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Text File | 1996-11-11 | 18.1 KB | 460 lines

_ ___ / \ | / | | | | --|-- ___ \___ |___ ___ ___ --|-- |---| | | | / \ \ | \ /___\ /___\ | | | \___/ | \___/ \___/ | | \___ \___ | ___ _ _ __ ___ | __| | |_ / /_/ _ \ |__ \_ _| '_ \_, / |___/ |_| \___//_/ _ ____ ________ _| ||__ |__ /__ / |_ _|/ / |_ \|_ \ |_| /_/ |___/___/ --------------------- __ ___ __ ___ / /_|_ ) \_ ) | '_ \/ / () / / \___/___\__/___| --------------------- User Guide and Manual Manual v1.50 — 10 November 1996 Alisdair McDiarmid 2 Cedar Drive Milton of Campsie Glasgow G65 8AY a.mcdiarmid@zetnet.co.uk http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/amcdiarmid/ 1. Introduction --------------- I know many people in primary and secondary education, and living with a teacher showed me just how much work there is to be done outside school hours. This program was written to replace board sums and hand written worksheets, and since it works almost automatically, it saves a lot of time and effort. Some main features: • Incredible ease of use • Answer sheet created automatically • User defined maximum and minimum numbers • Various types of problem: • Addition • Subtraction • Division (with long form) • Multiplication (with long form) • Magic Squares • Line Sums – 974 - 625 = ___ • 'Missing Numbers' i.e. simple algebra – 974 - ___ = 349 • Versatile sheet printing Although AutoSheet has been rigorously tested on various machines, bugs can occur. If you come across any problems, please see the appendix. Please remember that AutoSheet is ShareWare. Please support ShareWare authors to give them the incentive to continue to use this superior system of software sale. Alisdair McDiarmid 1.1 Disclaimer -------------- This manual, the contents of the AutoSheet disc and any worksheets created remain © 1996 Alisdair McDiarmid. Sheets may be photocopied on-site, but not sold. Alisdair McDiarmid reserves the right to refuse any person, group or company permission to use this program. The author has no direct control over the use to which this product is put, and therefore offers no warranty relating to its use or misuse. Alisdair McDiarmid cannot be held responsible for any loss of data due to the use or misuse of this product. 1.2 Licence Agreement --------------------- AutoSheet is ShareWare. This means that you may use AutoSheet on a trial basis only for a period of 30 days. After this trial period, you must either destroy your copy, give it away or complete the registration form and send it to Alisdair McDiarmid at the address in the manual. The current cheapest registration fee is just £5, making Autosheet easily the most inexpensive arithmetic worksheet creator available. This registration fee includes a disc with a registered version of AutoSheet, and a printed Impression manual may be supplied (see below – Licences). Note - this is not professionally printed, just laser printed booklet format, folded and stapled. There are three levels of registration available, each with a different and appropriate price. These levels are : • Student – priced at £5, this covers individual pupils (or parents). This includes the right to use AutoSheet indefinitely. Unfortunately, at this price free updates are not available from me, and you will not receive the Impression manual on disc or printed. • Teacher – priced at £15, this is for teachers to use for their own pupils only; worksheets may not be photocopied or used elsewhere in the school/site. You will be entitled to free updates and a printed Impression manual will be supplied. This requires payment with the order – official educational orders are not permitted. • Site Licence – priced at £30 (although I reserve the right to alter this price at my discretion) which allows teachers to photocopy their worksheets and to copy the program for use on site only. You will again be entitled to free updates and a printed Impression manual will be supplied. Extra manuals will be supplied at a price of £1.50 each. Official educational orders are permitted, to be sent to David Holden at APDL only. Unregistered versions of AutoSheet may be freely distributed with the following conditions: • AutoSheet must be distributed intact, excluding the manual in Impression format, which must not be distributed. The text manual must be supplied. Any alterations made to the program must be removed before distribution. • AutoSheet may only be distributed in such a way that no commercial gain or advantage is made via its distribution. Distribution ‘costs’ may be charged so long as they are less than the equivalent of £2.00 sterling. • AutoSheet may not be distributed on any CD–ROM or PD collection, or with any commercial product without my prior consent. Registered versions of AutoSheet may not be distributed. These contain a unique traceable serial number and the licensee’s name. Computer software thieves can and will be prosecuted. Licensees of AutoSheet may make infinite backups, as long as AutoSheet is installed or used on no more than one machine at a time (site licences exempt). 2. Using AutoSheet ------------------ AutoSheet is best run from a writable disc, and preferably from a hard disc. To use AutoSheet it should be installed to hard disc or copied onto another floppy disc for safety. 2.1 Installation ---------------- AutoSheet should be installed on a writable media. Drag the AutoSheet filer icon from the floppy disc or CD-ROM to a suitable directory to copy it. Acorn's DrawFile module is required for AutoSheet to run. On the AutoSheet master disc you should find !Scrap, !System and !SysMerge. If you do not have !Scrap and !System on your hard disc or work disc you should copy them across. If you have an A5000, A4, A4000, A3020 with hard disc, a Risc PC or an A7000 then you will almost definitely have a copy of !System and !Scrap on your hard disc. All Risc OS 3.1 computers have !System and !Scrap on the Applications 1 disc. To add the DrawFile module to your copy of !System using SysMerge, double-click on the !SysMerge filer icon. A window similar to the one below should appear. Drag your copy of !System† to the window, and then drag the copy of System from the AutoSheet master disc to the window. SysMerge will then add the DrawFile module to your System directory. † On a Risc PC or A7000, the System directory is inside the Boot application on the hard disc. To access it, hold down <Shift> and double-click on the !Boot filer icon. Open the Resources directory; the !System icon should be visible. 2.2 Loading AutoSheet --------------------- To load AutoSheet, double-click on its filer icon. It should load onto the icon bar. If you wish to print you must load Printers from your hard disc or Applications 1 disc. 2.3 Creating a Sheet -------------------- To create a new worksheet click <Select> on the icon bar icon or choose AutoSheet>New Sheet... from the icon bar menu. The New Worksheet Window ------------------------ There are several options to be set on this window before creation. To change the sum type, click on the right arrow next to Problem Type. Choose a type of problem from the menu. You can use the four normal sums − addition, subtraction, multiplication and division − or Magic Squares, a 3 by 3 box where every line adds up to the same total. To change the layout, click on the right arrow next to the Layout to open the layout menu. You can have the standard (column) layout or sums in a row. You can also choose ‘missing numbers’ sums along with either of these. This will be displayed as with (MN) as a suffix to either Standard or Line sum layout. If you want long multiplication or division, choose Long. This will change the number on the bottom row to a minimum of two digits. Use the arrows to adjust the number of sums. The Nº of Sums display is altered automatically depending on the sum type. Addition, subtraction and multiplication sums are rounded to the nearest six; 18, 24 and 30 sums per sheet. Division sums are rounded to the nearest multiple of four; 16, 24 and 32. Magic Squares always use nine. The Maximum number on top row and Maximum number on bottom row settings are changed by the up and down arrows, or values may be typed in. The maximum number on the top row must be more than or equal to the number on the bottom row, but if necessary AutoSheet will increase the number on the top row to make it level with the bottom row. These options are unavailable for Magic Squares. To create a sheet, set the options as you want them and click on Create. The hourglass will appear and the computer will pause for a few seconds (no more than 20 on an ARM 2 machine, 2 – 3 on an ARM 710) while it calculates the worksheet. A window displaying the worksheet should then appear. Note that when Magic Squares are chosen, the number of sums is set at 9 and the maximum numbers on the top and bottom rows are irrelevant. The New Worksheet Menus 2.4 The Main Window ------------------- Once a worksheet has been created, the main AutoSheet window should open with several sums visible. The title of the sheet and the current viewing scale are shown on the title bar of the window. By default the answer sheet is shown. 2.5 The Main Menu ----------------- By clicking <Menu> over the main AutoSheet window the main menu can be accessed. The main menu allows you to save, print, scale and recalculate your worksheet. It also allows you to view either the answer sheet or the work sheet, and gives information about your worksheet. To change the viewing scale of your worksheet, choose Main> Scale... or tap <CtrlF9>. The scale window should appear. To change the scale you can either type it into the writable field, use the arrows to change this value or click on any of the group of buttons for preset values. Once you have chosen your scale, click Scale or tap <Return> to apply the scale to the document. To close the window, click Cancel or tap <Escape>. To choose whether the answer sheet or the worksheet is shown, choose Main> Show Answers. When this item is ticked the answers will be shown. 2.6 Saving To save a sheet, choose Main> Save or tap <F3>. The Save as window should open. You can either type in a full pathname or drag the icon to a filer directory, but note that you cannot click Save until a proper pathname is present. Notice that, when saving, two files are saved. The file with the ‘A’ suffix is the answer sheet. 2.7 Printing ------------ To open the printing window, choose Main> Print... or tap the <Print> key on the keyboard. To change the number of copies, use the arrows or type in the number required. Similarly, to alter the scale you can use the arrows or type in a percentage. The page will be printed at the specified scale unless Fit on Page is chosen. This option will automatically scale the sheets up or down to fit the paper in use. If you only want to print the answer or worksheets, choose Print Only and choose which sheets you want to print from the pop-up menu. If you want to have the worksheet and answers on one sheet of paper, use the Pause option to stop between pages. You can then feed the paper through again. Note: some printer manufacturers do not recommend printing on one piece of paper twice. 2.8 The Choices Window ---------------------- To open the choices window, choose AutoSheet>Choices... from the iconbar menu. The options are described below: Negative numbers : This will allow negatives to be used in subtraction sums Allow zeros : This will let zeros be added, subtracted, multiplied but not divided. Zeros are rarely used. Remainders : This will allow remainders in division Mix long mul/div : This will let multiplication and division sums use two digit numbers to divide and multiply Column headings : This will add the standard H T U headings to the sums. Only works with the layout set as Standard. To apply these choices, click OK. If you want to cancel them and close the window, choose Cancel. To save them to be used next time AutoSheet is loaded, click Save. You can apply a set of default choices by clicking on Default. 3 Tutorial ---------- Although AutoSheet has been designed to be as user friendly as possible, there are some features which are difficult to explain. I recommend that you follow the tutorial at least once. Creating a Sheet ---------------- For this example, we will create and print an multiplication sheet with 24 sums, each with a maximum of 500 on the top row and 10 on the bottom row. First, open the New Worksheet window by clicking <Select> on the AutoSheet icon bar icon. Click on the adjuster arrows next to the Number of Sums per sheet icon to change the value shown to 24 sums. Next click on the right arrow next to Problem Type, and choose Multiplication from the menu. Now click on the display of the maximum number on the top row. The orange caret should appear there as shown. Set the number to 500 if it is not that already. Press the down arrow on the keyboard to move to the next icon. Change this value to 10. The sums created will now be multiplication, with a maximum multiplier of either 9 or 10 (depending on whether you have set to allow long multiplication) and a maximum number to be multiplied of 500. The values in the sums generated will be between these values. Now either tap <Return> or click on the Create icon. The main window with sums in it should open. Saving If at this point you want to save your worksheet, first find a suitable directory. Once a suitable directory display is visible, click <Menu> over the main AutoSheet window. Move right over Save and type a new name into the save box. Drag the drawfile icon onto your directory. Two files, one with the name which you assigned and one with an ‘A’ suffix should appear. Printing -------- To print your sheet you must first load !Printers. Locate it on your hard disc or floppy disc and double-click on its icon. Now find the AutoSheet main window and click <Menu> over it. Choose Print... from the menu. The printing window should open. To change the number of copies printed, use the arrows by the display. Note : this number is the number of work sheets. There is only one answer sheet printed. You can choose to print either Worksheets or Answers only by choosing Print Only and choosing from the menu. If you want to have the worksheet and answers on one sheet, use the Pause option to stop between pages. You can then feed the same piece of paper through again. Note: some printer manufacturers do not recommend printing on one piece of paper twice. It is recommended that you choose Fit on Page to make sure that it will print correctly. To begin printing, tap <Return> or click on the Print icon. 4. Appendix ----------- The Appendix consists of registration and update details and a list of ‘faults and fixes’. 4.1 Registration & Updates -------------------------- Read the licence section. If you decide to register AutoSheet, send a cheque for the appropriate amount, made payable to Alisdair McDiarmid, to the address on the front cover (repeated on the registration form). Please send a printed registration form and a covering letter. The registration form is in the Documents directory which can be opened by choosing App ‘!AutoSheet’>Help from the filer menu. Updates ------- AutoSheet is constantly being updated, so if you have a problem with the program it may have already been rectified. If you find a bug or have a suggestion for an improvement, e-mail me or send a letter. Please send details of your computer model, version of Risc OS, any possible clash with other software and the version of AutoSheet which you are using. Any features which I deem useful should be implemented and all bugs will be fixed. If you are entitled to free updates (see the licence section) then I will send you the latest version of AutoSheet upon receipt of a stamped self-addressed padded envelope. Please report any bugs you find. If no–one reports bugs they may never be fixed. Remember: I want to hear from you! If you really like AutoSheet, or even dislike it I would like to know why so that I can improve the program. You can contact me via e-mail, at the address on the front page of the manual. You can download the latest version of AutoSheet from my world wide web site at the address on the front page of the manual. 4.2 Problems & Solutions ------------------------ If you have a problem in creating your worksheets, please check here before contacting me with a bug report. Common errors ------------- “I try to create a sheet but I get decimal numbers in my answer.” This can occur if you set the maximum values too low. To rectify this make sure that the maximum numbers are both above 3. “I choose multiplication and type 999 into the maximum top row field and set the maximum bottom number as 99. I still get short multiplication.” You must choose Mix long mul/div in the choices window for this to work. The maximum on the bottom row will now be 99. Minor problems -------------- “If I set both of the maximum numbers to 3 I only get three different sums on the page.” This is caused by over-restricting the numbers AutoSheet can use in the sums. “I can’t get AutoSheet to simply give me a sheet of sums with one number on the bottom row.” As yet, AutoSheet generates the sums with random bottom and top rows. The choice of keeping one as a constant may be implemented at a later date. “I can’t seem to change the number of magic squares.” This has not been allowed because any other number of squares would not fit easily on a page.