Summary

If you have any problems with these installation instructions, ask a question via the message board.

You will be able to do this if you know how to download files and how to choose folders where the files should go.

Don't worry if you haven't done an installation before. It's not difficult, though there's a number of steps, so details of the steps are provided on this page. Print out the page if possible, to save you going backwards and forwards between screens when you are doing the installation.
First, here's a summary of what you will do to set up the WhatBot. Microsoft provides a product called .Net Framework which this program uses. The Framework might already be on your computer or you might need to download it from the Microsoft website. This will be handled as part of the installation process.

Note that there are differences in exactly what you see between different versions of Windows. Also, between Internet Explorer and Firefox. And your computer might not display the final part of the filename. It might omit endings such as .zip or .exe.

Before you start, decide which folder you will put the downloads into. You can either create a folder for this, with a meaningful name such as 'Downloads' or use an existing one such as the 'Downloads' folder on Vista, or 'My Downloads' on XP.

Now read the detail of these steps below.

Downloading the WhatBot program

You can download the latest WhatBot program from here. You will usually see a choice to Open the file or save it to disc. Choose Save (to disc), not Open. This will download a file called "WhatBotsJun08.zip" onto your PC.

Installing the WhatBot

The WhatBotsJun08.zip file you have just downloaded is a zip file - a compressed file - and it contains several other files/folders. To install the WhatBot, you first extract the files and folders.

If you are using XP or Vista, Windows will be able to extract the individual files and folders from the compressed file. To do this, navigate to the downloads location (use Computer/My Computer or Windows Explorer or Recent Items or Downloads). Find the zip file and right-click on it. On Windows XP and Vista, this will show you a menu - the choice you want is "Extract All".

Older Windows systems may need an extra program such as 7-Zip (Open source, No charge software), WinZip or similar to extract the files. (Do an internet search for this or a similar program if you don't already have one on your computer)

The files extracted include two 'setup' files - one called setup.exe and another called setup.ini. Click on 'setup.exe' to start the installation; if you can see two files called 'setup' but your computer doesn't tell you which one is which there's a few clues - setup.exe is the larger one, the one with type 'Application', the one with a computer screen icon.

It doesn't matter if you choose the wrong one; clicking on the wrong file will start an editor, typically Notepad. Just exit from Notepad without making/saving changes and go for the other 'setup' file.

(On Vista, you may get User Account Control messages because of an unidentified program/publisher. There should be no security issues provided you got the program from the WhatBots site, so click on "Allow".)

As mentioned above, the program uses a Microsoft product called .Net Framework. This is a free download from the Microsoft website. It is included on Vista machines and it might already be on your PC with non-Vista systems because of other programs that have previously installed it. The setup process checks if this is on your computer just after the setup starts. So you can expect to see one of two screens:

After you have finished the installation

When the WhatBot installation has successfully completed, you will have shortcut on your desktop to run the program. You will also be able to run it from Start / Programs.

The first time you run the program, it asks for a folder where it can keep control files. The default is a folder called 'WhatBotsData', on the same drive as the program was installed on - click on "Continue" to accept that and complete the setup. You can tell the WhatBot to put this folder somewhere else if that suits the way you work, though for ease of use, the name should still be 'WhatBotsData'. It can be a subfolder within another folder. Make sure no other program uses the WhatBotsData folder.

The Apostrophes Question Set will automatically be set up when you first run the WhatBot. You will get a message screen telling you the licence was accepted. When you close this screen, you will see the WhatBot Menu screen - you can click on "Info" to read the tutorial or click on "Ask" to jump straight in to the questions.

The 'Help' buttons on the WhatBot screens show help for the current screen - you don't have to search through topics. To get you started, look at Help on the "WhatBot Menu" screen and the Working with the WhatBot link on this website.
And when you want to get more Question Sets, look here to see what's available.

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