========================= Tips for Using Answerpad ========================= INSTALLING ANSWERPAD: - Place the Answerpad folder and it's contents

anywhere on your system such as i n "My Documents" etc. Answerpad is a simple non-intrusive program that requires no special installation and is easy on your system resources, simply open the fo lder and click on the exe file to run Answerpad (file with the book icon). You c an also create a shortcut of the .exe file to your desktop for easier access. The first time you start Answerpad you will need to make some basic settings eit her from the "Command" menu or by asking Answerpad to do it for you. Most option settings that you select will remain the default even after exiting for the nex t time you use Answerpad. NOTE: In order to use MS Agent or DesktopMates characters with Answerpad you must have the required MS Agent components installed on your system. If you have any prob lems Enabling MSAgent or bringing up the MS Agent character selection window wit h Answerpad, try installing the required components from here ... http://desktop mates.com/agentdownloads.html ================================================================================ ===== ENABLING MSAGENT: - Either choose "Enable Microsoft Agent" from the Command Menu or type "enable a gents". ================================================================================ ===== SELECT OR CHANGE CHARACTER: - Either choose "Select Agent Character" from the Command Menu or type "select a gent". ================================================================================ ===== CHANGING VOICES: You can select any SAPI 4 voices you have installed. In order to select SAPI 4 v oices to use with your DesktopMates character you must first "Enable Microsoft A gent" from the Command Menu or type "enable agents". Once you have Microsoft Age nt enabled, go to menu and select commands and then "Select Voice", a window wil l popup displaying the voices you have installed. Be sure SAPI4 button is select ed. ================================================================================ ===== ENABLING OPTIONAL SPEECH RECOGNITION: - Either choose "Enable speech recognition" from the Command Menu or type "enabl e speech recognition".

Note: If you want to use speech recognition you will need to install the Microso ft Speech Recognition Engine which provides speech input capabilities for Microsoft Agent characters which allows you to speak to your character instead of typing. You can download this utility from our MS Agent download page http://desktopmat es.com/agentdownloads.html Microsoft's speech recognition engine is only available in U.S. English. A cert ain amount of voice training is required and a decent headset is also highly rec ommended to filter out background noises. Other third party speech recognition p rograms may also work but we have not personally tested any others with Answerpa d. SOME IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT USING SPEECH RECOGNITION: Speech recognition isn't a real effective means for teaching response commands, most teaching should be typed in as text. Speech recognition is ok for general c hat purposes and it will learn general info from conversations but not as effect ively as typing. Microsoft's free speech recognition program is ok but it also i sn't the best or most effective speech recognition solution available, but it is free and a good entry level starter program into speech recognition but if you want something more effective you'll have to look into using something a bit mor e high end like Dragon Naturally Speaking etc. It's also important to spend a fair amount of time training your voice, especial ly with Microsoft's free speech recognition program. The speech recognition engi ne needs to be "TRAINED" to your voice patterns and pitch etc. and also because people pronounce many words quite differently. Training for speech recognition c onsists of reading text shown on your screen into your microphone. As more text is read, the speech input engine learns more about your particular voice pattern s, a total of 5 hours is the recommended average, but doesn't need to be done al l in one sitting. It's also important to use a decent headset that filters background noises, usin g a standard mic or poor headsets can cause the program not to be able to unders tand everything your saying. For more detailed info about speech recognition refer to this page ... http://ww w.desktopmates.com/speech.html ================================================================================ ===== SWEAR FILTER: Choose "Feel free to swear" from the Command Menu. To stop swearing change back to "Do not swear" from the Command Menu. ================================================================================ ===== OPENING OR STARTING PROGRAMS: Answerpad should be able to open most basic programs on your system but there ar e some programs it may not be able to open, just depends where it's located and on how the program's dll's or registeries are implemented into your system. Answerpad can't automatically find or determine where all the programs are locat

ed on your system, there are many different types of systems with different dire ctory trees and paths where programs are stored, for example Wordpad isn't locat ed in the same directory path on Win98, XP or WindowsMe. On XP it's usually located here ... C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories\wordpad.exe If your using XP try copying and pasting the following statement into Answerpad ... --------------------------------------------------If somebody says "Run wordpad" then run program C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories\wordpad.exe --------------------------------------------------... then click "Enter" ... then type into Answerpad ... run wordpad ... this sho uld now open the program Wordpad. Most paths to programs are easy to manually locate on your system by just going here ... C:\Program Files\ ... and then find the folder for the program you wan t and then locate the application exe file and add the name of the program to wh at you see in the address bar. For example if your looking for a game called Inv aders, once your in the Invaders folder where the exe file is located you'll the n see something like this in your address bar ... C:\Program Files\Invaders ... now you just add the name of the exe file to the path seen in your address bar \Invaders.exe Don't forget to add the final back slash in front of the file name so it looks l ike this ... C:\Program Files\Invaders\Invaders.exe Some programs are more difficult to locate on some systems, if you can't find th e program use your system search and type in something like .... Invaders.* (t he dot after the name with an asterisk will help narrow the search down to only files with that name and that have a file extension such .exe) Just make sure you give Answerpad the correct full path to the program your want ing to open, such as C:\Program Files\Invaders\Invaders.exe, etc. Then provide a response statement to Answerpad similar to this .... If somebody says "Run Inva ders" then run program C:\Program Files\Invaders\Invaders.exe (be sure to inclu de the quotations in the response statement as to what will be said to trigger a response to run the program, for example in the above statement ... "Run Invade rs" is the term with quotations). "Run Invaders" will then become the trigger response to open the program. (quota tions aren't required when asking to run the program, they are only required whe n providing the initial statement). Test it and once it successfully runs the program be sure to "save memory" befor e exiting or it will not be stored into Answerpad's database for future referenc e. ================================================================================ ===== DISPLAYING TEXT OF CONVERSATIONS: By default answerpad does not display text of the conversion, however if you wan t to display the text of the conversion click "Commands" from the menu and selec t "Show recent messages", this will bring up another window which displays the t ext of the conversion you've had during the chat session, if you want you can le ave this window open during your conversion session and it will display text of

the conversion as it's taking place. Just like any window you can resize it and place it anywhere you want on your desktop so it's view isn't obstructed by the character and where it's the most convenient for you to view. ================================================================================ ===== SAVING YOUR CONVERSATIONS: When talking or teaching things to Answerpad, make sure you save the memory befo re quitting the program or Answepad will not remember anything you said to it du ring your conversation session. To save choose "Save memory" or "Save memory and exit" from the "File" menu, or alternately simply ask Answerpad to "Save Memory ". Use this wisely, typically you only want to save memory when you are teaching it new relevant information, it's not wise to save just regular blabber chat se ssions as your Memory.txt will become huge and bloated with useless information that the program must search through, which will eventually increase the amount of irrelevant and strange responses you will get. ================================================================================ ===== EXITING OPTIONS: To exit Answerpad you can use any of the following options. - Click the "X" like you would to close any window (be sure to save memory first ). - Choose "Save memory and exit" from the "File" menu. - Choose "Exit withot saving memory" from the "File" menu. - Simply ask by typing or saying "Exit" or "Shutdown" (be sure to save memory fi rst). ================================================================================ ===== ADVANCED FEATURE FOR SPECIFYING ANIMATION TRIGGERS: Answerpad Plus also allows you to specify certain words or phrases that will tri gger a specified animation. We have included a sample file for the Rick characte r located the Answerpad directory folder ... "rick anims.txt". You can use this txt file as a template to create and structure a file for each DesktopMates char acter you have installed. Answerpad Plus searches for "charactername anims.txt" when it first loads and/or when you change characters. When you create and name a new file make sure they're done exactly as the one provided ... charactername <SPACE>anims.txt (be sure to leave a space between the character's name and anim s.txt). The top portion of the txt file lists the character's available animations which are handled internally. The bottom portion allows you to specify up to 100 diff erent words or phrases that will trigger the animation you specify. You'll have to play around and experiment with this feature until you get it functioning the way you want.

For reference purposes there's also a list of Rick's available animations provid ed in the Answerpad directory folder. Animation lists for each DesktopMates char acter is available on their gallery page on our site which you can view and copy and save into a text file if you wish to have it for reference purposes (look f or the animation list button on the character's gallery page). ================================================================================ ===== CREATING MULTIPLE BRAIN PERSONALITIES FOR DESKTOPMATES MSAGENT CHARACTERS: Answerpad Plus also allows you to create multiple brain personalities. You can h ave a different brain for each DesktopMates character you have installed. To create another brain follow these steps ... 1. Create a folder and name it the same as your new DesktopMates character (such as ... Lynda). 2. Open the "Rick" folder and copy all the files and paste them into your new ch aracter folder (example ... Lynda). 3. Using notepad, open the file in your new character folder named "Options.Cfg" and then locate and edit the following: BotName=Rick <-- change the name of the character. UserName=Dennis <-- change this to the name you want to be called. AgentName=C:\WINDOWS\msagent\chars\Rick.acs <-- change the name of the char acter file (example ... Lynda.acs) NOTE: You can edit whatever info you want in the "Memory.Txt", just be sure to l eave the top line as is ... ** 34563 **. (this tells Answerpad to reference the character's name). To use and switch Characters and brain personalities, go to "MENU" => "FILE" => "CHANGE BOT", a window will appear allowing you to select the character you want which will load the character as well as it's brain. ================================================================================ ===== FINAL NOTES: Sometimes you'll have to experiment with using various statements and terms in o rder for Answerpad to grasp what you want it to learn or remember, as with all A I programs it's important to use clear, simple, short and concise terms. Try rea ding our tutorial about teaching the Ultra Hal AI program, some of the tips ther e should be useful even when using Answerpad http://www.desktopmates.com/AI/lear n.html Most AI programs come raw with limited knowledge and responses so you can teach it and develop it into your own custom personality that contains relevant info a nd knowledge that suits you. In the beginning it can often be a bit frustrating grasping how it learns and the best terms or statements to use to teach it, but it gets easier over time and it will eventually begin to learn and better distin guish how you use certain terms and statements. ================================================================================ ===== DISCLAIMER: Answerpad is provided free for personal use only and was orginally created by Da

vid Whalley who reserves all copyrights. Answerpad Plus has been enhanced by other developers including DesktopMates.com Since Answerpad Plus is provided as a free program, it's provided "As Is" with n o warranties and with minimal support provided by DesktopMates.com