Vocabulary Primer for Windows -- help file

Philosophy

   Learning new vocabulary words can be a tedious business; Vocabulary Primer for Windows tries to take the 'ache' out of learning and practicing new  words. Each lesson (PART01.VOC) contains ten words. You will be given the word, its usage (noun, verb, adjective), its definition, sample sentences, and its various forms.
   After studying the ten words, there are a number of 'games' you can select  from the Learn menu--Falling Definitions, Sinking Ship, Concentration, matching the word with its correct definition, a quiz with help for wrong  answers, Anagrams, Flashcards, and Analogies. At the end of each, you will be given a list of the words that you missed or got wrong so you can review them. The final lesson is a test that can be taken after completing the other lessons.

VOCAB.INI

   VOCAB.INI contains this information: full path to VOCAB.EXE; Sound off (0) or Sound on (-1) <--default; path and sound file for a Wrong Answer; path and sound file for a Right Answer; path and sound file for Excellent Work; path and sound file for Announce Score; path and sound file for Sinking Ship; path and sound file for Sinking Ship (lose). This file must be located in your Windows' directory.

sample VOCAB.INI:
full path to VOCAB.EXE
Sound off (0) or Sound on (-1) <--default
path and sound file for a Wrong Answer
path and sound file for a Right Answer
path and sound file for Excellent Work
path and sound file for Announce Score
path and sound file for Sinking Ship
path and sound file for Sinking Ship (lose)

(To manually recreate VOCAB.INI yourself, use a text only editor. Save as Text Only.)

File / Open
   Brings up a standard 'OPEN' window which will take you directly to the directory where the VOCAB files are located and will list all the .VOC  (in Vocab) or .TST (in Test) files in the directory. Double click on any of the files to load it. You can bypass the File/Open menu by going directly to the activity you'd like to do; if no file has been opened, you will get the OPEN menu without having to do File / Open first. Once a file has been loaded, you are free to do any of the other activities in the program. Each activity will remain with the same vocab file until you go to FILE / OPEN and open a new file.

File / Results
   This will show the number of mistakes you have made for each word in a lesson after any or all the Learning activities. You can save these results to a file called VOCAB.SCR which will overwrite any .SCR file that is already on disk. You will see a list of all work done thus far, words missed in each activity, and your scores. In the registered version, new scores are appended to the end of the .SCR file so you will have a 'running total' of all your work. You will automatically be taken to 'Results' when you attempt to open a new file after working on another file for a while.

File / Run Test
   You can run TEST directly from the program. You can alternate between the two programs. When you exit TEST, VOCAB will receive the focus. TEST will present you with a multiple choice test on fifty words at a time. TEST01 includes words from 01 to 05.
   At the end of the test OR when you quit, you'll see your score and the words you got wrong. You will be given the correct answer after each wrong one.

File / Exit
   The normal way to exit the program; when Shareware screen opens, click Exit. In registered version, exit is immediate; there is no Shareware screen on starting or exiting the program.

Learn / Learn
   You will be shown the vocabulary word, its usage (noun, verb), definition, sample sentences, and forms of the verb. Click the right --> arrow to move on to the next word; click the left <-- arrow to go back to the previous word. EXIT button will exit this part of the program and return you to the main menu.

Learn / Anagrams
   The letters of one of the words will appear at the top of the window scrambled. In the white box below, type in the vocabulary word, thereby unscrambling the letters. Press TAB or ENTER. If your guess is wrong, it will be added to the list of 'guesses' and you can try again by clicking the 'Guess again' button.   If you need a hint, click on the panel containing 'HINT?' and you'll see the definition of the vocab word. When you get the word correctly spelled, click 'Next' for another word. You can quit at any time by pressing 'Exit.'
   Click on "I give up!" if you're frustrated and don't want to continue guessing.

Learn / Definitions
   When the window opens, all ten of the vocabulary words will appear at the top of the screen. One definition appears below. Type in the vocab word that matches the definition. The word must be typed in exactly as it appears at the top; therefore, 'analyze' and 'Analyze' are NOT the same. Do not use capital letters. Press ENTER or TAB when finished typing the word.
   You'll be told whether you're correct or not; if wrong, you'll be given the correct answer. Press NEXT to continue with a new definition. If sound has been turned on (please refer to Options menu), you'll be greeted with a message for each answer.
   After you've completed all ten words, you'll be given a list of words you got wrong. Press Ok and you'll return to the Main Menu. The results from the 'score' window will be kept in memory and each new activity's scores will be added to this information. At any time you can press File / Results to see a list of all the words you've missed in the various activities and the number of times you missed each. You can save this information, by selecting Save, to a file called VOCAB.SCR (a text file you can view later); If you select Ok from this window, the information will be discarded.

Learn / Floating Defs
   Click "Begin" and a definition will appear at the top of the screen and begin falling to the red line below. As quickly as you can, type in the vocabulary word that goes with the definition. You must enter the word BEFORE the definition reaches the red line. If it touches the line before you complete the word, you lose, an appropriate sound will be played, and the correct word will appear, along with the definition. If the word you typed is correct (press TAB or ENTER), an appropriate sound is played and you'll be told if you're correct. Click Next to continue.
   At the bottom of the window is a number with a down arrow by it. You can vary the speed of the falling definition by changing this number. Smaller numbers will increase the speed while larger numbers will slow the descent. To change the number, click the down arrow to the right, scroll until the number you want appears, and click on the number. The speed will change with the next word.

Learn / Flashcards
   When the window opens, clicking on 'Flash' will flash one of the vocabulary words somewhere in the box at the top of the screen. Type in the word and press ENTER or TAB; you'll be told if you're correct or not. Click 'Flash' again. You can change the timing by clicking the down arrow by the number '1' in the lower right; lower numbers mean less time to see the word; higher numbers, more time. When the last word has been flashed, you can continue working since the words will begin all over again. Click 'Exit' when you're finished with this activity.

Learn / Sinking Ship
   This is a variation of Hangman. One vocabulary word appears in the middle; however, each letter has been replaced with a question mark (abyss appears as ?????). At the bottom of the screen are all the letters of the alphabet. You have eight guesses to determine the correct vocabulary word. Simple click on a letter to select it for a guess. If the letter is contained in the word, the '?' will change to the letter. If your guess is wrong, a gurgling sound is played and the ship sinks a little bit. After the eighth wrong guess, the ship sinks completely and you'll be given the correct answer. Wait a few seconds and the game will automatically begin again with a new word.
   At any time, if you need a hint, click the panel at the bottom of the screen and the definition of the word will appear. If you click the panel again, the definition will disappear, replaced with the word 'HINT?'   You can exit the game at any time by clicking on Exit. Before returning to the main menu, you'll see your score and the words missed.

Learn / Concentration
   When the Window opens, the vocabulary words and definitions have been hidden behind panels. Click on one panel and whatever is behind it will be revealed. Click on a second panel to reveal its contents. If the panels contain a matching vocabulary word and definition, the panels disappear from the playing area and you can go on to guessing the next set. If the pairs don't match, take as much time as you need to study them; when you're ready to move on, click 'Continue' at the bottom of the screen. The two panels revert to hiding the contents and you can take two more guesses. You can quit the program at any time and you'll be told how many pairs of guesses you got wrong. If you get frustrated, click 'I give up!' and the remaining panels will be revealed.

Learn / Quiz
   You'll be given a sample sentence missing a word with four possible choices. Click the word you think is correct and then click Ok at the bottom of the screen. If your answer is wrong, some further information for the correct answer is given below. Click Next to go on to the next sentence. You'll be given your score at the end.

Learn / Whack An Icon (a cheap attempt at a learning activity)   Learn / Whack A Word
   When the window opens, an icon will be jumping around the screen. Hit the icon with your mouse by clicking the left button. If you succeed in 'whacking' the icon, the definition of the vocabulary word will appear. You can then study the word and its definition. Change the speed of the icon by clicking the down arrow by the number '10' -- smaller numbers make it jump faster; larger slower. Click Exit to exit the whacking section. Whack a word uses the quiz sentences and answers. Click on the jumping correct answer in this one.

Test
   This is a ten sentence test on the words in the lesson. You'll be given a sentence and four possible answers. Click on the correct answer and then click Ok. You will not be told if your answer is correct or not and the correct anser will appear if RED if you're wrong. At the end of the test, you'll see your score and the words that were missed in this round.

Sound
   Here you can turn sound On or Off. For sound to be on, you must have installed either the speaker driver written by Microsoft or have a sound card installed. By default, sound is turned ON. Click the Off button to cancel sound in the program.
   You can change any or all of the six .WAV files supplied with the program. At the end of the full path and name of each wave file is a 3-D open folder. Click on the folder, get to the drive and directory where you have your .WAV files installed, and select the one you want to use for each function. The new information will be saved in VOCAB.INI when you click Save; they'll be used from that point on each time you start the program.

About
   This will give you some basic information about Vocabulary for Windows and Windows set-up, DOS version, Windows version, memory reported by Windows, and the free percent of the three major Windows' resources. Click OK to return to the main menu.
   For a list of acknowledgments, click on the picture; a second click will make them 'disappear.'

Acknowledgments
  Warriner's vocabulary series; Webster's Collegiate Dictionary; American Heritage Dictionary; Microsoft Bookshelf '93

File / Export To File
   You can export to a file the following information: a list of the vocabulary words, each word and its usage, definition, sample sentences, forms. The information is exported as a text file and will be saved in your VOCAB directory with the file extension .TXT; PART01.VOC will be saved as PART01.TXT.   After exporting, you can the import the text file into a word processor, format it the way you want it, and print it.

Toolbar / Icons
   The toolbar located at the top of the screen gives you quick access to all sections of the Learn menu. The buttons correspond to the same activities -- Anagrams, Concentration, Definitions, Falling Definitions, FlashCards, and Sinking Ship. Simply click on the button instead of using the menu. (VOCABED and TESTED have additional buttons for File/Open, File/New, and File/Edit.)   The speaker on the right side is a quick way of turning sound on and off. When the program first loads, it reads the value of SoundOn in VOCAB.INI; if you've turned sound off, the speaker will be grayed. Clicking on the button will reverse the action. If sound is on, clicking on the speaker will turn it off.

PopUp Menu
   When you have the main program on screen, either VOCAB or TEST, clicking the right mouse button anywhere on a free space within the window will give you the Learn menu at the point where you clicked the mouse.

Quickeys
Use these shortcuts instead of the menu:
File / Open  ^O
File / New  ^N   (vocabed, tested)
File / Edit ^E  (vocabed, tested)
Export to Notepad  ^X
Learn / Anagrams  ^A
Learn / Analogies  ^G
Learn / Concentration  ^C
Learn / Definitions  ^D
Learn / FlashCards  ^F
Learn / Floating Defs  ^T
Learn / Quiz  ^Q
Learn / Sinking Ship  ^S
Learn / Whack an Ans  ^W
Learn / Whack an Icon  ^I

Corrupted Voc File
   If the program gives you an error when loading a .VOC or .TST file, chances are pretty good that a change has been made to the file. If you're going to edit the file yourself, you MUST be extremely cautious. If even one of the quote marks is erased or an extra one is added, the file will no longer load correctly. File must be saved as TEXT ONLY.
   If you suspect that a file has gone bad, return to DOS; put the original disk in A: or B:. You can use the EXPAND program that is most likely in your Windows directory to expand the good file from the original disk and replace the bad file.   For example, if PART04.VOC no longer loads correctly, do the following: return to DOS; put the original disk in A: or B:; make sure you're in the Windows directory; type: EXPAND A:PART04.VO_ C:\WINDOWS\VOCAB\PART04.VOC (assumes you accepted the VOCAB directory under Windows during installation)

VOCDOCS.EXE
   The file VOCDOCS.EXE contains formatted WinWord 6.0 .DOC files for each of the included vocabulary and test files. The file was not copied to your VOCAB directory. If you want to use them, you must extract them yourself from the DOS prompt. Here's how:
  put the original disk in A: or B: (whichever is appropriate)
  from the DOS prompt, type cd \windows\vocab and press ENTER (assumes you're currently in the drive with the Windows directory)
  from the DOS prompt, type A:VOCDOCS or B:VOCDOCS and press the ENTER key;
the files will automatically extract so you can use them in WinWord 6.0

WORDS

PART01.VOC
abhor, abrasive, accessible, acclaim, acknowledge, adage, addicted, adversary, advocate, affected

PART02.VOC
agility, agitation, alleged, allude, aloof, alteration, amends, amity, animated, annals

PART03.TXT
apathy, apparition, applicable, arrogance, assassinate, assess, asterisk, attribute, autonomous, belligerent

PART04.VOC
benefactor, benign, bibliography, bilingual, biographical, bisect, bizarre, bland, brusque, buoyant

PART05.VOC
cadence, carnivorous, cascade, censure, chivalry, chronic, chronological, circumscribe, citadel, clamber

Registered version ONLY:

PART06.VOC
collaborate, collateral, comply, condolence, congeniality, congruent, connive, conspiracy, contaminate, contemptible

PART07.VOC
cope, credentials, culmination, cumbersome, cynic, deficient, defile, defraud, demoralize, denote

PART08.VOC
denounce, depict, depreciate, devout, dexterity, diligent, discreet, discrepancy, discriminate, disperse

PART09.VOC
disrupt, dissuade, docile, drastic, dubious, dwindle, elapse, elude, dupe, emerge

PART10.VOC
emissary, encore, entice, epic, equanimity, eradicate, erode, evict, exasperate, expend

PART11.VOC
exploit, extremity, extrovert, fallacy, fatality, fauna, fervent, figurative, flora, fluent

PART12.VOC
formidable, fraternize, frenzied, frivolous, functional, galvanize, garb, gaudy, genealogy, genial

PART13.VOC
granular, grueling, haphazard, havoc, hectic, herald, hereditary, hideous, hindrance, hoax

PART14.VOC
homage, horde, humanitarian, humanoid, hygiene, ideally, illiterate, immaterial, immunity, impertinent

PART15.VOC
inaudible, incalculable, incandescent, incessant, incompatible, incomprehensible, inconspicuous, inconvenient, indivisible, induction

PART16.VOC
infamous, infest, inflammation, influential, initiative, instigate, intact, intensive, intervention, intimate

PART17.VOC
intimidate, intonation, inventory, inverse, invigorating, irksome, irony, irreducible, irretrievable, jaunt

PART18.VOC
jovial, jurisdiction, kindle, landlocked, larceny, lavish, lax, lethal, liability, maintenance

PART19.VOC
malicious, manifest, manipulate, meander, medieval, meditate, medley, metamorphosis, metaphor, mimic

PART20.VOC
misconstrue, moor, morbid, murky, nauseate, necessitate, negotiate, nimble, nominal, nonchalant

PART21.VOC
obsession, obtuse, omen, ominous, opaque, oppressive, optimistic, oratory, orthodox, ostracize

PART22.VOC
ovation, palatial, panorama, paramount, passive, patio, perceptible, perennial, perspective, pessimistic

PART23.VOC
plaintiff, plaintive, poach, ponderous, potency, potion, precedent, predatory, premature, preposterous

PART24.VOC
priority, promenade, prominent, prospective, prowess, pungent, quest, quorum, quota, rapture

PART25.VOC
raucous, ravenous, recede, recession, reconcile, relevant, reluctant, repast, replenish, replica
