American History Atlas for Windows README.TXT File
Version 1.0c
December 1993

This "readme" file contains up-to-date information that
was not available at the time that the User's Guide was
printed, or information that is subject to change.
Information on the following topics is included.

TOPIC 1: VSAFE
TOPIC 2: Performance
TOPIC 3: Export
TOPIC 4: Printers
TOPIC 5: File Corruption
TOPIC 6: Backup
TOPIC 7: TrueType Fonts
TOPIC 8: Usage Tips
TOPIC 9: The Manual
TOPIC 10: Compatibility with PC Bible Atlas for Windows
TOPIC 11: Copyright information - legal uses of maps.

       
TOPIC 1: VSAFE
If you received this error message during installation:

	"VSAFE (or CPAV) will prevent this installation. Please 
	 consult your README.TXT for instructions."
	 
the error was caused by a conflict with the memory resident
virus protection programs CPAV (Central Point AntiVirus) or
VSAFE, the virus protection program that comes with DOS 6.0. 

Since American History Atlas disks are write protected and
virus free, you should disable (remove from memory) your virus 
protection program before installing. To do this, follow the
instructions in your virus program manual or do one of the
following:

a.  Temporarily rename the AUTOEXEC.BAT, restart your computer,
and install American History Atlas. Rename the AUTOEXEC.BAT
when the installation is complete.

b.  REMARK the lines from your AUTOEXEC.BAT that are 
related to the virus program. Restart your computer, and 
install American History Atlas. Remove the remark statements
after installing American History Atlas. (See your DOS manual
for instructions on the remark command.)


TOPIC 2: Performance
Unless you have used computer aided design (CAD) software
or software that has a heavily graphic orientation, you are
probably not accustomed to the work environment found in a
program like American History Atlas. With American History
Atlas you can view, scroll, and zoom more than 80 maps, 
as well as immediately tag any point on any map with
latitude/longitude coordinates. The technology used to bring
all this to you is sophisticated. Consequently, some of the
tasks take a little more time than you might expect. If you
have a 386 processor on your machine, you should be sure to
run Windows in enhanced mode if at all possible. In addition,
American History Atlas is memory intensive. As with any Windows
application, the more memory you have on your machine the better.
If you are simultaneously running other applications, your speed
in performing certain functions may be reduced.


TOPIC 3: Export
American History Atlas supports a number of file formats
that can be exported via the Export Maps feature. Although
the formats are somewhat standardized, there are a variety of
ways they can be interpreted. As a result, export in certain
formats to certain programs may not work. For example, we've 
found that you may not (depending on your version of 
Microsoft(R) Word for Windows(TM)) be able to import American 
History Atlas maps in a Windows Metafile (.WMF) format. If you 
cannot successfully transport American History Atlas files in 
a particular format, try a different format.


TOPIC 4: Printers
Printing in a Windows environment has many advantages and
a few drawbacks. From a programming perspective, Windows
acts as an agent between the application and the user's 
printer. Unfortunately, this does not allow any customizing of 
print functions from the application's perspective--which is 
to say, American History Atlas does not "talk" directly to 
your printer, Windows does. If you experience difficulty in 
printing, you should first verify that the printer driver 
you are using is the most current. Secondly, you may want to 
experiment with different printer settings to get the proper 
performance out of your printer.

Other factors that may affect printing include:

a. On some HP printers, names of cities and other map 
items are not always clipped at the edge of the map. This is 
due to the fact the names are output to the printer separately 
from the bitmap which makes up the map background. This
provides much better printing resolution for the names
but can result in name printing outside the map area.
Make sure you have the most current printer driver for
your printer.

b. Printing large maps can require up to 5MB of free memory.
You can check the available memory by selecting Help/About...
from Program Managers menu. If you have low memory, make
sure you are running Windows in enhanced mode (this is also
shown on the Help/About... menu in Program Manager).


TOPIC 5: File Corruption
In the event you exit American History Atlas in a 
nontraditional manner (for example, if you experience lightning 
or a power outage while the program is running), you may 
experience a File Handler message indicating there has been 
file corruption when you try to restart the program. In most 
every case, simply confirming the messages request to rebuild 
the files (by pressing Enter or clicking Yes) will successfully 
rebuild the files and the program will run as before.


TOPIC 6: Backup
If you are creating and saving your own user-designed maps
and articles, it is always a good idea to back up your data
on a regular basis. Your maps and articles are stored along
with those that come with the program in the .DAT and .IDX
files in your AHAWIN directory.


TOPIC 7: TrueType Fonts
American History Atlas requires the use of True Type fonts.
If you receive messages telling you there are no fonts
available, it probably indicates that you do not have
TrueType fonts enabled on you Windows Control Panel 
or that a printer has not been selected. 


TOPIC 8: Usage Tips
American History Atlas offers so many features and ways
to view and manipulate data, it may initially appear
overwhelming. Following are a couple of suggestions of ways
to get your feet wet with American History Atlas:

a. Select Maps:Open and press the radio button labelled "Time
Period" to sort the maps chronologically. Choose a year between
1492 and about 1870 and see if you can find a map close to that
date. (The date you choose might be the date of birth/death of
an ancestor or famous person.) The events on the map will give
you an idea of what the headlines and topic of conversation 
would have been like during that period.

b. Select Articles:Open and scroll to the Primary Documents
article. Open this article to see a list of all the original
historical documents included in the program. These include
well-known works like the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution. But they also include some interesting lesser-
known items such as the terms of Lee's surrender at Appomattox
and eyewitness accounts of the Battle of Lexington. Double 
click on the name of a document to see it.

c. Look up your home town in an atlas and find its latitude and
longitude. Create a new map by selecting Maps:New. Choose a
background (U.S. Medium Topographic will be fine). Select
Maps:Create New Item and click the mouse somewhere near your 
town. Enter the name of your town, then go to the bottom right
corner of the dialog box and enter the actual latitude and
longitude coordinates. Select OK. Your town will be entered 
into the database and displayed on the map. From now on you 
need only select Search:Find/Select and pick your town from 
the list of items NOT on the map to add it to any map. Be 
careful - if you change one of the supplied maps it is entirely
possible to save your changes to the database and forever 
change a supplied map.

d. Open the Place/Names dialog (by selecting Find/Select
Items under the Search menu) narrow the list to only
"events" (by checking only the events box and selecting 
the Apply button), then find an event of interest. Select 
Map List to see a list of maps your event appears on. Double
click on the desired map to read more about the event.


TOPIC 9: The Manual
The following items are incorrect in the manual.

a. The Print Dialog has a button at the bottom that
lets you select to print the event markers, that is, 
any item with a category of "event." In the manual
the prompt reads, "Print event and people markers". 
It has been changed in the program to read, 
"Print event markers".

b. The menu item, Maps/Associate Articles to Map does
not have the letter 'i' as an accelerator key.


TOPIC 10: Compatibility with PC Bible Atlas for Windows
If you have PC Bible Atlas for Windows installed on your 
computer, you may have problems running American History Atlas 
for Windows and PC Bible Atlas for Windows at the same time. 
If you experience problems, call our Technical Support 
department to order an update to PC Bible Atlas for Windows. 
Note that regardless of your version of PC Bible Atlas for 
Windows, you should have no problems if you do not attempt to 
run them at the same time.


TOPIC 11: Copyright information - legal uses of maps.
The on-line help contains detailed information about the legal
uses of the maps and text in the program. While we create
programs like American History Atlas for your reference and
use, please respect the copyrights of those whose efforts have
gone into the maps and articles. You can find out more about
the fair use of maps and articles by checking out the help 
topic "Using Copyrighted Maps in your own Materials."


Program Copyrights

Articles labeled [GAHFF] are excerpts from:
The Great American History Fact-Finder copyright 1993 
by Ted Yanak and Pam Cornelison. Published by 
Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Articles labeled [EHP] are excerpts from:
Encyclopedia of Historic Places, Facts on File, 
copyright 1984, Courtlandt Canby. All rights reserved.

Articles labeled [BJUP] are excerpts from:
United States History for Christian Schools 
copyright 1991 Bob Jones University Press. All rights reserved.

Articles labeled [ENAIT] are excerpts from:
The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Tribes, 
copyright 1986 Bison Books. All rights reserved.

Articles labeled [PT] are copyright 1993, Parsons Technology, 
Inc. All rights reserved.

All maps are copyright 1993, Parsons Technology, Inc. All 
rights reserved.

