*If you are viewing this in Notepad, go to "Edit" and Turn "Word Wrap" on.*
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Note: In order for StoryMaker to run, you MUST have a file called "VB40032.dll". See the "Troubleshooting" portion of this document for details.
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About the Author:
My name is Joe Tompkins, and I am a Technology Specialist for the Rockdale County School System in Conyers, Georgia. Although I am certified to teach Language Arts, computers have always been an passion of mine. I created "Gepeto Software" from my home and began writing educational software in response to needs that I saw in our schools. The teachers wanted some way to apply technology directly to what they were currently teaching. These programs allow them to do that.
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About StoryMaker:
StoryMaker is a grammar teaching and practice program for students in late elementary and up. The "Stories" have blanks in them for the students to fill. However, this is done in a "blind" way where students are asked for a type of word (A Noun, Adjective, Place, Food, etc...) without seeing the context. Only after students have provided words for all the blanks do they get to see the story. Often, hilarity ensues as students read the wacky stories that result.
A tool is provided to help students and teachers write their own stories, too, for others to enjoy.
Best of all is the interactive glossary feature that helps students learn the parts of speech and provides sample words for when students get "stuck".
As with all of our software, StoryMaker is completely customizable to meet the specific needs of your curriculum. Not only can teachers create stories that focus on particular parts of speech, but you can also completely customize the glossary with your own terms, definitions, and examples.
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System Requirements:
StoryMaker runs under Windows 95 or 98, and on a network over Windows NT.
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Registration:
*This program is shareware. This means that you are free you use it for an evaluation period of 14 days free of charge. To continue using it beyond the evaluation period, please register the program with it's author.*
The registration fee is only $50 for a site license, which allows the program to be used on an unlimited number of computers within a single building, or $10 for a Home or School Single-Use license. To register this program, make out a check or money order to "Joe Tompkins" and send it to
Joe Tompkins
130 Wintergreen Ct
Covington, GA 30016
Please include your name (or your school's name) and your full address (if you want to receive the registration code via postal mail) or your email address (if you want the registration code via email).
For additional information visit Gepeto Software's Web Site at
http://members.tripod.com/Gepeto/home.htm
or contact
Joe Tompkins
jtompkins@mindspring.com
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To Start:
Double-click "storymaker.exe" to start
-or-
create a desktop shortcut to this file for easier access.
*When creating a shortcut or desktop icon, make sure the "Working Directory" listed in the shortcut properties is the directory where "StoryMaker" is stored.*
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Glossary Editor:
The Glossary Editor lets you customize the interactive glossary to your liking by adding your own terms and examples. This feature is password protected to prevent access by students.
----> The Glossary Editor Password, until it is changed by you, is "password" (without the quotation marks). You should change it to a password of your choice as soon as you begin using the program <----
To enter the Glossary Editor, go to the "Help" menu at the top of a screen and choose "Glossary". From this screen, click on the "Glossary Editor" button.
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Creating a story:
From the first screen, click the "Create" button.
On the next screen, type in a title for your story in the box provided and begin writing the story in the box below. When you want to insert a <blank> for the students to fill, click on the corresponding button below, or click "Other" and type in the label for the blank.
When you are finished, make sure you go to File>>Save to save the story.
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Deleting/ Editing Stories
StoryMaker saves its stories as ".rtf" files. If you use Windows Explorer to look in the StoryMkaer directory, any file with an ".rtf" extension is a story. From here, you can:
To Delete a Story:
You can delete a story by deleting the corresponding ".rtf" file.
To Edit a Story:
You can edit the story by opening it in a word processor such as "WordPad" or "Microsoft Word". If you edit the file, make sure to save it again as a "Rich Text File" (".rtf").
To Rename a Story:
You can rename a story by renaming the corresponding ".rtf" file. ***IMPORTANT!!! IF YOU RENAME A STORY FILE, MAKE SURE YOU KEEP THE ".RTF" EXTENSION AT THE END OF IT!!***
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Locking/Unlocking the "Create" Feature
It has been my experience, working in schools, that there are times when you may want to limit the students' access to some features. After using this program in my school for a week, I found that several "junk" stories had "mysteriously" appeared in the story directory. Therefore, I thought it best to add the option to lock out the "Create" funtion until it is unlocked by the teacher.
To Lock/Unlock the "Create" function, go to the "Options" menu on the first screen. It will ask for StoryMaker's password (the same as the Glossary editor) and will bring you to the neccessary Options screen.
See the above section for information on how to Delete or Edit "junk" stories of your own.
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Troubleshooting:
*When running StoryMaker over a NETWORK:
-To do create new stories on a network, the folder containing the program files must have Sharing on and Permissions set to "Read/Write" or "Full".
-Although it will work, avoid doing Glossary Editing while others are using StoryMaker on a network.
*Screen size and fonts:
-StoryMaker is made to run at 640X480 or 800X600 resolutions. If you have trouble with the display in these resolutions, make sure the Font Size is set to "Small Fonts" in the "Settings" menu of the Windows Display Properties.
*Errors:
1) "File not found"
Make sure the following files are all included in the Vocab-Flash directory:
StoryMaker.exe
smglossary.dat
smdata.dat
wordbank.dat
Richtx32.ocx
Some sotries (All story files have the ".rtf" extension)
*Also, when creating a shortcut or desktop icon, make sure the "Working Directory" listed in the shortcut properties is the directory where "StoryMaker" is stored.*
2) You MUST HAVE the file "VB40032.dll" in your windows directory for this program to work! If this file was not included with the copy of StoryMaker that you received, it can be found online in several places.
At the time of this writing, the file could be found online at
Two methods for printing stories are available through StoryMaker. These can be changed on the StoryView screen under the "Print Options" menu. (The StoryView screen is the screen that comes up after all of the blanks have been filled for a story.)
The default option is "Print Direct", which will print the story directly to your default printer.
The other option is "Print through Microsoft Wordpad", which requires that you have the program wordpad.exe in the Program Files/Accessories/ folder of your hard drive. This option should only be used if the "Print Direct" method fails.
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NOTE:
Use of this program is at your own risk. This program has been tested on a wide variety of PC's running Windows 95, 98, and NT, on single and networked computers. It has been shown to run problem-free under each of these environments. However, neither the author nor Gepeto Software can be held accountable for damage or to files or equipment as a result of this program.
