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Table Of Contents
Getting Started................................................................................................................................... 2
Requirements to Run TextWeaver................................................................................................ 2
Installing TextWeaver..................................................................................................................... 2
Starting TextWeaver...................................................................................................................... 2
Subscribing to a Course................................................................................................................ 3
Reading messages........................................................................................................................ 4
Different Views of the Message List............................................................................................ 6
Replying to a Message.................................................................................................................. 6
Creating a New Message............................................................................................................. 7
Weaving & Keywording..................................................................................................................... 8
Weaving Messages....................................................................................................................... 8
Weaving Shortcuts....................................................................................................................... 10
Keywording................................................................................................................................... 10
Keywording Shortcuts.................................................................................................................. 12
Viewing Keyworded Messages................................................................................................. 13
Removing Keywords.................................................................................................................... 14
Useful Features:............................................................................................................................... 15
Draft Messages............................................................................................................................ 15
Saving Messages in Files........................................................................................................... 16
Searching...................................................................................................................................... 18
More Information & Help.................................................................................................................. 20
TextWeaver Tutorial
Getting Started
Requirements to Run TextWeaver
In order to use TextWeaver you need a PC running Window 95, 98, NT 4.0, ME, 2000 or XP with Pentium 166 MHz or faster processor, at least 64 MB of RAM and 50 MB of free disk space and an Internet connection. You need only be connected to the Internet when you wish to send and receive messages. The 50 MB of disk space is required for a complete install of Java 1.4.
Later versions of TextWeaver will work on Macintosh computers running OS10.2. TextWeaver does run on Unix machines, but there is no installer program for Unix yet.
Installing TextWeaver
You need the installer program twSetupWinFull.exe which can be found on the TextWeaver install CD or on-line. Go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/textweaver/ to download the file twSetupWinFull.exe. As this is a large file downloading it over a modem connection is not recommended. To receive a CD contact the TextWeaver team at whitney@cs.sdsu.edu
To install TextWeaver double click on twSetupWinFull.exe. The installer program leads you through the installation process. You will be asked:
· Where on your hard drive to install TextWeaver
· Where to place icon shortcuts for TextWeaver
· Your name and email address
The name and email address you provide is used to identify you in messages you send with TextWeaver. You may place TextWeaver anywhere on your computer’s hard drive. However, our updater program for future updates works best when you install TextWeaver in the location it suggests. You should have the installer program place an icon in a convenient location for you. The installer will also place TextWeaver on the start menu if you select that option.
Starting TextWeaver
You start TextWeaver by double clicking on the TextWeaver icon that was created when you installed TextWeaver, or by selecting TextWeaver in the start menu.
Subscribing to a Course
TextWeaver uses a newsgroup server to exchange messages among the members of a course. Before you can use TextWeaver you must provide TextWeaver information about the server that holds the course to which you wish to subscribe. Make sure you are connected to the Internet and start TextWeaver. Select the “Subscribe to Courses…” item in the “Course” menu.
You will get a window asking for the name of the server. The test server which you will use unless otherwise instructed is “rugby.sdsu.edu”. This server requires passwords, so click on “The newsgroup server requires me to log on” and add the username “me” and the password “test”. This will allow you to use the course “textweaver.tests”. Click on the “Next” button to get a list of available courses. Select “textweaver.tests” and click on the “Subscribe” button. The textweaver.tests course allows people to practice using TextWeaver.
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Server Data Window |
Subscribe to Course Window |
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After you have subscribed to the textweaver.tests course the main TextWeaver window will display the course in the Organizer, the left part of the window.
Reading messages
Once you have subscribed to a course you can send messages to the course and read messages that have been sent to the course. The textweaver.tests course has a number of messages in it. In the organizer on the left side of the TextWeaver window you should see the textweaver.tests course in the tree list.
The course should have a “+” next to it. Clicking on the “+” will open the course and list the seminars in the course.
Seminars are used to organize separate discussions in a course. When you click on a “seminar” a list of messages in the seminar will be displayed in the message list pane (right side of the TextWeaver window). When you click on a message in the message list pane, the contents of the message show in the preview pane in the lower right part of the screen.
Different Views of the Message List
Like most email programs you can order the list of messages in different ways. The list of messages has seven columns labeled: N, R, F, From, Subject, Received.
Clicking on the header of a column sorts the messages based on that column. For example clicking on the “Subject” header will sort the messages by subject. Clicking the header a second time will sort the messages in the opposite order.
Meaning of the Column Headers
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N |
The (n)umber of the message in the course. Messages are numbered in each course starting from 1. Since courses can have several seminars, as a result messages in a seminar will not be consecutive. |
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R |
Indicates if the message has been (R)ead. |
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F |
Clicking in this column on a message (F)lags the message. This column allows you to mark or flag a message. |
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Received |
The date the message was received by the server. |
Replying to a Message
To reply to a message first select the message in the message list pane. Once a message is selected, you either click on the “Reply” button in the icon bar
or right click on the message in the message list pane and select “Reply” from the pop up menu.
The composer will open in the lower right part of the TextWeaver window.
You can type your response in the composer. To send the message click on the “Send” button in the composer. The “Close” button closes and deletes your message. The “Undock” button creates a floating composer window.
Creating a New Message
To create a new message select the course and seminar to which you want to send the message in the organizer. Then click on the “Message” icon in the icon bar.
The composer will open in the lower right part of the TextWeaver window. Enter a subject and the body of the message. When you are ready to send the message click on the “Send” button in the composer.
More Space
When you are composing messages you may find that some of the panes are too small. You can resize the panes. Move your mouse to the boundary between two panes and the mouse cursor will change to a double arrow. You can then click on the left mouse button and drag the boundary. You can also open the composer in a separate window by clicking on the “Undock” button in the composer.
Weaving & Keywording
Weaving Messages
Weaving is an advanced form of replying to a message. Weaving involves replying to multiple messages at one time. Weaving helps people connect their ideas and gain a sense of accomplishment by seeing a summary of their work together in the course.
Begin to weave by creating a new message in the composer. Then go to an existing message and select the text you wish to quote or include in your new message.
Select the “Copy Quote” item in the “Edit” menu.
Then go to the new message you are composing, place the cursor in the location you want to put the quoted text, and select the “Paste Quote” item in the “Edit” menu. The text you selected will be inserted in the new message. This text will be in blue, underlined and coming after the name of the author as seen below.
You can quote from as many messages as you like in your message. In this way you can comment on the ideas of different participants formulated in their own words. After you send the message, each quoted text will be a link to its original message. Readers can click on the text and TextWeaver will open the message from which you quoted.
Try this with a message and send it. When you receive the message from the server, you can try out the links in the message.
Weaving Shortcuts
You can use right clicking to weave text. In an existing message select text you wish to quote then press & release the right mouse button and select the “Copy Quote” menu item.
Go to the new message in which you wish to quote the text, press & release the right mouse button and select the “Paste Quote” menu item. The quoted text will be placed in the new message.
Keywording
Keywording is a way to index messages in a course. You can create a list of keywords and mark text with keywords as you read your messages. Later you can view all the messages that contain a given keyword.
To keyword a word in an existing message, select the word.
Then select the “Attach Keywords…” item in the “Keyword” menu.
You will get a window showing all the existing keywords for the current course. The first time you do this no keywords will exist. To create a keyword click on the “New…” button.
In the resulting dialog window enter the keyword you wish to create.
When you click on the “OK” button you will go back to the “Attach Keyword” window. You can select the keyword and click on the “Attach” button. The message will now be keyworded. The word you have selected to keyword will be highlighted in yellow. When you place your cursor over the highlighted word, the keyword for the word will be displayed.
Keywording Shortcuts
There are several shortcuts you can use when keywording. You can click the right mouse button in a message to get a pop-menu with an “Attach Keyword…” item. You then follow the same processes as above.
A second shortcut is to use the floating Keyword Window. In the icon bar click on the “Keyword Window” icon
This will open the “Keyword Window” that looks like:
You can now drag a keyword from the “Keyword Window” to a word in a message to mark it with the keyword.
A third method is to use the Keyword Tab in the Organizer. Click on the tab that reads “Keyword” in the bottom of the Organizer. This will bring up the Keyword Tab with your list of keywords for each course. You can drag and drop keywords from the Keyword Tab onto messages as you read.
Viewing Keyworded Messages
We keyword messages in order to review them later under headings that make sense to us and reflect our interests and needs. For example, you may wish to review all important references to a central topic in the course in preparation for taking a test or writing a paper. Reviewing keyworded messages is done in keyword view. In the lower left part of the TextWeaver screen click on the “Keyword” tab.
In the keyword view the organizer contains a tree view of the courses and keywords. If the keywords are not showing (as seen below) click on the “+” next to a course.
To see all messages in a course marked with a given keyword first select the keyword in the list in the organizer and then the select the “Review” item in the “Keyword” menu.
The list of messages will now only show messages containing the selected keyword. To review other keywords select the keyword and then select the “Review” item in the “Keyword” menu.
Removing Keywords
You can un-keyword a word. To do this place the cursor on the keyworded word in a message.
Then select the “Detach Keywords…” in the “Keyword” menu.
The keyword marker is removed from the message.
Keywording Phrases
Currently TextWeaver only allows you to mark individual words. If you wish to keyword a phrase or paragraph you need to select one word in the phrase to keyword.
Useful Features:
Draft Messages
You may sometimes wish to save a message you are composing in order to finish it later. To save a message as a draft, click on the “Save as Draft” icon in the icon bar.
The message will be placed in the drafts section of the course view.
To see your draft messages go the drafts section by clicking on “Draft” in the course view.
You will see the list of all your drafts. You can edit a draft by double clicking on it to open it in the Composer. To send a draft click on the “Send” button in the Composer. To delete a draft click on the “Close” button in the Composer.
Saving Messages in Files
TextWeaver allows you to save a message in a separate file. Files are not messages in a course. This can be useful for organizing material for later reuse. First we will create a new TextWeaver folder. To do this go to the File view by clicking on the “File” tab in the lower left part of the TextWeaver window.
Now select the “New Folder” item in the “File” menu.
A new subfile of “Files” will be created. You need to give it a name.
Type over the default name “New Folder”. For this example we will use the name “Useful Facts”
To end the edit of the file name, hit the “enter” key.
To add a message to the file “Useful Facts”, go to the course view by clicking on the “Course” pane in the lower left part of the window. Select a message you wish to add to the file. Once you have selected the message click on the “Save as File” icon in the icon bar.
In the “Select a folder” window select the file you wish to add the message to, then click on the “OK” button.
Searching
TextWeaver allows you to search for text in messages. To search multiple messages select the “Advance Find” item in the “Tools” menu.
In the “Advanced Find” window enter what you wish to find. If “Search contents” is not selected only the headers of the messages will be searched.
You can select which set of message to search in the “Look In:” line.
Clicking on the “Find” button will search for the message. You will get a list of message that meets your criteria. To view one of the messages you double click on the message title.
Messages and Being On-line
Each time you connect to the server all the messages in the courses you subscribed to are downloaded onto your computer. Once the messages are downloaded you can disconnect from the Internet. When you are disconnected you can read the messages and compose new messages. While disconnected from the Internet messages you send are stored in the outbox. When you connect to the Internet the messages in the outbox will be sent automatically
More Information & Help
For more information about Textweaver see http://www.textweaver.org. If you have questions that are not answered by this tutorial or Textweaver’s help (see the help menu) contact Roger Whitney at whitney@cs.sdsu.edu.