Problem - after extracting the activator archive, I can see a couple of html files, and a directory called classes, but no .exe file to run. How do I start the activator?
Reason - the activator is written in Java, and as such is loaded directly from a web page. There is no .exe file.
Solution - to run the activator, open the Activator.html file into a java enable browser such as Netscape 2. Then wait a few seconds while it loads. On a slower machine this can take up to 30 seconds.
If after this time you still don't see the Activator floating window appear, try using the ALT-TAB key combination to cycle through all the open Windows programs - sometimes the Activator gets hidden behind other windows.

- failure to get all the classes files onto the server.
There are two guaranteed ways of doing this.

• The best way is to use a zip program like WinZip95 to zip up your directory with your html files as well as the classes directory and all its contents, and then upload this to your server, and on the server run an unzip program to reconstruct all the files and directories. If the server is a unix machine, it is often worth asking the systems administrator for help the first time you do this.
  
• The second way is to use an ftp program that will recursively copy directories (that is, it will copy the contents of the directory onto the server, as well as all the subdirectories in that directory, and so forth). The best windows program to do this is WS-FTP32, and on the Macintosh is Fetch.
  

- putting the html files and classes directory in different places compared to where they were on your hard disk.
The easiest way around this problem is to make sure that the positions of the files on the server are exactly the same as they are on your hard disk. For example, if your html files are in the same directory as your classes files, make sure this is the same on the server.
Alternatively, if they are in different directories, you need to change the codebase section of your html file.
When you look at the html code for eg the nervous text applet, you will see something like the following
<applet codebase="./classes", code="infoweb.noware.NervousText.NervousText"width=368 height=100> The codebase tells the browser where to find the classes.
The line "./classes" means "look in the current directory for a directory called classes"
The single dot means current directory. Two dots mean go up one directory (to the parent of this html file). The codebase always starts relative to the html file that containts this codebase text. If you have put your classes directory somewhere else, you can tell the browser where by changing the codebase section, for example
codebase="../javastuff/classes"
This examples says "go to the parent directory of this html file, and there you will find a directory called javastuff, and in the javastuff directory is the classes directory, which is what you want"

1. Click any "preview" button.
2. Click "use the Activator on-line". Wait for it to load.
3. Choose a java applet from the Activator menu. (A generic demo linked to the menu shows you the basic applet idea.)

4. While you're on-line, you can customize the applet (size, color, speed, etc), using the Activator's point-and-click screens.

5. When you get to the "View, Size or Resize Applet" button, click for an on-line demo of your applet.

6. You can fine-tune your applet as much as you like on-line.