student's personal configuration (Created) STUDENT.DAT -- Contains the student's personal records (Created) STUDENT.REP -- Contains report-to-disk (Created) STUDENT.ERR -- Contains list of words student has misspelled (Created) SPELL.DOC -- (If desired) SPELL.WDS -- A word list (any other files with a ".WDS" extension are word lists supplied by the author or created by you. =============================================================================== 7 The directory to contain the word files and the data files must be the current directory. Change to the drive which will contain your data files (in this case, B:,) e.g. B: <Enter>. For this configuration, you must include drive A: in your PATH command. If you have the AUTOEXEC.BAT file provided on the distribution disk, these are done for you when you boot the computer. IMPORTANT NOTE: If at any time you get the message "Input Run Time Module Path: _", it is because the file BRUN45.EXE (see list above) is not in the \SPELL directory, on the PROGRAM diskette, or that directory is not in your PATH. You may choose now to type in the path and name of the file, but you should append its location to your path. =========================[ RUNNING SPELLBOUND! ]======================== The easiest way to run the Spelling Tutor directly is to type SPELL and then your name (the first eight letters of it) and then press ENTER! This will take you directly to the Tutor. When you are finished in the Tutor, you will be taken to the Menu Program, from which you may view your records or press F10 to quit (if DOS functions are enabled). ============================[ WHAT IT DOES ]============================ SPELLBOUND! was created in order to fill a void left by other software- based spelling tutors. This program may be entirely customized to each user no matter the age. All the colors may be customized and are saved to each user's personal file. The length of the words, the presence of animated graphics and music, whether to test or tutor, the word lists of your creation; all are personally configurable. In addition, there is no limit to the words which may be used. You may specify any file which is known to contain properly spelled words. Punctuation, non-letter characters, and numbers are ignored. This allows the conscientious parent to type the text of the child's reading assignment into a text file and then use that text as the file with which to use SPELLBOUND!. SPELLBOUND! cleans out punctuation, non-letter characters, and numbers while culling the words into discrete units which are then arranged into sets of ten in the order in which they appear in the text. For example, if you have a book on disk, such as the Bible, you might specify the book of 1st John as the text for the source for words. SPELLBOUND!'s first set of words would be listed thus: in the beginning was the word and the word was Each word would be presented one at a time to the student. In this example, you can see one problem which can result, however, the word "the" appears three times, the word "was" appears twice, and the word "word" appears twice. 8 WORD LIST PROCESSOR For this reason a companion utility, THE SPELLBOUND! Word List Processor has been provided with the program to help create lists of unique words from any text files you specify. This option, available from the Main Menu, will take such a file, sort the words, delete redundant words, and optionally resort the file into original order, shuffle them, or leave them alphabetically sorted. It then groups the words, ten or twenty on a line, (this is determined by your current setting for number of words per set) numbered by set, and paginated, so that one may see the words in sets of ten or twenty with any listing program, or send it to the printer. It is recommended that you run your word processor's spell checker on any files you create to insure that the words contained therein are correctly spelled. In addition, SPELLBOUND! allows you to set the minimum and maximum length for words, thus allowing you to define the program for a narrow age group. It has a child mode which makes use of animated graphics and music to maintain the child's interest and reward his efforts. This is accomplished by setting Smileys to ON in the Configuration Menu. It has been designed for use by adults as well, as it is not uncommon for adults to experience difficulty with spelling, especially those with common learning disabilities such as dyslexia. There are two different modes in which SPELLBOUND! may be run, TUTOR mode and TEST mode. TUTOR mode validates each letter of the word as it is entered. It will not allow the incorrect letter to be printed, thus preventing the student from developing an errant mental image of the spelling of the word. In this mode, the only spelling the student will ever see is the correct one. If a hint is needed or for some reason the word is completely forgotten, the spacebar may be tapped, resulting in the momentary display of the word for the duration set in the Word Flash Rate setting in the Configuration Menu. TEST mode only checks the validity of the word when the "ENTER" key is pressed and so the backspace key, insert key, delete key, and cursor keys are available for editing. One may cause the word to be flashed to him in TEST mode or in TUTOR mode by tapping the spacebar. The word will be briefly shown for the duration set in the Word Flash Rate set in the Configuration Menu. At the end of the test in test mode, a score and grade are given, and the results are printed to a unique data file corresponding to the individual's name. These records can be printed out or viewed from the RECORDS MENU. ===========================[ THE ERROR LIST ]=========================== In addition to the writing of the records to disk, a record is also being made of the words that were misspelled during the sessions. This record is in the form of a list, which is updated during each session. The name of the file containing the list is in the form, STUDENT.ERR. STUDENT is the first eight letters of the name of the person, with the extension ERR appended to it. The misspelled word set from each session is prefaced with the time and date of the test or tutorial session. This list may then be used as the source from which to test when the minimum of ten words is reached. The time and date will be ignored. Since this list will probably contain duplicates, (as the same word may be misspelled a number of times,) it is advised that you run the Word List Processor (available from the Main Menu), on it to delete duplicate words. Delete the list at any time you wish. A new one will be created when there are more errors. 9 ==================[ STARTING AND CONFIGURING SPELLBOUND!]==================== You start the program by typing "SPELL" (without the quotes) or "SPELL STUDENT" (STUDENT is your name), and pressing "ENTER". (If you use the bootable diskette created above under "Installation", just place the Program diskette into drive A:, the Data diskette into drive B: and reboot). If this is your first time on, you will be prompted to answer some questions concerning global defaults for the program. These defaults are: (1.) Allow students (other than "TEACHER") access to DOS? (2.) Enable password protection for entry to records? In future sessions, "TEACHER" may change these answers by logging in as "DEFAULT" and answering the questions again. Only "TEACHER" may log in as "DEFAULT". After this you will be prompted to enter your name. The first log in should be the teacher. SPELLBOUND! recognizes the name "TEACHER" because very special access is given to that name. Log in as "TEACHER" (case not important), and select a password. "TEACHER" will be given access to all of the reports and be able to make a file containing all the student passwords. In addition, only the teacher may create a default configuration for the program. There is only one Teacher allowed on the system. If you just press ENTER, the name will default to the licensing name in the top box. It is important that you select a name which is unique, because selection of the same name as another in the same directory will result in your records being added to the same files, making it impossible to distinguish between the two. If two people share the same name, one must use a nickname or substitute. The first eight letters are used because that is the limit which DOS imposes upon the prefix portion of a file's name. The "extension" (a period and up to three letters) is reserved to distinguish between the various data types. These extensions are: REP, for reports printed to disk, CFG, which contains information relating to your configuration, DAT, which contains your performance records from which the report is generated, and ERR, to which misspelled words are written. Once you have entered your name, you will be presented with the main menu. From this menu you may select two other menus. These are the CONFIGURATION MENU and the RECORDS MENU. From this menu you may also run the Word List Processor and configure the colors and sounds of the Menu Program. To select from the menu, just press the up or down cursor keys corresponding to the direction in which you wish the selection bar to travel, and when it is upon the desired selection, press "ENTER". A quicker method which bypasses the pressing of the "ENTER" key is to simply press the number to the left of the selection. This will execute your selection immediately. You may configure several parameters from the Configuration Menu. The first four menu options are toggles, that is, when you select them by pressing the corresponding number or pressing <CR> when highlighted, they will toggle back and forth between two alternating values. You have control over the following aspects of the program: 10 ===================[ SETTING UP SYSTEM DEFAULTS]=========================== A default configuration file called DEFAULT.CFG is supplied with the program. This file contains the startup settings for the first login of each person using "SPELLBOUND!". It also has all the settings for the information stored in STUDENT.CFG, which contains configuration options set in the Configuration Menu, such as the colors, etc. The distributed form of DEFAULT.CFG comes configured for a black and white monitor, Tutor mode, Smileys on, etc. Only the Teacher may reconfigure this file. To do so, log in as "TEACHER". Then, choose the "Change Name" option from the Main Menu. Enter "DEFAULT" into the name box and give your "TEACHER" password. At this time, you will be presented with the startup screen you see when you start the program for the first time. Answer the questions again, and you will be taken into the menu program. Now set up the program with the settings with which you wish each student to start out. Everything from colors, to the Word List, to Smileys, will be saved to DEFAULT.CFG. In addition, you may run the spelling tutor as "DEFAULT" and change the color at the help screen (F1). These will also be saved to the default configuration contained in DEFAULT.CFG. When you have finished, choose "Change Name" again and re-enter "TEACHER" and your password. When a student logs in for the very first time, he will receive the configuration you created. =======================[ CONFIGURATION MENU ]========================= The Configuration Menu is used to configure the Spelling Tutor to each student. The following options are available. -------------------------------------------------------------------- These first three options toggle between two values. Just press the enter key to switch between them. -------------------------------------------------------------------- (1.) Whether or not to show smileys, and play music. This may be set to off for adults who might quickly tire of the smiley screens. (2.) Number of words per word set. Pressing ENTER toggles between the two values, 10 and 20. (3.) Whether to run SPELLBOUND! in Test Mode or in Tutor Mode. Tutor mode validates each letter as it is typed. If the letter is incorrect, the correct word is flashed to hint as to the true spelling and the letter is replaced by the dot character. The user never sees the misspelled word and consequently no memory image is formed of the wrong spelling. In this mode, the only spelling the user will see is the correct one. This combined with the method of flashing the word at the user on error, results in teaching to remember words as memory images, or photographically learning to spell. In Test Mode, the entire word is typed in, right or wrong, and no validation is performed until the Enter key is pressed. This allows for correction by using the edit keys. Records are kept for sessions completed in test mode but not for tutor mode. -------------------------------------------------------------------- These next three options cycle through a number of values. Just press the left or right arrow keys to cycle in either direction. Don't press ENTER on this selection except to cause it to cycle upward. When the selection has reached the value you desire, just use the up and down arrow keys to move the selection bar off this selection. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 (4.) Flash Rate may be set here in 18ths of a second. (5. and 6.) The minimum and maximum length of words may be configured so as to target a given age group. For example, one might configure a minimum length of 2 and a maximum length of 4 for a child of between 4 and 7. Use the left and right arrow keys to cycle through the values between 2 and 15. You will not be allowed to select a maximum length which is less than the minimum length and vice versa. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The next two selections pop up an edit window when you press enter so that you can edit the listed selection directly. When you have edited the selection to your satisfaction, pressing enter again closes the window. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (7.) You may also specify the file of your choice. If none is specified, the default will be SPELL.WDS. This can be a file of your own creation, or it can be the file supplied with the program. (8.) You may specify the number of words you wish to select from the file. The words are selected in groups of ten, so numbers divisible by ten are the best choice here. If you specify a number which is not divisible by ten, the program will decrement to the next number which is. Many times, especially when you have specified a narrow word length range, there will not be as many words meeting the criteria you specified. In that case, again the number is decremented to the next lowest number divisible by ten, so that if 49 words meet the criteria, a message will be displayed to that effect, and they will be grouped in 4 groups of 10, or 40 words in all. The remaining 9 will be ignored. (9.) When you have made all your selections and you are pleased with the settings, just tap the "9" key or place the menu bar over selection 9 and press Enter. Your selections will be saved in a file which is created from the first eight letters of your name and ".CFG". The next time you run the program, your configuration will be "remembered" so that there is no need to re-enter the information unless a change is desired. ==========================[ CHANGING COLORS ]=========================== The Menu program's colors may be customized to each user's individual tastes. Just select "Configure Menu Program" from the MAIN MENU by either pressing ENTER while the selection bar is upon it or by pressing the number which corresponds to it. Then use the arrow keys to cycle through configurable options. When the desired option appears, press ENTER again. If the option was SOUND, it will toggle Off or On, depending upon what it was when you pressed. If it is a color option, a box will appear in a random position on the screen. Its colors will correspond to the colors of the area of the screen you chose to configure. Use the arrows now to cycle the colors; the up and down arrows cycle foreground colors and the left and right arrows cycle through the available background colors. When the desired color combination has been reached, press ENTER again to save the configuration, or ESC to abort and retain original colors. When you configure the colors for the menu background, (behind the menus), you will be given the opportunity after choosing the colors, to select a background character with which to fill the background. These will be of the ASCII character set, from 0-255. 12 ======================[ SPELLING TUTOR COLOR SETTINGS ]==================== When in the spelling program help window, (F1 brings it down) you may change the color palette with the left arrow key, or the attribute color with the right arrow key. To bring down the help window, just press F1. When you have finished, press any other key to exit the help screen. The color changes are saved to your personal configuration file and the program will use those colors in all future sessions until you change them. ============================[ MAINTENANCE ]============================== The MAINTENANCE selection on the Records Menu takes you to a display which contains all the student names in the current directory. There is a limit of 136 names which you may view, so it would be wise to keep class size under that number. You may highlight (reverse video) any of the names and do one of two things. You may mark the name for future deletion, or you may view that student's records. To mark for deletion, just place the highlight bar over the name you wish to mark and press the SPACEBAR. After marking all of the names you wish to delete, just press F6 (the keys and their functions are listed at the bottom of the display screen). A window will then pop onto the screen and ask you to confirm your decision. If you press "N" at this time, or "ESC" at any time, none of the names which were marked will be deleted. If you are going to delete all but a few names, you may alternatively mark only those names which you do not want to delete. After marking the names to save, just press F7, the Reverse Marks key. All the names which were unmarked become marked, and all the names which were marked become unmarked. Press F8 to clear all marks from the display. To view student records, just press "ENTER" while highlighting the name and you will be taken directly into the student's records menu. From here you may print class reports, individual reports, etc. Password protection is disabled for your convenience. To reenable password protection, you must enter the program through the "Change Name" selection on the Main Menu or quit the program completely. While in the student's records you may go to the Main Menu and then to the Configuration Menu. You have complete control over the student's configuration and you may change any of his settings. These changes will be saved in his personal configuration and will be loaded into his next session. =============================[ EDIT WINDOWS ]============================== Many of the edit windows will contain default entries when they start up. This is to save you typing time. If the default entry is not the one you wanted, just type in the new entry. The old one will disappear and be replaced by the new one you are typing. If you wish to retain the old entry for editing, just type the right arrow key and then the left arrow key. The old entry will then be retained. 13 =============================[ REGISTRATION ]================================= Please complete and send the following form to register your purchase. No support can be offered unless you are registered with the author. +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Name:_________________________________________________________________ | | | | Address: _____________________________________________________________ | | | | City: _____________________________ State: ______ Zip: _____________ | | | | I am registering The SPELLBOUND! Spelling Tutor for use on _____ computers | | at $25.00 per machine. | | | | I am ordering The SPELLBOUND! Menu System for use on _____ computers | | at $25.00 per machine. (See information at end of documentation.) | | | | Total enclosed: ________ | | | | Send To: SPELLBOUND! Software | | P.O. Box 158 | | Shepherd, MI 48883 | | | | Your comments and suggestions are very much appreciated. | | | | Comments:______________________________________________________________ | | | | _______________________________________________________________________ | | | | | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ===============================[ SUPPORT ]===================================== Those who register may receive telephone support. If you discover any undocumented "features" (bugs), please let us know. We may be contacted at: 1-(517)-828-6520 between the hours of 9:00 am and 5:00 pm. When you call, have the contents of AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, the names of any TSRs, (memory-resident programs) you may have in memory while running SPELLBOUND! It would help if you had the program running and the phone near the computer so that we could talk through the problem. 14 ===============[ ALSO AVAILABLE FROM SPELLBOUND! SOFTWARE ]================== +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | The SPELLBOUND! MENU SYSTEM, Version 1.01 | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ FEATURES OF THE SPELLBOUND! MENU SYSTEM... ...Very Affordable -- ONLY $25.00! Documentation on disk -- can be read from within program! ...Completely mouse driven. (Of course you can use the keyboard in the event that you are afraid of mice!) ...Complete file management system including directory management, handling of ZIP format files, copying, deleting, moving multiple files etc. ...Intuitive, extremely simple to setup and use. ...Easy setup via data entry screen. Just answer the questions, the program handles the rest! ...Create your own user defined help for each item in your menu which will pop up at the press of the F1 key! ...You can have up to 255 menus of 18 selections per menu! ...All selections may be invoked via a single key press! Three methods of invocation available: Single keypress, light bar selection, or mouse! ...Define your own prompt for additional parameters! Example: When the user selects "Run Word Processor" you can have the program pop up a box which asks: "Document to load:" and wait for him to type it in! Furthermore, the name of the document can be inserted anywhere in the command line! ...Saves all information entered into prompt windows by the user for next time. ...Usage log tracks the starting time, ending time, and time elapsed of all programs run from the Menu System. ...Prompted parameters may be inserted any where in the command line arguments rather than just being appended to the tail. ...Calendar, ASCII and attribute charts, and a four function calculator with tape available at the press of a key. ...Leaves only 11k kernel in memory; as small as your mouse driver. ...Runs by itself; no kludgy batch files to run through. ...Configure your own colors throughout the program. Color code your menus!