Pantone 2756 ® ® © VTECH Printed in China 91-01471-000
Dear Parent: At VTech ® we know that a child has the ability to do great things. That’s why all of our electronic learning products are uniquely designed to develop a child’s mind and allow them to learn to the best of their ability. Whether it’s learning about letters, numbers, geography or algebra, all VTech ® learning products incorporate advanced technologies and extensive curriculum to encourage children of all ages to reach their potential.
Copyright Notices Copyright © 2001 VTech® Industries, LLC All Rights Reserved. VTech® and the VTech® Logo are registered trademarks of VTech®. Power Zone™ is a trademark of VTech® Industries, LLC. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability VTech® Industries, LLC and its suppliers assume no responsibility for any damage or loss resulting from the use of this handbook.
“This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).” Alternately, this acknowledgment may appear in the software itself, if and wherever such third-party acknowledgments normally appear. 4. The names “Xerces” and “Apache Software Foundation” must not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without prior written permission. For written permission, please contact apache@apache.org. 5.
Contents Chapter 1.Introduction ........................................................................ 1 Chapter 2.What’s Included .................................................................. 2 Chapter 3.Setup .................................................................................. 2 Power Source .............................................................................. 2 Battery Installation ...................................................................... 2 Battery Notice ......
Word Games ............................................................................. 14 Spelling ................................................................................ 14 Analogies ............................................................................. 14 Idioms .................................................................................. 14 Sentence Shuffle ................................................................... 14 Sound Alike ...........................................
Golf ...................................................................................... 18 Picture Parts .......................................................................... 18 Typing Challenge .................................................................. 18 Clue Counter ........................................................................ 18 Challenge ................................................................................. 19 Mind Challenge .......................................
The Mailbox .......................................................................... 35 The Menu Bar ....................................................................... 35 Using the Menu Bar .............................................................. 35 Viewing Additional Menus .................................................... 35 Writing E-mail ....................................................................... 35 Saving E-mail as a Draft .....................................................
Chapter 1.Introduction Thank you for purchasing the VTech® Power Zone™ Plus Notebook learning product! We at VTech® are committed to providing the highest quality products to entertain and educate your children. Should you have any questions or concerns, please call our Consumer Services Department at 1-800-521-2010 in the U.S. or 1-800-267-7377 in Canada. The VTech® Power Zone™ Plus Notebook is an electronic learning aid or ELA.
Chapter 2.What’s Included 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Power Zone™ Plus Notebook learning product Vibrating mouse Mouse pad Sync Cable VTech® Desktop Software CD-ROM Instruction Manual Chapter 3.Setup Power Source Power Zone™ Plus Notebook operates on 4 “AA” size batteries (UM-3/LR6) 300mA AC center-positive (sold (sold separately) or a 9V Adaptor separately).
Backup Battery Installation Power Zone™ Plus Notebook comes installed with a backup battery. To avoid damage to Power Zone™ Plus Notebook from leaky batteries, replace the backup battery at least once a year. Should find that you need to replace the backup battery, follow the instructions below. 1. Make sure Power Zone™ Plus Notebook is turned OFF. 2. Locate the backup battery cover on the bottom of Power Zone™ Plus Notebook and open it. 3. Use a screwdriver to unscrew the cover. 4.
Vibrating Mouse Connection The vibrating mouse adds a new dimension of fun to the Power Zone™ Plus Notebook. To optimize the vibration effect, we recommend that you use the mouse pad when using the vibrating mouse. 1. Make sure Power Zone™ Plus Notebook is OFF. 2. Locate the mouse jack on the right side of Power Zone™ Plus Notebook. 3. Plug the mouse into Power Zone™ Plus Notebook’s mouse jack. 4. Turn Power Zone™ Plus Notebook ON.
Important! VTech® Desktop Software is compatible only with the Power Zone™ Plus learning products. VTech® Desktop Software is not compatible with any other VTech learning product. For additional information about using the VTech® Desktop Software, open the VTech® Desktop Software, and then choose Desktop Help from the Help menu.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Insert the VTech® Desktop Software CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive on your computer. Setup should start automatically. If Setup does not begin automatically, on the Windows Start menu, click Run, and then type d:\autorun\autorun, where d is the letter assigned to the CD-ROM drive containing the VTech® Desktop Software CD-ROM. Follow the instructions on your PC screen. A menu will be shown. Select VTECH DESKTOP SOFTWARE from the menu and then follow the instructions on your PC screen.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. If Setup does not begin automatically, on the Windows Start menu, click Run, and then type d:\autorun\autorun, where d is the letter assigned to the CD-ROM drive containing the VTech® Desktop Software CD-ROM. A setup menu will be shown. Select the application you want to install. Follow the on-screen instructions. Click FINISH to complete the installation. You may be prompted to restart your computer.
Chapter 4.Mouse, Keyboard and Cursor Control Vibrating Mouse The vibrating mouse adds a new dimension of fun to the Power Zone™ Plus Notebook. To optimize the vibration effect, we recommend you to use a mouse pad when using the vibrating mouse. To turn the vibrating function off, go to the OPTIONS menu. To use the mouse, push it in the direction that you would like the pointer on-screen to move. To move the pointer to the right side of the screen, push the mouse to the right.
Power Button POWER Turn ON your Power Zone™ Plus Notebook learning aid by pressing the POWER button on the category selector. Turn Power Zone™ Plus Notebook OFF by pressing the POWER button again. Speed Scroller The Speed Scroller is used to scroll the screen up and down. When you press the Speed Scroller, it performs the same function as pressing ENTER on the keyboard. Keyboard The VTech® Power Zone™ Plus Notebook learning aid has a full alphanumeric keyboard with 65 keys.
Caps Lock key Press this key to make everything you type appear in capital letters without having to press the Shift key each time. Press once to activate this key. Press it again to release it. Caps Lock Repeat key Press this key to repeat the instruction and the question. Repeat Answer key Press this key to find the correct answer to a question. You will not receive points if this key is pressed. Answer Important! In the 2-player mode, this key cannot be used during player one’s turn.
Space bar When typing, use this key to insert a space between words or numbers. Space Player 1 Help Player 2 End Player 1/player 2 keys Press this key to select player 1 or player 2 to get the chance to answer the question first in the activities that have a 2-player mode. Categories There are 52 activities divided into four categories, they are Training, Entertainment, Challenge and Tools. There is a download category as well for you to access activities downloaded from your PC .
Options 1. File Manager File Manager allows you to view the files on the Power Zone™ Plus Notebook or RAM Smart Card (sold separately). The File Manager allows you to move and copy files between the Power Zone™ Plus Notebook and a RAM Smart Card. You can open a file or start a downloaded activity in File Manager. You can also rename files or delete files. Important! Formatting a RAM Smart Card will permanently erase all data stored in the card.
Activities with Levels and 2-Player Mode ACTIVITY All Word Games All Math Games All Trivia Games All Homework Lab Clue Counter Quick Guess Golf Game Lab Test 1 Lab Test 2 Typing Challenge Domino Crisis Picture Parts Memory Block All Challenge Games All Tools LEVEL 1-4 1-4 1-4 NO 1-4 NO 1-4 NO NO 1-4 1-4 NO 1-4 NO NO 2-PLAYER MODE YES YES YES YES NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO Status Indicators Most activities have two status indicators that appear on screen.
Manual Navigation Activities are divided into Word Games, Math Games, Trivia Games and Homework Lab. You can choose the activity you want to play. Important! The default setting is Auto-Navigation.To change the default mode, go to the Options screen, then select the Auto/Manual option. Word Games Spelling An animation of a word and a clue letter will appear on screen. Guess the word, type the word correctly, and then press ENTER. Analogies A sentence will be displayed with one word missing.
Sound Alike A sentence will be displayed with one word missing. Two words with the same pronunciation will scroll across the bottom of the screen. Select the word that fits the meaning of the sentence. When the correct answer appears on screen, press ENTER. Antonyms A word will be shown. Use the clues to guess the word that has the opposite meaning of the given word. Type the word, and then press ENTER. Synonyms A word will be shown.
Division A division problem will appear on screen. Input the correct answer using the number keys, and then press the ENTER key. Press the FLIP button on the keyboard or click the Flip icon on screen to switch the equation between vertical and horizontal format. Basic Math Fun An addition, subtraction, multiplication or division problem will appear on screen. Input the correct answer using the number keys, and then press the ENTER key.
Geography This challenging trivia game tests your knowledge of Geography. Pick the correct answer from the choices given. When the correct answer appears on screen, press ENTER. History This challenging trivia game tests your knowledge on World History. Pick the correct answer from the choices given. When the correct answer appears on screen, press ENTER. Strange Trivia This game tests your knowledge of a variety of strange and mysterious events. Pick the correct answer from the choices given.
Domino Crisis Place flying domino numbers together. To clear domino numbers, like numbers have to be placed together in an amount equal to the domino. For example: To clear a domino with the number two, you have to place two dominoes with the number two together. To clear a domino with the number three, you have to place three dominoes with the number three together. Move the dominoes up and down by pressing Up and Down. Hold the Right arrow key to make the dominoes move faster.
Challenge Mind Challenge These challenging problems require you to think in new ways. Choose the correct answer in the test. Pick the correct answer from the choices given. When the correct answer appears on screen, press ENTER. BioRhythm Enter your birthday to see how your days look ahead. Will you have a lot of energy? Will you be able to concentrate? To see the graphs for each state, click the corresponding icon. To see an explanation, click the “?” icon.
Money Manager This application helps you learn the basics of money management. With Money Manager, you can track your money transactions. The Money Manager activity has four functions: New, Edit, Delete and Print. Icons that appear along the top left corner of the screen represent these functions. New lets you create new transactions. Edit allows you to edit the existing transactions. Delete allows you to erase transactions. Print lets you print transactions.
Edit Copy Copy a block of text Cut Cut a block of text Paste Paste a block of text Most simple editing can be accomplished by using the Backspace and the Del/Ins keys. When you need to change larger sections or blocks of text, use the block editing features. The EDIT menu is for editing blocks of text. Defining a Block The first step in block editing is to define a block of text.
Font Regular Define a block of text and select Regular from the FONT menu. The font of the text will be changed to Regular. Bold Define a block of text and select Bold from the FONT menu. The font of the text will be changed to Bold. Italic Define a block of text and select Italic from the FONT menu. The font of the text will be changed to Italic. Clip Art Picture Select Picture from the CLIP ART menu to view a list of pictures.
Help ShortCut Key Table File New Open Save Delete Ctrl + N Ctrl + O Ctrl + S Ctrl + L Edit Copy Cut Paste Ctrl + C Ctrl + X Ctrl + V Tools Symbols Ctrl + Y Fonts Regular Bold Italic Ctrl + D Ctrl + G Ctrl + I Clip Art Picture Border Ctrl + M Ctrl + B Print Print Ctrl + P Test Trainer In this activity you can create your own quizzes. Input your own questions and answers in DATA mode. Go to TEST mode to quiz yourself on the questions you have entered.
Logo is a programming language that can be used to teach your PC to do some new things. One thing Logo can teach your PC is how to draw pictures. This system of drawing is called Turtle Graphics. To view the built-in samples divided into Logo Beginner, Logo Intermediate & Logo Advanced, click Example icon. Commands Instructions to the Turtle are called commands. Each command begins with a key word telling the Turtle what to do.
Drawing a square consists of going forward and turning right four times. This can be written more concisely using a repeat command: to square repeat 4 [forward 10 right 90] end The repeat command has two sets of additional information or input - a number indicating the number of times to repeat the command (“4”) and the list of commands to be repeated “[forward 10 right 90]”. Once this routine is defined, one need only to write “square” and Logo will draw a 10-step square at the current Turtle location.
Variables Logo can interpret a string of characters in four ways: 1. Numeric value The strings “123” and “25.6” are recognized as numeric values. 2. Command The strings “square” and “triangle”, when created in the routines defined above, are recognized as commands. 3. Text To print the word “house”, if one writes print house, Logo sees the word “house” as a command. To enable Logo to treat the word “house” as text, there must be double quote marks placed immediately before it.
home clearscreen (cs) xcor ycor heading turtlestate (ts) wrap window fence move the turtle to the center of the screen, points the turtle straight up (HEADING 0), but does not clear the graphics screen or alter the pen state. erase the graphics screen, returns the turtle to the center of the screen, and sets the turtle’s heading to 0. CLEARSCREEN does not affect the pen state or screen colors. output the X coordinate of the turtle. output the Y coordinate of the turtle. output the turtle’s degree.
random n remainder mn round n sin sqrt sum n n mn 3. Word & List Commands first n last n butfirst (bf) n butlast (bl) n word mn sentence (se) list mn mn firstput (fput) mn lastput (lput) mn 4. Logical Commands and mn not n or mn output a randomly selected number from 0 through its input. output an integer which is the remainder of dividing the first input by the second. output the number rounded to the nearest integer. output the sine of its input.
5. Other Commands edit n load n save n open n close print type n n n thing n pause wait n readchar (rc) readword (rw) readlist (rl) cleartext pots (ct) erase (er) eraseall (erall) n enter the Logo editor and open an edit window. transfers the contents of the file specified by its input from the disk to the workspace. save the contents of the workspace to a file on the disk. open a device. If the specified file or device does not exist, OPEN outputs FALSE. close a device.
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Spanish Translator This activity will help you learn Spanish phrases and vocabulary words. You will be introduced to simple Spanish words and phrases. Spell Checker This activity is used to check the correct spelling of words. Type a word you want to check and press ENTER. If the word is spelled correctly, Power Zone™ Plus Notebook will advise you that the word is correct. If the word is spelled incorrectly, Power Zone™ Plus Notebook will offer you a suggested list of words.
Important! The E-mail application only supports text E-mail messages. You cannot receive or send any attachments or graphics. Important! If a Memory Smart Card is inserted into the Smart Card Slot, all messages will be saved to the Memory Smart Card. To save messages to the main unit, remove any Smart Card from the Smart Card Slot. Using E-mail The Power Zone™ Plus Notebook can send and receive E-mail through two methods. The first method is through a VTech® Modem (sold separately).
First-Time Users: Configuring the Power Zone™ E-Mail Application Important! The Power Zone™ Plus Notebook E-mail application and VTech® Desktop Software E-mail Agent are compatible only with POP3/SMTP E-mail accounts. The E-mail application is not compatible with web-based E-mail accounts. If you are not sure what type of E-mail account you have please contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or the provider of your e-mail service. 1.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. You can write E-mail messages on your Power Zone™ Plus Notebook. Place all completed E-mail messages in the Power Zone™ Plus Notebook’s Outbox. Make sure the VTech® Desktop Software is properly installed and running on your Internet-connected computer. See the section, Installing the VTech® Desktop Software for additional information. Make sure the VTech® E-mail Agent is properly installed and configured, and running on your Internet-connected computer.
• • • Your E-mail password Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Incoming Mail (POP3) After configuring the Power Zone™ E-mail application and VTech® Desktop Software E-mail Agent, you can begin writing E-mail. See the section, Using the Power Zone™ E-mail Application for additional information. Using the Power Zone™ E-mail Application The Mailbox When you enter the Power Zone™ E-mail application, you will see your Mailbox. Your Mailbox is divided into three smaller boxes: Inbox, Outbox and Draftbox.
4. The next field to appear is the cc field. In this field, you can enter additional E-mail addresses where you would like the message sent. Click on the cc button at the left-hand side of the screen to enter an E-mail address. If you do not want to send your message to additional E-mail addresses, you can leave this field blank. To continue, press the TAB key on the keyboard. 5. The next field to appear is the Subject field. In this field, you can enter the topic of your message.
Sending and Getting E-Mail with the VTech® Desktop Software E-mail Agent 1. Make sure your Power Zone™ Plus Notebook is properly connected to your computer. 2. Make sure the VTech® Desktop Software E-mail Agent is properly configured with the correct POP3/SMTP E-mail account information, and the Sync action is set to "Enable". 3. Make sure your computer is turned on and connected to the Internet. 4. Make sure the Sync Manager is running. 5. Press Sync button on the Power Zone™ Plus Notebook. 6.
Deleting E-mail 1. Click on the message you want to delete. 2. From the Message menu, click on Delete to permanently erase the message. Editing a Draft E-mail 1. Go to the Draftbox. 2. Click on the message you want to edit. 3. Select Edit icon on the menu if you want to modify the content of the mail. Importing E-mail from the Power Zone™ Word Processor You can easily transfer a copy of a Power Zone™ word processor file into the Power Zone™ E-mail application. 1. Create a new message or open a saved draft.
4. 5. 6. 7. To add the E-mail address to the To field, click on the OK button. To browse through E-mail addresses, click on the left and right arrows near the top right-hand side of the screen. The numbers displayed show the number of the current address entry and the total number of address entries in your Address Book. To search for an E-mail address, click on the Search box. Type in the E-mail address of the person whose E-mail address you are searching for, and then press ENTER.
1. 2. 3. When you first open the E-mail application, click on the Menu Switch icon at the top right-hand side of the screen to change the menus and locate the Tools menu. From the Tools menu, click on Memory. Press ENTER or click on the Exit button to exit the Memory screen. Important! An E-mail may not be able to be received if it is too large in size. Chapter 8. VTech® Desktop Software VTech® Desktop Software shares information with the select applications on your Power Zone™ Plus Notebook.
Sync The process of connecting Power Zone™ Plus Notebook to your computer and pressing the Sync button is called, “Syncing”. Sync exchanges and updates information between your Power Zone™ Plus Notebook and VTech® Desktop Software. Changes you make on your Power Zone™ Plus Notebook or VTech® Desktop Software will appear in both places after a Sync process. For example, if you changed records in your Power Zone™ Plus Notebook, after Sync, these changes will update the related records in your computer.
Before adding new activities, make sure: • Power Zone™ Plus Notebook is properly connected to your computer using the Sync cable • Sync Manager is running • All other programs sharing the COM port with the Sync Manager should be closed. • Memory available in the Power Zone™ Plus Notebook 1. Open the VTech® Desktop Software and login to your account. 2. On the VTech® Desktop Software screen, click on the File Transfer button. 3. In the File Transfer screen, there are two tabs, Download and Upload.
Uploading Files From Power Zone™ Plus Notebook to Your Computer You can store your Power Zone™ Plus Notebook files on your computer. This is called “backing up” your files. The process of sending files from your Power Zone™ Plus Notebook to your computer is called, “uploading” . This section explains how to “upload” files from your Power Zone™ Plus Notebook to your computer. Uploading Files onto Your PC 1. Make sure your Power Zone™ Plus Notebook is properly connected to your computer using the sync cable.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The power cable is not plugged into the electrical outlet properly. The printer cable is not securely connected between the printer and Power Zone™ Plus Notebook. The printer is not turned ON. The paper has jammed in the printer. The printer has run out of paper. The paper did not feed in time. Technical Support Creating and developing electronic learning aids is accompanied by a responsibility that we at VTech® take very seriously.
FCC Notice This equipment generates and uses radio frequency energy and if not installed and used properly, that is, in strict accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, it may cause interference to radio and television reception. It has been type tested and found to comply within the limits for a Class B computing device in accordance with the specifications in Subpart J of Part 15 FCC Rules, which are designed to provide reasonable protection against such interference in a residential installation.
