WORD PROCESSING FOR KIDS We developed "WORD PROCESSING FOR KIDS" because we feel that more than any other kind of program, a word processor can help children learn to communicate through the written word. While word processors developed for adults have the features required for professional writing, they are not suited to children. They are much too complex. Our major design goal was simplicity. At the same time, we wanted to serve the particular 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 communication. Everyone who has seen the program, including the children who have tested it, has been enthusiastic about it. It can be used by very young children with a brief training period because it uses only a few keys. It uses the large type font typically taught in school rooms today and so will be familiar to most children. We would like to make this program available to as many children as possible. Therefore, we are making it available to you through the freeware method. 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 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 for us, we will make subsequent efforts available in the same freely distributed way. If you can't afford the ten spot or just want to use it without paying, that's OK. Just make some copies and give them to some friends. The more people that get it, the more opportunities there will be for people to support this method of distribution. 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. We can not promise an answer, because, frankly, we do not know what we are getting into. We developed it in our free time and as such have at least a 40 hour a week commitment. Please drop a ten spot, a $10 check, or money order to: Sidney D. Nolte 13858 Peyton Drive Dallas, Texas 75240 WORD PROCESSING FOR KIDS TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION FOR THE PARENTS OR TEACHER.......................2 WHY A WORD PROCESSOR FOR KIDS?................................2 HOW TO CREATE A PERSONAL DISK.................................2 HOW TO GET THE PROGRAM STARTED................................3 THE MENU SCREEN...............................................3 THE WRITE OPTION..............................................4 THE OLD MENU.................................................4 THE NEW MENU.................................................5 HOW TO WRITE YOUR STORY.......................................5 MOVING THE CURSOR............................................5 THE INSERT KEY...............................................5 ANOTHER COLOR................................................6 ANOTHER SIZE.................................................6 HELP!........................................................6 WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED........................................6 THE LIBRARY MENU..............................................6 THE PRINT MENU................................................7 THE DELETE MENU...............................................7 ENDING THE SESSION - QUIT.....................................7 A PRACTICE SESSION............................................8 AN IMPORTANT NOTE.............................................9 page 1 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. Two skills are needed 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. Often, the motor skills are not sufficiently advanced for successful writing. That's where the computer can help. Kids can avoid the messy paper syndrome and replace the eraser smudge with a simple press of the delete or backspace key. 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 awhile for the child to get used to it. This program has been designed to require a minimum number of keys, so that the child spends time learning to write, instead of learning to use the program. That's where you come in. You should first learn how to use the program so that you can 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 will probably see 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 our 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 do not like this kind of activity. Their first draft is usually 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. 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. First place the system disk, (the one that came with the computer marked DOS) into drive A. The DOS version number should be 2.0 or greater because the program uses some of the features not present in DOS 1.0. Place a new and unused disk into drive B. If you page 2 have only one disk drive, the computer will instruct you as to how to proceed. Now type: FORMAT B:/S and then press Enter (the big key with the crooked arrow pointing left). After some whirring and purring, everything will calm down. When you see "A>" appear on the screen, insert this program disk into drive A: and type COPY WPK.* B: and again press Enter. Then type COPY *.WPK B: followed by Enter. Now you have a disk ready to use in drive B. Remove it from the drive, 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 want to create another disk. You may want to do this because the old one has become damaged or is so full of stories that you want to start another one. The program is easier to use when there are only a few stories on a disk, and the program limits the number that are allowed. You'll receive a message when this happens. This documentation will help you get the program started and learn how to use it. When you have finished learning the program, you can then get the child started. After a short session, you will see that the program is so simple that it allows the child to continue independently. Good luck! HOW TO GET THE PROGRAM STARTED Insert the personal disk (the one with your name and WPK written on it) into disk drive A. Then type WPK then press Enter (the big key with the crooked arrow pointing left). The title screen will appear, and the title song will play. It is fun the first few times, but you will become tired of it after a while--so just press any key to put a stop to the song and to start the program. 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. But before we go on, just a word about the menu screen itself. The options are page 3 selected with the red thing that we will call the cursor. Press the up or down arrow keys found on the right hand side of the keyboard (they point up and down). You will see the cursor move in the indicated direction. The space bar will also make the cursor move. When you have stopped the cursor on one of the six choices, the choice can be made by simply pressing the Enter key (the key with the crooked arrow pointing left). All the important 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). The menu will come up, and you can write a new story or print out an old one. Now let's go on and see what the options do for you. 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 cursor stops on WRITE. Press the Enter key. The WRITE menu appears and you're presented with another choice. Before we consider this choice, press the Esc key. 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 means that you want to add to or change an old story. Perhaps you created it yesterday or this morning, and it isn't finished yet. When you choose NEW, it means that you want to start an entirely new story. It is important in either case that you know that every story has a name. You can have several stories each with its own name. For a new one, you will make up a very 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 when you first use the program, the ones that were supplied on the disk. The old story can be chosen by pressing the up or down arrow keys or 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. page 4 THE NEW MENU When you want to start an entirely new story, select NEW. It will give you a completely 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 would rather go back to the MENU screen--just press Esc. HOW TO WRITE YOUR STORY When you write 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, that letter will appear where the cursor is located and the cursor will move on to the next place. This is true whether you are working on an old story or a new one. If you are working on a new story, and nothing is on the screen at all except the cursor, you can practice a little bit by entering a few words. It doesn't matter what you write--you just need to see what will happen. Write a few words on the screen so that you will be able to work through some of the exercises in the following sections. MOVING THE CURSOR The arrow keys that point up, down, right, and left let you control where you will write. Press the arrow keys and you will notice that the cursor will move in the direction of the arrow. 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 at the cursor's location and move on to where the next letter 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 (usually labeled "Ins"), and you can see 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 over the old ones. You can 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 off--just as the insert will be on or off when you enter your letters. 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 can write your story with the large type or small type. Simply press the F3 key at any time you want to see your story in the other size. HELP! You will soon learn which keys you will need to write what you want where you want it. Even so, you should not have to reread this documentation each time you want to write a story. Whenever you need help in remembering what you should do, 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 for the next help screen and you will see how to use some of the fancier features of the program. Any key will bring up 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. After having put a lot of work into your story, you will want to save it so you can finish it at another time. Just press the Esc key. You will see the red light on the disk drive light up showing that your story is being saved. Next, you will see the menu again. You will want to select STOP if you are finished or WRITE if you want to work on another story. If you press stop, the session is over, and your story is saved for another day under the name that you gave it when you started. THE LIBRARY MENU Sometimes you may just want to find out what stories you have saved. When you do, you can select the LIBRARY option on the main menu. It will show you all of the stories that you have saved in your own library of stories. If you are curious and want to find out what a particular story is about, you can select it by placing the cursor in front of 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 go back to the main menu again. page 6 THE PRINT MENU If you want to see your story on paper, you can choose the PRINT option from the main menu. Again, any story can be selected with the up or down arrow keys or the space bar. When you have the cursor placed in front of the story you want to see printed, press the Enter key, and it will be printed for you. If your story uses the big letters, the story will be printed with the big letters. If your story uses the smaller letters, the printer will show the smaller type. THE DELETE MENU When you have some old stories that you are no longer interested in, you can remove them. Remember though that they will not be around any more, so do not delete any stories you may need again. 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 press the space bar. The story will not be 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 will be done. Only by selecting YES will the story be deleted from your library of stories. 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. If you were in 80-column mode before you ran WPK, place your DOS disk that contains the file MODE.COM in drive A and enter the command MODE CO80 to return your computer to 80 columns. page 7 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. i see the dog. The object of this exercise is to make the last 4 sentences just like the first one. This is done by correcting them--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, press Esc to see how it all works. 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's 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. In the fourth sentence, we need to change the letter b in the word dob 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 we know 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. Let's correct the last sentence using the backspace key. Move the cursor to the blank space in front of the "i". Press the Backspace key once. Now press Shift and I. 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 five of the sentences are correct, press Esc to save the corrections. Select the PRINT option from the main menu and you can print the corrections. page 8 ********************************************************************** IMPORTANT NOTE ********************************************************************** A very few users with some EGA or VGA boards may experience incorrect colors or other incorrect displays. If this is the case, the user should manually switch the board to its CGA mode. In most cases, this is done with the software supplied with the graphics adapter card, although some cards use a DIP switch. ********************************************************************** page 9