Frequently Asked Questions for
'A Process for Rehabilitating Australian Streams' CD
- How to run the CD from your hard drive
- Problems with directly linking to the PDF files
- Use of bookmarks in the PDFs
- Acrobat tutorial (basic)
- Use of your Browser
- Quicktime installation problems
- Enhancement of VRs using alternative perspective arrows
- Page Freezing
- Plugins: what are they and why?
- Changing screen resolution and colours Win and MAC
- Sound - whether it's on or not.
- None of these questions address my problem.
The following set of Frequently Asked Questions are designed to assist you when using the CD. If you come across further problems, we suggest you contact your Information Technology support person as it is unlikely to be something wrong with the CD itself.
To view a brief preview of the CDROM online, click here.
How to run the CD from your hard drive
You may find that the CD will operate more efficiently if it runs from your hard drive rather than the CD drive. The entire CD can to be saved to a folder on your hard drive (C Drive). Open "Windows Explorer" from your "Programs" menu (under the "Start" button), select C drive, expand so you can see "My Documents" then expand "My Documents". When in the "My Documents" folder make a new folder and call it "Stream Rehabilitation". Select the CD drive (maybe drive E or D, sometimes others) select all the items in the CD and drag them to the folder you have just created called "Stream Rehabilitation" in "My Documents".
The CD will be copied to this folder. Open this folder and double click on the icon "Start. This will run the CD from the hard drive. You can also create a short cut on your desktop by right clicking on the "Start" icon and dragging it to the desktop. Select the option to "Create shortcut here". You can now access the CD by double clicking on the icon on the desktop without having to put the CD in the computer.
Problems with directly linking to the PDF files
Adobe has reported some problems with directly linking to destinations in PDF files i.e. the Manual. To assist you in going to the exact page from the link in the CD, click on "Show/Hide Navigation Panel" icon on the Adobe Acrobat Tool Bar that appears at the top of the page when you open a PDF file.
This will show the bookmark down the left hand side of the screen.
Click on the Bookmark for the page you want to link to.
It is presumed that this problem will be fixed in subsequent versions of Adobe Acrobat.
You can print PDF pages as required.
Use of bookmarks in the PDFs
Acrobat offers a wide range of navigational structures to help you move to specific places in PDF documents: Bookmarks provide a visual table of contents and usually represent the chapters, sections, and other organisational items in a document.
Acrobat tutorial (basic)
You may wish to learn more about using Adobe Acrobat. Visit the tutorial at: http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/topissuesacr.htm
Use of your Browser
As shown on the CD cover, the Browser is a useful tool for navigating around the CD.
Use "Back", "Forward","Home", "Favourites" and "Bookmarks" to enhance your use of the CD.
Quicktime installation problems
When you select to install Quicktime the browser should give you the option of running the installation application from it's current location or save this program to disk.
It is very important that the program is run from its current location. Select this option and it will run without checking the Internet.
If this option is not available then do not proceed and instead navigate to: file:///E:/CD/chapters/instals/resource/QUICKTIM/QuickTimeInstaller.exe and run directly from there.
If you do save the application to disk and run from your desktop the application will search for a file called "quicktimeinstallcache.qdat", (this file contains the parts relevant to the installer application file). If this file is at the same location as the installer application then the installation will proceed. If it cannot find the file locally, it searches the Internet for it.
At the time of publishing the CD the version of Quicktime was version 4.1 - The current version is 5 and this can be downloaded from:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/qt/
To move around in a VR (Virtual Reality panoramas) Click and "drag" within the picture.
For more information on VR visit the Apple Quicktime site:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/resources/qt/us/help/pl/pgs/plVRMov.htm
Enhancement of VRs using alternative perspective arrows
The CD uses Quicktime VR to view panoramas created from photographs or computer graphics. You use your mouse and keyboard to rotate objects, zoom into or out of a panorama, look around, and navigate from one scene to another
You use the controls at the bottom of the window to zoom in on the image, locate hot spots, and drag a zoomed object.
A hot spot is a link to another position or "Node" with in a VR scene and it gives a view of the scene from another perspective. Clicking when the mouse indicates an arrow within a VR will take you to a new Node in the VR scene. The buttons below are the controls for a Quicktime VR, the "-" will zoom out, the "+" will zoom in the arrow with the "?" in it will show hotspots. The cross hair button allows the user to drag a zoomed object but is not used in this CD.
Can I view the restoration CD as Full screen?
Windows
Simply hit the F11 function key.
MacOS:
You can set the browser to disable the display of address, button bar status, favourites, and explorer bars by going to "View" and unchecking each of the options in Internet Explorer or going to "View" then "Show" and unchecking each of the options In Netscape Navigator.
Page Freezing
On Macintosh Internet Explorer on the pages "nns1130.htm" and "nns112"0.htm, getting in or out of this area can freeze the VR.
If the VR on this page freezes close Internet Explorer and restart your machine - then try again.
If you use the arrows at bottom right to navigate to the VRs in this Case Study, the VRs may freeze. This problem is avoided when the page numbers in the navigation menu at top right are used instead. This behaviour has only been recorded in Internet Explorer 5 for Macintosh on a limited number of computers.
VR text duplication problems explained: generally a monitor refresh issue, Some of the VRs are very large & Quicktime requires more ram for display than your computer has available and overlaps the "tiles" in the movie incorrectly. Zooming in and out may help but this issue may be unavoidable if your display card has minimum Ram.
Plugins: what are they and why?
Plugins are small helper applications, which allow your browser to display interactive content such as sound, animation or movies.
In this CD, plugins are used to view the Acrobat reader version of the Manuals, Flash animation, and Quicktime movies and VRs.
Changing screen resolution and colours Win and MAC
This CD was designed to be run on a monitor displaying no less than 800 x 600 pixels resolution and thousands of colours. Your display setting may need to be adjusted if you are unable to see an entire page of the presentation.
Mac: go to help and type "adjusting the screen image", select the subject "adjusting the screen image" and follow the instructions.
WIN: right click the desktop and go to properties, choose settings and adjust the resolution to at least 800 x 600, and choose either high colour (16 bit) or true colour (32 bit).
Sound - whether it's on or not.
IF your computer is not producing sound for the videos you may like to check your speakers are on, sound is not muted and failing these conditions if you have a sound card. If you do not you cannot hear the audio content of the CD it is highly recommended that you purchase a sound card for your computer.
None of these questions address my problem.
If none of these FAQs address the problem you are having with the CD and you have contacted your Information Technology support person, you could send an email to either Siwan Lovett (siwan.lovett@lwa.gov.au) at Land & Water Australia or Kirsten Willcox (kirsten.willcox@affa.gov.au) at Agriculture Fisheries Forestry Australia, and they may be able to help you.
