Real Macintosh users don't need manuals! Well maybe that's true, but we would still very much appreciate your taking the time and trouble to read the whole of this document before trying to use KimStacks & CD-ROM in earnest.
Throughout, we assume that you know to click and drag, select files and folders on the desktop, copy files, install fonts and are generally familiar with basic Macintosh terminology. If you are new to the Macintosh, you might find it useful to have your Macintosh Users Guide close to hand.
About "KimStacks & CD-ROM"
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KimStacks & CD-ROM is a multimedia software catalogue describing the most extensive range of Apple Macintosh CD-ROM and general multimedia software available in the UK. There are over 340 products listed in a variety of categories (business , education, etc.). Over 70 of those products have full-scale demonstrations of the product in use. ALmost 20 of the products have actually been used in the production of this CD-ROM!
In addition to the catalogue itself, there are Feature articles covering care of CD-ROM, use of QuickTime, the Gestalt Manager; The Gallery containing introduction from the KimTec teak responsible for this CD-ROM, some family photos and movies, a famous artist at work and more; and last but by no means least there is a folder containing over 60M of freeware and shareware for you to enjoy.
And if you don't happen to have HyperCard or QuickTime, don't worry because you'll find these on the disc also.
Ordering Products from "KimStacks & CD-ROM"
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All of the products in the catalogue can be obtained from your preferred Authorised Apple Dealer, direct from KimTec UK by mail-order, or direct from any other dealer authorised to supply a particular product.
The word "authorised" is significant. Please do not buy from "grey" importers. They are remarkably light in the morality stakes and although you might save a few pounds, you will not get the support and advice you need, and in the long run, it will cost you a good deal more in heartache and aggravation, loss of rights to software upgrades and so on. Bear in mind that the major product manufacturers do not approve of the grey channel any more than we do because in addition to providing nothing more than an unregulated, undisciplined service their major impact is to tarnish the image the very products they are trying to sell.
Installing "KimStacks & CD-ROM"
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KimStacks & CD-ROM is a complex application and certain of its components must be copied to your hard disc if they are to function correctly. Indeed, many component will simply refuse to run, if they detect that they are being used directly from the CD-ROM itself.
In order to correctly install KimStacks & CD-ROM there are five components that need to be copied to your hard disc. Only two of these components are compulsory. You might find you don't need the other three.
The first compulsory element is a folder called "KimStacks & CD-ROM". This contains the three HyperCard programs (Index, Products and Orders) that together control almost the entire suite. You will find the KimStacks & CD-ROM folder at the top level of the KimStacks & CD-ROM disc. Just drag that folder to the desired location on your hard disc. You can put it wherever you like.
The second compulsory element is called "KimStacks Fonts". This is a font suitcase and it can be found inside the folder "ÑSupportÑ", which you will see at the top level of the CD-ROM disc. This contains the fonts that we have used in KimStacks & CD-ROM. You must install all of these fonts. If you do not, then information might not be properly displayed on your screen. If you are using System 7 drag the font suitcase over your System Folder and let the Macintosh operating system do the rest. If you are using System 6, you will need to use Font/DA Mover to install these fonts in your System file.
The first optional element is the HyperCard aplication itself. We have supplied HyperCard 2.1 on KimStacks & CD-ROM. If you are already using HyperCard 2.1, you do not need to install it again. In fact we explicitly advise against doing so. If you are using some other, earlier version of Hypercard, you must replace it with HyperCard 2.1 or KimStacks & CD-ROM will not behave properly, or will not run at all. Please note that HyperCard 2.1 must run under System 7, or System 6.0.5 or greater. If you are running an earlier version of the System, you must obtain a System upgrade from your prefered Authorised Apple Dealer. If you are not running HyperCard at all, you have no choice. You must install HyperCard or you will not be able to use any part of the KimStacks & CD-ROM suite.
You will find a folder called "HyperCard 2.1" inside the "ÑSupportÑ" folder already described. Copy the entire folder on to your hard disc, to a location of your choosing. Once you have done so, open the HyperCard 2.1 folder. In it you will see a font suitcase called "HyperCard Fonts".
This is the second optional element and it must be installed in your System file by a process similar to that already described for installing "KimStacks Fonts". Once you have installed the HyperCard Fonts, you may throw the suitcase into the Wastebacket. If you already had HyperCard 2.1 correctly installed, you do not need to install these fonts again, so you can bin them immediately. If you have upgraded your HyperCard you should install them in any case. Don't think that for the sake of a few K you can get away without them. Things will appear to work fine - but you might well be missing information, screens might look tacky, and so on.
The third optional element is QuickTime. This is supplied as an System Extension (INIT) and can be found inside the "ÑSupportÑ" folder. If you have a QuickTime capable machine, you should install QuickTime by dragging it over your System Folder. The Macintosh operating system will make sure it is put in the correct location. If you are not sure as to the QuickTime capability of your Macintosh, here is a simple rule of thumb. If you do not have a 68020 CPU or greater, you are not QuickTime compatible. In any case, KimStacks & CD-ROM tries to be smart and is able to check the compatibility of your Macintosh 'on the fly'. It will simply refuse to use QuickTime on a non-compatible machine.
The version of QuickTime we have supplied on KimStacks & CD-ROM is "B-1.0". If you have a US version by virtue of your having purchased some other product, we strongly suggest you replace it with the British version. Whilst we have found the US version to be stable on British systems (and vice-versa), it is not generally recommended that users mix operating system components and extensions that have been tailored for specific local markets.
Automatic Installation of KimStacks & CD-ROM
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Just in case all the above sounds like a real pain, we have provided an automatic installation program. It is called "Install" and can be found at the top level of the KimStacks & CD-ROM disc. To run Install, just double-click its icon in the time honoured fashion.
Install is capable of performing the entire installation process with the exception of the font installation. We apologise for this fact and will address it in time for the next issue of KimStacks & CD-ROM. As a bonus, however, it is able to automatically install a button in your HyperCard Home stack (or any other stack of your choosing) to provide you with instant access to the KimStacks & CD-ROM suite. It also asks you at each stage of the installation process whether you want to proceed with the current option, skip to the next or end the installation process. Thus you can configure the automatic installation to suit your particular needs. It will also warn you of duplicate installations.
Is it really that simple? Well, nearly! There might be a slight problem with the final positioning of the "KimStacks & CD-ROM" folder on your hard disc when it is installed via the Install program, under System 7. If you find that the folder you have installed is not visible as an icon on your hard disc, this means that the folder has been placed on the desktop. To remedy this situation it is simply a case of locating the "KimStacks & CD-ROM" folder on your desktop and dragging it back on to your hard disc in the desired location. The cause of this problem is either a minor bug in the XCMD we have used to perform the file copying process, or a minor bug with System 7. We are not sure which, as we write but are looking into the matter. There are absolutely no unpleasant consequences as a result of this really quite minor problem.
Memory Matters
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You must allocate at least 2048K to HyperCard before using KimStacks & CD-ROM. This will provide adequate performance across the entire range of current Macintosh platforms and configurations. It will run with as little as 850K allocated, but this will only allow access to the text content and will preclude all hope of viewing images, running movies, listening to music, and so on. For best results, we recommend a HyperCard allocation of at least 4096K on a 13" colour Macintosh. This will allow all images, all sounds and all movies to be run simultaneously in their appropriate combinations. Machines with a 12" colour monitor will perform well with just 3000K. Machines using black & white, regardless of screen size will cope with 2048K. We have already set the memory allocation of the HyperCard 2.1 supplied on the KimStacks & CD-ROM disc to 2048K.
If a situation is encountered in which there is not enough room to perform a certain action, you will be warned and asked to make a choice as to which feature you omit. You can greatly improve the memory usage of your machine by installing the System 7 Tune Up, available from your Authorised Apple Dealer.
Some of the demonstration programs require as much as 2256K of memory to remain free over and above that occupied by HyperCard and the System. If your Macintosh cannot cope with that requirement, all demonstration programs can be run directly from the Desktop, from outside the HyperCard and KimStacks & CD-ROM environment. All demonstrations are tested prior to launch on your Macintosh and any likely problems, for example lack of memory, will be reported to you together with alternative courses of action. At the very least, if a demonstration cannot run on your machine, you will be shown a screen shot of the demonstrated application in use.
If you are running System 6, you must be running in MultiFinder, you must also have 32-bit QuickDraw installed. If you are running System 6.0.4 or less, you should upgrade to at least System 6.0.7, preferably to System 7.
How Do I Start
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Open the "KimStacks & CD-ROM" folder that you have copied to your hard disc and double-click on the "Index" stack. If you try to access any part of the KimStacks suite without going through the Index, it will immediately force you to "go home" or quit from HyperCard. The Index stack is your route map - and contains all the bits and pieces that everything else needs to run properly. Full help is available from within KimStacks, and if you are running System 7, you can also use Balloon Help.
Quitting From Demonstrations
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Wherever possible, a "Quit" button has been provided to enable you to quit from a demonstration. However, a number of the demonstrations are self-running and do not provide an explicit quit function. An immediate example is a MacroMind movie. In this situation it is possible to quit by either:
1 - Clicking the mouse.
2 - Holding down the command key and pressing Q (i.e. Command-Q).
3 - Holding down the command key and pressing full stop (i.e. Command-<dot>).
4 - Holding down the command key and pressing T (i.e. Command-T).
We are sorry about the variations here but the design and implementation of the demonstration programs was beyond our control. Further the demonstrations have come from places as far afield as the USA, Japan and Zimbabwe. So a degree of inconsistency is perhaps excusable.
Can Anything Fall Over?
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Well in theory, yes! The non-trivial, bug free program has not yet been written. However, all of the demonstration programs have behaved very well in our tests, although some demonstrations take the liberty of switching the Monitor setting from 256 colours to black & white and then neglect the courtesy of setting it back once they have finished. None of the demos were written by us, so there is a limit to what we could do when we did find problems, but none of them will fail without severe provocation. As indicated above, we have already taken steps within KimStacks to make sure that an incompatible program does not get the chance to run on your machine.
This is spelt out quite clearly in the Acknowledgements section of KimStacks & CD-ROM, but KimTec UK are not liable for the content, quality or performance of any demonstration software.
Technical Support
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For advice and assistance in case of difficulty, please contact KimTec UK by telephone, fax, letter or AppleLink:
KimTec UK Limited
(Technical Support Department)
Fairways House
8 Highland Road
Wimborne
Dorset
BH21 2QN
United Kingdom
Telephone (UK): 0202 888873
Telephone (Intl): +44 (202) 888873
Fax (UK): 0202 888863
Fax (Intl): +44 (202) 888863
AppleLink: KIMTEC
Conclusion
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That is all there is to say at this stage. You will encounter more help and guidance as you make your way through the materials we have provided. We at KimTec UK hope that you will spend many happy hours with KimStacks & CD-ROM. Please tell us what you like, what you don't like and what you would like to see in the future.
