Help - Planetary Apprentice

Planetary Apprentice

-Help Page-

Contents:

Menu Commands:

	Miscellaneous:	Uninstalling	Creating Desktop Shortcuts
		Screen Resolutions	Color Settings

File

Print: Prints the current screen. Note: The screen will be printed with black text on a white background. Also, the header image is not printed, but is replaced with a text header. This is done to conserve printer ink.

Exit: Closes Planetary Apprentice.

Selecting a planet from the dropdown "planet" menu will display the properties of that planet. Shortcut keys are listed next to their corresponding planet in the "planet" dropdown menu. Example: Cntrl+E is the shortcut key for Earth. To use the shortcut key for Earth, simply hold down the "ctrl" key on your keyboard and press the letter "e".

Chart: Clicking on "Chart" will display a property comparative chart of all nine planets. Comes in handy when comparing the differences and similarities for two or more planets.

Conversion Tool: The conversion tool will convert a metric unit to an american unit. To use: simply enter the value you wish to convert, select a metric unit, then select an american unit to convert to. The value will be converted after you select an american unit. A more convenient way to convert metric properties is to simply click the property you wish to convert. When you click a metric property the Apprentice will automatically open the conversion tool, enter the value, and convert it for you.

Image Gallery: The Image Gallery is displayed using your web browser. To navigate the gallery, click the planet you wish to see and then click a thumbnail image to see a larger version of the image. The larger images are opened in a new window. To save an image to your computer, right click on the image and select "save picture as" (or something to that extent) and then choose the directory where you wish to copy the image to.

MS Notepad: Opens Microsoft Notepad. Handy if you want to make a note of something or reference a text file on your computer.

Customize Interface: Lets you customize the Apprentice's display by selecting the colors or fonts of your choice. Colors: Change the background or text colors. Clicking "Default Colors" will restore the original color settings. Fonts: Change the text fonts. Clicking "Default Fonts" will restore the original fonts.

Uninstalling

To uninstall Planetary Apprentice use windows add/remove programs. Start>Settings>Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs. Scroll down the programs list, click "Planetary Apprentice", and then click "Add/Remove". This is the proper way to remove the program from your computer.

Creating Desktop Shortcuts

If you would like to have a shortcut to Planetary Apprentice or the Image Gallery on your desktop do this: Open windows explorer and go to the directory where Planetary Apprentice was installed (default is c:\program files\planetary apprentice). Right click apprentice.exe and select "Send To>Desktop" or select "Create Shorcut" which will put the shortcut in the Planetary Apprentice folder. Just click and drag it from the folder to your desktop. Creating a shortcut to the Image Gallery uses the same procedure. Except right click "galleryhome.html".

Screen Resolutions

Planetary Apprentice is designed to work with different screen resolutions. If you're using 640x480 you may notice the text is a little squeezed. The program was designed for an 800x600 resolution, but will certainly adapt itself to other resolutions.

Color Settings

Planetary Apprentice looks best with a High Color (16 bit) or greater color setting. To change your computer's color setting, right-click anywhere on your desktop, select "properties" from the popup menu, then click the "settings" tab. Select High Color (16 bit) from the Colors dropdown menu and then click "Apply". Note: choosing a color setting greater than 16 bit will certainly not affect the Apprentice, but may slow your computer a little.