KIDS TYPE FULL DOC`S ======================= TYPED BY SHARD 03-11-93 BEFORE YOU START ================ Before using any of the programs, please make backup copies of your disks and lock away your master disks. That way, if you ever damage your disk you can always make a fresh working copy. Computer Viruses ---------------- Sharing disks with friends has become the major cause for the rapid spread of computer viruses. Some of these are fairly harmless but nevertheless annoying. Others are very nasty and will show varying symptoms from diskettes not loading unless not write protected, diskettes being destroyed, programs not loading or crashing. Once you have a virus in amongst your disks they are difficult to get rid of, not to say time consuming. imagine spending hours creating a story only to lose it all. Imagine collecting a years worth of data for a project and losing all that. Don't risk it. Be extremely careful who you take disks from. And don't give disks away. If you already have a virus in amongst your disks, your friends will not thank you for corrupting their disks NOTE: ---- If you have a 512K Amiga with an additional external disk drive, you may have to disconnect that drive before you can load some of the enclosed programs. TERMINOLOGY ----------- In this document, to click on something means to move the mouse pointer to and item and then press the left mouse button. To double click is to press the left mouse button twice rapidly. Some of the programs take quite some time to load, please be patient and NEVER take a disk out if the green disk light is on Loading Kids Type ================= KidsType is designed to load itself or to be loaded from a standard Amiga Workbench by "double clicking" on the KidsType icon. Simply turn on your machine and put in your working copy of your KidsType disk. Once Kids Type is loaded, it is a good idea to put in a seperate data disk on which to save your stories. NOTE: ----- If you have a 512k A500 Amiga with an additional disk dive you may need to switch off the external drive before running KidsType. Keymap ------ If your Workbench is a version before 1.3 you may need to change your keymap to the 1.3 GB version. A copy of this is provided on the KidsType disk and should be incorporated in your Workbench setup by transferring it to your Devs:keymaps subdirectory and using "Setmap GB". If you fail to do this you may find that the key is inoperative. Preferences Settings -------------------- KidsType will not alter your Amiga preferences settings on startup, but you will find it nicer to use if you set your Preferences Key Repeat Speed fast and the Key Repeat Delay fairly short. Set the Mouse Double-Click Detection at the upper end of its range. Printers -------- The Devs/Printers directory on your KidsType disk must contain the correct diver for your printer. If you are having printing trouble check to ensure that the correct diver is present. If not you should install the necessary driver in Kids Type:Devs/Printers by copying the appropriate file from your Workbench disk or Extras disk. Of course you also have to set your "Preferences" to reflect the new printer driver GETTING GOING ============= Having loaded the program you are ready to type. Go ahead and experiment. We recommend you format and use separate "WORK" disks to save your stories on - don't save stories to the program disk. Over-typing or inserting ------------------------ When you first load KidsType, it is in "over-type" mode, that is to say if you position the cursor back over some of your typing and start to type, your original work will be over- written. Clicking on the "INSERT" action box in the middle of the bottom of the screen alters the way the program handles typing in the middle of your story. (Notice that the action box changes its label to "OVER" to show you what you can choose next). In "insert" mode, your new typing will be forced into your story, pushing your existing typing further down the screen. Clicking on the "OVER" action box again flips back to the alternative mode. Adding pictures or graphics --------------------------- Having typed some text, "click" on one of the small pictures at the top of the screen. The picture you have chosen will become attached to the mouse pointer. Position the pointer anywhere in the typing area and click again. Notice how the picture gets dropped into the screen at that position. Now click on one of the up/down arrows at the side of the pictures and notice the new set of graphics. (It also restores the mouse pointer to its original shape). Continue clicking on the arrows to explore all the different character sets. N.B. The letter associated with the picture is used as an ordinary letter when speech is being used. See the instructions on speech mode. Choosing words -------------- KidsType contains a list of 100 words that you can scroll through, pick out your choice and drop the word into your story. Click on the lower middle action box ("PROMPT") at the bottom of the text screen. (Notice it changes to say "PICTURES"). Now press a keyboard key, eg H, to start displaying the list of words, (eg starting at words beginning with H), or click on the picture letter H at the top of the screen. Click on the up and down arrows at the top of the screen to scroll through the list. Click on the word you want and it is automatically dropped into your story wherever the cursor is currently positioned. Click again on the middle bottom action box, now labelled "PICTURES" to return the pictures.(See the end of the manual to see how to alter the word list) FUNCTION KEYS ============= The function keys have special editing functions as follows; F1 - Insert one space into line of text at cursor position. F2 - Insert one line of spaces into text. F3 - Insert a previously deleted and saved line into text. F4 - Insert one screen of spaces into text. F5 - Delete and save the current line. F6 - Delete current screen. F7 - Clear current screen. ACTION BOXES ============ An Action box is an area on the screen at which you can point the mouse, click the left mouse button and cause something to happen. (Top Left) HELP - Lists the function key uses. GAME - Starts the spelling game (Top Right) UPPER (SPEAK) - Enables speech output. LOWER (QUIET) - Stops speech output. (Bottom Middle) UPPER - toggles type modes INSERT or OVERTYPE LOWER - toggles WORDS/PICTURE mode NB In "Text reading" mode, clicking on the "QUIET" gadget will stop the reading at the end of the current line. Colour Selection and Colour Adjustment -------------------------------------- There are eight coloured gadgets to the left of screen Point to one and click the left mouse button - it will be highlighted. On the right of the screen are "R", "G", and "B" action boxes which alter the Red, Green and Blue components of the currently selected colour. Click on one of these and the value of that colour component alters. Continue clicking and watch the result. Clicking on the "*" gadget will toggle the colour status between your latest altered colour settings and the original KidsType colours. Colour selections may be saved and loaded using Menu options. Scrolling --------- At the bottom of the text area are six arrows which allow rapid movement up and down your document - three for up and three for down The smallest arrow - move through the text line by line The middle arrow - move screen by screen The largest arrow - move to the start or end of the text MENU OPTIONS ============ To highlight the menu items, hold down the right mouse button and move the mouse pointer to the top of the screen. Moving the pointer across the top of the screen pulls down the vaious menus. Having pulled down any given menu, move the pointer down the menu until the item you want. Letting go of the right button activates that item. That might simply set a status (as in turning sound on or off) or it might cause a sequence of events (like saving your story). The menus are as follows: Project Menu ------------ Sound Turn sound on or off Print Text Prints from current cursor position onwards. Printing may be cancelled by pressing "Esc" (If your printer supports it, the story will be printed in "Double-Width" mode) Dump Screen Uses "GraphicDump" to carry out a simple screen dump. See your "Preferences" Documentation for details of the various graphic printing options Clear Text Gives an option to clear the current story. Quit Gives an option to quit the program. Filing Menu ----------- Load Allows loading of a previously saved KidsType story. Save Saves the current story with its original name, and creates a ".BAK" file if the name already exists. Saveas Saves the current file after prompting for a story name. Load Colours Loads a previously saved colour selection. Save colours Saves your current colour selection. NB. All options other than "SAVE" bring up a requester which will display and allow you to review disk contents Filenames may be selected by scrolling through the directory display and clicking on the selected name as usual. Pressing "OK" will complete your filename selection Pressing "Cancel" will return you to KidsType and abort the operation Speech Menu ----------- WOMAN Sets voice simulation to "Woman`s Voice" MAN Sets voice simulation to "Man's Voice" ROBOT Sets voice simulation to "Robot`s Voice" ACCOMPANY Toggles speech system between "Recite" mode and "Accompany/pronounce" mode See below. SPEECH SYSTEM ============= Recite Mode (This mode is operative when the program starts). Place the cursor anywhere on the line of text where you want the reading to begin, then click on the upper "SPEAK" gadget (top right of the screen). The computer will recite your text, line by line, until there is no more to read, or until you press the "QUIET" gadget which you will find below the "SPEAK" gadget. Accompany/Pronounce Mode ------------------------ In this mode the computer will pronounce each letter as you type it as long as "SPEAK" is also activated. To enable pronunciation, having selected "Accompany" via the "SPEECH" Menu, simply click on the "SPEAK" gadget. Pressing "QUIET" will turn off the speech output, still leaving you in "Accompany/Pronounce" mode. Selective Pronunciation ----------------------- Select "Accompany/Pronounce" mode and "SPEAK" enabled. Use the mouse pointer to select individual words or letters for pronunciation. Single clicking a letter will cause that letter to be pronounced Double clicking on a letter will cause the whole word containing that letter to be pronounced. THE GAME ======== To start the spelling game, point to and click the left mouse button on the "game" action box (top left of screen). Select any picture from the upper display by pointing and clicking at it. You can select pictures in any order (you may also move from your currently selected picture to any other, returning to your initial selection later if desired). Correct spelling of a name causes that picture to be removed from those still available, until ultimately the game is over when all the alphabetical pictures have been finished The game can be left at any time by pressing ESC CHANGlNG THE CHARACTER SET SHAPE ================================ Big characters versus little characters --------------------------------------- KidsType gives you the choice of using fat or thin characters. When issued, KidsType comes set up to use thin characters. To change these for fat characters load your standard Amiga Workbench screen and carry out the following: Put your KidsType disk into your disk drive and double click on the KidsType disk icon. Double click on the "Graphics" draw in the KidsType window. Rename KTPICFONT to KTSMALLFONT. (To rename an icon, click on it once, move the mouse to the top of the screen, hold down the right mouse button and move the pointer across to pull down the menus. Keeping your finger on the right mouse button, position the cursor over the "RENAME" line on the "WORKBENCH" menu and let go of the right button. Using the Del and arrow keys, delete and change letters to your new icon name and press the return key). Now rename KTBIGFONT to KTPIDCFONT. When you next load Kids Type it will be using the fatter characters. If you don`t like them, reverse the process. Rename KTPICFONT to KTBIGFONT and rename KTSMALLFONT to KTPICFONT. MODIFYING THE PICTURES, THE GAME, THE FONT AND THE WORDS LIST ============================================================= Modifying the Picture Font (Changing the pictures for the game) --------------------------------------------------------------- If you feel confident to do so, you can alter the pictures and characters to your own needs. Simply load the graphic font image into an art program such as Deluxe Paint, and make your changes The font image file, named KTPICFONT, is in the "Graphics" Directory of your KidsType disk. (Start up Deluxe Paint in Low-Res and choose 8 colours) Note that the sizes of the pictures and letter characters and their positions are of utmost importance. BEFORE making any changes make a copy of the original KTPICFONT file. The alphabet pictures are associated with the game word list as described below. By changing these (and the game word list) you can customise your own word game. When you are satisfied with the results, all you have to do is replace the original file with your new version, HAVING SAVED A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL FIRST !!!!!!!! Modifying the Game Word Set: ---------------------------- The "Words" directory on your KidsType disk contains a file called "GameWords" which supplies a list of 26 words for use in the game. Using Kidstype, this file can be modified to relate to new pictures that you may have designed. The format of the GameWords file should be rigidly adhered to. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. Your file should be a simple ASCII file with 26 words, each having a "$" sign before and after, and having no more than 12 letters. Modifying the Word List ----------------------- The word list is held in the same format as the game word list. It can be altered to have your own list of words but must be in the same format and MUST NOT contain more than 100 words. HAVE FUN GUYS AND REMEMBER ITS ALL FOR FUN aLL DoNE By SHaRD/N&B