Table Of Contents

Welcome to Living Letters version 2.0!  We hope your child enjoys this demo.

For information about playing or ordering click one of the following topics:

About LarKen Software

How to Play

Technical Support

Ordering Information


About LarKen Software

LarKen Software is a small company of professionals devoted to the pursuit of quality, affordable, non-violent educational software.  It was founded in response to the large number of low quality, high priced products currently on the market.  LarKen's founders considered many of these products to be either boring for children, without educational value, or violent.

Our goal is to create quality wholesome software that both teaches and entertains.


How to Play

Living letters was designed to be highly interactive for children.  They are much more likely to learn by doing, rather than just watching.  We made the program easy enough for a 2 or 3 year old to operate themselves, but some children may require occasional directions from parents.  Encourage them to click the mouse on areas of the screen other than the obvious buttons (e.g. pictures, words, the large letter), but don't show them everything about the program the first time.  Each time they learn something new about the program, they'll have a renewed enthusiasm to play and learn.

Phonics:

Children can learn many of their phonic sounds with Living Letters.  By clicking on the displayed words the first letter enlarges and it's phonetic sound is played.  This learning is then reinforced by playing the Missing Letter game.

Missing Letter Game:

When the "?" (question mark) appears in place of the large letters, Living Letters is in the Missing Letter game.  While in this mode, children are instructed to find the letter that starts a word (by clicking on the correct letter along the bottom).  They are given up to 4 tries after which the correct letter will be displayed.

Mixed-up Letters:

Occasionally, a letter will appear in a goofy position.  The child will then be instructed to click on the "mixed-up letter".  The eyes and mouths of the letters should give sufficient hints for the children.  The principle of this activity is to help children become more conscious of correct letter formations.


This can be reached by clicking the left finger (when the letter A is displayed) or the right finger (when the letter Z is displayed).


Technical Support

If you are having problems running Living Letters the information contained here should help.  The problems is probably either a missing file (see list of required files) or equipment configuration.

The answer to some commonly asked questions are given below.  If you are unable to resolve your problem with Living Letters assistance can be obtained via E-mail or US mail  Please give us an opportunity to help solve your problem, our customers satisfaction is important to us.

1) How come the pictures of the apples and baby don't look right?

2) The music button doesn't do anything?

3) How come the music drowns out the sound of the rest of the program?

4) Nothing appears in the upper right white part of the screen?

5) What is the minimum equipment requirements for Living Letters?


internet	larkensoft@aol.com

compuserve	75023,647


LarKen Software

PO Box 465

Silverdale, WA

98383


abcrsrc.dll

dibapi.dll

goodbye.wav

hurray1.wav

hurray2.wav

intro.mid

letsnds.dll

liveabcs.exe

liveabcs.hlp

order.wri

picrsrc1.dll

song01.mid

song02.mid

song03.mid

song04.mid


The photographs are 256-color bitmaps.  You're probably running in a 16-color video mode.  To change that, use your Windows Set-up program (usually located in Main program group) or use the video set-up program that came with your system.


In order for the music to play, you must have a sound card that is capable of playing MIDI files.  Any windows compatible card should work.  You also must have the MIDI Mapper installed in your control panel.  If you have a sound card capable of MIDI, check the installation manual to make sure everything was installed.


Your sound card should have come with a "mixer" or "control" program that has volume adjustments.  The music is controlled by your MIDI volume.  Try adjusting these levels until the desired level is achieved.


Photographs and/or clip art are suppose to appear in the upper right part of the screen when you click on the "Photo" button.  If nothing happens, you must be missing a resource file.  Compare the files you have with the file list.


386 processor,  4M RAM,  MS Windows 3.1,  windows compatible sound card (a speaker driver may work with some success),  256-color VGA


Ordering Information

The size of the full version of Living Letters (nearly 10 Mbytes uncompressed), is too large to distribute intact via shareware.  But we desired to give the customer a good product for a minimal fee (without distributors fees and store mark-ups).  Thus, we chose to distribute this demo version via shareware channels.  We hope we have included enough of the program to give the flavor of the real thing.

Money Back Guarantee:

We are so confident that you'll be satisfied with Living Letters that we are providing a full 30 day MBG.  If for any reason you are not satisfied with the complete version of Living Letters simply return the discs and documentation to us for a full refund.  No questions asked.  This guarantee is good for 30 days after you've received your full working version.

{With a guarantee like that why not register today?}

Features of Full Version:

- All upper and lower-case letters

- Phonics sounds for each word

- 75+ 256-color entertaining photos (with the ability to add your own)

- Over 3 MB of fun sound files

- More background music files (with the ability to add your own)

- 11 full color background scenes

- Instructions to add your own pictures and sound files

Custom Pictures:  For a minimal fee, above the normal registration, we will digitize your photographs and incorporate them into the program.  Children love to find pictures of themselves or family members in the program.  Some suggested pictures are: Grandpa, Family, Dog, or House.  With each picture sent, please specify on the back of the picture what word should be displayed with it (limit each word to 8 characters in length).   (Note: We will return all photographs and they will not be used for any other purposes)

Add-on Pictures: In addition to the 75 photographs that come with Living Letters, we have additional sets of pictures that can be added to the program.  Each add-on set contains approximately 26 extra pictures with associated sound files.  The currently available sets are:

Dolls - 26 lovely dolls with names ranging from Amanda to Zandra.  These dolls are dressed in a wide assortment of clothing styles.

Animals - From Antelope to Zebra, this set contains lots of interesting animals.  Using photo editing techniques we've even created a few new animals you won't find anyplace else.  Kids will delight in the variety.

For your convenience, Living Letters can be ordered in one of three different ways.

Ordering by Mail is the preferred method and the only way to get custom pictures (because they need to be mailed to us).  This is also the least expensive method for both LarKen and you.

Ordering through compuserve

Ordering with credit card


Ordering By Mail

To order by mail send this order form (click on Print Topic in the File pull-down menu or print ORDER.WRI) and a check or money-order (US funds or equivalent foreign funds) to:

LarKen Software

PO Box 465

Silverdale, WA

U.S.A. 98383

Living Letters 2.0 Order Form

Please check one:    5 ¼" Disk ____    3 ½ Disk ____    Either size ____

Living Letters single user License ($18)                       = _______

         - or -

Site License for 2 to 25 computers:  _____  at $15 each        = _______

(more than 25 is negotiable)

Custom Photographs to incorporate

  1 to 5 pictures:      _____        at $3.00 each             = _______

  6 to 10 pictures:     _____        at $2.50 each

  (please write words on back of each photo - limit 8 characters per word)

Add-on Picture Sets

  Dolls _____ ($4)    Animals _____ ($4)    Both _____ ($7)    = _______

Shipping & Handling ($5 in USA, $8 Canada, $10 overseas)       = _______

Sub-total:                                                  = _______

Washington state residents add 7.8% sales tax                  = _______

Total:                                                       = _______

Name: _______________________________________      Date: _______________

Organization: __________________________________________________________

Address: _______________________________________________________________

City, State, Zip: ______________________________________________________

Where did you find Living Letters: _____________________________________

E-mail: ____________________

Comments:


Ordering By Compuserve

Note: If you want any custom pictures added to your program you need to order Living Letters through the US mail.

For many, compuserve may be the best way to order.  Foreign orders are automatically converted to US dollars and the hassle of getting a money order is avoided.  Ordering by compuserve will result in your compuserve account being charged for the cost of the program.

Compuserve charges a 15% fee to LarKen Software for the use of their registration service.  To help offset our expenses (we really aren't trying to get rich, but we need to eat) purchases through compuserve will cost an additional $1.95 above the cost of mailed orders.

There are four (4) registration package options on compuserve:

1) Living Letters 2.0 (basic)

$19.95 plus shipping & handling ($5 US)

Registration ID # 4083

2) Living Letters 2.0 (with Dolls add-on)

$23.95 plus shipping & handling ($5 US)

Registration ID #4104

3) Living Letters 2.0 (with Animals add-on)

$23.95 plus shipping & handling ($5 US)

Registration ID #4105

4) Living Letters 2.0 - Deluxe (includes both add-on picture sets)

$26.95 plus shipping & handling ($5 US)

Registration ID #4106

To order by compuserve:

GO SWREG


Ordering By Credit
Ordering By Credit Card

Note: If you want any custom pictures added to your program you need to order Living Letters through the US mail.

For those customers who don't want the hassle of writing a check and mailing the order form we've contracted with Public software Library (PsL) to provide 1-800 credit card ordering services..PsL charges LarKen Software a $5 fee (plus the 4% credit card charge) for each order.  To help offset our expenses (we really aren't trying to get rich, but we need to eat), purchases through this service will cost an additional $3.95 above the cost of mailed orders.

There are four (4) registration package options you can order from PsL:

1) Living Letters 2.0 (basic)

$21.95 plus shipping & handling ($5 US, $8 Canada, $10 overseas)

2) Living Letters 2.0 (with Dolls add-on)

$25.95 plus shipping & handling ($5 US, $8 Canada, $10 overseas)

3) Living Letters 2.0 (with Animals add-on)

$25.95 plus shipping & handling ($5 US, $8 Canada, $10 overseas)

4) Living Letters 2.0 - Deluxe (includes both add-on pictures sets)

$28.95 plus shipping & handling ($5 US, $8 Canada, $10 overseas)

CREDIT CARD ORDERS ONLY -

You can order with MC, Visa, Amex, or Discover from Public (software) Library by calling 800-2424-PsL or 713-524-6394 or by FAX to 713-524-6398.  You can also mail credit card orders to PsL at PO Box 35705, Houston, TX 77235-5705.

THE ABOVE NUMBERS ARE FOR ORDERS ONLY

Any questions about the status of the shipment of the order, refunds, registration options, product details, technical support, volume discounts, dealer pricing, site licenses, etc. must be directed to LarKen Software via E-mail or US mail.  To insure that you get your order promptly, PsL will notify us the day of your order and we will ship the product directly to you.