Copyright: (c) TK Boyd 19 June 00


Contents
Spot The Right One (MGA3)

     Help file contents:

Introduction to the program

Ways to use

Ordering the better version

Visit my site on the web at...

    http://www.arunet.co.uk/tkboyd/offers.htm

for news... and descriptions of other freeware and shareware, of course!

                                                                      The boring bits: (c) and version

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Intro
Introduction

Spot The Right One puts four phrases on the screen. Three will have something wrong with them; one will be right. The user clicks on the right one to get another set of four phrases.

The phrases are selected at random from a simple text file. Therefore no two sessions are ever the same. Two pupils can work side by side with no opportunity for one to copy the other. Users learn the material instead of learning the test.

MGA3, the version you are requested to pass on, only allows the user to see phrases from the set which has been put together for introducing the program to potential customers.

MGA4, which is not free, allows you to use sets of phrases of your own devising. No programming knowledge required!

See also... Contents

(Why "MGA3"?: It is my third Multiple Guess program in the first ("A") series!)

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Ways
Ways to use the program

The free, evaluation, version of the program will give users practice avoiding some common errors of English usage, e.g. misuse of the possessive , spelling errors, vocabulary misuse.

            THIS IS NOT THE "POINT" OF THE PROGRAM !

What IS the point? The registered version of the program is an "engine" which takes phrases from a file that anyone can create and presents them on the screen for the user. With a little imagination, you can help users master a wide variety of skills and subjects. You can have many sets of phrases, which would mean that you could teach or learn many topics. See....

Ideas for phrase sets

How to create a phrase set

Plea to teachers and parents

See also... Contents

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Ideas for
Ideas for phrase sets

The set of phrases that comes with the evaluation copy of the program illustrates but one type of work that the program can help the user with. In the following, green lines are examples of correct phrases which could be included in a phrase set, and red lines are examples of possible wrong phrases.

4+6=10

4+6=11

Triangles have three sides

Parallelograms have three sides

Rome is the capital of Italy

Venice is the capital of Italy

The boss's dog's name is Fido

The boss's child's name is Henry

The boss's child's name is Fido

The Battle of Hastings was in 1066

A zygopophysis is a bump on a vertebra

There is no need to register shareware

If you are willing to augment the program with additional materials, not "in" the computer, not on the screen, all sorts of additional things become possible. For example, you could issue a copy of a map to the users. Then you could include phrases like the following....

There is a lake east of Centerville.

Ivoryton is 20 miles from Centerville.

Suppose you had to learn the names of a new class of 20 children. Take a photo of them. Mark each face with a number. Put together a set of phrases like...

Row 2, boy 3: Fred Smith

Row 1, girl 5: Mary Jones

Your imagination is the main limit!

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Making phrase sets

All you need to make a phrase set is Notepad. It comes free with Windows. It is usually accessed via Programs|Accessories. (Of course, to use  the question set, you also need the registered version of Spot The Right One!)

The phrase set is made up of many lines.

Any line beginning with a semicolon will be ignored.

Only lines beginning with the letter r (lower case, i.e. not R) will be presented as "right" phrases

Only lines beginning with the letter w will be presented as "wrong" phrases.

All lines should start with r, w, or the semicolon.

You are advised to create about three wrong phrases for each right phrase.

The phrases should be short enough that they fit on a single line when displayed by Spot The Right One.

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Plea
Plea to parents and teachers

Please do not assume that you can just put this on a child's computer and leave them to get on with it. Unless you show your interest, the program will not be used very often. Encourage the child to keep a log of when the program was used, what score was achieved, etc. Within a classroom, a ladder might be an additional incentive.

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Order
Ordering the better version: MGA4

For late breaking news, visit my site on the web at...

    http://www.arunet.co.uk/tkboyd/offers.htm

The better version costs $10 or £8 (British pounds). Either check with me by email (recommended), or just send your payment, payable to TK Boyd, to me at...

TK Boyd

PO Box 367

Essex, CT, 06426

USA

There is no charge for delivery by internet, but there is a charge of $5 / £2 if you want a disc mailed to you.

Please be sure to indicate WHICH program yuou are ordering... I sell several.

Please be sure to tell me where to send it... and remember that it can be emailled for free or snail-mailed for the handling charge given above.

See also... Contents

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Email

My eddress is....

100665.1141@compuserve.com

There is a "send me email" button on my web page.

This help file was created with HelpScribble.


Boring
The Boring Bits-

The program is (c) TK Boyd, 11/98. Rights reserved, except as noted below.

This help file's version ID: 19 June 00

Please DO pass on the version that is not able to load different question sets. It has been released so that potential customer can evaluate the program.

See also... Contents

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Learn The Test
"Learn The Test": With some software, the test the user does varies so little that the user soon learns to get the answers by strategies other than knowing the material.

This help file was created with HelpScribble.


Reg ver
Shareware is software distributed on a "try before you buy" basis.

Authors hope that the general public will pass on the unregistered version of their program. They want as many people as possible to see it.

Honest users who like what they see in the unregistered version will realize that the programmers have to pay bills. Generally, there is a registered version of the program with extra features to reward those who do the decent thing and pay the requested registration fee.

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semicolon
Semicolon...

The punctuation mark

  ;

The unshifted key to the right of the L key on my keyboard.

This help file was created with HelpScribble.


ladder
ladder:

A simple list of users, but ranked by their success at whatever the ladder reflects. Where an absolute measure of success is available, that can be used for ranking. For competitive things like playing chess, it is usual to stipulate that people can only challenge people next to them in the ladder. If the challenged person fails to play a match within a reasonable time, he/ she must concede a virtual defeat.

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Snailmail
Snail-mail: Tradional paid-for-with-a-stamp mail via the postal service. The British service is superb... and when was the last time you heard them given credit? It is not unusual to order something from several hours' drive away in the afternoon of day 1 and find it delivered by 9:30am on day 2. I know less of the US service, but again think it is under-rated. Anything mailed from the US (east coast, anyway) to the UK on a Monday will usually be delivered before the end of the week.

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HelpScribble

HelpScribble is a help authoring tool written by Jan Goyvaerts and available for download at http://www.jgsoft.com/. This help file was created with the unregistered version of HelpScribble, which is why you can read this ad. Once the author of this help file is so honest to register the shareware he uses, you will not see this ad again in his help files.

Recompiling the help project with the registered version is all it takes to get rid of this ad and the little footers below each topic.

HelpScribble is a stand-alone help authoring tool. It does not require an expensive word processor. (Only a help compiler as Microsoft likes keeping the .hlp format secret. Not my fault.)

Here are some of HelpScribble's features:

•	The Setup program will properly install and uninstall HelpScribble and all of its components, including registry keys.

•	Create, edit and navigate through topics right in the main window. No need to mess with heaps of dialog boxes.

•	All topics are listed in a grid in the main window so you won't lose track in big help projects. You can even set bookmarks.

•	Use the built-in Browse Sequence Editor to easily create browse sequences.

•	Use the built-in Window Editor to change the look of your help window and create secondary windows.

•	Use the built-in Contents Editor to create Windows 95-style contents files. Works a lot better than Microsoft's HCW.

•	No need to mess with Microsoft's SHED: use the built-in SHG Editor to create hotspot bitmaps. Draw your hotspots on the bitmap and pick the topic to link to from the list.

•	With the built-in Macro Editor you can easily compose WinHelp macros whenever needed. It will tell you what the correct parameters are and provide information on them.

•	If you have a problem, just consult the online help. The help file was completely created with HelpScribble, of course.

•	HelpScribble is shareware. However, the unregistered version is not crippled in any way. It will only add a small note to your help topics to encourage you to be honest and to register the shareware you use.

These options are very interesting for Delphi and C++Builder developers:

•	If you are a component writer, use the Delphi Parser to build an outline help file for your component. Just fill in the spaces and you are done. HelpScribble can also extract the comments from your source file and use them as the default descriptions.

•	If you are an application writer, HelpScribble provides you with a property editor for the HelpContext property. You can select the topic you need from a list of topic titles or simply instruct to create a new topic. No need to remember obscure numbers.

•	The property editor also provides a tree view of all the components on your form and their HelpContext properties. This works very intuitively. (Much nicer than those help tools that simply mess with your .dfm files.)

•	HelpScribble can perform syntax highlighting on any Delphi source code in your help file.

HelpScribble is shareware, so feel free to grab your copy today from my web site at http://www.jgsoft.com/