Using the extra features in the Classroom Edition

The Classroom Edition was created for High Schools, Universities and other educational institutions. It allows any number of students to use Japanese WordMage on a single computer and enjoy all the benefits that users of the Single User Edition currently enjoy. This particularly applies to comprehensive tailoring of exercises to each individual student - one of the most powerful features of Japanese WordMage.

Each student who wishes to use the software can have their own disk on which to store their dictionaries, text files and other information. This disk can be a high density floppy disk (11,000 word capacity) or any of the removable high-capacity cartridges now available such as those used with the Zip drive. Alternatively, this custom student information can be stored on the computers hard disk (though this is less portable).

Installation
The Classroom Edition of Japanese WordMage should be installed on a hard disk as described in the installation instructions. Once you have installed the software and enter your registration information. Do the same for the other machine installations, making sure you use unique registration information (depending on how many licenses you purchased) for each installation.

Once you have installed JWM on a machine, you need to select a teacher password between 6 and 15 characters in length. This password will provide you with teacher access privileges, including access to all dictionaries on the hard disk. If you are installing JWM on a number of machines, it is easier to use the same teacher password on all of them. When you have decided on a password, launch JWM and the Set teacher password dialog shown in Figure 1 will be displayed.

Figure 1. The Set teacher password dialog

If you ever wish to change your password, launch JWM and enter your existing teacher password (if you have forgotten your password, you must re-install the application program and then enter a new password). You can then select Set teacher password... from the Special menu.

Schools should nominate one or two site officers through which user support services will be provided. Nomination of site officers knowledgeable in the workings of Japanese WordMage means users can be provided with immediate information about any problems they may have in operating the software. Most simple questions can then be dealt with quickly and efficiently. Under no circumstances will Lava Software provide support for individual student users of a Classroom Edition installation.

Access privileges
Teachers and students have different access privileges to Japanese WordMage. The access privilege of a user is determined by their entry in the Login screen, which is shown in Figure 2. This screen is the first one displayed when the Classroom Edition is launched.

Figure 2. The Login dialog

If you are a student, you simply need to insert your JWM user floppy disk (if you store your information on floppy disk, rather than on the computers hard disk) and press the Student button. Then navigate to your user.inf file and select it. Japanese WordMage will then read your exercise information from the disk and continue.

Setting up a new user
The Classroom Edition includes an additional folder called jwmuser. This folder contains all the files that each individual student user requires, except for institution specific dictionaries which should be placed in the Dict folder within the jwmuser folder. If you have supplementary text files, these should be placed inside the jwmuser folder itself.

You will probably also wish to set up the default preferences for students, such as which dictionaries are included in the Flashcard dictionary list. To do this, run JWM, press the Student when you login and then select the user.inf file in the jwmuser folder (this folder is inside the main JWM folder). Any changes you make to the preferences will then be stored in this user.inf file.

When setting up the 'Reference dictionary list' and 'Kana-to-Kanji dictionary list' preferences for your students, you will probably want to make sure the checkboxes titled, Use list on Teacher's hard disk are checked (this is the default setting). This will ensure that students benefit from fast reference dictionary searches and fast Kanji input.

The jwmuser folder should now contain the core set of materials which any new user of the Classroom Edition will receive from you.

Once you have set up this core set of materials, you can either copy the jwmuser folder to a new location and then rename the copy to the name of the student (to identify its new owner), or select Create student floppy disk... from the Special menu (to create a unique floppy disk for the student instead). Either way, a folder will be created which contains the users own unique materials. If you have a class of users, each individual user's folder can be stored together in a common area on the hard disk, or you can produce individual floppy disks for each student. Your schools own needs will determine which path you choose.

If you choose to simply copy the jwmuser folder, you will need to select Set student login name... from the Special menu (after copying and naming the folder) to transfer the user's name into the correct user.inf file (this file is stored inside the jwmuser folder and contains the student's preferences). The dialog shown in Figure 3 will then be displayed.

Figure 3. The The Log user dialog

Now type in the student's name, and press the Select "user.inf" file button to select their user.inf file. The user name will be transferred to this file and an alert will pop up to indicate this. If there is any problem, an appropriate alert will be displayed. The students name is actually stored inside the user.inf application program (this program can be run on a Macintosh to show the user preferences stored inside it) and is logged whenever they use JWM.

Getting user information
user.inf is a Macintosh application program which displays some basic user preferences information. Included is the name of the student, weekly reset day and the user and weekly timers. Various other user information is also stored within this application program such as Known Kanji and the names of all files in the students dictionary lists. An example of the User information dialog is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 The User information dialog

To dismiss the dialog, press OK.

Other user specific information is stored within the dictionary files in the students jwmuser folder. To protect this valuable information, students need to perform backups periodically like any other user when alerted by Japanese WordMage to do so.