Translating the Latin passage into English

The Translation Box

Below you can see the bottom of the main screen:

This is the Translation Box where you can type your translation of the Latin passage as you go along. (The Escape Key lets you flip smoothly from the Passage Box to the Translation Box and back again without using your mouse.) The three screen buttons to the right function as follows:

	Clicking the QSave Button allows you to save your translation. The program requests your name and initials and automatically composes a name for your translation file behind the scenes with no fuss. Different members of a class can log on and save their work without muddling one translation with another.
	The QLoad Button allows lets you re-load your translation of the Latin passage on screen. Once again, you need to log on with your name and initials so that the right translation file is loaded.
	The Clear Button clears the Translation Box so that the student you can start again. A warning to save is displayed before the translation shown is consigned to eternity!

It is vital for the sake of saving and retrieving translations that the program knows your name and initials, and will request this information using the following dialogue box:

Once the program knows who you are it displays your name prominently above the Translation Box. Now, it can find your old translations and save your new ones. How does it know which Latin translation to find from all those you have produced? It will find the translation corresponding to the Latin passage currently on view in the Passage Box. Therefore, you must always open the matching Latin passage before retrieving your translation.

Problem: what happens when a different student sits down at the computer?

If a different person takes your place at the computer, how does the program know the user has changed? Well, it doesn’t—unless you tell it! However, once you have given your name and initials, they are displayed clearly on the screen above the Translation Box, so this should remind the new user to update the user details. How? Go up to the File Menu and click on Change User Details. The User Information dialogue reappears and the new surname and initials can be entered, whereupon they replace the previous user’s name and initials above the Translation Box.

Printing your translation

You can easily print your translation by going up to the File Menu and clicking on Print Translation. The translation is printed out together with the translator’s name and Statistics detailing all the help you have received from the program in the course of translation. This will enable the teacher to keep a check on the way the program’s facilities have been used. (Has this student under-used the help available? Has there been too great a reliance on the English or Analysis Button?)