5- The preferences

Youll find the "Preferences..." in the "File" menu. The teacher or parent can limit the access or define the conditions under which the user will work.

To access the preferences, click on the "File" menu at the top of the screen and slide the mouse down maintaining the mouses button in the downward position. Release the mouse button when the word "Preferences..." is highlighted. The next window shows up:

Note: One can have access to the preferences from the main window or the section windows, and never from the individual modules.

On the left, one can scroll to find the preferences for each module, and two preferences called "Miscellaneous" and "Users". Clicking on the appropriate icon gives you access to the corresponding preferences.

For most modules, you can choose the level and whether the modules will be available at all.

If the is no " x " in the box in front of the word "Available", then the module cant be used. To remove the " x ", simply click once on it. Clicking in the small box brings it back. For example, in the example above, the music module is available.

Here are a few specific preferences.

1 Miscellaneous

This preference is to decide which piece of music, if any, is to be played when launching Learn and Play and during the users play. The music is pre-recorded and has been chosen to have a soothing effect on the user. Click in the appropriate sections to suit your whims. Clicking on the "Specify the music..." button gives you access to the "Music" folder. Open it and select the piece you wish.

2 Mixed up Words and Hangman

In addition, in these modules, the instructor can choose to use his own set of words, instead of the ones built in Learn and Play.

Start by clicking on the modules icon (small picture), then on the box in front of "User own words". The button "Add words..." becomes available. Click on it, and type in your words, pressing return after each word. The limitations are 7 letters per word and 36 words in all. To remove a word, click on it and press on the delete key from the keyboard.

When you are using your word bank, the program's word bank is unavailable and the background picture shown is a hot air balloon, whatever the theme of your word bank.

You can save this word bank or use it on other computers with the export-import capacity. "Export..." creates a document containing the words in your lists. This document can be kept for further use or copied on a floppy disk so that all the computers in one class can be used with the same word bank. Just import the word bank that you want to use on the other computers.

If you wish to go back to the original built-in words, just click on the "x" in front of the words "Users own words", so that it goes away.

3 Car Race

To play against another person, just click on the box in front of the words "two players".

4 Blocks

To play against another person, just click on the box in front of the words "two players".

In addition, when the "Added penalty" box has an "x" in it, whenever one player completes a line, the other players piece falls right away. If three lines are completed simultaneously, three pieces falls freely one after the other.

Also, if "Identical tokens" is active, each player will receive the same tokens, in the same order. Nevertheless, as two persons dont progress at exactly the same speed, the pieces can fall at different moments, and therefore, wont show up at the same time on the screen. Both players have the same chances of winning, though.

5 Bingo

The range of tokens is as follows : if the range is 5, the numbers will be chosen between 1 and 5; if the range is 6, the numbers will be chosen between 1 and 6, and so on.

6 Users

This last preference is important if you wish to limit access to the "Preferences..." menu. In other words, read and use this section if you wish to prevent the user's of Learn and Play from changing the other preferences.

First, four options:

- "Smooth scroll" gives a better accuracy in the scroll bars of Learn and Play©.

- "Real drag" by activating this option, you'll be able to move a window and its contents, instead of only the gray outline;

- "Don't ask to change the bit depth", when activated, the bit depth of your screen will automatically change to 256 colors when Learn and Play© is launch.

- "Don't ask for a mouse-click" will allow, when a game is done, to automatically restart without displaying the little "clickable" hand.


Start out by clicking on the button "Configurations...". The following window shows up.

First of all, type in a password in the appropriate area. Type it again in the other window below the first one.

Then, click in the box in front of the words "Multi-user context". The window then becomes fully defined.
If you click in the box in front of "Always ask password before opening this window ", only users who know the correct password will be able to access this window. If the person entering this password forgets it, no one will be able to access this preference file, and it will have to be removed from the "Preferences" folder in the "System" folder. All your preferences will then be lost.

Passwords are limited to 4 symbols, numbers or letters or a mix of these.

You can use the export-import capacity if you wish to have identical user configurations on many computers.

To leave this window, click on "Cancel" if you are not ready to implement it. Please read all of this section if you wish to put it into use.

Note: The administrator( technician, teacher or parent) has complete access at all times to all aspects of Learn and Play .

Defining users

The multi-user system works as follows. The administrator ( technician, teacher or parent ) can define many types of users, and within each type of user, the he can define many users. For example, type could refer to parents, teachers, children, students, each being a type; user could refer to Sue, Mary and John, as children, Robert and Ellen as parents, and so on. For each type of user, the administrator will want to limit the access of the users to certain modules. For example, a teacher could want to exclude the "Bingo" module.

Before defining the type of user, you must have already chosen your preferences for all of the modules. Otherwise, the changes made after won't come into effect.


Lets put this example into practice.

1- First of all, click on the preference button for "Bingo", and click in the box with an "x" to make it unavailable. ( The "x" disappears.)

2- Click on the "Users" preferences, and then on the "Configurations ..." button.

Click on the box in front of "Multi-user context". Type in a password as defined in the preceding section. Then, click on "Add a type..."; the following window shows up:

3- You must now define each type of user you want to define. To keep it simple, lets define just one, and call this type "Bingoless"

4- Type in "Bingoless" in the box named Types name.

5- You can define a password for each type of user. This will be useful if you let this type of user have access to the preferences of certain modules or can create users ( see below). Leave it as is for the moment.

6- Click on the small icon that represents this type of user. In our example, well click on it.

7- Each user can have his private password. In our example, we select this possibility, so click on the appropriate box.

8- You can choose whether the type of user can access the preferences or not. If not, all the users of that type wont have access to the preferences. However, if you click on the box to allow access, you must then click on each and every module you want that type of user to have access to. This shows up in the small scrolling window. Click on the chosen modules if so desired : they will be highlighted. For our example, you certainly wouldnt want "Bingo" to be highlighted.

9- To preserve the actual preferences, click on the lower left-hand box.

10- Click on the "Save" button.

11- You are now back in the "Preferences..." window. However, you can now create individual users by clicking on the "Edit the users" button.

Click on it. The following window shows up. We see that there is only one user defined, for the time being.

12- Click on "New...". Then click on the icon named "Bingoless". In the window, type in the name Jack. If you had selected previously the user password option, you will be asked to define one. If so, click on "OK". Repeat this if you wish to create more users. Then click on the "Save" button.

13- Everyone will have to choose, each time Learn and Play is launched, whether the user is Jack or the administrator or any other user, and will have access provided he knows the appropriate password.

Only the administrator will be able to remove types of users , by selecting them and pressing the delete key on the keyboard, in the appropriate window.

To add or delete users, those who have access to the preferences can do the same by clicking on the "Edit the users" button.

Note: One type of user can have many users. So if you have only one type of user, you don't have to create a new type. All you have to do to create new users is to select the " Users " icon in the "Preferences" menu of the "File" menu, and click on "Edit the users". To change the characteristics of a type, double-click on its name, from the "Configurations" window.