Animated Greetings (Celebrations Edition)/Animated Greetings.iso/mac/README.WRI

Text File | 1997-10-21 | 12KB | 310 lines

REFERENCE GUIDE FOR PC USERS

Welcome to the creative and colorful world of Pineapple's Animated
Greetings(R).

CONTENTS
--------
1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
2. INSTALLATION
3. COMPATIBILITY WARNING
4. GETTING STARTED
5. TROUBLESHOOTING
6. TECHNICAL SUPPORT
7. COPYRIGHT and TRADEMARKS

1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
----------------------
Minimum System Requirements for This CD:
* 486
* VGA display card and screen, displaying 256 colors.
* 12 MB of RAM
* CD-ROM Drive (double speed)
* Windows 3.1 / Windows 95
* Sound Card
* Mouse

Minimum System Requirements for the Greetings You Send:
* 486
* VGA display card and screen, displaying 256 colors.
* 4 MB of RAM on Windows 3.1
* 8 MB of RAM on Windows 95
* Sound Card
* Mouse

2. INSTALLATION
---------------
Before you start exploring the Animated Greetings Factory, you have to
install the application on your
computer's hard disk.

Insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive.  Make sure that you are in MS
Windows.
1. Select RUN from the FILE menu or the START menu (in Windows 95).
2. Select your CD drive.
3. Type SETUP. Press Enter.
4. Follow the on-screen installation instructions.

Once you have installed the application, a  new "Animated Greetings"
program group will be created, with a new "Celebration Greetings" group
item.

To start creating your own animated greetings, start the "Celebration
Greetings" in the "Animated Greetings" program group.
Make sure that the CD remains in the CD-ROM drive while running the
application.

The installed files will take about 1MB of disk space.

3. COMPATIBILITY WARNING
------------------------
Some disk-compression software may cause errors when saving greetings
to a disk.

-  If using "Gravis UltraSound Max", sound may be distorted.
-  Launching the application while "Netroom3" memory manager is running
   causes a crash.
-  Launching the application with "Future Domain TMC-1680" software,
   causes a crash.
-  Exiting the application while running Dr. Watson may result in an error.
-  When running under Windows for Workgroups the short-cut keys (CTRL +
   mouse click) may cause a crash.
-  When the installation ends, the installer sometimes asks to restart
   Windows. This process is not harmful.
-  Screen driver "s3pci" may cause crash; switching to "STB PowerGraph
   Pro." will solve this.

4. GETTING STARTED
------------------
Below is a brief description of each feature you will encounter as you step
through the creation of a greeting.

HELP
To display help about any area of the Animated Greetings Factory, click
and hold on the red fire extinguisher without releasing the mouse button.

THE "CONTROL ROOM"
This is where you get to choose which greeting you will save and send.
This is also where you can view  sneak previews of all of the greetings
included in this edition.

SELECTING A CARD
The big cabinet on the left is where you select the type of greeting you
want to create.

Once you have selected a category, a group of greeting "jars" will pop out
of the cabinet and onto the conveyor belt at the top of the Control Room.
To create a greeting, click on one of the jars.

PREVIEWING A GREETING
To get a sneak peek at how the selected greeting will look in action,
click on the Sneak Preview door.  You can stop the preview at any time, by
clicking on the "Go Back" button  at the bottom of the preview screen.

SELECTING A  NEW GREETING
To select a different greeting, simply click on one of the other jars on
the conveyor belt.  To select a greeting from a different category, click
on another category button, and a new set of jars will be displayed.

MOVING ON
After you have chosen which greeting you want to create, click on the
Process lever to move on to the Print Room.

CONTROL ROOM SHORTCUTS
The following short cuts make it even easier to create your greetings.
* To skip the opening animation press the space-bar.
* To skip animations (like those that happen when choosing a category or a
jar, or after pressing the "process" lever), press the Control key while
clicking on the desired object.

THE PRINT ROOM
This is where you personalize the greeting you have selected in the
Control Room, and where you will put the finishing touches on your greeting
masterpiece.

PERSONALIZING YOUR GREETING
To personalize your greeting, click on the red knob to advance to the
fields below.

To:    Enter the name of your friend or family member (e.g.: Dear Ann).
From:   Enter your name (e.g.: Love, Joan).
Message:   Enter your own special greeting message.  (There are 3 separate
fields for your message. Extra text from the first field will not
automatically flow to the second field.)

SPECIAL TOUCHES
Some of the Greetings have special customization features associated with
them.  When these greetings are chosen, an additional field entitled
"Special" will be displayed beneath the fields listed above.  To use the
special customization feature, click on the red knob until the "Special"
field is selected.

CUSTOMIZING GREETINGS
Once the field entitled "Special" is selected certain greetings enable you
to include names in audio format.  A list of the letters of the alphabet
will be displayed.  Click on the first letter of your friend or family
member's name to display names that begin with that letter.  Choose a name,
then click on the "Play" button and hear  how the name will sound when it
is included in the greeting.

NEW RECORDING
You can record a new name by selecting the "Record" button.  It is
recommended that your recording  not be more than one word long (e.g.,
"Bobby").  Once you have recorded a new name, the recording panel will
display the word "Custom" so you will know that your own recording has been
recognized.

VIEWING THE GREETING
Click on the View lever to view your completed greeting from start to
finish.  You can stop viewing your greeting at any time by clicking on the
"Stop Viewing" button.

SAVING YOUR GREETING CREATION
To save your greeting click on the Send lever. Your greeting will be saved
in a directory on your hard disk under the default name or a different name
you type in. Make sure that the name you give is no longer than eight
characters and it contains Latin Alphabet characters only.

SENDING YOUR GREETING CREATION
To send the greeting to your friend or family member via diskette, copy the
card from the directory that you have just saved to a 1.44 MB floppy
diskette. Warning! Do not take the diskette out while saving.
You can save directly to a diskette, but this is NOT recommended.  This
option is slower and might take a long time; if you do so - make sure the
diskette is formatted and empty and please do not remove it from the drive
until the saving is finished.

You can also send your greeting via e-mail.
To do so, attach the compressed file created by the "machine" to your
e-mail message. Please note that some Internet services limit the size of
attachments so the file might not go through.

PLAYING THE GREETING
Insert the diskette and double-click on the card's icon. A window will pop
up and ask where to save the decompressed files. Specify the Directory in
which you want the decompressed files to be saved. After decompression is
complete, click OK to run the greeting.

LEAVING THE PRINT ROOM
To go back to the Control Room, click on the "Go Back" lever.

PRINT ROOM SHORT CUTS
* To move automatically to the "To", "From", "Message" or "Special"
fields, press the Control key while clicking on any of those fields. Or you
may press Tab or Enter to move automatically.
* When selecting a name type the first letter of the name.  Use the arrows
to scroll down and up between the names.
* To skip animations (like those that happen when moving between the
lines, or after sending), press the Control key while clicking on the
desired object.

EXITING THE FACTORY -- QUITTING
Click the "On/Off" lever in the Control Room to the "Off" position to quit
the program.
You can also exit at any time by holding ESC, or pressing the Control key
while typing the letter "Q".

ON SCREEN MANUAL
The Manual, hanging from the upper right hand side of the Control Room,
provides additional information about Animated Greetings.
Click on the Manual to open it, then click on any of the chapters described
below.

* INTRO: Once inside - click on the Factory door to return to the Control
Room or  click on one of the tabs to get more information.

* GUIDE: This chapter provides  short  overview of the steps you will
follow to create your greetings.

* PREVIEW: This chapter shows some of the greetings which will be available
in future Animated Greetings releases.

* CREDITS: This chapter contains the names of all the people who created
the Animated Greetings CD-ROM.

* CLOSE: Click on this tab to return to the Control Room.

5. TROUBLESHOOTING
-------------------
We have done our very best to ensure that "Animated Greetings" is of the
highest quality and is incredibly easy to use. But if there are still
some questions we haven't answered, click on the HELP icons, located in
the Control Room and in the Print Room, to receive additional guidance.

For further troubleshooting reference, refer to the following:

SOUND: Problem - Solution/Reason

* Cannot record - Make sure you are using a microphone; try recording with
another sound application.

* Cannot hear the sound - Make sure the sound card you are using is
installed correctly.  Check if you have enough available RAM. Check that
the system volume is up.

MONITOR: Problem - Solution/Reason
* Cannot see colors - Make sure you have a color monitor that displays 256
colors.

ANIMATION: Problem - Solution/Reason
* Runs too slow - Make sure that all other programs are closed, that you
have enough memory. Also you should try setting your monitor to 256 colors.
* Pressing F10 may cause the animation to stop until the mouse is clicked
or a key is typed.

SAVE & SEND: Problem - Solution/Reason
* Where is my saved file? - The Application will automatically save your
greeting creation on your main directory on your hard disk, unless you
indicated otherwise.

* Can I send it through e-mail? - Yes, but make sure you enclose only the
file created by the "machine". Note that some Internet services limit the
size of attachments.
* Trying to save to a full, unformatted or faulty diskette will give an
error. We recommend saving to the hard disk, then copying to the diskette.

CD-ROM DRIVE: Problem - Solution/Reason
* I do not see the CD  - Make sure the CD is in the CD-ROM drive. If you
still can not see the CD try to take it out and insert again.
* Sometimes it will take a minute or two until the application is up and
running.

APPLICATION: Problem - Solution/Reason
* Not running - Make sure you have the appropriate system requirements
that are indicated on the box and in the User Guide.
* If the CD is dirty, this may cause errors.

6. TECHNICAL SUPPORT
--------------------
Before calling or writing please read this README file in its entirety.

Also, check for new FAQs on our Web site at:
http://www.parsontech.com/support/tech

When contacting us, please have the following information ready or
include it in your correspondence: full name, customer number, product
name and version, platform (Windows, or Macintosh), applicable system
information, and a detailed explanation of the problem.

You may reach Technical Support by calling [phone].

Although we do accept written correspondence, the interactive nature
of software don't allow us to serve you as efficiently if you contact
us in this manner. If you're hearing-impaired or have other physical
disabilities that affect your communication, please mention this in
your correspondence along with the method by which you prefer for us
to respond to you.

Technical Support
Parsons Technology, Inc.
1700 Progress Drive
P.O. Box 100
Hiawatha, Iowa 52233

7. COPYRIGHT and TRADEMARKS
---------------------------
Animated Greetings is the licensed property of Parsons Technology, Inc. and
is Copyright 1995 Pineapple Ltd. , Pineapple USA Inc.  All rights reserved.
Animated Greetings and the Animated Greetings logo are a registered mark in
the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office.