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Volume and Unlimited School-wide License Network Installation Instructions

System requirements

WordQ 2.7 or higher (free upgrades available for version 2 or higher)

To install and use WordQ 2.7 or higher, you need a minimum:

  • A Windows® PC with 500 MHz or higher processor speed
  • Windows® XP, Vista or Windows 7
  • 512 MB+ RAM
  • 200 MB+ of available hard disk space
  • Sound card and speakers or a headset

SpeakQ 1.7 or higher (free upgrades available online)

To install and use the SpeakQ plug-in, you need:

  • WordQ 2 software pre-installed
  • A Windows® PC with 1 GHz or higher processor speed (2+ GHz preferred)
  • Windows® XP, Vista or Windows 7
  • 1+ GB RAM
  • 200 MB+ of available hard disk space
  • Sound card, noise-canceling microphone (headset or desktop), and headset or desktop speakers.

Network and single station requirements/hardware configuration

WordQ/SpeakQ has been designed for individual workstations with single or multiple users. That is, only one user may run a single installation at a time. However, that copy of WordQ/ SpeakQ may open and run more than one user vocabulary file. There are no limits on the number of user vocabulary files used with one WordQ/SpeakQ installation. There are two typical methods for installing WordQ/SpeakQ:

  • Install WordQ/SpeakQ individually on each desktop.
  • Generally, most networked schools install WordQ and SpeakQ on the master image of a networked workstation that is locked down with DeepFreeze or similar program. In this situation, all user files (word prediction and speech recognition) are saved on a remote server in each user’s network workspace (User drive).

Network installation

Introduction

WordQ handles a user’s vocabulary and associated data files in one of two modes depending on the network environment. The default mode assumes a self-contained workstation with data files persisting across reboots. The second mode assumes that the user’s local data files will be deleted from the workstation after every reboot (e.g., with DeepFreeze). When operating in this mode, WordQ stores and retrieves data files from a specified location on a server instead of the local workstation. The instructions below cover the process of setting up this second mode.

Assumptions

  • Students’ data files are kept on a server, which is accessible from any workstation a student logs into.
  • Each student has a drive letter mapped to their directory on the server.
  • This drive letter is the same for each student. These instructions use j: as the mapped drive pointing to the student’s directory on the server.
  • All workstations are set up identically, with WordQ (and possibly SpeakQ) installed locally on each workstation. This is typically accomplished with a master workstation hard-disk image copied to all workstation hard-disk.
  • On each reboot, the workstation is restored to a preconfigured state with all user changes to the workstation lost.

Enabling server mode

  1. Run the registry editor on the master workstation and add a key called WordQ under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE.
  2. Add a string value called DefaultDirectory under the WordQ key.
  3. Enter the path to the users’ files on the server as the data in the DefaultDirectory entry (for example, j:\WordQ) with no quotes or trailing backslash.




  1. Exit the registry editor

Testing server mode

Once the path to the DefaultDirectory is added to the registry, WordQ will begin looking for its data files in that directory. The next time WordQ is run, the user should be presented with the “New User” wizard. After selecting a template for the new vocabulary, the “Save As” dialog box for the vocabulary should appear, pointing to the specified DefaultDirectory on the server. Give the vocabulary a name and click the “Save” button.


Two vocabulary files will be saved in the specified path:

  • The first file has the extension .wdq and contains the user’s basic vocabulary information and preferences. It is typically several hundred kilobytes.
  • The second file has the same name as the vocabulary but the extension .nwp. It is a larger file (~15 MB), containing a cache of word pair usage information. Both files are required for WordQ to work properly.

On exiting WordQ, the name of the active vocabulary will be stored in a hidden file called wordqmru.dat in the user’s directory on the server. During subsequent start-ups, WordQ looks for this hidden file to tell it what vocabulary to load on startup. If wordqmru.dat does not exist, the user will be prompted to create a new vocabulary through the “New User” wizard.

SpeakQ speech recognition profiles

If SpeakQ is also installed on the master workstation, each user will have the option of setting up speech recognition. However, speech recognition is not enabled by default because the speech recognition files are large and it would be wasteful to load them on startup if the user is using WordQ without speech recognition.

 

To test speech recognition in server mode, start WordQ and ensure that the user’s vocabulary loads from the server (which should happen automatically on startup). Open the Options>Speech Recognition settings from WordQ and set up a new speech recognition profile, following the instructions in the SpeakQ manual. On saving the vocabulary, the speech recognition files for this user should be automatically saved to the DefaultDirectory on the server. These files will appear in the directory as a .zip file with the same name as the speech recognition profile name.

 

The next time WordQ runs, it will check for a speech recognition profile with the specified name. If it finds this profile on the local workstation, it will use the local version instead of loading it from the .zip file on the server. If it does not find the profile, it will look for a .zip file with the specified name on the server and load the speech recognition profile contained there onto the workstation.

 

In the typical network situation, the workstation will be reset to a preconfigured state on each reboot, which means that any new speech recognition profiles that have been created for a student will be deleted. The profile storage/retrieval facility permits the user to reload his or her speech recognition profile onto the workstation even after it has been deleted from the workstation. This also permits the user to move from workstation to workstation and have the speech recognition profile automatically available on each new workstation.

 

Profile files are only transferred from the server if they are not found on the workstation because of their large size. As a result, users can exit and restart WordQ any number of times on the same workstation without having to retrieve their speech recognition profile from the server as long the profile is not deleted from the workstation (e.g., through a reboot).

 

After testing the speech recognition capabilities on the master workstation, the network administrator must delete any test speech recognition profiles before creating the master image. This deletion can be accomplished through the Windows control panel’s “Speech” applet.

Shifting between server mode and workstation mode

If the workstation is disconnected from the network between WordQ sessions (e.g., a laptop), WordQ will recognize that the user’s directory on the server is not available and revert back to the local workstation mode. Instead of looking for data files on the server, WordQ will either load the vocabulary that was active the last time it was run in local workstation mode, or prompt the user to create a new vocabulary through the “New User” wizard. If DeepFreeze or a similar utility is in use, however, this vocabulary and associated files will be deleted on each reboot, so this capability should be considered only as a temporary backup mode of operation for those situations where the user’s server files are not available.

Important notes for Network Administrators

  • WordQ/SpeakQ can only be installed by someone with Administration permissions.
  • WordQ/SpeakQ installs Microsoft SAPI files and Acapela text-to-speech (optional with WordQ 2) that create registry items on the local machine that are required for use.
  • SpeakQ REQUIRES WordQ 2 to be installed first.
  • There must be one copy of WordQ installed for each user. WordQ is not a client-server application.
  • During the WordQ/SpeakQ registration a registration file with the serial number is saved in the WordQ installation directory (e.g., c:\Program Files\WordQ). Thus, the serial number MUST be entered by the Administrator and not the end user who may not have permission to have this file created.
  • The end-user should have READ/WRITE permission on the WordQ installation directory (e.g., c:\Program Files\WordQ) and its subfolders so that user vocabularies can be saved. If this is not possible for network security, users require another location to save their user vocabularies – consider removable memory cards with at least 20MB of free space for users when no saving is permitted at all.
  • WordQ maintains the location of the last used user vocabulary in the local machine’s registry under: HKEY_CURRENT_USER>SOFTWARE>WordQ. Each logged-in user will have their unique user vocabulary and its saved location recorded in the registry. If this registry item is removed or not available due to security the user will be prompted to create a new user vocabulary, which they can ignore and subsequently load their own vocabulary from another location such as a memory card. Problems may arise if the network drive letter configuration changes and the registry references a drive letter that is no longer available.
  • For additional support, please visit http://www.wordq.com/support.html or email support@wordq.com