PC GEOGRAPHY is a helpful learning tool for children or anyone who feels that their knowledge of geography isn't what it should be. It is designed to help you learn at your own pace and to track your scores so that you can see how well you are progressing. The PC GEOGRAPHY main menu consists of six categories, each of which has its own "pull down" menu. To activate the main menu, press the right or left <Alt> key. You may move the highlight bar to each of the main menu categories by pressing the right or left arrow key depending on which direction you want to go, or you may jump to the desired category by pressing the appropriate jump letter. The contents of the pull down menus may be viewed by pressing the enter key, the down arrow key, the up arrow key, or by pressing the appropriate jump letter. Once the pull down menu has been reached, the highlight bar may be moved up or down by pressing the desired arrow key. If one of the sub-menu options has a right arrow next to the menu text, there is another menu to follow for that option (this is known as "cascading" menus). To activate a cascading menu, press <Enter> or <Right Arrow>. Move the arrow keys accordingly to select the desired option, press <Left Arrow> to return to the higher level menu, or press <Escape> to remove all menus. If the menu option has an elipsis (...) next to the menu text, there is a dialog box to follow. If the right or left arrow key is pressed while in a pull down menu off of the main menu (and there is no cascading menu for the option that the highlight bar is on), you will be moved to the next cat- egory and the pull down menu of that category will automatically appear. Once the highlight bar has been moved to the desired location, you may press <Enter> to perform the desired function. You may at any time jump to the desired category (while in the main menu or any pull down menu) by pressing the appropriate jump letter. Here is a detailed explanation of each of the PC GEOGRAPHY main menu categories: Territories: The Territories category is where you select the area in which to quiz yourself. It consists of the seven continents (Asia, Europe, and North America each have sub-menus) or you may test yourself on all of the countries within six continents (AntArctica not included) at once. Antarctica's map is displayed, but may not be used for quiz purposes. Once you have selected an area to quiz yourself on, you may either type in your desired answers or pop up a list of choices. Any of the functions presented in the bottom left corner may be performed. You may press the key itself or click on the function with <left mouse>. <F1> will display a summary of the number you have answered correctly, the number you have answered incorrectly, as well as your current per- centage. <F2> allows you to zoom in on the active area to get an enlarged view of it or see it in a different perspective. Press <ESC> to zoom out or return to the quiz. <F3> pops up a list of possible answers for the current quiz type. To scroll through the list, press <Page Up> or <Page Down> or click on or respectively with <Left Mouse>. When you have reached the desired choice press <Enter> or click on the √ symbol with <Left Mouse>. Press <Escape> or <Right Mouse> to remove the list. As a suggestion, if you are an adept typer and you are timing yourself on the quiz, it is generally faster to type in your answers rather than selecting from the list. To exit the quiz and return to the main menu, press <Escape> or click on the appropriate characters with <Left Mouse>. A final summary is displayed along with the elapsed time (if Timer was turned on). Options: The Options category consists of several user-defined settings which may be tailored to the type of quiz that is desired. Within each applicable sub-menu or dialog box, a dot or check mark appears to the left of the value that is currently active. For example, if you have selected 3 seconds on the Scroll Delay option, a dot appears to the left of the option when the dialog box is displayed, or, when Timer is turned on, a dot appears to the left of the Timer option on the sub-menu. The Map option may be turned on or off. When Map is turned on, the map of the current territory will ap- pear on the screen while you are being tested, scrol- ling or searching. Map may not be turned off while the "Name Country on Map" option of Quiz Type is active be- cause the country you are trying to name would not be displayed. In this situation, the Map option appears "greyed" indicating that it cannot be changed with the current configuration. When Map is turned off, the map will not appear for the current territory, however, other pertinent information will when applic- able. Antarctica's map always appears no matter which options are set. The Music option also may be turned on or off. When Music is on, the first few bars of the national anthem of the current territory will be played. The Music option only applies to the United States and Canada because those are the only two quizzable territories that have a national anthem. The Quiz Order option may be Sequential or Random. If Sequential is selected, PC GEOGRAPHY will quiz you on the current territory alphabetically from beginning to end. If Random is selected, PC GEOGRAPHY will progress through the territory at random so that the next quiz item may not be "predicted". PC GEOGRAPHY also verifies that the same quiz item has not already appeared, thus preventing the same area from re-appearing over and over again. Please note that when a sequential quiz order has been selected, you may not pop up a list of answer choices for Quiz Types of Name Country, Name Country on Map, and Name Country-Leader because the list pops up in the same order as the items you are being tested on and all you would have to do is select the next item on the list each time. The next category, Quiz Type, determines what you will be tested on. The Quiz Types that may be selected are: Name Capital Name Country Name Country on Map Name Leader Name Country-Leader If Name Capital is selected, PC GEOGRAPHY provides the country or state (whichever is applicable) and you must enter its capital. If Map is turned on, the area will also be highlighted on the map. When Name Country is selected, PC GEOGRAPHY provides the capital and you must enter its country or state. If Map is turned on, the correct country or state will be high- lighted on the map after you have entered your answer, and will stay highlighted for the length of time set in the Scroll Delay option. You may not pop up a list of answer choices on this Quiz Type when a Quiz Order of Sequential has been selected. If Name Country on Map is selected, you must name the country or state that PC GEOGRAPHY has highlighted. Map must be turned on for this option. The option will ap- pear "greyed" in the dialog box when Map is turned off indicating that it may not be selected. You may not pop up a list of answer choices on this Quiz Type when a Quiz Order of Sequential has been selected. The Name Leader option will quiz you on current (current as of the latest revision to the software) political leaders of areas within the selected territory. In most cases the political leader is the head of government, however, the head of state or whatever title was appro- priate is used in some cases. If the area selected contains states or territories (such as the United States, Canada, Australia, etc.), then you will be tested on governors, premiers or whatever is applic- able. With the Name Country-Leader option, the political leader is provided and you are prompted to name the appropriate country, state or territory. Like the Name Country option, when Map is turned on the country, state, or territory will be highlighted for the length of time selected in the Scroll Delay option after your answer is entered. You may not pop up a list of answer choices on this Quiz Type when a Quiz Order of Seq- uential has been selected. The Scroll Delay option allows you to set the amount of time that PC GEOGRAPHY leaves the area highlighted on the map when scrolling through any territory, or when a quiz option is selected that highlights an area after an answer is entered. For example, if 3 seconds is selected from the Scroll Delay option, PC GEOGRAPHY will highlight the area, wait 3 seconds, then return the area to its original color. PC GEOGRAPHY contains three ways to search for a ter- ritory. You may search for a territory by either clicking on the territory or typing in its name. The following describes the three methods of searching: 1. One Territory allows you to select a continent or an area such as the West Indies and search solely within that territory until your hearts desire. Just press ENTER when your finished. 2. All Territories prompts you for the desired area to be searched. When the area has been found, PC GEOGRAPHY displays the appropriate continent or "containing territory" and highlights the area on its map. With this option, there is no need to know what continent the area you are looking for is in. PC GEOGRAPHY finds that for you. For this reason, you may only search in this opt- ion by typing in the name of territory. 3. An alternative to using the All Territories option, is the World option. You may search for any area within six continents (AntArctica not included) and see what the area looks like in relationship to the rest of the world. Once the area searched is found, you may press <F2> or click on the <2> in the bottom left corner of the screen to zoom in on the territory and see it in an enlarged view or a different perspective. When Error Sound is turned on, an audio notification (i.e beep) is returned when an incorrect country, state, or capital is entered, or when an invalid key is pressed while the current screen is displayed. Error sound does not apply to the menus or dialog boxes. If minimal audio is desired, Music and Error Sound may be turned off. With the Default option, PC GEOGRAPHY allows you to save your selections from the Options menu and those sel- ections will be in effect every time you start PC GEOGRAPHY. You may also Display your current default settings, or change selected settings for a short period of time, then Restore the settings back to their defaults. The Timer option allows you time yourself as you are quizzed on a territory. If you are already familiar with all of the areas within a territory, you may want to better your knowledge by decreasing the amount of time it takes you to name them all. As a sug- gestion, you may want to limit the Scroll Delay to a small amount of time (i.e. 1 second) when Map is on and Name Country or Name Country-Leader has been sel- ected from the Quiz Type menu. When this combination has been selected, PC GEOGRAPHY leaves the area high- lighted on the map for the time selected in the Scroll Delay option, which increases the amount of time it takes to name all of the areas. Color allows you to change either the menu colors or the colors that appear when a map is displayed. When you select the menu colors, you can change the fol- lowing objects: Access Key Foreground --------------------- The highlighted character that gives you direct access to an option by pressing one letter. Disabled Item Foreground ------------------------ Items that are disabled are items that may not be selected with the current options that are in place. Menu Foreground --------------- The color of the text on the menu. Menu Background --------------- The color behind the text on the menu. Menu Selected Foreground ------------------------ The color of the text on the menu item that is active (or that the "highlight bar" is on). Menu Background --------------- The color behind the text on the menu item that is active. This color is the color that gives the appearance of a highlight bar. When you select Maps from the Color menu, you may set the background, foreground, cursor, territory, and map background to the combination of colors that is best for you. The background may be set to anyone of 64 different colors. Territory and map background may be set to anyone of 15 colors except red. Foreground (text) and cursor may be set to any one of 15 colors. The Change Name option lets you change the name that PC GEOGRAPHY knows you by. The name that is set in this option is the name that is attached to all scores and times as well as all games that are called from The Games option. There are two applications that can be called from the Games option - Jigsaw USA, and Compass USA. Both of these applications must be called from within PC GEOGRAPHY and will not run from the command line. Jigsaw USA is a jigsaw puzzle style game that allows you to assemble the United States in jigsaw puzzle format, while Compass USA presents you with states, oceans, lakes, etc. that surround a given state and you must name the state. For detailed instructions, see the individual applications. The last choice of the Option category, Exit, allows you to complete your PC GEOGRAPHY session and returns you to the operating system. Flag: The Flag category consists of four options. The first option, 100 flag dash, draws 100 flags on the screen, one at a time (randomly or sequentially) and you must enter the country, capital, or leader of the country (depending on which option was selected in the Quiz Type category) that the flag belongs to. Please note that all of the flags of the world are not included in PC GEOGRAPHY. Option two of the Flag category allows you to scroll sequentially through every flag contained in PC GEO- GRAPHY. The flag is displayed on the screen along with the country and the country's capital and leader. The third option, Search, allows you to find and display any of the flags that are available in PC GEOGRAPHY. You may view the list of available flags by selecting option four on the Flags menu. Scores: Your scores on the individual quizzes are tracked by Quiz Type, Percentage, History, and Time. The follow- ing is a summary of each of them: Quiz Type : This category gives you the capability to view your scores for each territory within the Quiz Type selected (i.e. Name Capital). The total right and wrong is displayed as well as your score from the last time you quizzed yourself on each territory. Top Scores: Top Scores displays the best 15 total scores for the selected territory. History : You can get an excellent overall view of how well you are progressing on each territory with the History option. For the selected territory, this option lists the amount you answered correctly and incorrectly each time you quizzed yourself from day one. The change in percentage from the previous quiz and your average percentage are also listed. Top Times : Top Times allows you to view the best 15 times for each territory. In order to be considered one of the top times, you must have quizzed yourself on every area within the selected territory, and you must have received a score of at least 90%. This prevents someone from getting an excellent time by holding down the ENTER key, or by getting an excellent time by not testing them- selves on every area. Over an extended period, many entries in the time data base can become obsolete because they are no longer one of the top 15 times for that territory, and never can be again. The Drop option allows you to get rid of all of those unnecessary times. Scroll: The Scroll option allows you to select any territory and PC GEOGRAPHY will alphabetically highlight each area on the map of the territory selected. How long the area remains highlighted on the map depends on the number of seconds selected in the Scroll Delay option. If Map is turned off, only the capital and leader will be displayed. While the territory is highlighted, you may press <F2> or <Mouse Left> to zoom in and get a larger view of the territory or see it in a different perspective. If you are going to be doing many zooms, it would be an advantage to set the Scroll Delay to one of the larger times to allow yourself enough time to perform the zoom. Help: The Help category will give you this general help infor- mation, display the license agreement, or display an About dialog box. --- Changes from version 1.0 --- - Mouse support - New quiz on political leaders - Pop up lists to select your answers - Zoom in capability to enlarge territories - New Yugoslavian republics - More flags - Two new games: Jigsaw USA and Compass USA - Change name capability from the menu - Improved maps END HELP
