DP Tool Club 17/CD_ASCQ_17_101194.iso/vrac/sctn11.zip/TUTORIAL.DOC

Text File | 1994-07-26 | 28KB | 542 lines

     Hello!  I'm George McCoy, the author of the Study Tools package.I
     have prepared this document to help you learn how to use Scantune

                WHAT IS SCANTUNE?

     Scantune corrects errors made by your reading system.  It does this
by learning the errors made by your system and correcting them before
you ever read the document.  This knowledge is retained and used on
subsequent documents.  So, the more you use Scantune, the smarter it
gets and the more errors it automatically corrects for you.

                SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

     Scantune will run on any IBM compatable 286, 386 or 486 level
machine with a hard drive and 640k of ram, or more.  Since you probably
already have this type of machine to do your scanning, you're going to
be ok.  However, the faster your machine, the faster Scantune will run.
The program has been tested on machines as old as 286-10mhz.  It works,
but you spend a lot of time waiting on it!  I Recommend you run Scantune
on a 386 dx-33 or higher for best results.

                INSTALLATION

     Since you're reading this file, I assume you have already
unarchived the Study Tools package to a subdirectory on your hard
drive.  If you haven't done that yet, do so now.  For best results, the
subdirectory in which Study Tools is placed should be on your Dos Path.
If you don't know what a dos path is, or you think it might be a nifty
new hiking trail, consult your DOS manual or a computer knowledgeable
buddy (ckb) for more information.  That's all there is to the
installation process.  If you have Study tools in a subdirectory on
your path, you're ready to start tuning up your scans!

                THE STBRAND PROGRAM

     If you have a registered copy of Study Tools, you will need to run
the stbrand (s t b r a n d) program to make Study Tools fully
functional.  To do this, change to the subdirectory in which
Study Tools was placed, type stbrand and hit enter.  Your name, serial
number and the name of the dealer from whom you purchased Study Tools
are inserted into both the Scantune and Study programs.
     If your computer tells you that either Study or Scantune was
already branded, or if it tells you that it can't find study.exe or
scantune.exe, make sure you're in the proper subdirectory.  make sure
your archive extracted properly and try the stbrand program again.
     If it still doesn't work, contact your dealer or call tech support
at the number in scantune.man.
     If you're working with a demonstration version of Study Tools,
you can only tune up files of 50 k or less.

                BEFORE WE BEGIN

     Before we start, there's one more thing you need to know.  Scantune
works on plain ascii text files only.  If your files are in Word Perfect
format, for example, they are not plain ascii text files.  Scantune will
have to convert them before working on them.  This process can be
somewhat lengthy, depending upon the size of the file and the speed of
your machine.  For best results, set your reading system to export files
in ascii format.  If this paragraph is Greek to you, consult your
dealer, or a ckb (computer knowledgeable buddy), everybody has one.
     "And what happens if I try to tune a file that isn't in this ascii
format," you ask?  Well nothing, much.  You won't hurt anything or
destroy data.  It's just that your screens may look a bit strange and
disjointed when you view the file from within Scantune, that's all.

                GETTING STARTED

     Change to the subdirectory containing Study Tools.  If you put
Study Tools in the c:\study subdirectory, you would type cd\study and
hit enter.  In this directory is a file called tutorial.raw.  This is
the file we'll be tuning up during the rest of this tutorial.
     Type "scantune tutorial.raw" without the quotation marks and hit
the enter key.  If you're using a demo, hit enter again to clear the
introductory screen.  The main menu appears.  It looks like this:

                    PROOFREAD THE DOCUMENT *
                    CLEAN UP SCANNER ERRORS NO
                    LEARN MODE *
                    SPELL CHECK THE DOCUMENT *
                    BLANK LINES REMOVED NO
                    STRIP UNNECESSARY LEADING SPACES NO
                    INDENT PARAGRAPHS FIVE SPACES NO
                    TWO SPACES AFTER SENTENCES NO
                    RIGHT MARGIN FOR WORD WRAP 72 *
                    WORD WRAP TEXT NO
                    MACROS *
                    NONTEXT CHARACTERS REMOVED NO
                    DECOLUMNIZE TEXT NO
                    LOG CORRECTIONS NO
                    MARK ALL OPERATIONS *
                    MARK STANDARD OPERATIONS *
                    UNMARK ALL OPERATIONS *
                    EXECUTE MARKED OPERATIONS *
                    ALARM OFF
                    QUIT TO DOS *



SELECT DESIRED OPERATIONS WITH UP/DOWN ARROWS AND HIT ENTER.
SELECT "EXECUTE" TO PERFORM ALL MARKED OPERATIONS.

     Pretty wierd, eh?  Well, don't worry about all those options right
now.  Most of them are for those control phreaks out there who just
gotta customize everything.  If you're one of those, don't get mad, I
like you guys, too, but I'm not going to describe all the options here.
If you want to know all about everything on the menu, consult the
scantune.man file and you'll get all the technical info you'll ever need
and then some.
     Nevertheless, here are a few menu basics.  To select an item,
highlight it and hit enter.  You can move from item to item with the up
and down arrows or you can type the first letter of the item.  If there
is more than one item with the same letter, keep hitting the letter
until the item you want is highlighted.  To exit Scantune and return to
dos, hit the escape key at the main menu.
     There are two kinds of menu items.  One kind has a star "*" at the
end and the other one has "NO" at the end.  If you select an option with
a star, something will happen right away.  If you select an item ending
with the word "NO", the "NO" will change to "YES".  If you select that
item again, it will change back to "NO".
     Type the letter "M" until MARK STANDARD OPERATIONS is highlighted
and hit enter.  If you review the menu now, you will see that some of
the options that formerly ended with "NO" now end with "YES".
     Scantune is now ready to correct all known errors and format the
file for use with the Study program or any other file viewer.  To start
the process, type the letter "E" and hit enter.

                THE CLEANUP ROUTINE

     Scantune now tells you that it is loading macro files and checking
macro integrety.  Macros are what Scantune uses to correct errors in
your document.  If, for some reason, you have duplicate or invalid
macros, they are automatically ignored and listed on screen for your
information.
     The cleaning process now begins.  Scantune checks the document for
the errors about which it has already been taught and corrects as many
of them as it can.
     Occasionally, Scantune may ask you about an error because it can
not decide whether or not to correct it.  This happens, for example,
when the word "bit" appears and Scantune can not decide from context
whether the word should be "bit" or changed to "hit".
     Let's look at what happens when you clean up the tutorial.raw file.
After cleaning begins you will see the following text fragment on line
18 of your screen.

and convenience of its individual mem bers, certainly not for any larger pur-





REPLACE bers, WITH hers,
 (Y N V R C Q )

     We want Scantune not to correct this error or ask us about it
again.  To do this, type the letter "Q".  The bottom of the screen
clears and cleaning resumes.
     The next text fragment looks like this:

ing wisdom dic- tates that, after the furor diminishes, it will be back to bu





REPLACE furor WITH juror
 (Y N V R C Q )

     Ok, now, "furor" is, in fact, supposed to be left alone.  Type the
letter "N".  Doing this tells Scantune to skip this occurrence but if
the error is encountered again, go ahead and ask about it again.
     Again, the bottom of the screen clears and cleaning resumes.
     The final fragment to appear is:

e of the benefits described  Source: Ttie (@oiigressioiial accountability Pro





REPLACE Ttie WITH The
 (Y N V R C Q )

     In this case, we want Scantune to make the correction so type the
letter "Y".  The screen clears again and the cleaning process goes to
completion.  You will be told how many changes have been made.

                THE DOCUMENT REFORMATTER

     The reformatting process now begins.  Scantune will format the
document to optimize it for speech and make it useable by the Study
program.  Blank lines are removed, unnecessary spaces are stripped,
paragraphs are indented, two spaces are placed at the ends of all
sentences and the text is word wrapped to fit an 80-column screen.
     Don't panic!  The newly cleaned and reformatted text is put in a
different file, leaving your original unchanged.
     The formatting process is fully automated, requiring no
intervention on your part.  It may take a few minutes, depending on the
speed of your computer and the size of the document being formatted.
     A new file will be created in the same subdirectory as the
original.  It has the same name as the original but with a .stf
extension.  Our new file will be called tutorial.stf.  It contains all
the changes made so far.
     If you exit Scantune for any reason, you must use the .stf
extension when reentering the program, like this:
"scantune tutorial.stf".  If you forget and use the tutorial.RAW file,
you will be working with the original again AND YOU WON'T SEE ANY OF THE
CHANGES YOU HAVE MADE.
     When the formatting process is complete, the main menu reappears.
Type the letter "U" and hit enter.  This changes all options back to
"NO".  This is important because you don't want to waste time performing
formatting operations when we clean up the document again, later.

                LEARN MODE

     At this point you have corrected all previously known errors that
occurred in tutorial.raw.  Now it's time for Scantune to hunt down any
errors that might be left.
     Type the letter "L" until "LEARN MODE" is highlighted and hit
enter.  Your screen will say "creating learning environment".  After a
while, the message will change to "analyzing text".
     What's going on?  Scantune is looking at every single word in your
document.  If Scantune does not recognize the word, it is added to an
exceptions list.  The number of times the exception has been found is
also tracked.
     Periodically during the analysis, a message appears giving the
number of words analyzed, number of exceptions found and the accuracy
percentage.  This percentage is a bit lower than one might expect
because things like proper names, place names and abbreviations may be
seen by Scantune as exceptions.
     The analysis can be a quite lengthy process.  After all, every
single word must be checked.  My 386-40 checks about 600 words per
minute, while my dx-266 checks about 1200 words per minute.  Speed
varies from machine to machine.  Even this tutorial file could take a
while if you'rE running one of the older 286 level machines.  Allow 15 to
30 minutes for the tutorial depending on your system.
     When you get to book-length files, the analysis could take several
hours.  A good rule of thumb is that it takes about as much time to
analyze a document as it did to recognize it after it was scanned.
     Your best bet is to start learn mode when you've got something else
to do that does not require computer use.  If you're a dog guide user,
why not go for a nice long walk?  Your dog is probably bored with your
computing activity anyway and wants you to know that a walk to one of
your favorite places would be great!!
     If you're a cane user, a nice long walk might be just the thing for
you as well.  A little exercise can't hurt, right?  Here's a great
chance to further polish your technique.
     And if you're neither a cane nor dog user, or you already did a few
miles on that new Dos Path hiking trail, oh well, maybe there's
something good on tv!
     Seriously, though, this is a lengthy process, similar in scope to
the batch recognition processes in our reading systems.  I often start
the learn mode just before I go to bed at night.  That way, morning
finds the file ready for the next step.
     Ok, so what if you need your computer in the middle of the
analysis?  No problem.  Just hit the escape key.  The exceptions list
appears.  Hit escape again.  The main menu appears.  Hit escape a third
time and you're out to dos.
     To resume analyzing text, type "scantune tutorial.stf" and hit
enter.  When the main menu appears, type the letter "L" and hit enter.
The analysis will pick up right where it left off.
     When the analysis is complete, the exceptions list appears.  It
also appears if analysis is interrupted via the escape key.  The
exceptions list looks like this:

44 EXCEPTIONS IN 40 LISTINGS  ACCURACY 98.8
abusers            3
HOLIse             2
mem                2
Dulles             1
FTS                1
Hotise             1
Housc              1
Linheard           1
Nader              1
PRJVILEGES         1
Pm                 1
Swamplands         1
Theyjust           1
adN                1
ancing             1
cial               1
cifizen            1
deducfion          1
ee                 1
embezzlcments      1
emment             1
fhe                1

HIGHLIGHT ITEM WITH ARROWS. ENTER SELECTS, ESCAPE EXITS.

     The top line shows the number of exceptions, the number of items on
the list and the accuracy percentage.  The next line is the first item
on the list and it is highlighted.  The item is:

abusers            3

     You can highlight any item on the list by using the up and down
arrows and the pgup and pgdn keys.  Ctrl-pgup takes you to the top of
the list.  The escape key takes you back to the main menu.
     Scantune is telling you that the word "abusers" appeared three
times in the document and that "abusers" was not found in Scantune's
dictionary.  Well, now, obviously, "abusers" is a real word, so we must
add it to the dictionary.
     To do this, make sure "abusers" is highlighted and hit enter.  A
menu bar appears on line 24 of your screen.  The options are:

IGNORE  VIEW/CORRECT  DICTIONARY  MACROS  QUIT

     You can select an item from this menu bar by either highlighting it
with the left and right arrows and hitting enter, or by typing the first
letter of the option.  When the menu bar appears, the IGNORE option is
highlighted.
     Select the "DICTIONARY" option by typing the letter "D".
     The status line at the top of the screen now reads:

41 EXCEPTIONS IN 39 LISTINGS ACCURACY 98.9

     The word "HOLIse" is now at the top of the list.  We'll have to
take a closer look at this one.
     Hit enter again and type the letter "V" to select the view/correct
option from the menu bar.
     The VIEW/CORRECT option is the most complicated.  When you select
it, you are taken to Scantune's proofread mode and the cursor is placed
at the first occurrence of the exception.  You can do a lot of things
from the proofreader, but I'm just going to cover a few basic things.
For more details on the proofreader, consult the scantune.man file.
     The proofreader allows you to read through the document and teach
Scantune about any errors you encounter.  All cursor keys are active and
perform standard functions.  The up and down arrows move the cursor one
line at a time.  The left and right arrows move the cursor left and
right one character at a time.  The pgup and pgdn keys move text one
screen at a time.  A more detailed description of the cursor keys within
the proofreader can be found in scantune.man, but for now, this is
all you need to know.
     Here are the first few lines of text.

     for senators, HOLIse members, and their staffs that
enables them to live in the nation's capital in a relatively
fine, if not opulent, style.

     It looks like "HOULIe" is supposed to be "House", as in House of
Representatives.  This is what I call a type 1 error.
     There are three basic types of errors.  A type 1 error is made up
of a single word.  A type 2 error is made up of several words or crosses
a line boundary.  A type 3 error consists of garbled text caused by poor
print, not having the page straight when scanning etc.
     Ok, now that that's out of the way, we'll correct this type 1
error.  Your cursor should be on the first letter of "HOLIse".  If it's
not somewhere on the word "HOLIse", put it there with the arrow keys.
Hit the enter key.
     Scantune will ask you to enter a replacement string for HOLIse.
Type the word "House" without the quotation marks and hit enter.  Be
sure to use a capital h.
     A menu bar now appears at the bottom of the screen.  You can choose
from the following options: ALL OCCURRENCES  WORDS ONLY  CANCEL.  In
this case, type the letter "W" for words only.  This means that "HOLIse"
will only be corrected to "House" if it is found as a separate and
distinct word.
     Scantune now asks "prompt before correcting (y/n)".  If you want
Scantune to ask you before correcting an error, type the letter "Y".  If
not, type "N".  In this case, we want Scantune to go ahead and correct
the error without bothering us about it, so type the letter "N".
     Hang in there, we have only one more decision to make.  A nother
menu bar appears.  The options are: TEMPORARY  UNIVERSAL  BOTH  CANCEL.
The temporary option is used to correct errors you think are unique to
this document.  The universal option is used to correct an error in
this and all subsequent documents.
     Experience is the only thing that can tell you which option to use.
A good rule of thumb is to use the universal whenever you encounter an
error in more than one document.
     The idea is to build the universal area as much as reasonable.  The
more good entries there are in the universal macro file, the smarter
Scantune gets.
     In our case, we'll put this error in the universal macro file.
Type the letter "U".  You have just taught Scantune about your first
type 1 error.
     The proofreader reappears.  After you have dealt with the error,
you have two options.  You can hit alt-f to move to the next occurrence
of the same error, or you can hit the escape key and return to the
exceptions list.
     If you return to the exceptions list, the same exception will be
highlighted.  Hit enter and choose the IGNORE option to remove it and
move to the next one.
     In this case, Exit the proofreader with the escape
key and hit enter twice to clear HOLIse from the exceptions list.
     The first item on the list is now mem                2.  Hit enter
and select the view/correct option by typing the letter "V" as you did
before.  The first line of text is:

its individual mem bers, certainly not for any larger purpose.

     The cursor is on the first letter of "mem".  You will notice that
the word "members" has a space in the middle. it reads "mem bers".
     This is what I call a type 2 error because it has an imbeded space.
To correct it, put the cursor on the first "M" of mem bers and type the
letter "M".  Scantune will tell you that the beginning mark is set and
the "M" changes colors.  Now, move the cursor to the "R" of mem bers and
type the letter "M" again.
     Why not the "S"?  Because, we don't know about other occurrences of
"mem" by itself.
     We now go through the same series of prompts we went through when
correcting the "HOLIse" error.  When you are asked to enter a
replacement string for mem ber, type "member" without the quotes and hit
enter.  This time, however, we're going to type the letter "A" for all
occurrences.  Doing this will cause scantune to correct all errors like
mem bers, remem ber, mem bers and any other error of this type.
     When the "prompt before correcting (y/n)" prompt appears, type the
letter "N".  When the "TEMPORARY UNIVERSAL  BOTH  CANCEL" prompt
appears, type the letter "T".  We are putting this correction in the
temporary file because it is probably unique to this document.
     Escape from the proofreader and hit the enter key twice to clear
"mem" from the exceptions list.
     The first item on the list is now Dulles             1.  Hit enter
again and type the letter "V" to select the "VIEW/CORRECT" option from
the menu bar.
     The cursor is placed on the first occurrence of "Dulles".
     Here are the first few lines of text that will appear at the top of
your screen.

the terminals at Washington National and Dulles airports and the Union
Rail Station is provided to members of Congress.  What if members of
Congress need
a ride home from the airport?  Theyjust charge the
taxi fare to the Federal Deficit.

     A quick glance at this text reveals that "Dulles" is a Washington
D.C airport. Dulles, therefore, is supposed to be in this document, just
as you see it.
     You want to ignore this exception.  That is, you want to remove it
from the list and do nothing else with it.  To do this, hit escape to
exit the proofreader.  The exceptions list reappears with "Dulles"
highlighted as before.  Hit the enter key twice.  The first enter brings
up the menu bar with the "IGNORE" option highlighted and the second
enter selects it.
     The status line at the top of the screen is updated, Dulles
disappears and "FTS" moves to the top of the list.  What's a "FTS"?
     To find out, hit enter and select the "VIEW/CORRECT" option from
the menu bar as you did before.  Here are the first couple lines of
text.

(FTS) line for unlimited longdistance calling after business hours and
on holidays
and weekends.

     This text does not tell us much.  Let's hit the up arrow, one time,
to see if we can clarify things.  We now have:

allowance.) Each member may also access one Federal Telephone System
(FTS) line for unlimited longdistance calling after business hours and
on holidays
and weekends.

     Hey, guess what, FTS is an abbreviation for "Federal telephone
system".  You'll need to do the same thing you did in the previous
example.  Escape from the proofreader and when the exceptions list
appears, hit enter twice.
     Move down through the list dealing with all the exceptions.  They
can all be handled similarly to those we have discussed.  When the last
one is done, the main menu reappears.
     You can hit the escape key to leave the exceptions list before it
is completely done.  If you do that, the main menu reappears.  When you
reenter learn mode, the exceptions list picks up where you left off.
     When you have dealt with all the items on the list and returned to
the main menu, you will want to clean up scanner errors again.  To do
this, type the letter "C" at the main menu and hit enter.  This changes
the clean up scanner errors option to "YES".  Now, type the letter "E"
and hit enter to execute the cleaning process.
     The cleaning process was described earlier in this tutorial.  Refer
to that discussion again, if you have questions.

                FINAL TUNE UP

     You have now corrected most of the errors in your document.  The
only thing left to do is do a bit of final polishing.  Highlight the
"PROOFREAD THE DOCUMENT" option on the main menu and hit enter.  The
first screen of text appears.
     Read through the document watching for any errors that may be left.
Correct them the same way you did in the learn mode.  You will have to
position the cursor, of course, because there is no automatic location
feature in this mode.
     When you are through proofreading, hit the escape key.  You will be
asked if you want to mark your place.  If you want to return to your
spot in the document the next time you use the proofreader, type the
letter "Y".  If not, type "N".
     If you elect not to mark your place, you will be asked if you want
to remove the previous place marker.  If you hit "Y", you will be placed
at the top of the document next time you use the proofreader.  If you
hit "N", you will be returned to the last place you marked next time you
use the proofreader.
     That's it!  You've done it!  You've got a good, accurate, readable
document.  You've done it faster and more efficiently than ever before,
assuming you bothered to do anything before.  Remember, your new file
will have the same name as the original but with a .stf extension.
     Use the program.  Correct several files.  As you gain familiarity
with Scantune and you teach Scantune about your particular system's most
common errors, you will find it easier and easier to tune up your scans.
     Good luck and happy reading!!

                TECHNICAL SUPPORT

     If you have questions about or trouble with the Scantune program,
contact the dealer from whom you purchased the program.  If they can't
help, feel free to call me, George McCoy, at [phone].
     All registered users are entitled to technical support.  If you're
not a registered user, your problems will be addressed as time permits.

                ODDS AND ENDS

     Below are some more details you might need to know about in certain
situations.  I put them here at the end to avoid confusing those who
don't need them.
     If you're tuning up a nontext file such as a Word Perfect, Wordstar
or other word processor document, hit "N" and enter from the main menu
after you mark standard operations.  This activates the nontext
character removal function of Scantune.  The resulting .stf file will
be, for the most part, in plain text.
     If you need the document put back into its original format, load it
into the word processor that produced it and resave in the original
format.  Consult your word processor manual for details on loading ascii
files.
     When we were working with the learn mode, I mentioned three types
of errors, but never explained how to correct a type 3 error.
     A type 3 error is a different kettle of fish, altogether.  You
can't correct chunks of garbled text with macros.  You need an
editor.  Hit alt-e to enter a mini text editor.  It's just a basic
editor with insert and delete capability.  You can make whatever changes
that are necessary to the part of the document currently in memory.
Large movements through the document are not possible, here.
     When you have fixed the garbled text to your satisfaction, hit
control-w to save the text and return to the proofreader.  Hit escape to
leave the editor without saving changes and return to the proofreader.
     What are the other options in the cleanup prompt?
     Hit "Y" if you want the correction made or "N" if you don't.  You
do not have to hit the enter key afterword.
     There are other letters you can choose.  "R" tells Scantune to
correct this error from now on until the end of the document.  "Q" tells
Scantune not to correct the error any more this document.  "C" allows
you to type in a different correction than the one proposed by Scantune.
"V" varies the size of the fragment of the document displayed when
Scantune has to ask you about a potential correction.  In our tutorial,
however, "y", "Q"  and "N" will be the only letters you will need to use.