Art and Life in Africa CD-ROM Frequently Asked Questions

System Requirements for running the Art and Life in Africa CD-ROM
Frequently Asked Questions
How to order the Art and Life in Africa CD-ROM

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System Requirements for running the Art and Life in Africa CD-ROM

Macintosh:
Recommended: System 7.1 or higher, 24 MB RAM, PowerPC processor, Color Monitor with minimum setting of 640x480 and 256 colors or Millions of Colors.

Minimum: System 7.1 or higher, 16 MB RAM, 68040 or PowerPC processor, Color Monitor with a setting of 640x480 and 256 colors.

Windows 95/Windows 98:
Recommended: Pentium, 32 MB RAM, Color Monitor with minimum setting of 640x480 and 256 colors or 24 or 32 bit color (16 Bit Color not recommended).

Minimum: 486/66 MHZ or Pentium, 24 MB RAM, Sound Card, Color Monitor with minimum setting of 640x480 and 256 colors.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I can't run the program because I get a message that the CD is not in the CD drive, but I am sure that the CD is in the CD drive. What is wrong?

A: You do not have QuickTime for Windows 2.1.2 installed on your computer. You need to run the QuickTime for Windows 2.1.2 installer provided on the ALA CD. Refer to the CD booklet for instructions. After installing QuickTime for Windows 2.1.2, restart your computer. The ALA program will now run.

Q: Can I run the Art and Life in Africa CD-ROM on a network?

A: No, running on a network is not supported at this time.

Q: How do I add the map of Africa to a slide show?

A: To add the Countries Overview map of Africa to a Slide Show list, first make a Slide Show list with other items and run it. With the Slide Show controls displayed, choose "Countries Database" from the Resources menu. Click on the red triangle to expand the Slide Show controls. Then, click on the Add This Screen button. The Countries Overview screen will be added to the bottom of the list. You can then click and drag this item to any place in the Slide Show.

Q: How are items listed in the Items found box?

A: When you do a search for items in the Index and Slide Show, items are always listed in the following order in the Items Found box:

• Objects and Field Photos
• Media
• Text (Chapters and Essays)
• Countries and Peoples database references

Q: How do I copy a Slide Show list to include with my lesson plan?

A: Copy and paste are not enabled within the Art and Life in Africa CD-ROM program.

It is possible, although not recommended, to use the following technique from a saved Slide Show list file. (Please note that you should NEVER edit a saved a Slide Show or Bookmark file in a word processing program. Always work with a COPY of the file.) Open a copy of a saved Slide Show or Bookmark file. Within the file, you will find a series of codes at the top of the file. Scroll through the file until you see the list of items as they appear in the Slide Show list. You can copy the list from here, and paste it into another document. Windows users should note that the list will appear with the wrong end-of-line character; you will need to replace this character with a regular end-of-line character in your document.

Q: Can I search for more than one People or Country simultaneously?

A: No, you cannot search for more than one criteria in any given search field at a time in the Index and Slide Show, or in the Images Overview. For example, you cannot search for both "Yoruba" and "Dogon" in the "Peoples" field simultaneously. In order to include items for both groups, you would need to search first for "Yoruba," select items from the Items Found list and move them to the Slide Show list, and then do a second search for "Dogon," and similarly select items to move to the Slide Show list.

Q: How can I preview the text before including it in my slide show?

A: There are two options:

• Within the Items Found list, ctrl-click on an item to view that screen. Choose "Back" from the Go menu, or click on the Back button at the bottom of the screen to return to the Index and Slide Show.
• Add the text you want to preview to your Slide Show list and then Run the Slide Show. Use the Slide Show controls to move through the Slide Show list. As you read each screen, you can use the Slide Show controls box to edit the Slide Show list to remove screens you do not want to include; see #11 in the Slide Show Tips section above.

Q: I'm running the CD-ROM in Windows, with my monitor set to 16 bit colors. I see an odd shift in colors when the CD-ROM program starts up. Is that normal?

A: Yes, and it will not happen again during the running of the program. For optimum performance, we recommend using either 256 colors or 16 bit colors in Windows.

Q: How do I cite the ALA CD-ROM material in a bibliography?

A: Click here for a list of example citations.

Q: When I try to run the ALA program directly from the CD-ROM, I get an error message about "Missing Xtras" when the program starts. What should I do?

A: There are several things that can trigger a "Missing Xtras" message. Here are some things to check:

• Make sure that you have at least 5 MB of space available on your hard drive, even if you are running the ALA program directly off the CD-ROM. The program requires a certain amount of temporary hard drive space while running. If your hard drive has no empty space, the ALA program cannot run properly. If you do not have at least 5 MB of available hard drive space, you will need to clear off space on your hard drive before running the program.
  
  
• If you are running the program in Windows 95 or Windows 98, check to make sure that the \Windows\Temp\ directory is empty. If it is not empty, delete the contents of this directory, restart the computer, and try running the ALA program again.
  
  If you do not have a \Windows\Temp\ directory, you will need to create one.
  
  
• If you are running the program in Windows NT, and you have already tried the above suggestions, it is possible that your NT configuration will not permit running the ALA program directly from the CD-ROM. Try installing the program on the hard drive instead.