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Troubleshooting
Strategies
06/2006
Stop. Take a deep breath. And walk away from your computer. Then follow
these suggestions for diagnosing your software problems.
I. Shut your computer down. Power it off. Then restart your computer.
Many times your computer's operating system or software gets too confused.
It needs a break to re-focus its thoughts.
II. Check for newer versions of your software.
If you are re-installing software because of hardware or operating system
changes, contact the software company about the need for version upgrades.
III. Find out if the problem occurs in other programs too or is just
specific to a particular program.
No program can overcome problems with tasks typically performed by the
operating system. If the problem is system-wide, you need to use the operating
system Help information.
- For example, you can't record sounds in Classroom Suite.
Try recording a new sound in Sound Recorder Start Menu> All Programs>
Accessories> Entertainment
Or
Try recording a new alert sound in the Mac OS 9 Sounds control panel
o Open the Sound control panel.
o Click the Alerts tab.
o Click New Sound.
o Speak into your microphone.
o Click Stop.
o Click the Play Sound button to hear your recorded voice
Or
Try recording a voiceover in Mac OS X
o Open iMovie.
o Select New Project.
o Click Audio.
o Click Record Voice.
o Speak into your microphone.
o Click Stop.
o Click the Play button to hear your recorded voice.
- For example, you can't print overlays in Overlay Maker.
Try printing a print screen
o Press the Print Screen key
o Select Edit>Paste in WordPad
o Choose letter size paper and landscape orientation
o Print
Or
Try printing a screenshot
o Press Command+Shift+3
o Open the Picture 1 file created on your hard drive or Picture 1.pdf
o Choose letter size paper and landscape orientation
o Print
- For example, you don't hear the text to speech voice in Classroom
Suite.
Try opening another program that has text-to-speech capability to find
out if the same voice will speak in this other program.
Or
Try hearing text read in Mac OS X TextEdit
o Open TextEdit. Type a few sentences.
o From the Edit menu select Speech> Start Speaking
Or
Try opening your Mac Speech control panel/system preference to hear
an installed text-to-speech voice.
IV. Try running the program in a minimalist environment.
When you add hardware or software to your computer, you are adding complexity
to the computer's environment. All the existing and new occupants of your
computer are needing to share resources, like RAM.
- For example, close all open programs. Open only the program that was
having problems.
V. Re-design how you are going to accomplish your task.
When you seem to be spending a lot of time and getting no closer to completing
your goal, try another approach.
- For example, you want to have your picture in IntelliTalk 3 be animated.
Pictures can not be animated in IntelliTalk 3.
o Copy your text from the open IntelliTalk 3 document.
o Open a blank new IntelliPics Studio 3 document and create a text box.
o Paste your text into this text box.
o Add a picture from the Picture Library Frame animation category. The
frame animation picture must be outside of the text box for the frame
animation to play. Or create an IntelliMation for the page.
- For example, you want an overlay to have 5 keys. You want these 5
keys to type out 4 different words. Your first approach is that you
envision different combinations of the modifier keys, Alt and Control,
to type different characters when the same character key is pressed.
o Use the multi level feature of Overlay Maker 3. Your printed overlay
print out would always have 5 keys.
o Overlay 1 has the 5 keys containing the alphabet characters needed
to spell the first word. Then there is a key labeled "Go To Next
Word". The key content of this key is "Go to level 2".
o Overlay 2 has the 5 keys containing the alphabet characters needed
to spell the second word. Then there is also a key labeled "Go
to Next Word". The key content of this key is "Go to level
3".
o And so forth for Overlay 3 and Overlay 4. Overlay 4 may have a key
labeled "Back to Word 1". The key content of this key is "Go
to level 1".
Contact IntelliTools Technical Support at 800-899-6687 tech@intellitools.com
to help you discover different approaches to accomplishing what you would
like to do.
VI. Self Help for solving problems.
Look at the information that comes with your product
Use the Search feature of the product's embedded Help
Look at the embedded Help Instructions tab
Look at the User's Guide
Look at the Read Me
Look for technical tips at the product's technical support web pages
IntelliTool's web site is http://www.intellitools.com
Software and Hardware Version
Information web page
System Requirements web page
Updaters for Macintosh applications
web page
Updaters for Windows applications
web page
Tech Tips web pages
VII. Preparing to call Technical Support.
Ideally, before you describe your problem to the technical support staff,
you should provide technical support the following information:
- The hardware or software with which you are having problems
- The make & model of the computer that you are using -- Look on
the front of your computer for any identifying information or look in
the manuals that came with your computer.
- The operating system & version that you are using -- For Apple
computers, look under the Apple symbol and select "About this Computer".
For Windows computers, right click on the "My Computer" icon
and select Properties.
When you describe your problem, be precise about what actions you did
just before the problem occurred. Remember that if the technical support
staff has not heard of your problem, you are the key to assisting in discovering
the solution.
Be precise in describing what is happening with your computer, and perform
the directions given to you in the exact order and at the appropriate
time. This is why, it is recommended that you be in front of your computer,
if at all possible, when calling Technical Support.
If the solution is elusive, then it requires that you be in front of
your computer.
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