Quick Index:

The Main Window

WHAT AM I LOOKING AT?

If you're looking at a picture of two kids standing around, with buttons on the top and the bottom for things like Classrooms, Hobby Hut, etc, then you're looking at the main interface for the Global School District. We've made navigating through the rest of the manual very similar to using the software. At the bottom of the Table of Contents you'll see a reproduction of the main screen. Click on any of the buttons for more information about that aspect of the system.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Some points to note:

You can click on any of the square buttons along the top and bottom
You can also click on the boy in blue in the middle of the screen
There's a menu at the top of the screen
The first time you click on a button or menu choice that accesses the Web, you'll be asked to select your favorite web browser

THE MENUBAR

There is a menu bar above the virtual campus. Eventually this menubar will disappear. For now, this bar contains the following menus:

THE SYSTEM MENU

Browsing the web

The system menu contains a selection for browsing the web. This is a very simple hack at the moment and just calls up netscape or whatever your favorite web browser is. Later it will be directly integrated into every aspect of the system. For example, email messages will be able to contain HTML references. Each group window will have associated web pages. Presentations will be able display web sites as well.

Exiting

It is important to properly exit the system so it can tell everyone else that you have left. If the program dies or if your connection drops it will take the server a few minute to realize that you are no longer logged in. This isn't terrible, but could confuse people. Just simply go to the System menu and select exit at any time to quit the network.

THE PREFERENCES MENU

This menu has an option for selecting your favorite web browser. Use this if you'd like to change which browser the GSD software defaults to for viewing web pages.

THE USER MENU

This menu contains actions that pertain to the users of the system. The two current selections allow you to change your user profile and to search for other users on the system.

The Finder

This is the powerful "resource finder" search engine that makes the Global School District unique. Using this feature you can search for people on the system who's information matches one or more criteria selected from the panel. For example, let's say you wanted to find someone who is teaching biology and interested in tennis. You would simply select "Teacher" from the "Year/Status" box, and "biology 101" from the "Classes" list and "Tennis" from the interests list. As you can see in the image, this search has found one match. If you click on the name in the results box, the following window appears.

This window displays the selected user's profile. This allows you to see some of the other interests a person might have. You could use this to narrow your choices if a search returned a number of people. You also might find that you have more in common with somebody than you originally thought!

Changing your User Profile

Occasionally you may want to update your database information. The change profile screen lets you do this. It is also the way you change your password and join and unsubscribe from classes and interest groups. This screen functions in much the same way as the initial new user screen.

Some items can't be changed here, such as your name, school and username. In order to change any of these items you need to contact the system administrator.

THE HELP MENU

There is a standard help menu option. It contains choices for general help and for localized help. The general help option actually opens up a web browser and displays this file. The localized help gives much more specific information about the window you are viewing.

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