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FAQ TeLL me More 8.0

Last updated : 08/06/05

Configurations ..............................................................................................................................................1

Required configurations..............................................................................................................................1 On which systems can TELL ME MORE be run? ...............................................................................................2 Does TELL ME MORE run on MacIntosh computers? ........................................................................................2

Installation...................................................................................................................................................2 To install TeLL me More..............................................................................................................................2 Other information......................................................................................................................................2 At the end of the installation, an error message « installation failed » appears....................................................2 Saving the results for a reinstallation............................................................................................................2

Start ...........................................................................................................................................................2 Black screen .............................................................................................................................................2 Warning message concerning the display ......................................................................................................3 Message about the sound card ....................................................................................................................3 Error message in « mfc42.dll » ....................................................................................................................3 Error message in module “tmm.ocx”.............................................................................................................3 Message “The user’s name must have two characters” ....................................................................................3

Use of Tell me More.......................................................................................................................................3 Use on a computer with Simplified Chinese/Traditional Chinese/Korean Windows version 95/98/Millennium ............3 Flash Player version ...................................................................................................................................3 Error message during the display of videos, in the videos and dialogues activities ...............................................3 Dialogue - Dynamic Mode ...........................................................................................................................4 Pronunciation............................................................................................................................................4 Exercises..................................................................................................................................................4 Tools .......................................................................................................................................................4 Navigation................................................................................................................................................5 Lesson report............................................................................................................................................5

Sounds........................................................................................................................................................6 Problem of sounds that cannot be heard .......................................................................................................6 Problem of chopped sounds.........................................................................................................................6 No sounds in the “Farm and Animals» dialogue ..............................................................................................6

Recording of the voice of the user....................................................................................................................6 Connecting the headset to the plugs of the soundcard.....................................................................................6 Adjusting Volume Control Settings ...............................................................................................................6 Windows® Recorder ...................................................................................................................................7 Installation of the soundcard .......................................................................................................................8 Problems during the speech recognition ........................................................................................................8 Internal errors during speech recognition ......................................................................................................8 A "reco is not active" error message appears at the start of the role playing game, and The speech recognition activities are not available ..........................................................................................................................8 The computer does not hear my voice ..........................................................................................................8 The recording is of poor quality ...................................................................................................................9 In free-to-roam mode, Tell me More does not accept my answers, although they are correct ................................9

Technical Support .........................................................................................................................................9

Configurations

Required configurations

Configurations Minimum Recommended PC or compatible Processor 700 MHz Processor 1.5 GHz Windows® 98, Millennium, 2000, XP or 2003 RAM 128 MB 128 MB (256 MB for 2000 and XP) Available hard disk space

80 MB 100 MB

Graphics card 800x600 in 65,536 colours (16 bits)

1024x768 in 16 million colours (24 bits)

DVD-ROM Drive DVD-ROM Drive Soundcard 16 bits Windows®-compatible soundcard

microphone and speakers or headset Internet Connection These components are installed or upgraded if necessary:

- DxMedia to play the MPEG videos - “msvcrt.dll” in the directory “c:\windows” - Common Controls on Windows® 95 - DCOM on Windows® 95/98 - Flash Player from Macromedia: the version installed is 6,0,79,0

On which systems can TELL ME MORE be run? TELL ME MORE can be run on Microsoft Windows® 98, Millennium, 2000, XP or 2003 Note for Windows 2000, XP and 2003: the administrator rights of the computer are necessary to install tell me More. Once the installation is done, the program can be used by a simple user profile.

Does TELL ME MORE run on MacIntosh computers? The program was not developed to be compatible with MacIntosh computers. Although the program could be installed on MacIntosh computers equipped with Virtual PC, it could not be used because of the slowness resulting from this kind of PC emulator.

Installation

To install TeLL me More Refer to the installation manual.

Other information Can the CD-ROM containing the lessons be copied onto the hard disk? No, this is not possible. How can TELL ME MORE be uninstalled? Uninstall using “Start/ Programs/ TeLL me More 8.0/ Uninstallation”, selecting “Keep the user’s data”. Can Tell me More be used on a non European Windows? The specific letters of the lessons languages may be uncorrectly displayed with versions previous to August 2003. Contact the technical support in that case.

At the end of the installation, an error message « installation failed » appears Test with copy on the hard drive That problem is generally due to an installation problem of the DXMedia Microsoft component, especially on computers with a DVD-Rom drive. It can be solevdwith the following operations : - double-click on the "dxmedia.bat" file in the "Aurtech" directory of the installation CD-ROM - copy the "Aurinst" directory of the installation CD-ROM on the hard drive - restart the installation from the "setup.exe" file copied in the "Aurinst" directory of the hard drive Do no hesitate to contact us for further information. Analysis An « err.txt » error message has been created in Windows directory : « c:/Windows/err.txt »or « c:/WinNT/err.txt » You should transmit us the message, we will analyse it and transmit you the results.

Saving the results for a reinstallation The users’ results are saved in the directory: « c:\program files\tell me more 8.0\users ». That directory must be saved and copied on the new computer in the same path: “c:\program files\tell me more 8.0”

Start

Black screen The following operations can be done:

- Uninstall the program using the menu “Start/ Programs/ Tell me More 8.0/Uninstallation” - Reinstall the program - Restart the computer - Run Tell me More

The problem can be due to a conflict between different versions of the product or to a problem to register the “tmm.ocx” file during the installation. If antivirus programs or installation monitors (tools like «regline») are installed on the computer, they should be temporarily de-activated in order to proceed to a re-installation of the software. On Windows NT/2000/XP/2003, the installation must be done with the rights of the administrator of Windows. A tool to register the “tmm.ocx” file can be used : Download the “Register OCX DLL.reg” file from “ftp://club.auralog.com/hotline/Tell_me_More_7/tools/” Double-click on it and answer “yes”. Then select the “NpTmmocx.dll” file from “c:\program files\tell me more 8.0\bin”, click with the right mouse button and select register. note : a compatibility problem between the versions of Tell me More 8.0 of July 2003 and Tell me More Education of November 2003 can create that problem. In that case, you should contact the technical support.

Warning message concerning the display If the display settings are inferior to the recommended configuration (1024x768 in 16 millions colours), a message appears. Nevertheless the program is compatible with most of the display configurations from 800*600*65 536 colours. You can if you want change the computer display settings from the “Start/ Control Panel or Settings/ Display” menu, “Display Settings” tab.

Message about the sound card When the program starts, an automatic detection of the sound car dis done. If an error message about the sound card appears while the sound card can be used correctly under Windows, that automatic detection should be disabled :

- Double-click on « My computer » - Then on « c:\ », « Program Files », « Tell me More 8.0 », « bin » to find the installation directory of Tell me

More. - Double-click on the « recoconfig.exe » file - Tick « Don’t test sound card on init » - Click on the button « Save changes” - Restart Tell me More

Error message in « mfc42.dll » The problem can be due to a setting problem of the sound card. It can happen with Cmi sound cards on Continental Edison computers, and on Ensoniq sound cards. To deactivate that setting, you should :


More. - Double-click on the file « recoconfig.exe » - Select « 44 100 » - Click on “Use MixerDefault ” - Start Tell me More

note : To check the reference of the sound card, refer to the section “installation of the sound card”.

Error message in module “tmm.ocx” The causes of the problem may be diverse: • Update the Flash Player via the Macromedia web site: www.macromedia.com -> in the “Download” section, select “Flash Player”. • proceed to the same operation as mentionned above (Error message in module “mfc42.dll”).

Message “The user’s name must have two characters” You should restart Tell me More and create a new user account with no password.

Use of Tell me More

Use on a computer with Simplified Chinese/Traditional Chinese/Korean Windows version 95/98/Millennium In order to display correctly the accentuated letters of European languages in Tell me more, we recommend you to double-click on the "fontassoc_on.reg" file and restart the computer. (present on the installation cd-rom into the "aurtech\chinese_korean_win9598millennium" directory or on ftp://club.auralog.com/hotline/Tell_me_More_7_education/tools/chinese_korean_win9598millennium/ ) If you want to remove the specific settings after the use of Tell me More, we recommend you to double-click on the "fontassoc_off.reg" file. Then restart the computer.

Flash Player version We recommend to use the last version of the Flash Player. It can be downloaded from www.macromedia.com : click on "Download Flash Player", then click on "Install now". It solves the "Flash script error" messages that can happen on Windows 95/98 and increases the speed of use of the program.

Error message during the display of videos, in the videos and dialogues activities The problem can be due to a conflict with a program to read the videos (DivX for example). If Nimo Lite has been installed, you should install the full version from Nimo web site or from: ftp://club.auralog.com/Hotline/Multimedia/ file Nimo50Build9Beta1.exe. If other programs to read the videos have been installed on the computer, the reinstallation of the latest version of « Windows Media Player » may solve the problem. If WinAmp is installed, it is sometimes necessary to deactivate WinAmp Agent : in Windows taskbar, click with the mouse right button on WinAmp and select “deactivate”. Note : if only some videos are not correctly displayed, the problem can be a problem to read the video at the .avi format. On some graphics cards with the nForce 2 chipset, in order to display the avi videos of Tell me More, the drivers should be updated from the www.nividia.com website. If the problems are not solved : On some computers (equipped with Windows 95/98), it is sometimes necessary to modify the display settings: Go to « Settings/ Control Panel», select “Display” or “Appearance and themes”, in the “Settings” section, or “Resolution”, set the colour number to 16 bits. Click on “Advanced settings” and set the hardware acceleration to the lowest level.

Dialogue - Dynamic Mode In the mode designed to focus on improving listening skills, the questions and answers are not displayed. In this case, the user should click on the loudspeaker corresponding to the question to hear it, then (depending on the onscreen instructions): - select the answer by clicking on the space to the left of the loudspeaker, - or pronounce the answer.

Pronunciation The pronunciation exercises do not pass to the following exercise automatically. After a few pronunciations, the user should manually click on the “following” button to access to the following word or sentence pronunciation. The number of pronunciation by word or sentence is then chosen by the user, according to the importance he gives to this activity in his learning.

Exercises Keyboard shortcuts for typing in the exercises The keyboard shortcuts have no effect. To copy-paste a text, just use the right click and choose “copy” and then “Paste” according to the operations you wish to carry out. Typing accented characters A specific keyboard is displayed in each exercise where one must type in accented characters (French; German; Spanish and Italian course). Moving or selecting elements To move elements in the exercises for instance: “Feel-in-the-blanks”; “Word Order”), proceed as follows:

- Click on the element, - Move the cursor, - Click on the destination place.

To join two elements (e.g.: beginning and end of a word in the “Word searches”, words of both columns in “Word association”), proceed as follows:

- Click on the first element, - Move the cursor, - Click on the second element

Written Expression The purpose of the exercise is for mere typing, with no correction of the written text. A standard solution is proposed. In the previous versions of the software, automatic correctors were implemented in the program, which sometimes caused the computer to crash or generated bad marks. These problems could not been solved.

Tools Translation

The translation of the texts in the activities can be obtained with a click on the small flag . It is found in most activities, namely dialog, video, grammar. Find out more about a word This tool gives access to the translation of a word, its pronunciation, and its conjugation if it is a verb.

The icon of the activity is located at the top right hand corner of the screen: It is highlighted by underlined words. This functionality is activated at the beginning or the end of the exercises according to pedagogical choices. Glossary/Conjugation The English verbs must be preceded by “to”. Help It is available in the Tools and Infos menu. When it is active, if one wishes to read a specific element, just point to the corresponding frame, without clicking, otherwise the software goes back to the running activity. Options For the Lesson Workshops in free-to-roam mode, all the options are active.

For the workshops dealing with skills in free-to-roam mode, the active options are those that are not associated to the role of an activity: acceptance level of the speech recognition; grid size; number of elements displayed. As for the workshops in guided and dynamic modes, they cannot be modified.

Navigation Exiting the software To exit the software in any time, just click on the white cross at the top right corner of the screen. 3 modes There are three different function modes in the program. Please refer to the user’s manual for a detailed description of these modes. To change the function mode, go to the main screen of a mode and click on the top left corner. Free-to-roam mode The free-to-roam mode is divided into workshops:

o Lesson workshop: organized in different topics o Cultural workshop o Vocabulary, grammar, oral, written: This workshops sum up the contains of the lesson workshops

which are divided according to the worked skills. Guided mode The navigation in the progress chart allows the user to be guided in its learning. Dynamic mode The activities are proposed according to the student’s objectives the results obtained during the learning. Working in this mode requires the user not to change level during a long period of time when learning. Changing the level will cause a vertical bar clearly separating les progressions of each level, which cannot be put in common.

Lesson report Acceptance levels that are required to obtain a 100% score in the lesson report In most activities: The acceptance levels of the activities are set by the elements that make up these activities. Example: Sentence pronunciation: practice all the sentences that are proposed Word pronunciation in guided mode: pronounce all the words that are proposed Specificities: Free-to-roam mode – Lesson workshop: In some activities, it is necessary to modify the options in the appropriate screen. Dialog: practice the dialog under the four option sets:

• Speech recognition in normal mode • speech recognition in comprehension mode • no speech recognition, normal mode • No speech recognition, comprehension mode

Each mode corresponds to a 25% score. If one practices the dialog from the beginning to the end, one obtains 25% done. The “% correct” score corresponds to the number of the questions to which the answer is correct. To obtain a 100% correct score for a given option set, one must go through all the questions. Word pronunciation: 10 words phonetics exercise: one word per phoneme Exercises with several specific options: Those exercises must be done by using each option set. The user must modify the options by opening the option screen. Picture/Word association: option with speech recognition and option without speech recognition Word order: option with speech recognition and option without speech recognition The right word: option with speech recognition and option without speech recognition Word searches: Display word option and Listen to words option. The number of word search exercises is generally two and must be practiced with both option sets in order to obtain a 100% score. The number of exercises is actually infinite since the grids are generated randomly. Crossword puzzles: option Translation of words and option Listen to words. The number of crossword puzzles to be done is 10 and must be done with both option sets in order to obtain a 100% score. Actually the number of crossword puzzle is infinite since the grids are generated randomly. Free-to-roam mode – Vocabulary workshop: Crossword puzzle: 10 exercises. The number of crossword puzzle is infinite since the grids are generated randomly. Free-to-roam mode – Oral workshop: Crossword puzzles: 10 exercises. The number of crossword puzzle is infinite since the grids are generated randomly. Word pronunciation: 10 words Phonetics Exercise: one word to pronounce per phoneme Guided mode: Word searches: The number of exercises to be done per lesson is generally 2. The number of crossword puzzle is infinite since the grids are generated randomly. Crossword puzzles: 10 exercises. the number of crossword puzzle is infinite since the grids are generated randomly. Phonetics exercise: one word per phoneme Glossary: you must stay 2 seconds per word for the activity to be considered correct. Otherwise it is considered 100%

done, but false. Dynamic mode: Some bar graphs of the skills or lexical topics may be filled only at the end of the learning. This depends on the levels and on the presence of these elements in the studied lessons.

Sounds

Problem of sounds that cannot be heard In case of problem of sounds that cannot be heard, it is sometimes necessary to start Internet Explorer before running Tell me More. That allows setting some volume settings linked to the sound card.

Problem of chopped sounds Check that the sound card is the device selected by default to record the sounds : - on Windows 95/98 : go into “start/settings/ control panel”, select “sound and audio devices” - on Windows 2000/XP: go into “start/ control panel”, select “sound and audio devices” In “audio”, “recording” section, check that the default device corresponds to the sound card and not to a mdoem or a camera.

No sounds in the “Farm and Animals» dialogue In this dialogue, the actor’s voice is weaker than the sound effects of the video and it can hardly be heard on some computer configurations. This problem has not been corrected yet.

Recording of the voice of the user

Connecting the headset to the plugs of the soundcard These plugs are usually found on the back of the computer.

The microphone " " terminates at the red (or pink) plug of the headset. This plug must be connected to the

soundcard input marked "Mic" or " ". The headphones terminate at the grey (or orange) plug of the headset. This plug must be connected to the soundcard

input marked "Spk/Line out", “ " or "” ». Note: You may listen to the sound output via the loudspeakers or over your headphones. Connect either the grey (or orange) plug of the headset or the plug of the loudspeakers to the soundcard.

Adjusting Volume Control Settings 1. Open Go into the Menu: "Start/Program/Accessories/Multimedia or Entertainment/Volume Control". If the program is not there, you can install it using the Windows® CD-ROM, following these steps: "Start/Settings/Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs/Windows Setup/Multimedia" and ticking the "volume control" box. 2. Playback Settings - Go into the menu "Options/Properties" and tick the "Playback" box. - Tick the boxes of all the devices listed and click on "OK". To optimise sound recording and playback in TELL ME MORE: - Adjust the playback level using the level indicators for the two following columns: the first column named "Volume Control" and the column named "Sound" or "Wave". - To reduce background noise, click on "mute" in the "microphone" and "line in" boxes. - On the other hand, if you want to make a demonstration, and want to play your voice over the loudspeakers, do not click on the "mute" in the "Microphone" box. 3. Recording Settings - Go into the menu "Options/ Properties" and tick the "Recording" box.

- Tick the boxes of all the devices showing and click on "OK". In Windows® 98, if the recording control is not accessible, you should go into the menu "Start/ Settings/ Control Panel", double-click on "Multimedia" and click on the button placed in the recording section. To optimise recordings in TELL ME MORE: - Adjust the level of recording level using the level indicators of the first column named "Recording control" (if it is available) and the column named "Mic" or "Microphone". - Check that the box at the bottom of the column named "Mic" or "Microphone" is selected: it should be ticked if it is marked "selected" and not ticked if it is marked "mute". - De-select the other devices. Note: If the recording level is set too high, the background noise may be too strong. If it is too weak, the voice signal might also be too weak.

Windows® Recorder This enables you to test the recording functions of the soundcard in Windows®, and the quality of recording and playing sounds directly in Windows®. Running it Go into the menu “Start/Program/Accessories/Multimedia or Entertainment /Sound Recorder” If the program is not there, you can install it using the Windows® CD-ROM from “Start/Settings/Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs/Windows Setup/Multimedia” and tick the box “Sound recorder”.

Using it

- Double left arrow: rewind - Double right arrow: fast forward - Single arrow: playback - Black rectangle: stop recording or playback - Red dot: record If problems occur: 1. If error messages occur when opening the Sound Recorder. a) message “Sound Recorder settings have been changed by another program. As a result, Sound Recorder may not work correctly. Click Yes if you would like to fix this problem now, otherwise click No”. In this case, clicking on “ok” should solve the problem. If the message always appears when restarting the computer when launching the recorder, proceed to the operations detailed in section b). b) message “The sound card is in use by another application”. If messages appear when opening the sound recorder or when attempting to record by clicking on the red button, search for the program which uses the recording function of the sound card and remove it from the starting programs of the computer. For computer experts, this can be done by pressing the <Ctrl-Alt-Sup> combination key. c) other messages Check the installation of the sound card under Windows (see section Installation of the sound card.) 2. If technical problems appear when running the sound recorder such as recording button not active or the position cursor not responding during the recording. Check the the installation of the sound card under Windows (see section Installation of the sound card), and re-install its drivers if necessary under Windows.

3. If after checking the connections of the headsets and the volume control settings the recorder still does not work, the problem may be due to a defective microphone; please contact us in this case. 4. If the recorder is running and Tell me More does not record your voice, proceed to the operations described in the section « Tell me More does not hear me». If the Windows Sound recorder does not work, Tell me More will not be running correctly, since it uses the same properties as the Sound Recorder. We suggest you should contact your computer dealer.

Installation of the soundcard • Go into the menu: “Start/Settings/Control Panel”. • Double-click on the “System” icon. • Click on the “Device Manager” tab. • Double-click on the heading: “Sound, video and games controllers”. • The name of your soundcard will appear underneath. • Check that there are no configuration problems represented by a yellow exclamation point or a red cross. • If this is the case, contact your computer dealer.

Problems during the speech recognition Check the soundcard reference (see Installation of the soundcard). Some problems have been seen with the computers equipped with: Sound Max soundcard (especially Compaq computers) To solve the problem, you can change the recording format of TELL ME MORE. If it does not solve the problem, the soundcard drivers should be updated from the Compaq website. For compaq_notebook_presario_700, use the file SP20309_3035.exe., found on: ftp://club.auralog.com/Hotline/Drivers/sound_cards/SoundMax/compaq_notebook_presario_700/ Note: On Windows® XP, if a serious error is reported when the computer is restarting, you must:

- Use the QuickRestore CD-ROM to reinstall the sound components. - Update the soundcard drivers with the Compaq website. - Then TELL ME MORE should work correctly.

Yamaha OPL3 SAx soundcard Update the drivers to version 4.06.2343 if possible. The drivers from the www.yamahayst.com site are suited to all computers except: IBM, Acer, Dell and Unika. Note: For Toshiba computers, the drivers on the website of Toshiba are correct. If the update of the drivers does not solve the problem, you can try to change the recording format of Tell me More :


More. - Double-click on the file « recoconfig.exe » - Select « 44 100 » - Click on “Save changes” - Start Tell me More

Internal errors during speech recognition To decrease the number of these errors, deactivate the tone which precedes the speech recognition: - in the options select “general options” - select the “sound” sub-section - untick “sound signal before speaking” If the problem is not solved, check that the sound card is the device selected by default to record the sounds : - on Windows 95/98 : go into « start/settings/ control panel », select « sound and audio devices » - on Windows 2000/XP: go into « start/ control panel », select « sound and audio devices » In « audio », « recording » section, check that the default device corresponds to the sound card and not to a modem or a camera. In the multimedia settings, check that the sound card is declared in the Preferred deviceds – Recording.

A "reco is not active" error message appears at the start of the role playing game, and The speech recognition activities are not available A "reco is not active" error message appears at the start of the role playing game, and The speech recognition activities are not available, we recommend to:


More. - Double-click on the file « recoconfig.exe » - Tick the check « Use Mixer Default » - Tick the check « Don’t test sound card on init » - Click on “Save changes” - Start Tell me More

That problem has been seen on some computers equiped with the RealTek HD Audio Rear Input sound card, with automatic detection of the microphone (for example, Packard Bell - Ixtreme H5649, Gold H5361; Acer - Aspre T620/APF6)

The computer does not hear my voice Make the checks of the section Recording of the voice of the user in order to find the reason of the problem. If Windows Sound recorder works correctly but tell me More does not record the user’s voice, the automatic settings

should be disabled : - Double-click on « My computer » - Then on « c:\ », « Program Files », « Tell me More 8.0 », « bin » to find the installation directory of Tell me


The recording is of poor quality You can listen your audio recordings in the pronunciation exercise, clicking on the loudspeaker that corresponds to your pronunciation. The distance between your mouth and the microphone can affect recording quality. It is sometimes necessary to hold the microphone 20 cm from your mouth while speaking. It is sometimes necessary to adjust the volume control settings : refer to the section “Adjusting Volume Control Settings”. If it is not enough, the automatic settings of Tell me More should be disabled : Insert the installation CD-Rom d’installation in the CD-ROM drive



If a vocal modem is installed on your computer, it is best to deactivate the modem manager.

In free-to-roam mode, Tell me More does not accept my answers, although they are correct If the recording quality is correct, check the acceptance level in Tell me More in the Options screen. The levels 1 and 2 correspond to a week acceptance level, whereas the levels 6 et 7 correspond to a very high acceptance level.

Technical Support In case of problems to install or use TeLL me More : Refer to the files in the «AurDoc» directory of the CD-ROM.

Refer to the FAQ that are updated on the www.auralog.com, web site, section « Technical support »). Or contact your distributor in the country where you have purchased the program. The technical support of Auralog can be contacted :

[email protected] Auralog S.A. - 6, rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud - 78180 Montigny-le-Bretonneux - France Tél. : +33(0)1 30 07 12 12 - Fax : +33(0)1 30 07 12 01 www.auralog.com

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