On Disk Monthly 62/odm62.zip/GEO2.DOC

Text File | 1991-10-15 | 9KB | 222 lines

^C ** Quick Start **

Geotutor has two modes; Teaching and Quiz-taking.
Teaching mode, (the default) allows you to explore the
continent at your own pace.  Quiz mode tests your
knowledge of the location of countries, their capitals and
monetary units.

^C ** What's in This File **

Using the Program:
  How to use Geotutor if you don't have a mouse, and
  if you do.
Overview:
  A brief look at the menus of Geotutor and what they do.
Learning the Countries:
  How to use Geotutor to learn geography.
Taking a Quiz:
  Help on taking a quiz.
Geotutor II Hot Keys:
  Keystrokes that bypass the menus for speed and ease.

^CUsing The Program

Geotutor supports an intuitive, dual mouse/keyboard
interface that gives mouse users full support, without
tying the hands of those who don't have, or wish to use,
a mouse.

^CIf You DON'T Have a mouse:

Geotutor works as you would expect, with the possible
exception that no menus are active by default.  A Main
Menu appears at the top of the screen, but you will notice
that it has no bounce bar.  To use this menu, pull down
one of its submenus by pressing ALT and the highlighted
letter of the menu name (usually the first letter).  The
submenu will open and a bounce bar will appear.  Use the
arrow keys to move the bounce bar, or slide over to
another submenu, just as you would with any program.  When
the bounce bar rests over what you want to do, press ENTER
to execute or ESCAPE to abort.  Once you have opened a
menu, the whole Main Menu acts just like a normal bounce-
bar style menu until you shut it down by picking something
to do or by pressing ESCAPE.

You may also notice a few features of the menu that are
designed to make life easier for the keyboard user.  When
a submenu is open and you press the first letter of an
option name, the bounce bar will skip down to that option.
This makes it easy to open a menu and do something with
few keystrokes.  You will also see that many options have
hot-key combinations listed in parentheses.  For instance,
when taking a quiz, you may quickly abort that test by
pressing CONTROL (that's what the ^ means) and the letter
"A", without going through the menus at all!

When the main menu is NOT active, and you are NOT taking
an identification type quiz, the map works something like
a menu.  Just press TAB or SHIFT-TAB to move back and
forth through the countries on the map.  The selected
country will be filled with vertical stripes.  When the
desired country is selected, press ENTER to get info on it
or, if taking a quiz, to confirm it as your answer.  You
can also select a country by using the keyboard mouse.
Use the arrow keys to move the mouse cursor around.  When
it lies over the desired country press SPACE to select the
country.

When you are taking an identification test, you will be
asked to pick your answer from a list.  Use TAB/SHIFT-TAB
to move through the list.  Then press ENTER to confirm the
highlighted choice as your answer, or press ESCAPE to
abort the quiz.  If all of the choices will not fit on one
screen, the choice of "More" will be displayed.  Confirm
"More" as if it were an answer and you will see the next
screen of choices.  You can also use PgUp/PgDn to move
between screens.  You can press the first letter of your
answer to jump to it.  If more than one choice has the
same first letter, repeatedly pressing that letter will
move among them.

^CUsing the mouse:
Using Geotutor with a mouse is a bit simpler to explain;
just click on something to highlight it, click again to
confirm.  So to get information on a country (assuming
that you are NOT taking a quiz!) just move the mouse until
the cursor is somewhere inside that country and press the
left mouse button.  The country be filled with vertical
stripes to show that it is highlighted.  Now press the
button to read all about this country.

For mouse users, everything in Geotutor works the same
way.  To pull down a menu, click on its name.  Then, click
on the option you wish to use, and click again to confirm.
Click anywhere not on a menu to close the currently open
menu.  To answer identification questions, click once to
highlight your answer and again to confirm.

The only exceptions to this rule are the "Buttons" that
appear in dialogue boxes.  These buttons have rounded
corners and act exactly like certain keypresses.  For
example, in the pick list for identification questions,
clicking on the "Abort" button will have EXACTLY the same
affect as pressing the ESCAPE key.



^C=== The Menus ===

* File:
   Quit: Exit program

* Quiz:
   Select Quiz: Presents a pick list with the following
   quiz selections.

      Find country (default): You must highlight the
      country named in the lower left corner of the screen
      using the mouse or TAB/SHIFT-TAB, ENTER controls.

      Find country with this capital: You must highlight
      the country with the capital named in the lower left
      corner of the screen.

      Identify country: You must match the country that is
      highlighted on the screen with the correct name in
      the pick list.

      Identify capital: Same as ID country with capital
      names in the pick list.

      Identify currency: Same as ID country with currency
      names in the pick list.

   Take Quiz: Start the quiz selected under the Select
   Quiz item.  The "Times Taken" entry on your score card
   will be incremented.

   Abort Quiz: Quit the quiz in progress.  The questions
   you have answered on this test will be totally
   forgotten, but the score card will record the fact that
   you started the test.

   Show Score: Display the score card.  Geotutor keeps a
   cumulative record of your performance on quizzes.  Each
   time you begin a quiz, this event is recorded, but
   scores are only updated when you complete a quiz.
   Scores may be reset or printed.

 Help:

   Instructions: Displays these instructions on how to
   use GeoTutor.  Press F1 at any time for this
   information.

   About: Displays credits and copyright information.

^C** LEARNING ABOUT THE DIFFERENT COUNTRIES **
First make sure you are in Teaching mode.  If you don't
see the name of a country in the upper-left corner of the
screen just below the main menu, then you are in Quiz
mode.  Press CONTROL-A to abort the quiz.

Select a country using the mouse or TAB/SHIFT-TAB.  Now
click again or press ENTER.  A screen with information on
that country will appear.

^C** TAKING A QUIZ **
To begin a quiz, go to the "Choose Quiz" screen to select
the type of questions you wish to answer.  Geotutor gives
two kinds of quizzes; those that ask you to find a country
and those that ask you to pick the name of the highlighted
country, its capital or its monetary unit.  Then choose
"Take Quiz" to begin the quiz.  At any time, you can abort
the quiz or leave the program with the option of saving
the current quiz.

When taking the first kind of quiz, just highlight a
country using the mouse or TAB/SHIFT-TAB as you do in
Teaching mode, then click again (or press Enter) to
confirm it as your answer.  Geotutor will tell you whether
you were right and blink the correct country.  You can
skip this blinking and go on to the next question by
clicking the mouse or pressing a key.

When taking the second kind of quiz, Geotutor will
highlight a country, ask you a question, and present you
with a pick list from which to choose an answer.
The HIGHLIGHTED COUNTRY is the one with thick vertical
stripes.  Pick from the list the same way you pick
countries; use TAB/SHIFT-TAB and ENTER or click twice on
your choice.
If there are too many answers to fit on one screen, just
select More to go to the next screen, or use PAGE-UP and
PAGE-DOWN to move between screens.  You can also press the
first letter of the answer to quickly jump through the
list.

^C** Scoring **
Geotutor keeps a running score for each test.  When you
view your scores, you will see a chart showing how many
times you have started each test, how many answers have
been right and wrong, and the percentage correct for each
test.  Each time you view your scores, you have the
opportunity to send them to a printer or clear them.

^C ** Keyboard Hot Keys **

Press Alt along with the first letter of a main menu item
to pull down the menu.

Use the following hot-keys to quickly bypass the menus:
(hot-keys are inactive when a menu is open)

           Control-X      Exit Program
           Control-Q      Choose Quiz Type
           Control-T      Take quiz
           Control-A      Abort Quiz
           Control-S      Show Score
           F1             Help