There are a variety of ways that you can get help with your Dolphin Software. They are:

Your Dolphin Software incorporates a context-sensitive help system.

To gain context-sensitive help within the Control Panel of your Dolphin Software:

Press F1.

A help window will appear on the screen displaying help information about the currently highlighted option in the Control Panel.

For more general help with your Dolphin Software, including a full on-line manual:

1. Press the WINDOWS key (or CONTROL+ESCAPE) to bring up the Windows Start menu.

2. Press P to go to the menu option "Programs".

3. Press CURSOR DOWN until you reach the Programs sub-menu option that relates to your product, e.g. "Hal", "Lunar", "LunarPlus", or "Supernova".

4. Press CURSOR RIGHT to enter the sub-menu and then press CURSOR DOWN until you reach the option "On-line Help".

5. Press ENTER.

We offer a variety of technical services via our web site, http://www.dolphinusa.com, which may prove useful especially outside working hours. They include:

If the above sources of help and your local Dolphin dealer cannot answer your query, then please feel free to contact us directly in one of the following ways:

E-mail: support@dolphinusa.com

Telephone: 650 348 7402

Fax: 650 348 7403

Generally you will not need to close down your Dolphin software, as it automatically closes down when you end your Windows session. However, should you wish to close down your Dolphin software in the middle of a Windows session, you can do this by following the instructions below.

1. Press LEFT CONTROL+SPACEBAR.

The Control Panel of your Dolphin software will then pop up.

2. Press ALT+SPACEBAR to call up the System Menu of your Dolphin software.

3. Cursor down to the option "Quit " and then press ENTER.

4. A dialog box will now appear asking you "Are you sure?" To quit press ENTER.

If you are using Hal and Supernova, you may also want to close down SAM.

1. Press the WINDOWS key (or CONTROL+ESCAPE) to bring up the Windows Start menu.

2. Press P to go to the Start menu option "Programs".

3. Press S to jump to the first Programs sub-menu option beginning with the letter S.

4. If the first sub-menu option is not "SAM", cursor down until you find the option "SAM".

5. Press CURSOR RIGHT to enter the "SAM" sub-menu.

6. Cursor down to the option "Quit SAM" and then press ENTER.

1. Press the WINDOWS key (or CONTROL+ESCAPE) to bring up the Windows Start menu.

2. Press S to go to the Start menu option "Settings".

3. Press C to go to the Settings sub-menu option "Control Panel".

4. Press A, then use the cursor keys to select the Control Panel option "Add/Remove Programs" and then press ENTER.

5. Press TAB once to move into the list of installed software on your PC.

6. Cursor down to the name of the Dolphin software that you wish to Uninstall.

7. Press TAB to move to the "Add/Remove" button and then press SPACEBAR to activate it.

8. When the Dolphin uninstallation program runs it will automatically detect a previously installed copy of your Dolphin software and will give you the option to Uninstall it.

If you have SAM and Orpheus installed on your PC you can uninstall them too, providing that they are not used by another product installed on your PC, such as Cicero.

1. Logon as Administrator, or someone who has security equivalence, and give Administrator privileges to the Hal, Lunar, LunarPlus, or Supernova user.

2. Logon as the Hal, Lunar, LunarPlus, or Supernova user.

3. Press the WINDOWS key (or CONTROL+ESCAPE) to bring up the Windows Start menu and use the cursor keys to select the option "Run" and then press ENTER.

4. Type c:\snovant\dolcfgnt -r and then press ENTER. (Replace the drive letter and directory name as appropriate).

5. You should get a message saying "Interception driver successfully removed". If you get any other message then you probably do not have sufficient security permission.

6. Press the WINDOWS key (or CONTROL+ESCAPE) to bring up the Windows Start menu.

7. Press S to go to the Start menu option "Settings".

8. Press C to go to the Settings sub-menu option "Control Panel".

9. Press A, then use the cursor keys to select the Control Panel option "Add/Remove Programs" and then press ENTER.

10. Press TAB once to move into the list of installed software on your PC.

11. Cursor down to the name of the Dolphin software that you wish to Uninstall.

12. Press TAB to move to the "Add/Remove" button and then press SPACEBAR to activate it.

13. The Dolphin uninstallation program will automatically detect a previously installed copy of your Dolphin software and will give you the option to Uninstall it. (If you have SAM and Orpheus installed on your PC you can uninstall them too, providing that they are not used by another product installed on your PC, such as Cicero).

14. Log off and restart the machine.

15. Logon as Administrator, or someone who has security equivalence, and restore the user's privileges back to what they were.

1. Logon as the Administrator or someone who has security equivalence.

2. Install your Dolphin software from the installation CD to folders accessible by all users. If Supernova is to be installed then at the prompt "Please choose which version of Supernova you wish to install. Use cursor keys to select and Enter to accept", select the "Network" option as opposed to the default "Single User" option.

3. If you are prompted to install SAM or Orpheus, please install these products to the network file server (or other shared resource) by following the on-screen instructions.

4. If you have installed the network copy of Orpheus and SAM, then locate the SAM\Orpheus directory and create an ASCII text file named DOLOSTUB.INI containing the following two lines:

where \\FILE SERVER\Share is the public, or sharing name, of the directory in which Orpheus is installed.

5. If required, copy the Dolphin software's Start menu items to the Start menus of each user that will be using it.

For each Windows 95/98 workstation where Hal or Supernova is to be used, do the following before you run them for the first time:

6. Copy the file SAM32.DLL from the SAM directory to the WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder on each Windows 95/98 workstation on the network that you want to use Hal or Supernova on. This file must be located somewhere in the PATH for Hal or Supernova to run.

7. Locate the SAM installation directory using Windows Explorer and run SAM.EXE. Configure the speech Synthesizer and/or Braille display for that workstation. The settings will be stored locally for that workstation. (Refer to the on-line SAM documentation for further details).

Installation is now complete.

1. Logon as the Administrator or someone who has security equivalence.

2. Install your Dolphin software from the installation CD to folders accessible by all users. If Supernova is to be installed then at the prompt "Please choose which version of Supernova you wish to install. Use cursor keys to select and Enter to accept", select the "Network" option as opposed to the default "Single User" option.

3. If you are prompted to install SAM or Orpheus, please install these products by following the on-screen instructions.

4. If you have installed the network copy of Orpheus and SAM, then locate the SAM\Orpheus directory and create an ASCII text file named DOLOSTUB.INI containing the following two lines:

where \\FILE SERVER\Share is the public, or sharing name, of the directory in which Orpheus is installed.

5. If required, copy the Dolphin software's Start menu items to the Start menus of each of the user profiles that will be using it.

For each of the workstations where the Dolphin software is to be used, follow these steps:

6. Logon as the Administrator or someone who has security equivalence.

7. If you have installed Hal or Supernova then copy the file SAM32.DLL from the SAM directory to the WINNT\SYSTEM32 folder on each workstation on the network that you want to use Hal or Supernova on. This file must be located somewhere in the PATH for Hal or Supernova to run.

8. Copy the file PSAPI.DLL from the Snovant\Core directory on the installation CD (replace the product directory name as appropriate) to the WINNT\SYSTEM32 folder on each workstation on the network that you want to use Hal, Lunar, LunarPlus, or Supernova on. This file must be located somewhere in the PATH for Hal, Lunar, LunarPlus, or Supernova to run.

9. Locate the Dolphin software's installation directory on the network using Windows Explorer and run the program DOLCFGNT.EXE. You should get a message saying "Interception driver installed and configured successfully". If you get any other message then you probably do not have sufficient security permission.

10. If you have installed Hal or Supernova locate the SAM installation directory in Windows Explorer and run SAM.EXE. Configure the speech Synthesizer and/or Braille display for that workstation. The settings will be stored locally for that workstation. (Refer to the on-line SAM documentation for further details).

11. Log off and re-start the machine.

Installation is now complete.

The network versions of Dolphin's software allow you to install a single copy of the product in a shared directory on a file server and allow each user to keep their own preferred personal settings. You can also update the default settings globally from this one installation location.

There are two main directories that contain configuration files. These are the "Defaults" directory and the "Settings" directory. In the single user version these directories are located under the product's main installation directory. In the network version only the "Defaults" directory is in the product's main installation directory, so the "Settings" directory needs to be set separately for each user.

The "Defaults" directory contains all the default settings for the product, this includes application settings files, hot keys and any other defaults. The product will never save anything into the "Defaults" directory.

The "Settings" directory contains anything that the user has modified. This includes any modified or custom application settings, hot keys, voice and/or Braille settings (as applicable) and the settings in the product's Control Panel.

When the Dolphin product starts, it scans both the "Defaults" and the "Settings" directory. If the same file exists in both directories it will load the one from the "Settings" directory. If modifications are made it will always save the file to the "Settings" directory, regardless of where it was loaded from.

For a network version the product will NOT save any personal settings until the location of the user's personal settings directory is set. Each user should be instructed to choose a directory that is private to themselves for their settings. We recommend that each user has a private directory on the network file server for this, in which case they will get their own settings wherever they log in.

1. Start the product.

2. Enter its Control Panel by pressing LEFT CONTROL+SPACEBAR.

3. Enter the product's System Menu by pressing ALT+SPACEBAR.

4. Cursor down to the option "Set directory for storing your settings" and then press ENTER.

5. A dialog box will then pop up allowing you to select a directory in which to store the user's personal settings. Select a directory on the network file server and then press ENTER. The directory you choose must already exist.

The Settings directory is now set.

The location of the Settings directory is stored in the registry. As an Administrator you can create this entry for each user manually, rather than getting the user to set the directory themselves.

It is stored under:

where product_name is Hal, Lunar, LunarPlus, or Supernova, depending on which product you have.

The key is named "Settings" and is a string that holds the full path to the user's settings directory.

There is no facility to create icons for each user to run the software. The method of doing this varies between different networks.

Firstly, make sure that you turn on your speech synthesizer or Braille display before starting Hal or Supernova, then consult the manufacturer's instructions before referring to the on-line SAM user manual.

Firstly, check all the Windows volume controls. Both the wave channel and the main volume may need to be turned up. Secondly, Orpheus is limited to only trying to communicate with the sound card a few times when it first starts. If a Windows system sound is playing while Orpheus is trying to communicate with the card then Orpheus may fail to speak. In this case, try re-starting your Dolphin software.

If your screen reader starts to announce only the keys you are pressing and is not reading anything from the screen, then either the current window is full of graphics or owner drawn controls, or in certain circumstances the off-screen model may need refreshing.

Press LEFT CONTROL+SEMICOLON

If you receive the error message "Unable to start the Windows graphics interceptor" when attempting to run Hal, Lunar, LunarPlus, or Supernova, under Windows NT 4.0, do the following:

Firstly, make sure that your user profile has Administrator privileges.

Run the program DOLCFGNT.EXE (located in the Hal, Lunar, LunarPlus and Supernova program folder).

Re-start Windows NT and restore your user privileges to what they were previously.

If you experience random "page faults" when running the software from a network file server then please try installing it to a local hard disk. If the software works correctly from a local disk then there is a problem with your network configuration.

Page faults can be caused by the network protocol timing out when the operating system is requesting data from the network file server. This problem can be reduced by doing one or more of the following:

Supernova, Hal and Lunar should work successfully with any video card that is on the Windows NT 4.0 Hardware Compatibility List and has a Microsoft-supplied driver for it.

If your workstation has an NT video driver that is not 100% NT-compliant then you might experience a "Blue Screen of Death" when NT re-boots after installing Supernova, Lunar or Hal. However, if you create a Windows NT Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) before installing Supernova, Hal, or Lunar, you will easily be able to recover from the "Blue Screen of Death" in a matter of minutes, rather than having to re-install Windows NT from scratch.

Besides, maintaining an up to date Windows NT ERD is as important as making regular backups of your system and should be added to your regular computer maintenance procedures. Your Windows NT ERD can repair and restore partition boot sectors, system and environment files and also Windows registry information.

To create an Emergency Repair Disk, do the following:

1. From the Windows NT Start menu select the option "Run".

2. Insert a floppy disk in drive A.

3. Type RDISK /S and then press ENTER.

4. Follow the on-screen prompts.

Finally, once the ERD has been created, label and date it.

The RDISK utility formats the disk and copies nine files to it: DEFAULT._, NTUSER.DA_, SAM._, SECURITY._, SYSTEM._, SOFTWARE._, AUTOEXEC.NT, CONFIG.NT and SETUP.LOG. (These are the Registry keys, initialization files and a log of installed system files).

To repair your workstation after a "Blue Screen of Death" you will need your 3 original NT boot disks. Boot from "NT Setup disk 1" and insert disks 2 and 3 when prompted. At the "Welcome to Setup" screen press R to begin the repair process. You will then be presented with a list of options:

[X] Inspect Registry files

[X] Inspect startup environment

[X] Verify Windows NT system files

[X] Inspect Boot sector

Clear the X check marks next to all of the options except for "Inspect Registry files" by highlighting each option in turn using the cursor keys and then pressing ENTER. Finally, use the cursor keys to highlight the option "Continue" and then press ENTER.

"Inspect Registry files" will replace your current registry settings with the copy from the Emergency Repair Disk.

After you have selected the "Inspect Registry files" option and chosen "Continue", you will be offered a sub-menu that lists the registry hives to repair:

SYSTEM (System Key)
SOFTWARE (Software Key)
DEFAULT (Default User Profiles)
NTUSER.DAT (New User Profiles)
SECURITY (Security Key)
SAM (SAM Database)

Set X check marks next to the "SYSTEM" and "SOFTWARE" options and then select "Continue" and press ENTER.

Once the repair process has finished re-boot your PC and you will have NT back working again.

Before re-installing Supernova, Hal, or Lunar, try using a Microsoft-certified video driver, or a different compatible video driver for your video card. For instance, if your video card has an S3 chipset, try using the Microsoft supplied generic S3 video driver from the Windows NT CD, or search Microsoft's web site for a later version of your video card's drivers.

If you are new to the Windows environment, this section may be the most important to read. It explains the basic skills you need to work with Windows. You may want to return to this section often as a reference. If however, you are already familiar with Windows, you may like to skip this section.

In the Windows environment you do your work in rectangular areas of the screen called windows. These windows appear on a background called the desktop.

Here is a summary of the main elements and terminology of Windows:

The Start button (which is located on the Windows taskbar) is probably the most important control in Windows. When you press the Start button the Start menu appears, which provides a central launching point for all the applications on your PC. The Start menu can also be used to open documents, change system settings, get help, and find items on your computer. In fact, nearly everything you had ever want to do on your computer can be done from the Start menu. The Start button (and hence the Start menu) can be accessed from wherever you are in Windows. This means you can run many applications simultaneously.

As mentioned above, in the Windows environment you do your work in rectangular areas of the screen called windows. These windows appear on a background called the desktop. The desktop may also contain small graphical symbols (icons) that represent shortcuts to applications (such as your word processor or spreadsheet). In addition, the desktop also contains the Start button and the taskbar.

Unlike MS-DOS, in the Windows environment you can do more than one thing (one task) at any one time. The ability to switch between currently running tasks is called multitasking. Every time you start a program, or open a document or window, a button labeled with the task’s name appears on the Windows taskbar. (The taskbar is normally situated at the bottom of the desktop). You can use the taskbar to switch between any of the tasks that you currently have running.

Windows Explorer forms the basis of many operations in Windows, from basic filing operations (such as search, copy, delete, and rename) to tasks such as manipulating the items in the Start menu.

You can think of Explorer simplistically as a toolbox for managing the files and directories (known as folders in Windows terminology) on your system. Those of you familiar with Windows 3.1 can think of Explorer as a replacement for the Windows 3.1 applications "Program Manager" and "File Manager".

The two main types of window that you will come across whilst using Windows are:

When you start a Windows application, it runs in an application window on the desktop. Most application windows have certain elements in common, such as a title bar and a menu bar. These common elements are listed in section 9.6.

Sometimes Windows requires additional information from you in order to complete a task. You provide this information in a special type of window called a dialog box. For example, when you ask your word processor to open a document the "Open" dialog box appears. In this dialog box, you specify the name of the file you want to open.

Most dialog boxes contain options you can select. After you specify what options you want, you can choose the OK command button to carry out the command. Some dialog boxes may display information, warnings, or messages indicating why a specific task cannot be accomplished.

Windows typically have several common features, such as system menu and menu bars. The following sections give an overview of these "elements".

The title bar shows the name of the application and optionally a document name, filename or directory. The title bar is situated across the top of the window.

The menu bar contains the names of the available menus. Menus are a convenient way of issuing commands to your application.

Many windows have menu names located on a menu bar located beneath the title bar. When a menu is selected, the appropriate menu will appear.

A menu consists of a list of menu items, most of which are commands to your application. Some menu items can be features which can be on or off (such as bold or italics), or the names of other menus (cascading menus) that list additional commands.

There are basically two types of menu in Windows: pop-up menus and pull-down menus. The essential difference between them is how you navigate them at the top level of the menu system. For pull-down menus you use the left and right cursor keys, for pop-up menus you use the up and down cursor keys.

You choose a command button, known also as a push button or button, to initiate an action, such as carrying out or canceling a command. Command buttons are commonly rectangular in shape and include a textual or graphic label. (You can think of them like the buttons on your telephone). The OK, Cancel, and Help buttons are the most common command buttons.

A text box, also known as an edit control, is a rectangular window where you enter or edit text. A text box provides basic text input and editing support. An example of where a text box is used is when you want to open a document in your word processor. Normally, a dialog box will appear which contains a text box in which you type the name of the document you want to open.

A list box displays a pre-constructed list of choices that you can choose from, such as a list of filenames, colors or available character styles (fonts). List boxes are mostly used for displaying a large number of choices.

A drop-down list box provides a means of selecting an item from a list of choices. The difference between a drop-down list box and a normal list box is that in a drop-down list box the list is only displayed on demand, i.e. the drop-down list box appears initially as a rectangular box containing only the currently selected item. When you press the CURSOR UP or CURSOR DOWN key the list of choices appears and you can cursor through them.

Option buttons, also known as radio buttons, represent groups of mutually exclusive choices. In any group of option buttons only one option in the group can be set. For example, the "Print" dialog box of a word processor could contain the following option buttons:

A check box is normally used for options that have two states, such as on or off or yes or no. When a check box is selected, it contains a check mark (represented by a tick). An example of a two-state check mark could be "Always create back up copy?". Three-state check boxes can also occur in Windows: the third state is represented by the check mark appearing in gray.

A combo box is a control that combines a text box with a list box. This allows you either to type in your selection directly or choose it from the displayed list.

A drop-down combo box combines the characteristics of a text box with those of a drop-down list box.

A tree view control is a special kind of list box that displays a set of objects as an indented tree structure based on their logical hierarchical relationship. The control includes buttons that allow you to expand or collapse the branches of the tree. This type of control is often used when representing the hierarchical structure of directories (known as folders under Windows) on your hard disk.

A list view control is a special kind of list box that displays a collection of items, each item consisting of an icon and a label. List view controls are the main type of control used in Windows Explorer, and can display their contents in four different ways:

A spin box is a text box that accepts a limited set of discrete ordered input values that make up a circular loop. A spin box is a combination of a text box and a special control that incorporates a pair of buttons (also known as an up-down control). You can either type a text value directly into the spin box or use the up-down button to increment or decrement the value.

A tab control is analogous to a divider in a filing cabinet or notebook. Each tab control is the heading of a different property sheet. A tab control is used to display multiple logical pages or sections of information within the same window.

Each property sheet (logical page) usually contains the following command buttons:

Some property sheets also contain a Help button.

A slider, also known as a trackbar control, is used for adjusting values in a continuous range, such as volume or brightness. (Think of it like the volume slider on your radio or tape recorder).

Although most list boxes are single selection lists, in some contexts you are required to choose more than one item. Extended Selection List Boxes and Multiple Selection List Boxes are used for this type of input.

Extended and multiple selection list boxes follow the same conventions as single selection list boxes. However, multiple selection list boxes can also contain check boxes as items in the list.

The clipboard is a temporary storage area in Windows. It allows you to copy information from one place and paste it somewhere else.

Information stored in the Clipboard remains there until you clear it or cut or copy another piece of information into it, or until you quit Windows. Because the information remains in the Clipboard, you can paste the information into a document as often as you like.

You can cut, copy or paste text, graphics, files, folders, shortcuts etc. In a word processor you can even cut, copy or paste a combination of text and graphics.

Not only can you cut, copy or paste information within an application, you can cut, copy or paste information between applications.

To access the Start button:

Alternatively, if you have a Windows keyboard:

When you press the Start button the Start menu will appear and Hal/LunarPlus/Supernova will say "Entering pop-up menu. No selection". This means that the Start menu has appeared but none of the options in it are currently highlighted.

To move through the options in the Start menu:

Moving up or down the Start menu will highlight each menu item in turn and Hal/LunarPlus/Supernova will read it out.

If when moving up and down the menu, Hal/Supernova says, "has sub-menu" after an item, it means that this menu contains additional menu items.

To repeat the current menu option:

To enter a sub-menu:

Hal/Supernova will say "Entering", followed by the name of the sub-menu you have just entered, followed by the name of the first item highlighted in the sub-menu.

For example, in the Windows Start menu, if you had pressed CURSOR RIGHT when Hal/Supernova said "Settings has sub-menu", Hal/Supernova would then say "Entering Settings. Control Panel".

To leave a sub-menu and return to its parent menu:

Hal/Supernova will say "Previous level", followed by a recap of where you are in the menu structure.

For example, if you press CURSOR LEFT to leave the Settings sub-menu, Hal/Supernova would say "Previous level. Pop-up menu. Settings has sub-menu". This is because you have left the Settings sub-menu and returned to the Start menu, with the option "Settings" highlighted in the Start menu.

If however, you cursored right, down a number of sub menus, say from "Programs", to "Accessories", then from "Accessories" to "Fax", etc. Hal/Supernova would say "Entering Programs. Accessories has sub-menu", "Entering Accessories. Fax has sub-menu", "Entering Fax. Compose New Fax", on the way down. On the way back up, Hal/Supernova would say "Previous level. Accessories menu. Fax has sub-menu"; etc. as you cursored left up the menu tree.

To access an item on the menu:

Hal/Supernova will say "Exited menu. Start button". Then when the application or menu option you have chosen appears on the screen Hal/Supernova will read it out. For instance, if you highlight the menu option "WordPad" in the Accessories sub-menu of Programs then press ENTER, Hal/Supernova would say "Exited menu. Start button. Document - WordPad. Edit Area". This is because, by pressing ENTER you have exited the menu, WordPad has loaded, and you are now in an edit area ready to type your first WordPad document.

To leave the menu system without selecting an item:

Hal/Supernova will say "Exited menu, Start button, Alt". This means that the Start menu has now disappeared, and Windows' focus of attention is now on the Start button.

The following sections give details of the standard options that appear on the Windows Start menu.

All Windows applications can be accessed from the "Programs" sub-menu of the Start menu. You can select this option directly from the Start menu by pressing P.

This sub-menu contains a list of the documents that you have recently accessed. This sub-menu is useful for continuing work on a document without first having to find it. You can select this option directly from the Start menu by pressing D. When you select a document from this menu, Windows will run the application that created this document automatically for you, and load the appropriate document.

In this sub-menu you will find options for customizing Windows. You can select this option directly from the Start menu by pressing S.

This sub-menu helps you find files located on your disk. You can select this option directly from the Start menu by pressing F.

This option is a useful place to find out about Windows. You can select this option directly from the Start menu by pressing H.

If you select this menu item, a dialog box will appear and you will be prompted to enter a command. This corresponds to an ordinary DOS command to run a program. When you have typed in the command press ENTER to activate it, or press ESCAPE to cancel. You can select this option directly from the Start menu by pressing R.

Shut Down allows you to finish your Windows session. If you select this option, a dialog box with a number of options appears. Use the cursor keys to select the one you want and press ENTER. If you did not want to finish your Windows session, press ESCAPE. You can select this option directly from the Start menu by pressing U.