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A good user manual
The rules should oblige the seller to give the purchaser an operating instrucion of Alphasmart AS Pro, along with an item. The lack of an instruction or false information given to customer shall constitute grounds to apply for a complaint because of nonconformity of goods with the contract. In accordance with the law, a customer can receive an instruction in non-paper form; lately graphic and electronic forms of the manuals, as well as instructional videos have been majorly used. A necessary precondition for this is the unmistakable, legible character of an instruction.
What is an instruction?
The term originates from the Latin word „instructio”, which means organizing. Therefore, in an instruction of Alphasmart AS Pro one could find a process description. An instruction's purpose is to teach, to ease the start-up and an item's use or performance of certain activities. An instruction is a compilation of information about an item/a service, it is a clue.
Unfortunately, only a few customers devote their time to read an instruction of Alphasmart AS Pro. A good user manual introduces us to a number of additional functionalities of the purchased item, and also helps us to avoid the formation of most of the defects.
What should a perfect user manual contain?
First and foremost, an user manual of Alphasmart AS Pro should contain:
- informations concerning technical data of Alphasmart AS Pro
- name of the manufacturer and a year of construction of the Alphasmart AS Pro item
- rules of operation, control and maintenance of the Alphasmart AS Pro item
- safety signs and mark certificates which confirm compatibility with appropriate standards
Why don't we read the manuals?
Usually it results from the lack of time and certainty about functionalities of purchased items. Unfortunately, networking and start-up of Alphasmart AS Pro alone are not enough. An instruction contains a number of clues concerning respective functionalities, safety rules, maintenance methods (what means should be used), eventual defects of Alphasmart AS Pro, and methods of problem resolution. Eventually, when one still can't find the answer to his problems, he will be directed to the Alphasmart service. Lately animated manuals and instructional videos are quite popular among customers. These kinds of user manuals are effective; they assure that a customer will familiarize himself with the whole material, and won't skip complicated, technical information of Alphasmart AS Pro.
Why one should read the manuals?
It is mostly in the manuals where we will find the details concerning construction and possibility of the Alphasmart AS Pro item, and its use of respective accessory, as well as information concerning all the functions and facilities.
After a successful purchase of an item one should find a moment and get to know with every part of an instruction. Currently the manuals are carefully prearranged and translated, so they could be fully understood by its users. The manuals will serve as an informational aid.
Table of contents for the manual
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Page 1
Owner ’ s Manual Intelligent Peripheral Devices, Inc. 20380 T own Center Lane, Suite 270 Cupertino, CA 95014 Phone: (408) 252-9400 Fax: (408) 252-9409 E-mail: info@alphasmart.com Home Page: http://www .alphasmart.com[...]
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■ T ABLE OF CONTENTS W arranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Inside Cover System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Safety , Care, and Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .[...]
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Step One—Using AlphaSmart • T urn on the AlphaSmart and start typing. Y our text will appear in the window . • Use the arrow keys to move your cursor in the text. • Use the Delete key to erase. Step T wo—T ransferring T ext to a Computer • T urn on the Macintosh or PC • Start up your word processing application and open a new file. Y [...]
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As with any word processing application, the text will auto- matically wrap at the end of each line, so you should use the Return key only to separate paragraphs. All text formatting, including margins, tab stops, font, size, and other styling attributes, are done on the desktop com- puter after the file has been transferred from the AlphaSmart. On[...]
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Note: If the file was deleted using the Option- x -Clear File com- mand, the data is not recoverable. ■ INST ALLING THE MAC “Y” CABLE Y ou may use any Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) cable to transfer data from the AlphaSmart to the Macintosh—no special cable is usually needed. 4 For convenience, however , we offer an option- al “Y” cable that [...]
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■ SENDING TEXT TO A MACINTOSH One of the connectors on the right side of the AlphaSmart is the PC port and the other is the Mac ADB port. (If you need two ADB ports, use the Y cable to provide the other ADB port.) The IBM compatible port is labeled “ PC ” and the Macintosh ADB port is labeled “ Mac/IIGS .” When you attach your AlphaSmart [...]
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The reason for this is that the return causes most spread- sheets to drop straight down a row , instead of going back to the left-most column of the spreadsheet. An easy trick to fix this is to send your text to a word proces- sor , copy it, then paste it into your spreadsheet. The paste command will fix the problem and your spreadsheet will look l[...]
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Dual cable allows an AlphaSmart to be attached to either a 5-pin or 6-pin PC. As shown in Figure 3, one end of the PC Dual cable connects to the PC and one end connects to the AlphaSmart. When the normal PC keyboard is being used with your PC, the Dual PC cable acts as a keyboard extension cable so the user doesn’t have to reach behind their comp[...]
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When your AlphaSmart is attached to a PC, it changes modes and the screen displays the following message: Attached to PC, emulating keyboard. Press Send Key to transfer file. If you do not see this message, check your cable and make sure it is attached properly to the PC. Figure 5. Attaching the AlphaSmart Pro to a PC Keyboard Command Differences W[...]
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• Open your PC application and transfer the file as normal. • When finished, turn off the PC, connect your normal key- board and turn your PC back on. Important: The AlphaSmart must be turned on before the PC in order for the PC to boot when it is attached as the PC keyboard. T o determine if your keyboard supports “hot swapping,” sim- ply [...]
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■ ALPHASMART FIND FEA TURE T o access the AlphaSmart Find feature, press x -F . Y ou will see a screen that says: Find:_________ Press Return to search in file 1, option-Return to search in all files, CMD-A to Find again, Esc to exit. At the cursor , you may enter up to 16 characters. The search is not case sensitive, so if you are looking for ?[...]
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• Choosing 3 sets the keyboard layout for right-hand only , and selecting 4 sets the keyboard for left-hand only . Right and left one-handed layouts enable faster typing for peo- ple with disabilities (see Figures 8 and 9). Clear sticker overlays for Dvorak, right, and left one-handed layouts are available from companies like KEYTIME ® (206) 522[...]
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machine running Windows, international characters are sent using the codes defined in the Character Map Accessory . International characters work directly with the following Windows applications: • W rite • Paintbrush • Notepad • Microsoft W orks for Windows International characters do not directly transfer correctly to the following Window[...]
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Figure 10. Example shows modify indicators in the lower right corner of the screen Figure 11 shows just the control and shift keys down. Figure 1 1. Example shows the control and shift modify indicators in the lower right corner of the screen ■ CLEAR ALL FILES COMMAND Press Option- x -control-shift-clear file to erase all eight files simultaneous[...]
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If eight different students are to share an AlphaSmart, instruct each student to set their own private password for their own file. T ell them to use “smart” as the old password. T o change a file’ s password 1. T urn the AlphaSmart on and make sure it is NOT connect- ed to a computer . 2. Press Option- x -P to show the Change Password Dialog[...]
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500–cycle lifetime if fully discharged and charged, but have over a 1,000–cycle lifetime if the discharge/charge cycles are less than 50% of capacity .) The memory effect will also be avoided if the length of the discharges is somewhat random. Complete charging of a discharged battery pack takes 16 hours. The best charging strategy is to rechar[...]
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3. Remove the AA batteries and make sure the unit is not plugged into the AC adapter or attached to a Macintosh. 4. W ait two minutes. 5. Replace AA batteries or plug into an AC adapter . 6. T urn the unit back on. If the text you entered is still there, then the lithium battery is still good. If the text has disap- peared and the screen is blank, [...]
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others. (ClarisW orks allows faster sends than MS W orks and MS W ord.) • Adjust the keyboard control panel in the Macintosh system to a faster speed to maximize the file transfer speed. • If the characters transferred are the wrong characters, e.g. you type an “A” but get something else and you are send- ing to a PC, then the PC probably d[...]
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eight different files. T o change files, press F1 to go to File 1, F2 to go to File 2, and so on. I try to type into a file, but no characters show up. • If the file looks empty , press the Clear File key to make sure the file is erased. Then try typing again. (Sometimes the file recovery command Option- x -R gets hit by mis- take, filling up the[...]
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AlphaSmart caps lock key once to fix it, and then type a few keys to verify that it is now correct. ■ FREQUENTL Y ASKED QUESTIONS How can I change the transfer speed? When disconnected from the computer , press Option- x -S and change the speed as desired. For details, please see the section “Changing the T ransfer Speed”. For Macs, there is [...]
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■ RETURN PROCEDURES When you have a problem with your AlphaSmart, please do the following: 1. Read the T roubleshooting and Frequently Asked Questions sections in this manual. If this doesn’t solve your problems, 2. Call the business which sold you the AlphaSmart, e-mail IPD at support@alphasmart.com , or call AlphaSmart Service toll-free at (8[...]
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NiCad Rechargeable Battery Pack This pack eliminates the need to buy batteries. It is installed in the battery compartment and replaces the two AA batter- ies. With normal use, you will need to recharge the battery pack only once a week, using the AC adapter described above. When the AlphaSmart is either plugged into the AC adapter or attached to t[...]
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AlphaSmart Pro 43 ■ GET UTILITY SOFTW ARE AlphaSmart Get Utility is software that allows you to transfer text from your Mac or Windows/W indows 95 PC to your AlphaSmart. Whatever is on the PC or Mac Clipboard can be transferred to any file on the AlphaSmart. Get Utility software is useful for downloading writing tem- plates or report forms. Y ou [...]