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Help contents (A copy of the help file provided on the CD)
Starting the Book
Desktop shortcut
Browser
Keyboard
Hyperlinks
Music
Search
Viewing enlarged Images
System requirements
Operating system
Netscape Users
JavaScript
Display fonts
Screen Resolution and Colour depth
Image display quality
Page Transitions
Music
Plug-ins
Internet Links
Feedback
Updates
Copyright
How to navigate the book.
Starting
Interactive Watercolour should run automatically when inserted into your CD ROM drive provided that Auto Start from CD has not been disabled.
If the CD fails to run when inserted:
From the Windows® Start Button select Start: Run: and type d:\index.htm (where d: is
your CD ROM Drive)
The Book can also be started by opening 'My Computer' from either the desk top or the start menu and double click on the Interactive Watercolour CD Icon.
To make CDs play automatically when inserted in the CD
drive:
Open control panel by selecting 'Settings' from the
Windows® start button,
Double click on the 'System' icon to open System
Properties dialog box,
Select the Device Manager tab,
Click the plus sign next to CD-ROM, right-click the device
you want to use, and then click Properties.
Click the Settings tab,
Select the 'Auto insert notification' check box and click
'OK'.
Desktop shortcut
To place a shortcut to the CD on the desktop:
Open My Computer from the start menu or the desktop.
Right click on the Interactive Watercolour Icon showing on your CD ROM drive.
This will open a menu. Select ' Explore' from the menu.
This will open up Windows Explorer.
Search for the file 'index.htm'.
Right click on the index.htm file and select Send to - Desktop (create
shortcut).
An icon will be placed on the desktop.
The icon name can be changed by right clicking on the icon and choosing
'rename'.
Browser
For general help on operating the Browser, see the Browser help file. (Press F1 key while in Internet Explorer)
The Internet Explorer browser toolbars can be closed to maximise the book viewing area
by pressing the F11 key.
Pressing F11 again will restore normal Browser toolbars.
Note: Interactive Watercolour requires Internet Explorer
version 4 or later. See section under Operating Systems
for more help.
Browser 'Back' and 'Forward' buttons operate normally as do Page Up, Page down, Home and End keys.
History feature operates as it does for internet web pages. However, if a visited book
page is selected from the history
list, it will load without the top navigation bar.
The book can be added to the Browser 'Favourites' in the normal way.
The easiest way to navigate the book is by using a mouse on
the hyperlinks.
Keyboard
Keyboard controls operate pages and hyperlinks as normal in the browser:-
'Home' key takes you to the top of the page.
'End' key takes you to the bottom of the page.
'Tab' Key sequentially selects each hyperlink on the page moving forwards.
'Shift + Tab' selects each hyperlink on the page moving backwards
'Enter' Operates the selected hyperlink.
'Alt + Right Arrow' Next page (If previously visited)
'Alt + Left Arrow' or 'Backspace' Previous page (If
previously visited)
'Page Up' does just that.
'Page Down' does just that.
'Backspace' goes back in the hyperlink history.
'Spacebar' Scrolls down the page quickly.
'F1' Opens Internet Explorer Help.
'F5' Refreshes the current page.
'F11' Maximises the browser window and closes tool bars. Pressing F11
again will restore normal Browser toolbars.
'Up and Down arrows' scroll up and down the current page.
'Right & Left arrows' scroll left and right if the page does not fit in
the window.
'A to Z letter keys' can be used in the Glossary to jump to the relevant
section.
More help about keyboard controls can be found in Internet Explorer help under 'Accessibility'
Hyperlinks
The top navigation bar provides access to index pages of the main sections of the book.
There are also a navigation
links at the foot of each page providing all the links that
are available from the top navigation bar.
Top Navigation Bar
If the top navigation bar is lost it can be restored by clicking the 'Restart' link on the navigation links at the bottom of any page. The top navigation bar can also be restored by closing and re-opening the book.
Some pages such as those formatted for printing, magnified images, search facility and this help file open in a new window and do not have the top navigation bar. These windows can be closed without closing the book.
Additionally, if you want to have more than one page open at once, any page in the book can be opened in a new window by right clicking on the hyperlink pointing to the page and choosing 'open in a new window' from the pop up menu.
Each section of the book has its own menu with links so that you can choose the page that you want to visit.
Main section pages have picture links which change to grey scale when the mouse passes over the picture.
Click on the picture to go to the selected section of the book.
On sequential pages, left and right pointers access the previous or next page. The square
marked 'C' takes you to the contents page for that section or the next contents page
higher in order. The right arrow on the last page in a section will take you
back to the first or index page of that section.
Many pages are longer than can be seen on the screen. The size of the browser vertical scroll bars will indicate the amount of content.
Some pages have 'in page' navigation arrows for moving up or down the page:
These take you to a chosen location or to the next step or enlarged painting
detail in a doodle or painting.
Paintings and doodles which spread across more than one page have page navigation bars at the bottom which can be used to jump to a specific step. 'P' indicates the Preparation page and 'R' indicates the Review page. Numbers are used to indicate a step number.
All text hyperlinks are coloured bright blue and change to underlined red when the mouse hovers over them. If a new term is used a text link will take you to the section in the glossary which will give a more detailed explanation of the term. Text links are also used when there is other information that is related to the subject.
The contents page available from the top navigation bar or the links at the foot of each page provides links to all the key pages in the book.
The glossary has icon links:
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See a picture in a child window |
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Go to a section of the book with more information on the term |
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Go to an in depth article |
Viewing enlarged Images
If an image has a bright blue border you can click it to get an enlargement in a new window. The book position is maintained and you can switch between the opened image and the book on the Windows taskbar. Once clicked the border will change to purple (visited hyperlink). New windows open without the top menu bar and can be closed without closing the book.
Internet Explorer 6 has a zoom facility which reduces image size to fit the window. A zoom tool (shown below) appears when the mouse hovers over the image. Clicking the tool will expand the image to its full size.
Internet Explorer 6
Zoom tool.
To display images at their full size automatically, the zoom tool has to be
disabled:
In Internet Explorer menu bar, Select 'Tools', 'Internet Options'. In the dialog
box that opens (shown below), select the 'Advanced' tab and scroll down to
'Multimedia' uncheck the box 'Enable automatic image resizing'.
Page Transitions
The book uses page transitions to provide a dissolving or other transient effect when switching between main sections of the book. They are also used between pages in the book on some of the tutorials in the In depth section. Page transitions can be switched off giving faster access between pages if you prefer not to have them. To turn off page transitions in Internet Explorer select 'Tools', 'Internet Options' In the dialog box that opens (shown below), select the 'Advanced' tab and scroll down to 'Browsing' uncheck the box 'Enable page transitions'.
Playing background Music
Midi is used to provide background music if required. The music can be turned on by
clicking the 
icon and off by
clicking the 
icon on the
top menu bar. The song can be changed by clicking on the
links.
Search facilities
The search facilities can be used to find words or phrases in the book. The
depth of the search can be selected so that the time to complete a search can be
minimised. The speed of your CD ROM Drive will affect the time required to
complete a search. The categories of search are:
Preface, Introduction and Basics sections;
Doodles;
Tutorials (in depth) and resources;
Paintings;
All sections.
The search window can be left open, in the background for immediate access, without affecting use of the book.
Search results are given by page title and clicking on a title will load the page into a new browser window. Pages loaded in this way do not contain the top navigation bar although navigation to other pages and sections in the book is available through links on the page
The search is not case sensitive and also finds a text string inside another word so if you put in 'colour' it will also find occurrences of 'watercolour'. If you want to limit your search to complete words only, put a space in front and behind the word entered in the search box. Wildcards don't work in the search facility.
Printing
The doodles and paintings sections have additional pages which are formatted specifically for printing on A4 format paper so that they can be taken to your painting area. The pages will print in other paper formats though text may become separated from the picture.
Printing pages open in a new window and do not have a top navigation bar or page hyperlinks. Pages without the top navigation bar can be closed without closing the book.
A printer icon
appears on the doodle and painting page or on the introductory preparation page.
Some doodles and paintings have options that enable you to choose which parts you would
like to print.
The pages are arranged to be printed with the printer in portrait mode.
The printer page margins should be set to 19mm or less, A4 and portrait mode. To do this in Internet Explorer, from the file menu choose 'Page Setup' and adjust the settings in the dialog box shown below.
Depending on the paper format and the printer being used, It may be necessary to adjust the page margins to ensure components making up a page do not become separated. Use the print preview in Internet Explorer 6 to check how your combination of printer and paper will be printed. (Select 'print preview' from the file menu of Internet Explorer). Make any necessary adjustments using the page margin controls.
The pages should print in both A4 and Letter format though some text relating to a picture may overlap to the next page.
Drawings from the resources section are also arranged for printing in portrait mode.
Any of the magnified images of doodles and paintings loaded into new windows can be printed. Some will need to be set to landscape mode on the Page Setup dialogue to ensure that the whole picture is printed. Select print preview from the file menu of Internet Explorer. Use 'Print Preview' from Internet Explorer's 'file' menu to check how the page will be printed.
Additionally In Internet Explorer 6, when the mouse is passed over any image on a web page (a page in the book), a small control panel, the image toolbar, (shown below) pops up which allows saving or printing of any individual image. The image toolbar can be turned off in Internet Explorer by opening Tools - Internet Options - Advanced and deselecting 'Enable Image Toolbar' in the Multimedia section.
Conventions used.
Book format
Each Page has a unique title identified as: Section: Subsection: Page, e.g.
Doodles: Soft Edged Rocks: Wet in Wet
Where a topic has more than one page a number will follow the title on the first and subsequent pages of the topic: e.g.
Basics: Techniques: Blotting 1:
Where a page has multiple topics topic headings are shown in dark Blue: e.g.
Headings Quality
Operating controls: are given in green text
Tips: are given in brown text
Captions: are in maroon text
Colour Mixes
Mixes of colours use the '+' sign.
Colour mixes are stated dominant colour first: e.g.
French Ultramarine + Light Red will be a hue to the blue side; Light Red + French
Ultramarine will be a hue to the red side.
French Ultramarine + Cadmium Yellow Pale will be a blue-green; Cadmium Yellow Pale +
French Ultramarine will be a yellow-green.
Installation & Set-up.
System Requirements
Interactive Watercolour will operate on any Pentium® Processor or equivalent operating Microsoft Windows®. The book runs directly from the CD and the speed of loading will depend on the speed of the CD Drive. The minimum speed is 10 x but 20 x or above is recommended.
Interactive Watercolour does not need any setting up and no files are copied to your hard drive. An internet connection may be required if your browser does not have the Plug-ins needed to display movie and video files. However, you should find that installing Internet Explorer from the Interactive watercolour disc installs the plug-ins required for the book.
Operating Systems
The book is optimised for operating under Microsoft® Windows® 95 or 98 and requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer version 4 or later.
Certain features of Interactive Watercolour will not work in Netscape Navigator® or other browsers.
If you don't have Internet Explorer installed on your machine it can be installed from your Windows® CD. Additionally, a copy of Internet Explorer 6 is provided on the Interactive Watercolour CD in the 'ie' folder. Internet Explorer 6 requires Windows® 98 or later.
If you want to Install Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6, exit from Internet Explorer and from the Windows® Start Button select Start: Run: and type d:\ie.bat (where d: is your CD ROM Drive). Follow the on screen instructions (Internet Explorer 6 requires Windows® 98 or later).
Windows® 95 users can Install Internet Explorer 5.5 which is also provided on the Interactive Watercolour CD: From the Windows® Start Button select Start: Run: and type d:\ie55.bat (where d: is your CD ROM Drive). Follow the on screen instructions.
Microsoft® Internet Explorer will take up about 70MBytes of disk space.
You can find the latest updates for Internet Explorer at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp
If Internet Explorer 6 or 5.5 is installed from the Interactive Watercolour CD, a Favourites folder is added which has Hyperlinks to the Interactive Watercolour web sites and Start up buttons for starting the CD from your CD ROM Drive.
Netscape® Users
If you want to use Netscape as your default browser for normal internet activity but run Internet Explorer for Interactive Watercolour:
Start Internet Explorer, open the Tools menu and choose Internet Options and select the General Tab. Type or cut and paste one of the following brown text strings into the home page address box file:///D:/index.htm where 'D' is your CD-ROM drive, and press OK. If your CD-ROM drive is 'E' then the home page address box should be file:///E:/index.htm Interactive Watercolour will now start up whenever Internet Explorer is opened with your CD in the drive.
JavaScript
Some pages such as the glossary use JavaScript to activate functions such as loading a picture into a separate window. If your browser is not set up to use JavaScript these functions will not work.
To enable JavaScript in Internet Explorer: Choose Internet Options from the Tools menu on the browser. Select the Security Tab
Check whether the Internet and Local Intranet options have custom security settings. If either of them have custom settings, click the Custom Level button to open the Security settings dialog. Scroll to the Scripting section and select 'enable' from the Active Scripting options.
Display fonts
The settings on your desktop and the installed fonts on your computer may affect the fonts used in the book. The page layouts have been optimised for the widely available windows fonts: Arial and Times New Roman. Italic fonts are used sparingly though your browser may display them if you don't have the normal fonts installed.
Screen Resolution and Colour depth:
The book is optimised for display at a screen resolution of 800 x 600 pixels and for
True Colour (16bit or better). The page formatting appears best with the browser
at maximum. Press the F11 key if you want to maximise the browser viewing area
by closing some of the browser tool bars.
If your screen resolution is less than 800 x 600 or if the browser is not
maximised the text
columns on some pages will narrow and a horizontal scroll bar will appear at the
bottom of the browser page. If
your screen resolution is greater than 800 x 600, the images will be relatively smaller and not
as clear as in 800 x 600 mode. If your screen colour depth is less than True Colour (16
bit) the images will display in a lesser quality.
To change your screen resolution:
Right Click on any clear area of the desktop, i.e. away from any icons
Choose 'Properties' from the pop up menu.
This will open your display properties dialog. It may look slightly different to the example below but it will have similar features:
Choose the 'Settings' tab and this will open a window similar to the one below where you can change your screen resolution and the colour depth.
Set the screen resolution to 800 x 600 and the colour depth to either 'True colour' (24 bit) or better. Click OK and follow the prompts.
Image display quality
To gain optimum benefit from the colour and tonal variations of the artwork it may be necessary to adjust the brightness and contrast of your monitor. See your video card and monitor instructions for how to do this.
Music
For best playback a good quality wavetable sound card or reverb capability should be used. See your Sound Card help for how to select this feature.'
Plug-ins
The book uses Plug-ins and ActiveX ® controls to display MPEG movie clips and AVI video clips. The Plug-ins used are common utilities and you will probably already have these installed on your Browser. However, if your browser is not equipped with the plug-ins required you will be prompted to download them from the Plug-in provider via the internet. You should find that installing Internet Explorer 6 from the Interactive watercolour disc installs the plug-ins required for the book.
If movies do not operate check that Windows® Media Player on your system is configured to play these. To do this Open Windows Media Player and select 'Tools': 'Options' and select the 'Format' tab. Ensure that the 'Windows Video file' and 'Movie files (MPEG)' options as shown below are selected.
The movie clips do not have audio content.
Internet Links
Every effort has been made to ensure that the external web sites listed in the resources section have been chosen from sites with long term future. However they are not under the authors control and the sites may be moved or closed. The Interactive watercolour Web Site will provide a current list of these links and may add further sites of interest to the list.
Feedback
You can send feedback to the author on any aspect of Interactive Watercolour. Details are provided in the Preface section.
Updates
Updates and downloads will be available from the Interactive Watercolour Web Site from time to time. Full Instructions will be given on the site.
Copyright
The Paintings, animations, drawings, illustrations, text, JavaScript, tutorials and photographs are © Peter Saw. An explanation of how the book material may be used is given in the Preface section.
® = Registered trade mark