The Buddy System represents the first of its kind in completely interactive education. It is designed for all types of users, both novice and advanced, as a source for instant, insightful and useful information. Please take a few moments to read the following text in order to become well acquainted with the Buddy System's operation and features. The most effective way to learn computer applications is to learn WHILE ON A COMPUTER and to practice as you learn. Books, manuals and videotapes exist to help with the learning process but above all, nothing works better than actual "hands-on" training. The Buddy System accesses a tremendous amount of information through an easy to use, point and click interface. This interface, along with speech narration* and concise text descriptions, gives to you a functional and enjoyable learning system in a truly hands-on format. THE SELECTION INTERFACE Once loaded, The Buddy System is always available by pressing the HELP key or double-clicking the Right Mouse Button. When HELP MODE is activated, (the Help Disk pointer appears during HELP MODE), the interface actually loads onto the actual Imagine screen to intercept menu selections or certain key presses. This way you are always presented with the same selections that are in the normal Imagine menus. In this way, when you are having difficulty with a certain function, you can activate HELP MODE and select the same function from the menu. The Buddy System will intercept the selection and quickly display the associated Help information in the form of a text file. HYPERTEXT ALL text displayed in the Buddy System takes advantage of the "Hypertext" interface. Certain words in one text file may have direct links to other related text files. Clicking on a linked word, will take you directly into the text file which it is linked to. In this manner you can continuously follow your idea flow when particular words spark your interest. More importantly, when you are searching for a particular topic or definition, this linking capability allows you to quickly get to the information you need without having to read through excessive amounts of text. This will tremendously increase your productivity and understanding with Imagine. To prevent yourself from getting lost in the shuffle of jumping between multiple text files and topics, We have provided a few simple functions: BACKSPACE KEY: Pressing the backspace key redisplays the most (PREVIOUS) previous text file that was presented. For instance, if you find that a certain word did not take you where you needed to go, press the backspace key to get back to the previous text file. This functions is available whenever the Help Disk pointer icon is displayed. TAB KEY: The Tab key works like a bookmark. By pressing it while (BOOKMARK) a text file is displayed, you are marking or memorizing the current text file. The text file will become the home base from that point on. Each time you press the Tab key the text file name, in memory, is updated with the name of the current text file. RETURN KEY: Jumps immediately into the last bookmarked or memorized (HOME) text file set by the Tab key. By default, the first text file you read is bookmarked even if you don't press the Tab key. This functions is available whenever the Help Disk pointer icon is displayed. By using the Tab & Return key functions, you can mark a topic location, peruse through as many other text files that you need for additional information, and always be able to return to the same marked location - immediately. SPACEBAR: This key is only active while a text file is displayed. (SEARCH) The spacebar activates search mode by displaying a requester where you can enter a topic or keyword to search for. If the topic is found you will be taken directly into the associated text file. Otherwise the Keyword Index requester will be displayed. A-Z: Pressing a letter from A-Z will display the Keyword Index requester, positioned alphabetically in the list, according to the letter you pressed. This function is available whenever the Help Disk pointer icon is displayed. ESC: Exits the text display. Pressing Twice, exits HELP MODE You can then start working with Imagine directly. PICTURES Some text files may provide access to demonstration pictures. This is indicated by name ending in .pic name & highlighted in blue. For instance, The `Attributes.pic` displays rendered examples of various attributes. Try clicking on the name now. VISUAL DEMONSTRATIONS * VISUAL DEMONTRATIONS REQUIRE AT LEAST VERSION 1.1 OF IMAGINE CHECK WITH IMPULSE, INC. REGARDING UPDATE POLICIES FOR IMAGINE. The most significant part of the Buddy System is the Visual Demonstration. Nothing is more helpful than the ability to see a particular function being performed or applied directly in Imagine. The Buddy System uses a unique presentation method. Procedures are demonstrated by actually taking over the computer and replaying a previously recorded demonstration created by a live instructor. Visual Demonstrations are included with certain text files and are indicated at the beginning of the text file by the phrase: VISUAL DEMONSTRATION AVAILABLE: Just click on the Demonstration name, highlighted in blue, to present it. This visual demonstration includes a constant, realtime mouse/keyboard status display. This keeps you informed of the exact procedure as it is being performed for you. This way, you can later perform the same steps for practice. At important points within the demonstration, text captioning is provided at the top of the screen to give more thorough explanations of the visual actions Additionally, if you have an accelerated, 68020 or 68030 Amiga, you can turn the Narrator on and have the captions read, as they are being displayed, by the Amiga's speech synthesizer; Unaccelerated machines do not narrate smoothly due to the CPU limitations while running Imagine & The Buddy System. The Narrator can be turned on or off (and adjusted) by selecting Adjust Narrator from the first menu during HELP MODE. Editing the TOOLTYPES field in the BSI program icon to read: NARRATOR=ON will enable the Narrator automatically when the Buddy System is loaded. (Normally the Narrator is disabled). PAUSING DEMONSTRATIONS Demonstrations can be paused by pressing the spacebar during playback. The status display will inform you when pause mode is activated. Press the spacebar again to restart the demo. ABORTING DEMONSTRATIONS Demonstrations can be aborted by pressing the ESCAPE key during playback. You may have to press it a few times before the demo actually stops. DEMONSTRATION INITIALIZATION SEQUENCE Each demonstration has an initialization sequence performed before it actually begins. This is to ensure proper playback of the demonstration by defaulting certain settings and re-aligning the Editor grids. ... Now that you have been properly introduced to the Buddy System, it's time to use it! The best place to start is in the Project Editor: Click on the highlighted word to jump into the text file: `Project Editor` The `Rendering Parameters` file can get you started with a demonstration to introduce the basic rendering procedures for Imagine. Otherwise you can press the Right Button now to display the Topic Index and start whereever you would like. Enjoy!