Fritz: All Fritz/All Fritz.zip/All Fritz/FILES/EDUCAMES/WP4KIDS.LZH/WPK.DOC

Text File | 1992-11-10 | 27KB | 587 lines

                         WORD PROCESSING FOR KIDS

We developed this program "WORD PROCESSING FOR KIDS" because we
feel that more than any other kind of program, a word processor
can do much to help children learn to communicate through the
written word.  While those word processors developed for adults
have the features required for professional writing, they do not
serve children.  They simply are much too complex. We undertook
the task with the major design goals to be that of simplicity
while serving the needs of the target age group, beginning
writers.  We think writing should be a fun experience for kids
opening up a whole new world of communicating in a new way.
Everyone we have shown it to, including the children who have
tested it, were enthusiastic about it.  It can be used by very
young children with but a brief training period since it uses
only a few keys.  It uses the large type font typically taught in
school rooms today and so will be familiar to the child.  We
would like to make this program available to as many children as
possible.  Therefore, we are making it available to you through
the shareware concept.  Clubs and individuals are invited to copy
and distribute it.  Share it freely with your friends and copy as
many personal disks for classrooms or your own personal use as
you wish.  We do believe that a program of this quality would
easily retail for about $30 and feel justified in requesting a
contribution of $10 if you find it to be useful to your child.
We do this for several reasons.  First, copy protection would
nullify the usefulness of the program.  Second, you should have
the chance to evaluate the software with your child before you
commit to its purchase.  Third, personal computer educational
software should be supported by those who use it.  Fourth, if the
response is satisfactory to us, we will make subsequent efforts
available in the same freely distributed way.  Make some copies
and give them to some friends because the more people that get
it, the more opportunities there are for those who might support
such a distribution concept.  Finally, we are interested in
hearing about your experiences with the program.  How effective
is it in aiding children to learn to write?  What features should
it have? How can it be improved?  Drop us a line with your
contribution.  Send a ten spot, a $10 check or money order to:

     Sidney D. Nolte
     3345 Sage Brush Trail
     Plano, Texas 75023
                    WORD PROCESSING FOR KIDS VERSION 3

Since the introduction of the program in 1984, we have learned a
great deal.  The most rewarding lesson is that the program is
being used by hundreds or even thousands of children in homes and
schools.  The many complementary letters we have received are
indeed our greatest reward.  Registrations are disappointing, but
the program has served our purposes and we feel it to be a great
success.  Version 3 incorporates many of the suggested
improvements received in your letters.

To our surprise, the program is being used not only for children
but also for adults, particularly the handicapped.  Workers with
these applications have requested a version with the child like
song removed.  Version 3 has the file WPKNS.EXE which is
identical in every respect to WPK.EXE except that the song is not
played.

There have been many responses from the English speaking parts of
the world.  We even get letters from non English persons who wish
a copy of the program which supports special characters and has
the menus in their language.  A Spanish language version has been
developed.  Special gratitude is extended to Esther Gonzales for
the translating the screens to Spanish.  The Spanish version is
included in Version 3 in the file of WPKSP.EXE.  We feel that it
has possibilities in the school programs which teach English as a
second language to Hispanic children.

A request was submitted for an even larger type font for the
visually impaired child.  The program WPKVI.EXE was developed for
that purpose.  Demand for that program is low but it is exactly
what a visually handicapped child needs.  That program is not
included with Version 3 but it is available from the same address
at the same price of $10 plus $2 for shipping.

Version 3 contains a number of user suggested enhancements.  It
corrects a few bugs that were infrequently encountered.  It
provides an option to print the file as it appears on the screen.
It provides for a no song option for school classrooms where the
song is disruptive.  It provides a Spanish language version.  We
hope that your favorite change has not been omitted.

We have been asked many times if there is a site license for use
in schools.  We do request that at least one registered version
be used in each classroom.  Site license rates are as follows:

       Number    Cost/Unit
      1 to  3       $10       NOTE:     These prices are
      4 to  7       $ 8            offered to those who
      8 to 10       $ 7            produce multiple copies.
     11 up          $ 6

Again, thanks to all of you who have helped make this program so
rewarding to us.
                         WORD PROCESSING FOR KIDS
                             TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION FOR THE PARENTS OR TEACHER.......................1
WHY A WORD PROCESSOR FOR KIDS?................................1
WORKING WITH FLOPPY DISKS.....................................1
HOW TO CREATE A PERSONAL DISK.................................2
HOW TO GET THE PROGRAM STARTED(FLOPPY DISK)...................2
WORKING WITH A FIXED DISK.....................................3
THE MENU SCREEN...............................................3
THE WRITE OPTION..............................................4
THE OLD MENU..................................................4
THE NEW MENU..................................................4
HOW TO WRITE YOUR STORY.......................................5
MOVING THE CURSOR.............................................5
THE INSERT KEY................................................5
THE BACKSPACE KEY.............................................5
ANOTHER COLOR.................................................6
ANOTHER SIZE..................................................6
HELP!.........................................................6
WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED.........................................6
THE LIBRARY MENU..............................................7
THE PRINT MENU................................................7
THE PRINT SIZE MENU...........................................7
THE PRINT SELECT MENU.........................................7
THE DELETE MENU...............................................7
ENDING THE SESSION - QUIT.....................................8
A PRACTICE SESSION............................................8
USING THE SPANISH VERSION.....................................9                  INTRODUCTION FOR THE PARENTS OR TEACHER
             INTRODUCTION FOR THE PARENTS OR TEACHER

This section is addressed to the parent or teacher.  This program
is intended to be a first word processor for first writers,
children who are learning to write.  The computer word processor
has much to contribute to this activity.  It requires two skills
for a child to produce written text, the mental skills required
to put ideas together into complete sentences and the physical or
motor skills necessary to make the pencil move properly to
produce the written page.  Frequently it is found that the motor
skills are not sufficiently advanced for successful writing.
That's where the computer can help.  The messy paper syndrome is
gone with a simple press of the delete key instead of the eraser
smudge.  Writing can be fun when reduced to the mental activity
that it should be.  This program was designed to make it fun for
kids to learn to write.  Like any computer program, it will take
some familiarization for the child to get used to it.  This
program has been designed to require a minimum number of keys so
that it is writing that is being learned and not how to use the
program. That's where you come in.  It is suggested that you
first learn how to use the program so that you may lead the child
in its use. To do this, simply read these few pages and use the
program for a while so that you know how it works.

WHY A WORD  PROCESSOR FOR KIDS?

Have you ever attended an open house at school where there are
beginning writers?  You probably saw their very best pinned to
the bulletin board.  Obviously with some labor and maybe a few
eraser smudges, a single sheet of lined paper presents a few
simple ideas.  That scene was the inspiration for this program.
Most of us consider writing as an activity that will require
several passes to perfect the way we express thoughts in writing.
A first draft is prepared, marked for improvement and rewritten
for another look.  Sometimes when the communication is very
important, several passes are made and each time there are
improvements. Unfortunately, because of the labor required,
children can not regard writing as this kind of activity. Their
first draft is their last one.  Word processors on a computer
help us to make the rewrites easier.  This one will help the
child begin to regard writing as most of us do, an editing of
previously prepared text.

WORKING WITH FLOPPY DISKS

If you do not have a fixed disk or if you want to create a
personal disk for each child, follow the instructions on HOW TO
CREATE A PERSONAL DISK.  If you prefer to work from a fixed disk,
skip to the instructions on HOW TO WORKING WITH A FIXED DISK.
The important thing is that the stories are saved on the current
default directory.  If this statement confuses you, don't worry,
just follow the instructions printed here.

                             Page 1
HOW TO CREATE A PERSONAL DISK

It is suggested that anyone using the program have a personal
disk. The disk should contain the system, the program, some
examples and those stories created by the person using it.  You
should save the original disk in its original form so that at any
time you can perform the following procedure to make a new disk.
Place a new and unused disk into drive B. In case you have only
one disk drive, you will get instructions as to how to proceed.
Now type:

        FORMAT B:

and then press enter (the big key with the crooked arrow pointing
left).  Now place the program disk into drive A: and type

         COPY A:*.* B:*.*

followed by enter and you have a disk ready to use in drive B.
Remove it from the drive and find a sticky label and write the
name of the person who will use it and the name of the program,
WPK.  Now you are ready to start having fun with it.  Repeat this
process each time you wish to create another disk.  You may want
to do this because the old one got damaged or it has gotten so
full of stories that you want to start another one.  The program
is simpler to use when there are but a few stories on a disk and
the program limits the number that will be allowed. A message
will be relayed to tell when this happens.  Now read along to
find how to get the program started and to learn how to use it.
When you have finished learning yourself, use the new found
knowledge to get the child started.  After a short session you
will agree that it's utter simplicity will allow independent
activity to proceed. Good luck!

HOW TO GET THE PROGRAM STARTED (FLOPPY DISK)

Insert the personal disk, the one with your name and WPK written
on it, into disk drive A: (the one on the left if you have two or
more and the only one if you have one).  Then type

       A:

and then press the enter key.  You should see A>.  Then type

       WPK

then press enter.  The title screen will appear and the title
song will play.  It is fun the first few times but after a while,
you will get tired of it so just press any key to put a stop to
the song and to start the program.

                             Page 2
WORKING WITH A FIXED DISK

Before beginning, make sure that you see C>, which indicates that
you are in DOS and that you have the fixed disk as the default
drive.  Place the distribution disk in drive A and type

        md \WPK

then press enter.  This makes a directory on your C drive which
will contain all of the Word Processing for Kids files.  Now type

        copy A:*.* C:\WPK\*.*

then press enter.  This copies all of the distribution disk files
onto the WPK directory on drive C.  That's all there is to it.

HOW TO GET THE PROGRAM STARTED (FIXED DISK)

At any time from the DOS prompt, type

       cd \wpk

then press enter.  This makes the WPK directory on the C drive
the default directory to contain the saved stories.  Now type

       WPK

then press enter.  This will start the program.  Of course if you
wish to run the no song version, type WPKNS instead.  If you wish
to run the Spanish language version, type WPKSP instead.

THE MENU SCREEN

The MENU screen will appear next and everything you will want to
do can be done by selecting one of the six options listed on the
menu screen.  The following sections address each of the options
presented to you on the menu screen and what can be accomplished
with each of them.  Before we go on though, just a word about the
menu screen itself.  Options are selected with the red thing
which we will call the cursor.  Press the up or down arrow keys
found on the right hand side of the keyboard pointing up or down.
You will see that the cursor moves in the indicated direction.
The space bar will also make the cursor move.  When you have
stopped it on one of the six choices, the choice can be made by
simply pressing the enter key.  All activity is available to you
from the menu.  When you are in an activity and want to get to
the menu, press the escape key, the one with Esc written on it in
the upper left hand part of the keyboard.  The menu will come up
and you can write a new story or print out an old one.  Now lets
go on and see what the options do for you.

                             Page 3
THE WRITE OPTION

We will discuss the other five options later.  Press the up or
down arrow keys (find them on the right of the keyboard?) until
the red cursor stops on WRITE.  Press the enter key.  The WRITE
menu will appear and another decision is in order.  Before we
consider this decision however, press the Esc key found on the
upper left hand side of the keyboard.  That key takes you back to
the MENU.  The Esc key is always used to take you back to the
point from which you came.  This is always the case even when you
are writing a story.  Now go again to the WRITE menu by selecting
that option with the arrow keys and press enter.  On the WRITE
menu you will see two choices, OLD and NEW.  When you choose OLD,
it will mean that you want to add to or change an old story that
you created yesterday or this morning and it isn't finished yet.
When you choose NEW it will mean that you want to start an
entirely new one.  In either case, every story has a name.  You
can have several stories each with its own name.  For a new one,
you will make up a short name and for old ones, you will choose
one from the several you have worked on before.

THE OLD MENU

When the OLD option is selected, the OLD menu will appear.  It
directs you to choose from the many stories you have already
created or at the very first, ones that were supplied for you on
the disk.  The old story can be chosen by pressing the up or down
arrow keys or for that matter by simply pressing the space bar.
When the cursor stops on the name of a story you want to work on,
press the enter key.  Your story will appear on the screen just
as you left it.  If you want to do that now, go ahead.  Just skip
over reading about the NEW menu and go to the section that tells
about how to use the word processor.  If you want to see how the
NEW menu works, just press the Esc key and you will find the menu
screen again.

THE NEW MENU

When you want to start an entirely new story, select NEW. It will
give you a clean sheet to start your work and to enter your
words.  Before you can do that you will want to give your story a
name.  The NEW menu gives you spaces to enter the name of the new
story.  Spell out the name of the story so that it will fit into
the spaces.  It can not be a very long name, just enough for the
blanks provided or even shorter.  When you have done this, just
press enter for your blank sheet to write your story on.  You can
learn how to do this in the following sections.  Again at any
time that you want to back out, just press Esc.  That is if you
do not wish to name a new story but rather go back to the MENU
screen, just press Esc.

                              Page 4
HOW TO WRITE YOUR STORY

When you are writing your story, you will notice that a red
cursor is always somewhere on the screen.  Whenever you press any
of the letters or numbers on the keyboard, then that letter will
appear where the cursor is located and the cursor will move on to
the place where the next letter will be written.  If you have a
new story and nothing is on the screen at all except the cursor,
practice a little bit by entering a few words.  It doesn't matter
much what you write just so you can see what will happen.  Write
a few words on the screen so that you can work through some of
the things that you can do in the following sections.

MOVING THE CURSOR

The arrow keys pointing up, down, right, and left are used so
that you can control where you are writing. Press the arrow keys
and notice that the cursor will move in the direction of the
arrow.  Of course it will not move past the end of your story or
before the beginning, but it will move to any point in your
story.  When you enter any letter or number it will again be
written right where the cursor is located and move on to the
place where the next one will be placed.

THE INSERT KEY

Notice that when you write, you have inserted the new letters
between the old ones that were already there.  This will always
happen when the little message at the bottom of the screen
"INSERT ON" is showing.  Press the insert key and notice that the
message is not showing.  This means that now when you write, it
will not be inserted between the old letters in your story but
will write right over the old ones.  You can have your choice
when you want to insert a new sentence anywhere in your story,
place the cursor where you want to write the new words and just
write it in.  If you want to write over a mistake with the right
letter, just press the insert key until the message is hidden and
type the new letter.  Press the insert key several times to see
that the message switches back and forth from on to not on just
as the insert will or will not be done when you enter your
letters.

THE BACKSPACE KEY

Sometimes you will press a key that you did not intend to press.
This puts the wrong letter into your story.  When that happens,
press the backspace key.  The wrong letter will be erased and the
cursor will be at the place where you were before you hit the
wrong key.


                             Page 5
ANOTHER COLOR

You may want some other color scheme for your story. If you do,
there are four different color combinations for you to choose
from.  Just press the F2 key for the next color set any time you
are writing your story.

ANOTHER SIZE

You may write your story with the large type or smaller type as
you choose.  Simply press the F3 key at any time you wish to see
your story in the other size.

HELP!

You will soon learn what keys you will need to write what you
want where you want it.  Even so, you will not want to keep
reading this paper until you learn how to write your story.
Whenever you want help in remembering, it is right there for you
to see.  Simply press the F1 key.  You will see an explanation of
how to use the cursor key on the first help screen.  Press any
key to get the next help screen and you will see how to use some
of the fancier features of the program.  Any key will get you the
next help screen telling about the insert and delete keys.  You
do not have to look at all of the three screens if you have
already found what you need.  Simply press Esc which will take
you back to where you were before you asked for help or back to
your story.

WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED

You do not have to write the whole story at one time. Of course
you have put a lot of work into it so you will want to save it
for another time.  It is easy. Just press the Esc key.  You will
see the red light on the disk light up showing that your story is
being saved.  You will see the menu again.  You will want to
select QUIT if you are through or WRITE if you want to work on
another story.  If you press QUIT, the session is over and your
story is saved for another day under the name that you gave it
when you started.











                           Page 6
THE LIBRARY MENU

Sometimes you may just want to find out what stories you have
saved.  When you do, you may select the LIBRARY option on the
main menu.  It will simply show you all of the stories you have
saved in your own library of stories.  If you are curious what a
particular story is about, you may select it by placing the
cursor before its name and pressing the enter key.  The cursor
can be moved by pressing the up and down arrow keys or just by
pressing the space bar.  If you do not want to see any of the
stories press the Esc key to take you back to the main menu
again.

THE PRINT MENU

If you want to see your story on paper, you may choose the PRINT
option from the main menu.

THE PRINT SIZE MENU

You need to tell the program whether you want to print your story
in little type font that the printer provides or whether you want
to choose BIG for the print to look like the screen image of your
story.

THE PRINT SELECT MENU

After selecting the size if print, you may select which of your
stories is to be printed.  The selection list will be displayed
and again, selection is made by placing the red cursor before the
name of the story you wish to print.  Do this with the arrow or
the space bar keys and then press enter to select the story.  You
should be sure that the printer is turned on that it is on line.
If it is not, the program will produce a message that the printer
is not listening to the request to print the story.

THE DELETE MENU

When you have some old stories that you are no longer interested
in, they may be removed.  Remember though that they will not be
around any more so do not delete any good stories.  Select the
DELETE option on the main menu and you will see the names of all
of your stories.  Select the one you want to delete by pressing
the up or down arrows or simply the space bar.  The story will
not be automatically deleted from your library right away.
Instead, it will ask you if you are sure just in case you
selected the wrong one.  If you press Esc or select the NO option
with the cursor, no harm done.  Only by selecting YES will the
story be deleted from your library of stories.


                             Page 7
ENDING THE SESSION - QUIT

Writing is fun but we get tired of even fun things sometimes.
When you need a change, go to the main MENU by pressing Esc.  Put
the cursor on the stop sign, the QUIT option and press enter.
Your story is saved for the next time.

A PRACTICE SESSION

One of the old stories on the program disk is called "PRACTICE".
It contains the following: I see the dog. Eye see the dog.  I C
the dog.  I see the dob.  The object of this exercise is to make
the last 3 sentences just like the first one.  This is done by
correcting them by using the insert and the delete functions.
Select the WRITE option from the main menu.  Select the OLD
option from the write menu.  Move the cursor to select PRACTICE
from the OLD menu.  Now you will see the correct and the three
incorrect sentences.  Before you correct them, to see how it all
works, press Esc.  You will then see the main menu with the
cursor on WRITE.  Press enter and you will see the cursor on OLD.
Press enter and you will see the cursor on PRACTICE.  The program
remembers where you were the last time you went to the main menu.
Press enter again to see the practice sentences.  Let us correct
the second sentence by changing Eye to I.  Press the down arrow
to bring the cursor under the E.  Press the delete key three
times to erase the word Eye.  Press the shift key and the letter
I.  Now for the third sentence.  Press the arrow keys until the
cursor is below the C.  Type the word see and you have the word
seeC.  Press the delete key and the third sentence is repaired.
The last sentence needs the letter b in the word dob changed to a
g.  Put the cursor under that letter.  Just to be different this
time, press the Insert key, the one with Ins written on it.  The
message at the bottom of the screen is not there so the insert is
off.  Press the letter g.  When the INSERT ON message does not
show, the letters write over the old ones instead of being
inserted there.  Press the F1 key to get the help screens.  Press
any key to get the second and the third help screens.  Press any
key to get back to the story.  Press the F2 key to change the
screen color.  Press the F3 key to get the small type.  Press F2
and F3 several times to see how color and size can change.  Now
that all four of the sentences are correct, press Esc to save the
corrections.  Select the PRINT option from the main menu and see
the corrections printed.








                            Page 8
USING THE SPANISH VERSION

The Spanish version, "Un Proceso De Palabras Para Ni os", works
almost exactly like the English version except that the menus use
the Spanish language.  Spanish has some characters that are not
in the English alphabet.  These letters are probably not on your
keyboard.  There are two ways to write those letters.  First, you
may use the Alt key and the numeric key pad.  For example, press
the Alt key and while holding it down, press the number 165 on
the key pad.  When you release the Alt key, the special letter
is displayed.  Second, you may have a keyboard that has the
Spanish letters as key tops.  If you do, you  use the DOS KEYB
command.  Before you start the program, enter:

        KEYB sp

and then press enter.  The keyboard will be different.  For
example the key with : and ; on it is now the   key.  Most MSDOS
manuals give a picture of the newly mapped keyboard.  To change
back to the US keyboard, press Control-Alt-F1, that is all three
keys at the same time.  To go back to the Spanish keyboard, press
Control-Alt-F2.



















                        Page 9