Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia Version 1.0 Readme.Txt file Copyright(c) SoftKey International Inc. June 1996 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia, the first full- featured CD-ROM bookshelf encyclopedia reference collection for children. We would like to thank you for your purchase. It is our goal to make you a happy and satisfied customer, so we have created this file with useful information and solutions to problems you may encounter. This file contains information that was not available at the time the on-disc documentation was prepared, as well as other important information to help you use this product successfully. If you are uncertain how to make a recommended change, please refer to the user's guides that came with Windows and/or your computer system. CONTENTS I. Pre-Installation Notes and Suggestions II. Troubleshooting III. Known Program Limitations IV. Known Hardware Incompatibilities V. Manual Installation Instructions VI. Contacting Technical Support VII. Registration Options If You Don't Have a Modem or Printer -------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Pre-Installation Notes and Suggestions -------------------------------------------------------------------- A. Disk Compression If you are using a disk compression utility, the available hard disk space reported by the installation program might not be accurate. Disk compression utilities can only ESTIMATE available hard disk space. If the installation process is not successful, you may need to free additional hard disk space by removing unneeded files or applications from your hard drive. B. Network Installation This product is designed as a "stand-alone" application and does not support use by multiple users over a network Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia will not run from a workstation if it is installed on a network server. It must be installed locally on each workstation. C. Memory requirements Under Windows 3.1, Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia works best with Windows operating in a 386-enhanced mode, with 8 MB RAM, and a 10 MB or greater permanent swap file established on a non-compressed drive. Under Windows '95, Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia works best with 8 MB RAM, and at least 10 MB of free hard disk space. Please note that most Windows '95 installations rely on free disk space for swap file, rather than a pre-configured swap file like Win 3.x. For that reason, Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia may fail to run for no other reason than limited free disk space. D. Installation Instructions The Learning Company suggests that you exit all applications before installing this product. Other programs and drivers running on the computer could interfere with the installation process. 1. Installation For Windows 95 Simply place the Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia compact disc in the CD-ROM drive. The Windows 95 AutoPlay function will automatically offer the option to install the program. Click on "Install Now" to begin the installation. If The Learning Company CD is already in the CD-ROM drive and you have bypassed the AutoPlay function, follow these steps to begin the installation: Click on the "Start" button and select "Run ...". In the "Open" box, type "D:\SETUP.EXE" and press Enter. If your CD drive is not drive "D", substitute the letter of your CD drive when you type this statement. For example, if your CD drive is drive "E", type "E:\SETUP.EXE" and press Enter. When the program has finished installing the files, it will notify you that the installation has been completed. When you want to use Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia, simply insert The Learning Company CD into your CD-ROM drive and click "Run Now" when asked if you want to run the program. To start the program when the CD is already in your CD-ROM drive, click on the "Start" button, choose "Programs", choose " The Learning Company", and then choose " Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia". 2. Installation For Windows 3.1 From the Program Manager, open the "File" menu and select "Run...". In the "Command Line" box type "D:\SETUP.EXE" and press Enter. If your CD drive is not drive "D", substitute the letter of your CD drive when you type this statement. For example, if your CD drive is drive "E", type "E:\SETUP.EXE" and press Enter. Once the Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia program files have been installed, the installation program will scan for Video for Windows. If Video for Windows version 1.1e is already installed on your system, the program will offer you the option of starting Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia or returning to the Program Manager. If Video for Windows is not installed on your system, the installation program will offer to install it for you. Once Video for Windows 1.1e is installed, simply open the " The Learning Company" group and double-click on the "Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia" icon to start the program. To exit the installation program at any time, click Exit or Cancel, or press F3. E. Meeting the Minimum System Requirements The Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia installation program automatically determines if your computer system meets the minimum requirements to run Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia. If your system fails to meet the requirements, the installation program will tell you exactly which requirements were not met. Three potential problems you may encounter and their solutions are described below: * "Detected: No suitable wave device" or "Detected: No MIDI device" or "Detected: No suitable MIDI device" If you get any of these messages, make sure that you have installed the Windows drivers that came with your sound board. Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia requires at least one wave device capable of at least 8-bit mono at 22.050kHz, and at least one MIDI device with FM synthesis, all channels. NOTE: Because of their special hardware setup, certain IBM Aptiva and Thinkpad systems may generate these messages even though they DO have the proper equipment and software. If you own one of these systems and encounter one of the above messages, disregard the message and proceed with the installation. To check that your system has met the minimum requirements, you can run the program CNMSYSI.EXE, located in the "\WIN32" directory (Windows 95 users) or the "\WIN" directory (Windows 3.1 users) on the Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia CD-ROM. Alternatively, load Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia and click on the "Settings" button. Then, while holding down the "Ctrl" key on your keyboard, click on the "Meet the Crew" button. A screen will display the minimum program requirements and the components found on your system. -------------------------------------------------------------------- II. Troubleshooting -------------------------------------------------------------------- This product has been successfully tested with a wide variety of hardware and peripheral equipment. It should be noted, however, that Microsoft Windows is a "device-independent" operating system which relies on device drivers to communicate with the various devices on your system. Occasionally, issues may occur with one of these drivers. Conflicts with sound cards, video displays and printers are often resolved by reconfiguring or updating the device drivers supplied by the manufacturers. This product is not designed specifically for compatibility with any particular hardware item. A. Troubleshooting for both Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 1. Using America Online with Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia If you have chosen America Online as your on-line service and you do not have America Online installed on your computer, Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia will ask you if you would like it installed when you click the "Proceed" button from the On-Line "Welcome" screen. If you choose to install the program, you will be taken through the America Online installation program, which will create America Online icons in Windows. After installation, it is necessary to return to Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia, click the "On-Line" button, and click "Proceed" again. The first time you launch America Online, you will have to enter the certificate information -- shown on the Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia screen after you click "Proceed" -- to gain your free trial time. Because the program must pause to ask you this information, you will not be taken directly to the Compton's NewMedia Forum. You can use keyword "Comptons" to arrive there manually. In all future uses, you will be taken automatically to the Compton's NewMedia Forum when you access America Online from Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia. 2. Font Problems / Font Error Messages when Starting Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia requires that certain fonts be present on your system to display text correctly. If the program is unable to find the fonts it needs, some text may display poorly or in unreadable fonts. (If you are using Windows 95, please also see the section "Encyclopedia Text is Illegible or Displays in WingDing or Symbol Font" under "Troubleshooting for Windows 95" below.) If Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia cannot find the proper fonts, you may see one of the following error messages after the introductory screen: * "The following TrueType Fonts were not found: ..." or "The following Fonts were not found: ..." To correct this problem, make a note of the missing font or fonts listed, then exit Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia. If you are using Windows 95, click on the "Start" button, choose "Settings" and then "Control Panel". In the "Control Panel" window, double-click on the "Fonts" folder. Then from the "File" menu choose "Install New Font..." Then follow the instructions after the Windows 3.1 paragraph below. If you are using Windows 3.1, double-click on the Control Panel icon located in the Main group on the Windows desktop. In the Control Panel, double-click on the "Fonts" icon, then click on the "Add ..." button. Move to the "\WINDOWS\SYSTEM" directory on your hard drive. A list of available fonts should appear; click on the font that was listed as missing in the error message and then click on the "OK" button. Then click on the "Close" or "Cancel" button; there is no need to restart Windows. If no list of fonts appears in "\WINDOWS\SYSTEM", consult your Windows user's guide for assistance in loading Windows fonts. * "The TrueType Rasterize is NOT enabled. ..." If you are using Windows 3.1, to correct this problem, first exit Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia. Then double-click the "Control Panel" icon located in the "Main" group on the Windows desktop. In the "Control Panel", double-click on the "Fonts" icon, then click on the "TrueType ..." button. Click in the check box "Enable TrueType Fonts" to place an "X" in the box. "Show Only TrueType Fonts in Applications" should NOT be checked. Click on the "OK" button. You must re-start Windows for the change to take effect, so click on the "Restart Now" button. 3. Boosting Performance While it is possible to run the program directly from the compact disc, performance will be sluggish because of the CD-ROM access time. Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia runs best when installed on a hard drive using the "medium" or "large" installation setting. The 32-bit (Windows '95) version of Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia included in this product will deliver noticeably better performance than the 16-bit (Windows 3.x) version. If you are running 3.x versions of Windows, an upgrade to Windows '95 will boost performance. Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia benefits from more memory and faster CD access. If it is possible to increase RAM beyond the minimum system requirement of 8MB, you will notice a significant performance boost. Likewise, using a CD-ROM drive faster than 2X (double-speed) will boost performance also. B. Troubleshooting for Windows 95 Windows 95 promises to be a great advance in the world of operating systems. However, due to the very recent release of this software, extensive troubleshooting data is not available. This file contains the most up-to-date information we have. Be sure to check our on-line forum for the latest updates on technical information (see "Contacting The Learning Company ..." below). 1. Text is Illegible or Displays in "WingDing" or "Symbol" Font Certain Lotus or IBM products, such as Lotus Wordpro, install a font that interferes with the fonts used by Windows 95. This problem can be resolved by removing the Monotype Sorts Font version 2.0 from your system. To remove the font, click on the Windows 95 "Start" menu, select "Settings", then select "Control Panel". In the resulting window, double-click on the "Fonts" icon. In the resulting list of fonts, find "Monotype Sorts Font" (sometimes listed as "Mtsorts_.ttf") and remove it by dragging it into the Windows 95 recycle bin on your desktop. 2. Locating Possible Conflicts To find potential conflicts with your hardware that might be causing problems with Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia, use the Windows 95 Device Manager. Click on the Windows 95 "Start" menu, select "Settings", then select "Control Panel". In the resulting window, double-click on the "System" icon, then click on the "Device Manager" tab. Look in the resulting list for yellow warning triangles with "!" in them. If you find any such triangles, click once on the item to highlight it and then click the "Properties" button. Windows 95 will display a dialog box that explains the status of that device. Consult your Windows 95 or computer system manual for more information. 3. Using Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia with SoftRam95 SoftRam95 is a memory expansion utility for Windows 95 made by Syncronys Software. When using SoftRam95 and Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia, manually entering your virtual memory setting can lead to error messages. SoftRam95 will work properly with Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia if Windows 95 is allowed to control the virtual memory setting itself. 4. Working with the Windows 95 Taskbar If you are using the "Always on Top" and "Auto Hide" settings for the Windows 95 Taskbar, the Taskbar may obscure some of the Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia buttons. To keep the Taskbar from appearing on top of Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia, turn off the "Always on Top" and "Auto Hide" settings by clicking on the Windows 95 "Start" button, then "Settings", then "Taskbar...". C. Troubleshooting for Windows 3.1 1. "GPF in Module ???.DRV" These error messages are often related to the video driver being used by Windows. They can often be resolved by changing the video resolution to "640x480 with 256 colors". As an alternative, we have included Microsoft's Super VGA drivers on this CD. NOTE: If you have a 2MB accelerated video card, contact your video card's manufacturer for updated drivers instead of installing the Super VGA drivers. To install the Microsoft Super VGA drivers, follow these steps: 1. Open the program group called "Main" in the Program Manager. 2. In the "Main" window, double-click on the "Windows Setup" icon. 3. In the "Windows Setup" window, open the "Options" menu and select "Change System Settings." 4. Make note of the current setting in the "Display" box. 5. Click on the down arrow to the right of the "Display" box, and select "Other Display..." in the menu that appears. 6. Windows will ask where the video drivers can be found. Type "X:\SVGA" (replacing "X" with the letter of your CD-ROM drive) and press Enter. 7. You will be presented with a list of available drivers and settings. Select either of the following settings: 800 x 600, 256 colors, small fonts -or- 640 x 480, 256 colors. 8. When the driver has been loaded, Windows will need to restart to activate the new video driver. 2. "CDR-101" or "Not Ready Reading (CD-ROM drive)" Error messages related to the computer's ability to read the CD can often be resolved by one of the following suggestions: * Make sure that the CD is clean and free of scratches. CDs can be washed in warm water and dish washing liquid. Scratched CDs should be replaced. * Don't cache the CD-ROM drive. If your computer is using DOS version 6.20 or 6.22 and the SMARTDRV caching driver, add a "/U" argument to the line that loads SMARTDRV in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. The line may appear as "C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X /U". For more Information on SMARTDRV, type "HELP SMARTDRV" at the DOS prompt. * Assign twenty buffers to reading the CD. This is done by setting the "/M:" argument on the MSCDEX line to 20. The line may appear as "C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001/M:20". For more information on MSCDEX, type "HELP MSCDEX" at the DOS prompt. 3. Videos Do Not Play Under Windows 3.1 only, be sure that Video for Windows is installed. Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia includes Video for Windows version 1.1e. This can be installed from the Program Manager by opening the File menu and selecting "Run...". In the "Command Line" box, type "D:\VFW11E\SETUP.EXE" press Enter. If your CD-ROM drive is not drive "D," substitute the correct letter for your drive when you type this statement. For instance, if your CD drive is drive "E," type "E:\VFW11E\SETUP.EXE" and press Enter. PLEASE NOTE: The Video for Windows supplied on the Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia CD is for Windows 3.1 ONLY. Do not install it on a Windows 95 system; Windows 95 already includes the necessary Video for Windows software. -------------------------------------------------------------------- III. Known Program Limitations -------------------------------------------------------------------- The installation may fail if an improper path is entered as the destination directory. In particular, a path containing two back slashes together, such as "c:\\" will cause the installation to fail. The install will appear to proceed normally, but in fact no files will be copied. ------------------------- Under Win 3.x, if this application fails to run, it may be necessary to restart Windows in order to run Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia again. This is because of Windows 3.x deficiencies in reinitializing DLL's from failed applications. ------------------------- If the program refuses to start up, suspect too little virtual memory (or disk space under Windows 95). The program generally needs a Virtual Memory swap file to run. You get various miscellaneous messages and the program may not startup if there is not enough swap file space. The fix is as follows: - Under Win 3.x, go to Main/Control Panel/Enhanced (or "386 Enhanced"), click the "Virtual Memory..." button, click the "Change>>" button, and go from there. Generally it is best to ask for a "Permanent" swap file and use the suggested size. You may need to free some hard disk area on your boot drive to get optimal swap file size. - Under Windows '95, swap space is handled transparently, so the same symptom shows up when there is simply too little hard disk space available on the Win '95 boot drive. If you suspect a memory problem, be sure you have 20+ MB free hard disk space on the hard disk where Windows resides. Consider emptying the Recycle Bin first; then remove enough files to free approximately 10-20 Mb of disk. ------------------------- If you are copying text from Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia using the "Copy" button, then pasting that text into the Window Notepad program, each paragraph of text will appear as a single long line unless you have the "Word Wrap" option enabled in Notepad. To do this, select the "Edit" menu in Notepad, then select "Word Wrap". ------------------------- If a movie is displayed in a stopped or frozen state, and Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia is covered by another application, minimized, or otherwise hidden from view, when it is displayed again sometimes the current movie frame will not always be shown, i.e. it will just be blank white. This does not affect any functioning of the product. Simply pressing the video icon or any of the other multimedia icons underneath the article text will restore the display properly. ------------------------- The graphics within the on-line help file are rendered in 16-colors only, and will look slightly washed out compared to the actual program graphics. This was done to accommodate both the Win 3.x and Win 95 platforms with a single help file, since the Win 3.x help system does not easily handle 256-color graphics. ------------------------- If the bottom line in any text viewer (i.e., articles, fact boxes, Dictionary/Thesaurus/All About Words definitions, Timeline) is partially visible at all, mouse clicks anywhere on that line are misdirected to the line above. ------------------------- Sometimes "Start" menu icons are not removed from Win 95 uninstall, if the product has been installed more than once. ------------------------- If you get the message "Please place the correct CD in the CD player", be sure you have the correct CD in the CD player. If this does not remedy the problem, there may be problem autodetecting the CD (it can also be a problem in future versions if user has placed in a different version disk from the one installed). If it is indeed an autodetection error, fix by adding the line cd:= under section [Version] to the install_path\CNM.INI file on your hard disk, where should be replaced with your CD drive letter as follows (if CD is D: for example): [Version] cd:=d:\ -------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. Known Hardware Incompatibilities -------------------------------------------------------------------- ATI Graphics Ultra video card: Article viewer windows are slightly off-color white. ATI Ultra-Pro in 256-color mode shows very slow redraw of some images, such as 3rd picture in "Blood". ATI Mach 64 cards in 256-color mode may exhibit color (palette) distortions while playing videos. This has been observed with driver versions 2.01 and earlier. Old Orchid Fahrenheit cards sometimes can't handle the opening sequence. Could be because of older software drivers. Rest of program works fine. Diamond Speedstar renders popup dialog boxes incorrectly with a red square border instead of transparency. Switch to standard SuperVGA drivers to work around. Video cards based on the S3 Trio32/Trio64 family of chips exhibit memory leak problems and associated crashes and other errors when running in greater than 256-colors. This has been observed with both the "S3 764 1.33B1" and "S3 Trio64/32 1.41B5" drivers, probably other versions as well. Work around is to reduce colors back to 256, or supply more memory to system, either physically or by shrinking disk cache, etc. Multimedia flyout menus in the article screen show slight 1-pixel distortion of the vertical borders on Toshiba portables, using Chips & Tech video driver in 16-bit color. -------------------------------------------------------------------- V. Manual Installation Instructions -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Create a directory on hard drive such as c:\UCE 2) Copy entire contents of one of the executable directories on Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia CD ("Win" for Windows 3.X, "Win32" for Windows '95 & NT) from the CD into your new hard disk directory. 3) Create a program icon for c:\UCE\UCE.exe - either a program icon in Windows 3.x & NT, or a StartMenu entry/Desktop Shortcut in Win '95. -------------------------------------------------------------------- VI. Contacting Technical Support -------------------------------------------------------------------- We are here to assist you with any issues regarding this product. The Learning Company Technical Support Center can be reached via e-mail, U.S. mail, fax, or phone. Support is also available on an electronic bulletin board system. If you encounter a problem loading or using America Online, such as transmission difficulties, modem problems, or connection trouble, please contact America Online technical support at 1-800-827-3338. When contacting technical support, please provide as much information as you can about your computer system and the problem you are experiencing. Include your phone number so we can reach you if we need more information. Check our Web site, http://www.learningco.com, for answers to frequently asked questions and other technical support information. E-mail us at support@learningco.com. Reach The Learning Company Bulletin Board System via modem at 423-670-2023. Mail correspondence to: The Learning Company Technical Support Center 9715 Parkside Drive Knoxville, TN 37922 USA Attn: Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia Contact us by fax at 423-670-2021. Call 423-670-2022 24 hours a day for automated technical support. Call 423-670-2024 24 hours a day for fax-on-demand solutions to common problems. Call 423-670-2020 between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday (excluding holidays), to speak to a technical support agent. Please be at your computer when you call. -- Diagnostic Facility -- Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia includes a special diagnostic feature to aid us in diagnosing your problem. It creates a report detailing your system's configuration. For any correspondence via mail, or FAX, please include a copy of the printed report that this utility creates. When contacting us by phone, it is helpful to already have this diagnostic program running. To access the diagnostic facility, click the "Settings" button at the bottom of the screen. Then click the "Meet the Crew" icon while simultaneously holding down the Ctrl key. The diagnostic program will appear. You can print the report simply by clicking the "Print" button. -------------------------------------------------------------------- VII. Registration Options If You Don't Have a Modem or Printer -------------------------------------------------------------------- If you do not have a modem or printer for your computer system, and you do not wish to save your registration information on disk to print on another system, you can eliminate the electronic registration screens by doing the following: At the initial dialog box which says, "Please take a moment to register...," hold down both the Ctrl and the Shift keys on the keyboard while clicking on the Next button with the mouse. The dialog box will disappear and you will not be prompted for registration information in the future. We strongly encourage you to register your product to make sure you get all the benefits of a registered user: automatic notification of upgrades, special pricing on The Learning Company products, and more. You can register at any time by launching the "Register Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia " application icon in The Learning Company program group. SOFTKEY LICENSE AGREEMENT PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS PROGRAM. BY USING THIS PROGRAM, YOU ACCEPT THE TERMS OF THE SOFTKEY LICENSE AGREEMENT. This agreement governs your use of the SoftKey products enclosed with it including any manuals, disks, computer program and materials associated with it (the "Software"). By opening the sealed packages containing the disks and/or by using the software, you agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. If you do not agree to the terms of this agreement, promptly return the disk packages for a full refund to the place where you purchased them. 1. Grant of License. This Agreement permits you to use one copy of the Software, which is licensed as a single product. The Software is "in use" on a computer when it is loaded into the temporary memory (i.e., RAM) or installed into the permanent memory (e.g., hard disk or other storage device) of that computer. You may use the Software on a network provided you have purchased one copy for each user. 2. Copyright and Restrictions. The Software is owned by SoftKey or its suppliers and is protected by United States and Canadian copyright laws and international treaty provisions. SoftKey, its suppliers and licensors retains all rights not expressly granted. You must treat the Software like any other copyrighted material, except that you may either make one copy of the Software solely for backup or archival purposes or transfer the Software to a single hard disk provided you keep the original solely for backup or archival purposes. You may not rent or lease the Software, but you may transfer your rights under this Agreement on a permanent basis provided you transfer the license granted by this Agreement, the Software and all associated printed materials, retain no copies and the recipient agrees to the terms of this Agreement. You may not reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the Software, except to the extent the foregoing restriction is expressly prohibited by applicable law. 3. Limited Warranty. For 90 days from your date of purchase, SoftKey or its suppliers warrants that the media on which the Software is distributed are free from defects in materials and workmanship. SoftKey will, at its option, refund the amount you paid for the Software or repair or replace the Software provided that (a) the defective Software is returned to SoftKey or an authorized dealer within 90 days from the date of purchase and (b) you have completed and returned the enclosed registration card. These are your sole remedies for any breach of warranty. SoftKey, its suppliers and licensors disclaim all other warranties, either express or implied, with respect to the Software and the accompanying written materials, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. 4. Limitation of Liabilities. In no event will SoftKey, its suppliers or licensors be liable for any indirect, special, incidental, economic or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the Software, even if such party has been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event will SoftKey, its suppliers or licensors' liability exceed the amount paid by you for the Software. Because some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you. 5. U.S. Government Restricted Rights. The Software is provided with RESTRICTED RIGHTS. Use, duplication or disclosure by the Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS 252.227-7013 or subparagraphs (c)(1) and (2) of the Commercial Computer Software--Restricted Rights at 48 CFR 52.227-19, as applicable. SoftKey International Inc., One Athenaeum Street, Cambridge, MA 02142.