User's Guide To Parent-Teacher Hotline
Overview
This section contains some of the more advanced functions and features in the Parent Teacher Hotline application. These are concepts and procedures that aren't necessary to design and build a standard or basic system. Some of these may make it easier to use or design your system, while others may add versatility. Before you read this section, you should understand and be comfortable with the way the system tree (and the application as a whole) works.
In this chapter, you will learn about:
Terms
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Application Variant |
This is a copy of the Parent Teacher Hotline application. The variant works exactly as the original application. |
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Chaining |
This is a feature that allows you to link one ECS Phone application to another. |
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Clipboard |
This is a temporary storage area in Windows. In the context of this application, you may copy speech files to the Clipboard so that you may edit them. |
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Conference Calling |
Conference Calling is a service that your phone company may offer that allows you to be called by one person, and you can put that person on hold and call a second person. Then you can take the first person off of hold, and all three of you can talk. The thing that is important though, is that, with conference calling, you could hang up and the other two people would still be connected. |
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Flash |
To Flash someone in the context of phone calls, is to press the button that takes that person on or off of hold. If you have call waiting, you flash someone every time you press the hang up bar to put them on hold and answer the call waiting beep. |
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Paste Buffer |
A temporary storage area for objects cut from the system tree. The paste buffer stores the objects so you can paste them into another part of the tree. |
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Place Holder |
A special tree object that is only created when you add a Prompt, Announcement, Mailbox, or Control Point that has a multi-digit Relative Touch Tone Number. The system creates Place Holders as required, and you generally don't have to be concerned about them. You will only see Place Holders in the tree while using the Full Expansion viewing method. |
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Touch-Tone Directory |
This is a special option you may enable on a Control Point that allows callers to bypass the normal tree structure. |
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Wave Files |
Wave files are a type of file that contains sound recordings. WAVE files have the designation ".WAV" after the file name. |
A 'Place Holder' is a special tree object that is only created when you create a Prompt, Announcement, Mailbox, or Control Point that has a multi-digit Relative Touch Tone Number. The system uses Place Holders to establish the complete touch-tone path from the Initial Prompt to any object, one touch tone at a time. You only see Place Holders in the tree when you display the tree in Full Expansion. Generally, you do not have to be concerned with Place Holders as the System Editor creates them as required.
For example, assume your tree has a Prompt with the Object ID of "1". Then, if you created an Announcement under that Prompt with a touch tone number of 101 (Object ID of "1101") then the Editor creates two Place Holders with the Object ID's of "11" and "110". Figure 88 shows this example in Normal and Full expansion, with the Detailed Information also shown:
Figure 88 - Normal and Full Expansion, showing Place Holders
When a caller wants to listen to the Announcement, the following events occur:
• The caller presses 1 and moves to Prompt #1.
• The caller listens to the Prompt and then presses 1 to begin the selection of the Announcement, described in the Prompt's menu as "101".
• The system moves the caller to Place Holder #11.
• Place Holder #11 waits for the next touch tone from the caller.
• The caller presses 0 and the system moves the caller to Place Holder #110.
• Place Holder #110 waits for a touch tone.
• The caller presses the final touch tone, 1 and the system moves the caller to the Announcement #1101 and plays that Announcement.
This order of events occurs because a Prompt can actually only accept one touch tone. Therefore, a Place Holder is a special tree object that does nothing except wait for a touch tone. The callers never notice that this sequence of events occurs because the application actually moves them through the tree as fast as they press the touch tones.
When the System Editor creates the Place Holders, it is then creating an object that waits for just one touch tone and does nothing else. Thus, the application uses the Place Holders to check for valid touch tones and to move the caller to the correct objects in the tree, one touch tone at a time.
If you ever find the need to change a tree object's ID, there is a simple and quick way to do so. Simply drag the tree object that you wish to change to its parent and drop it. The Paste Item(s) box appears, and you can enter the object's relative ID in the Touch Tone Number field, then click the OK button. The object (and any children it may have) appears with the new number. If you decide not to change the object's ID during the operation, you may click the Cancel button to retain the tree object's original ID.
As mentioned earlier in the manual, the Goto control allows you to redirect the flow of a call so the caller goes where you want them to. Up to now, you've seen the basic uses of this control, such as sending a caller from an Announcement back to the parent Prompt (via a "*" in the Goto field).
This, however, is not the extent of the Goto control's usefulness. You could enter the absolute ID number of any object in the tree, and the caller would go there when the current object completes its tasks. This section discusses some of the other possibilities of the Goto control, As well as the No TT Jump control on the Initial Prompt (which is a special type of Goto control).
On the Initial Prompt
The Initial Prompt box contains a special type of Goto control called the No TT Jump control. This control allows you to determine where to send callers that are not using touch tone phones (or callers who don't press any touch tones). The way that this control works in the flow of the call is as follows:
The caller calls in using a non-touch tone phone. They hear the System Greeting message, then the instructions and auto menu on the Initial Prompt. At this point the caller cannot press a touch tone to select an option, so they wait. When the Initial Prompt realizes that this is a caller without a touch tone phone, it sends the caller to the object that has its ID number in the No TT Jump field.
The basic reason for this field is so the caller gets something for their troubles. It might be a good idea to include a sentence or two in your Initial Prompt instructions about non-touch tone callers staying on the line to hear the time and temperature (this is a good place to send the caller).
Be aware that if you don't use this control, you may lose your non-touch tone callers. If you at least let the non-touch tone caller hear the a Lunch Menu Announcement (or some other sort of Announcement), then you're less likely to have frustrated callers.
You could also use this control in conjunction with any number of Goto fields on other objects, allowing you to move the caller around the tree. Remember, though, that your other callers will also be affected by these Goto entries if they move to an object with an activated Goto control.
On Announcements
The Goto field on Announcements is commonly used to send the caller back to that Announcement's parent Prompt. This is accomplished by the 'star' (*) in the Goto field. This is the default setting for this control, and tells the object to return the caller to its parent.
There are, however, other possibilities for this control. You could enter the absolute ID number of any object in the tree into this field. This allows you to move through the tree in a number of different ways. Here are just a couple of ideas for using the Goto field:
• Enter the ID number of another related Announce-ment into the field. Let's say your Boy's Soccer Announcement features a note to PTO members reminding them that the next meeting is to discuss money for new equipment. You could have the Boy's Soccer Announcement 'Goto' the Activities -- PTO Announcement for more information.
• Enter the ID number of the Initial Prompt (01) into the Announcement's Goto'' field. Suppose you have a tree that has three or four levels. The caller goes to one of the Announcements that is way out on the end. Instead of having the caller press the * (star) key repeatedly to back up, you could enter the Initial Prompt's ID number into the Goto fields of these distant Announcements. This allows the caller to regain his or her bearings before continuing to move around in the system.
On Control Points
Here is an example of how you might use the Goto control on Control Points:
• Let's suppose that you always want the user to return to a certain Announcement before leaving. You could set the final Control Point to go to the Announcement that you want them to listen to before hanging up.
When looking at Control Points, we mentioned that the Chain To control allows you to link this application with other ECS Phone Applications. The purpose for this feature is so you may utilize the special features of the other ECS Phone Applications through this application. Each of these applications have special or unique features that are not available in Parent Teacher Hotline.
For example: Let's suppose you're ready to start using your Parent Teacher Hotline system, and you're interested in finding out what your customers (callers) think. You could use a Control Point to chain to the Voice Mail system and allow callers to leave messages. You could use a similar setup to allow interested and potential Client Groups to leave their names and numbers, and you could get back to them later.
This section discusses the procedures necessary to configure a Control Point to use chaining. For a more detailed discussion on the 'chain to' feature, refer to the section in the Business Manager manual entitled "The Combination Application".
The best way to understand the workings of the Chain To control on a Control Point is to use an example. Let's use the above example, where you configure a Control point to chain to the Voice Mail application so the caller may leave a message:
• The first step is to add and configure the Control Point. We've gone through the procedure of adding Control Points to the system tree, so let's skip to the configuration.
• Double click the Control Point, and the Control Point box appears. Enable the Control Point by clicking the Enable check box, then type a description of this object in the Description field. You can record the Control Point's ID speech using the Record ID button.
• Now click the Chain To check box to enable the chaining feature. The feature is now enabled.
• Click the List button on the right side of the Chain To box. A List button is a button that contains an arrow pointing down to a horizontal line. When 'pressed', a box containing options appears below the field. In this case, a box listing the ECS Phone Application appears, similar to the one shown in Figure 89:
Figure 89 - The ECS Phone Application list
The names of the other ECS Phone Applications that you have in your computer appear in this box. If the list is longer than the list box itself, you may use the scroll bars to move up and down through the list.
• Select the application you wish to chain to by clicking that option (for this example, Voice Mail). The selected application now appears with a blue bar around it. Also, the list box closes and the selected application appears in the Chain To field.
• Now to complete the Goto field. The number you enter into this field tells the Control Point where to go once it chains to the other application. Entering 0 takes the caller to the System Greeting of the other application, while the entry 01 takes the caller to the Initial Prompt of that application. Otherwise, enter the ID of the object you wish the caller to go to.
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For information about configuring a ECS phone application, refer to the User's Guide that pertains to the application you select. |
If you just want the caller to leave a message, you could edit the your Voice Mail application's system tree and create a mailbox just for the chain function in your Parent Teacher Hotline application. You would then enter the number ID of that object into the Goto field of the Control Point in your Parent Teacher Hotline application. |
You must also make sure that the caller encounters an activated Hangup Phone control in the application being chained to. This makes sure that the application being chained to will return to the originating application. The easiest way to do this is to activate the Hangup Phone control on the tree object you send the caller to.
• After you've completed all of the information for the chaining feature, you must decide where you want to go from here. You could either use the Goto control or the Hangup Phone control in the Control Action group. Using the Goto, you could send the caller back into the rest of the tree, or you could use the Hangup Phone control to hang up the phone. Once you've made a decision on this, click the OK button to confirm the configuration of this Control Point.
Obviously, this example only works if you have the Voice Mail application. If you do not have the Voice Mail application but you wish to use the special properties of another application, you would use a similar setup to chain to that application. The basic procedure is the same, only the name of the application changes.
Another action that your application can perform from a control point is transferring calls. The Transfer Caller To function allows you to set your application up so that a caller can be switched to another phone number, and your application can continue receiving calls.
Here is an example to show you how you can use this function and how it would work for the caller and your client.
Let's say you have several high schools. Perhaps one of these high schools would like callers to have the option of transferring directly to the high school's phone. This way, someone can call in for information, decide that he or she would like to speak to someone for further information and then transfer directly to the high school receptionist, rather than having to hang up and dial the high school's number, provided they can remember it.
You will have to make some changes to your system tree--adding prompts and control points, and re- configuring messages. Then the message needs to be changed. You can tell your client at the high school what Touch-Tone number callers will have to enter to get to the control point, so that your client can include that information in his announcement, or you can change the message yourself if you are the one maintaining them.
Now, when callers call in and listen to the high school's announcement, they will be told to press 0 (for example) to be transferred directly to the high school's receptionist. When they press 0, they will hear an announcement that asks them to wait for a moment while they are being transferred. Your application will put them on hold for a moment while it dials the high school. As soon as your application is connected to the high school, the application will take the client off of hold, transfer them to the high school, and then hang up. The client is now hearing the phone ring at the high school, and your Parent Teacher Hotline application is ready to take the next call.
Phone Line Requirements
In order to use this function with your application, you must have conference calling. Conference Calling means that Party A can call you, and you can put that person on hold and call party B, then take Party A off of hold and hang up, leaving Parties A and B connected.
Check with your local phone company. They are the ones who can set you up with this service. They may also have a different name for the service than Conference Calling, so make sure that you are getting what you need.
There is another service, sometimes called Three-Way Calling that allows three or more people to be on the phone line at one time, but with this kind of service, if the middle person, who made the connections, hangs up, everyone else is disconnected as well. If you have this kind of service, your Call Transfer function will not work.
Setting up your Phone Tree
You will need to make some changes to your system tree in order to move people through the calls and to the high schools as easily as possible. There are a couple of different ways to set up your system to accomplish this transfer, but the one described below is the easiest to work with, and does not leave any loose ends that callers could get hung up in.
One way to set up your system is to have a Prompt for each high school, with Announcements and another Prompt with a Control Point all attached to the first Prompt. Figure 90 shows an example tree branch for City High School.
Figure 90 - A system tree branch set up to transfer a caller
Use the procedures covered earlier in this manual to move the tree objects into place and configure them. Set up the first Prompt and the first two Announcements just like you have been for your system tree.
The third Announcement has to be configured to go to the transfer point. Create and record a message that thanks the caller for choosing the high school, and then asks them to wait one moment while they are being transferred. Then, in the Upon Completion section, select the Goto control. In the Goto field, enter the ID number for the Control Point. When the Announcement is configured, it will look like the one in Figure 91.
Figure 91 - The configured transfer Announcement
Notice that the Goto control is enabled, and that 2140, the ID number for the Control Point, is entered into the field.
You want to leave the Prompt below the Announcement unconfigured and disabled. The purpose of this Prompt is really just to 'hide' the Control Point, and make it inaccessible from the first Prompt. By leaving this Prompt disabled, there is no way a caller can get to the transfer Control Point without going through the transfer Announcement.
Now you need to configure the Control Point and enter the high school's phone number. To set the Control Point up to transfer the call, all you need to do is select the Transfer Caller To radio button control and enter the phone number.
Entering a Phone Number
When you enter the phone number, you need to do a little more than just type in the number. You need to include special characters that tell the phone to pause for a couple of seconds, or wait for a dial tone, or to Flash the caller. Flashing toggles the hold status of the caller. If you flash someone, you put them on hold. If they are already on hold, you would flash them to bring them back on the line. Here is an example of a phone number that you might enter: ;!,555-1212,!
The semi-colon (;) tells the phone to wait for a dial tone before doing the nest action in the chain. In this example, the next action is the exclamation mark, also called a "bang" (!). A bang tells the phone to flash the caller, which is what the phone does to put the caller on or take him off of hold.
Then there is a comma, which tells the phone to wait for about 2 seconds. This gives the phone long enough to let the dial tone come back after flashing the caller. Next comes the phone number. You can include a dash, or leave it out--the phone does not recognize dashes, so it doesn't make any difference. If you have to dial a number such as 9 to get an external line, you would probably enter the phone number as 9,555-1212 so that the phone will pause after dialing the 9, again, to let the dial tone come back.
Finally, you want to add another comma (,) at the end to allow the connection to be made before your system takes the caller back off of hold and hangs up. The last bang may or may not be required by your phone system. In some systems, when the phone hangs up, the caller automatically comes off of hold. Unless you know for sure how your phones work, include the final bang--you don't want to be hanging up on callers by accident after you ask them to hold.
One last thing about phone numbers--you probably only want to transfer callers to local numbers. If you transfer someone to a long distance number, you will pay for that long distance call. And once your system has hung up, that caller could stay on the line as long as he wants to, and really run you up a nice phone bill.
Including a Control Function
You may occasionally want your system to send the caller off to another application or tree object before you transfer their call. To do so, you can use the Chain To control function in your Control Point. You would configure the control point the same way you did before, except you have to select both the Transfer Caller To and the Chain To options and then fill in the fields the necessary information.
This is what happens when your control point is configured this way: When callers reach it they chain to another application. They hear any message that is there, then, when they get to an 'exit system' point there, they return to the original control point. This original control point puts them on hold while it dials the transfer number, then connects the caller to the other phone number and hangs up, just like it does when there is no chaining function.
There are probably not too many situations where you want to set your system up like this, but you can if you want to.
This section discusses the subject of 'Touch Tone Directories'. A touch tone directory is a special option you may enable on a Control Point that allows callers to bypass the normal tree structure. This is more commonly used in some of the other ECS Phone Applications, where there are many large groups of items. The touch tone directory is perfect for the caller who knows what he/she wants, but doesn't know where to look.
How Touch Tone Directories Work
The idea behind a touch tone directory is simple: A caller calls in and listens to the menus. After listening to some menus, the caller has no idea where to go to find what they're looking for. Listening to the first menu again, they hear the option Touch tone directory. They choose this option, and input the first few letters of the desired option. The caller does this by pressing the keys on their phone that equal the first few letters of the desired option. If the option they want is "PTO", they could press 786 (for PTO) on their phone (note that the letter "P" is on the 7 key, "T" on the 8 key, and "O" on the 6 key).
At this point, there may be a number of options beginning with PTO. The list of options beginning with these letters plays, with a slight pause after each. When the caller hears the option they want, they press the # key on their phone (either during the description of the speech or the pause after it). The application then takes the caller to that option.
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Keep in mind that the touch tone directory only plays the ID speeches of Announcements that have the Include in TT Dir control enabled. |
Let's clarify what the touch tone directory is doing on the system tree level. First off, a caller accesses a Control Point acting as the touch tone directory. When it comes time to play the directory, it looks up to the tree object from which it branches. It then looks to all of the Announcements that also branch from this same object (obviously a Prompt), and reads all of the Announcement ID speeches. It plays the list of Announcements in alphabetical order, from A to Z. |
You may think of the touch tone directories as a short cut for the caller who knows what they're after. Instead of plodding through various menus, the caller may use touch tone directories to quickly access the necessary Announcement.
The Use of Touch Tone Directories
If you decide to use touch tone directories, you should think about how they work in relation to how you want your system to work. If you have a small number of Announcements but you still want to use touch tone directories, you may consider adding a Control Point off of the Initial Prompt. With the Include in TT Dir control enabled, the Control Point would list any Announcements that appear in the tree.
You could also use localized directories in certain areas. If you had two major divisions in your system tree, you could add a Control Point off of each of the major Prompt branches, then enable the Include in TT Dir controls on each. There would then be two separate touch tone directories. There is no reason why you couldn't have touch tone directories off of each branch, but you only need to use it with Announcement groups having 10 or more listings.
In a small system tree, there is little need for touch tone directories. Remember, your aim is to simplify your system and make it easier to use, not clutter it with tons of options.
Adding Touch Tone Directories
To use touch tone directories, you must configure your system tree to do so. This involves adding a Control Point that you configure to list a touch tone directory, then including those Announcements you want in the touch tone directory.
Keep in mind that only Announcements may be included in the touch tone directory. You include Announcements by enabling the Include In TT Dir check box, found in the Settings control group on each Announcement.
Use the following procedure to configure a Control Point and Announcements to use the 'Touch Tone Directory feature:
• The first step is to add a Control Point to your system tree, preferably off of the Initial Prompt. As discussed previously, you can also add the Control Points off of any Prompt you wish (just make sure there is a need for them).
• Next, double click the Control Point. When the Control Point box appears, click the Enable check box.
• Once you enable the Control Point, click the List Touch Tone Directory check box. An X appears, showing that the option is enabled. Now click the OK button to confirm these Control Point settings.
Follow the above procedure for each Control Point you wish to use as a touch tone directory.
This section discusses in detail the Message Mover control group of the Record box. This is the box that appears whenever you record a tree object's ID speech, and an Announcement's or Prompt's script.
First, let's look at a Record box in Figure 92:
Figure 92 - The Record box
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Please be aware that sound cards or sound editing applications are not part of the Center Owner package. You must purchase these separately. |
Locate the Message Mover control group. This group contains four buttons: The Transfer button, the Replace button, the .WAV Copy button, and the .WAV Paste button. The first two controls allow you to move speech from the selected tree object to another tree object (either in this application or another ECS Phone Application). The second two controls allow you to move speech from the selected tree object to a sound editing application. |
Transfer and Replace
You would use these Message Mover controls when you want to use a copy of an object's speech on another tree object. The target tree object may even be in another ECS Phone application's system tree. You use the Transfer button to make a copy of the speech to the Paste Buffer. You then go to the object you want to put the speech on, and click the Replace button.
Use the following procedure to use the Transfer and Replace controls:
• First, double click the tree object whose speech you wish to transfer. Next, click the Record button so the Record box appears. (If you want to transfer the ID speech, click the Record ID button instead).
• Look in the script box to make sure this is the speech you want. If it is, click the Transfer button. This copies the speech to the Paste Buffer.
• Once you move the speech file to the Paste Buffer, you may close the Record box and the Object box. Select and double click the tree object where the speech copy belongs, then click either the Record ID button or the Record button (whichever is appropriate).
• Once the Record box appears, click the Replace button. The transferred speech file copies from the Paste Buffer to this Record box, replacing the existing speech (if any) with the transferred speech. You may then click OK to confirm the recording.
If the object you are transferring the speech to is in another ECS Phone application, then you must exit this application and bring the target application into the System Editor.
You would use this procedure any time you want to move a speech file to another object. This feature may end up saving you some recording time.
.WAV Copy and .WAV Paste
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Please be aware that sound cards or sound editing programs are not part of the Center Owner package. You must purchase these separately. |
You would use these Message Mover controls when you want to edit a speech. You copy the speech to a file, using the .WAV Copy button. The, with a sound editing program and a sound card, you can edit the speech however you wish. You can then move the speech file back to the tree object using the .WAV Paste button. |
This function of your program allows you to use the capabilities of your sound card and editor to create special effects or modify files.
Supported Sound Clips
You do not really need to worry about all this technical jargon if you are simply using your sound editor program to clean up tape hiss or edit out blank spaces in recordings that you made using your phone program, or that you purchased from ECS specifically for your phone programs.
However, if you are attempting to bring sound files into your program from collections of sound clips, which sometimes save files at 4 bits to conserve space, you will need to be aware of these specifications.
Your telephony programs support most .WAV files. Specifically, you can paste in files that are uncompressed, 8 or 16 bit, mono or stereo, and 11, 22, or 44 kHz.
Most sound editing program will allow you to convert a file from 4 bits to 8 bits, and once you have made the conversion, you will be able to use the file in your telephone program. See the User's Guide for your sound editing program to learn more about this procedure, and look at the literature that came with your sound clip software to see what the specifications are for those files.
Using the File Selection dialog box
When you copy or paste .WAV files, you will be using a standard Windows file selection box, which will look similar to the one in Figure 93.
Figure 93 - A File Selection dialog box
The Directories fields allow you to select the directory to place the file into or pull the file out of. In Figure 94, the copyvce.wav file is in the Windows directory. This directory is the default directory. Every time you open this dialog box to copy or paste a file, you will use the Windows default directory, unless you select a different directory. Once you select a different directory, that becomes your default directory.
The File Name fields allow you to name a file to save or select a file to open. In the illustration, the name of the file that you are saving is "copyvce.wav."
This is the default setting that all of your telephony programs will use. If you do not wish to save the file for any purpose beyond making the particular edit that you are working on at the moment, then you would use this default file name. Every time you save a .WAV file to the 'copyvce.wav' file name, you replace whatever was in the file before with the new file information.
If you want to save a .WAV file, and not allow it to be copied over, you will need to save the file under a different file name than "copyvce.wav." To save a file to a different name, delete "copyvce.wav" from the File Name field, then type in the new name.
Now that you know the principles behind the file selection dialog box, the next section will explain specifically how to copy and paste .WAV files.
Copying a wave file
Use the following procedure to use the .WAV Copy function:
• First, double click the tree object whose speech you wish to edit. Next, click the Record button so the Record box appears. (If you want to edit the ID speech, click the Record ID button instead).
• Look in the script box to make sure this is the speech you want. If it is, click the .WAV Copy button. The Copy WAVE File to: dialog box will open up, looking similar to the one in Figure 92.
Figure 94- The Copy WAVE File to: selection box
• If you are using the default file name 'copyvce.wav,' and the default directory Windows, all you need to do is click OK.
You can change the name of the file, or the directory you save it to, if you want to.
• An advisory message will appear, letting you know that the file already contains information that you will be replacing.
Figure 95 - The advisory message
• If you do not want to save the file to this file name, click on the No button to close the message box and return to the selection box.
• Click on the Yes button to go ahead and save the file as "copyvce.wav."
• When you click on the Yes button, your program will begin converting the file that your program uses into a file that can be edited. You will see message boxes telling you that the program is first changing the file from a 24kbs file to a 64kbs one, and then that the program is converting the 64kbs file into a Wave file.
• All this information does is let you know what your program is doing and how close it is being done. When it is finished, your speech file is saved as a wave file, and you can open it from within your sound editor program and edit it however you want. Save the edited file in the sound editor program as "copyvce.wav," or as some other appropriate file name if you wish.
Pasting a Wave file
• Once you have made your edits and saved the wave file from your sound editor, you can switch back to the Parent Teacher Hotline System Editor. Select and double click the tree object where the new speech belongs, then click either the Record ID button or the Record button (whichever is appropriate).
• Once the Record box appears, click the .WAV Paste button. The file selection box opens back up, now labeled Paste WAVE File from:.
Figure 96 - The Paste WAVE File From dialog box
• To select the file that you want to paste into your tree, click on it where it appears in the File Name list, or press your y key to move the highlight bar down to the name you want, and click OK.
If you do not see the file in the File Name list, make sure that you are in the directory that you saved the file to.
• Your program goes through the reverse of the process that it went through when you copied the file. Message boxes tell you that the Wave is being converted to 64kbs, and then that the 64kbs is being converted to 24kbs.
• When the conversions are finished, the edited file is inserted into your phone tree. You can click on the Play button in the Record box and listen to the new version of the message.
You would use this procedure any time you want to edit a speech file, such as trimming the start and stop places, adding background music or sound effects, or any other modification.
This section discusses the procedures necessary to create a new variant of the Parent Teacher Hotline application. This allows you to have another copy of the application on hand, so you could have two (or more) completely different Parent Teacher Hotline applications.
This new variant does not have an example system tree already set up; it's up to you to create the tree either from scratch, or by pasting objects or sections in from the core application's tree. All of the normal rules apply to this variant, but the system tree may be different.
This section also discusses the reasoning behind creating and configuring another Parent Teacher Hotline variant.
Why Make Other Variants?
Creating a variant of the Parent Teacher Hotline Application is quite useful. For instance, if you sold the system to an entire School District, you could set up an application variant for each of the schools. This means you would have a system tree for each of the schools, as opposed to one monstrous tree for all of the schools in the district. Not only would a large tree in this situation be impractical for you, it would be nearly impossible for callers to use. Making a variant for each of the schools makes it easier for you to maintain, and the callers can easily use the system.
Where to Find More Information
If you decide that you want to create and configure another variant of the Parent Teacher Hotline application, refer to the Business Manager manual. This manual contains a section entitled "Creating Variants of the ECS Phone Applications", which details the procedures for creating other variants of the core applications using the Business Manager application.
If you decide to do a lot of system tree rearranging, you soon find that cutting and pasting sections can get a bit tedious. For this reason, the System Editor allows you to 'move' sections or objects in the tree by dragging and dropping them. You may use a similar method to copy the object or section that you are dragging and dropping.
There is one thing to remember when moving a tree object or section: Drag the object or section to the object in the tree that will be its new parent. This means you would drag the tree object (its children will follow if there are any) to any Prompt in the tree, including the Initial Prompt, then drop it. You then assign the object a new Touch Tone Number, and it appears in that location in the system tree.
The 'Drag and Drop' Move
Moving tree objects around in the system tree is useful when you want to rearrange your tree on any level. You could rearrange Announcements in the same Announcement group, or you could move whole sections around and redesign your tree. This feature works similarly to the 'cut and paste' feature, but you can only move the objects within the current variant of the Parent Teacher Hotline system tree.
When you move objects around the tree, the same rules apply as with cutting and pasting: You may only paste a section or object into the tree so that it branches from the Initial Prompt, or from any other Prompt. You may not paste a section or object to a Control Point, Announcement, or the System Greeting.
Also keep in mind that the 'move' feature does not store any objects in the Paste Buffer. Moving does, however, require fewer steps and less button clicking, as it is a basic drag-and-drop procedure.
Use the following procedure to move objects or sections around the system tree:
• Select the object you want to move by clicking it. A blue bar appears around the object.
• Drag the object (in the case of a Prompt, the children move also) to the desired location. If the location you chose is invalid (Announcement, Control Point, System Greeting), then the picture you're dragging appears with an X on it. If the location is valid, the letter pertaining to the moved object appears on the picture you're dragging.
• Drop the object in the desired location, and the Paste Item(s) box appears as shown in Figure 97:
Figure 97 - The Paste Item(s) box
• Enter the desired touch tone number into the Touch Tone Number field. When you finish, click the OK button. The object(s) appear in the area you placed them.
If you change your mind during this operation, you may click the Cancel button to discontinue this procedure. This means that the system tree remains as it was before you began the procedure.
The 'Drag and Drop' Copy Move
This is a useful feature when you want to quickly copy a tree object or section and place the copy elsewhere in the system tree. This feature works similarly to the 'copy and paste' feature, but you can only copy the objects within the current variant of the Parent Teacher Hotline system tree.
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Similar to the Copy function, the Drag and Drop Copy Move stores the copied object or section in the Paste Buffer. |
When you quick copy objects around the tree, the same rules apply as with copying and pasting: You may only paste a section or object into the tree so that it branches from the Initial Prompt, or from any other Prompt. You may not paste a section or object to a Control Point, Announcement, or the System Greeting. |
Use the following procedure to copy objects or sections in the system tree and place the copy elsewhere:
• Select the object you want to copy by clicking it. A blue bar appears around the object.
• Press and hold down the j key on your keyboard, while dragging the object to the desired location. If the location you chose is invalid (Announcement, Control Point, System Greeting), then the picture you're dragging appears with an X on it. If the location is valid, the letter pertaining to the moved object appears on the picture you're dragging.
• Drop the object in the desired location and release the j key, and the Paste Item(s) box appears as shown in Figure 98:
Figure 98 - The Paste Item(s) box
• Enter the desired touch tone number into the Touch Tone Number field. When you finish, click the OK button. The object(s) appear in the area you placed them as an exact copy to the originals. Even the speeches on the objects are the same.
If you change your mind during this operation, you may click the Cancel button to discontinue this procedure. This means that the system tree remains as it was before you began the procedure.
The procedures for copying tree objects or sections between application variants is quite similar to the same functions within the application. The big difference is that you want to keep the cut or copied item in the Paste Buffer so you can paste it into the other application variant.
The procedure is quite simple. Simply cut or copy the desired section from the application currently in the System Editor. The cut or copied item (or items) goes to the Paste Buffer. You exit the System Editor, making sure to leave the items in the Paste Buffer. You then enter the application variant in which you want to paste the object(s), and use the standard Paste method to paste the object(s) into the tree.
Earlier in this chapter, we talked about the paste buffer serving as a temporary storage area for cut or copied tree objects and sections. By 'temporary' we mean that the buffer doesn't permanently save the object or objects. It only holds the object(s) during the current editing session (unless told otherwise). With this in mind, let's look at the ways that the objects leave the buffer:
Exiting the system editor - This is perhaps the most obvious way to clear the paste buffer. If you exit the application while a tree object or section is in the paste buffer (i.e., you cut or copied an object or section in this session), the following Advisory message displays:
Figure 99 - Paste Buffer Advisory message
Clicking the No button clears the paste buffer of the last object(s) stored there during the editing session. This means that anything in the paste buffer is, for all practical purposes, deleted.
Clicking the Yes button tells the Paste Buffer "Hang on to that, you're going to need it". If you have another variant of Parent Teacher Hotline and you wanted to paste some objects from the root application's tree into the other application, you would leave the 'data' (tree object or section) in the paste buffer.
Copying or cutting other objects to the buffer - This procedure doesn't clear the buffer, it merely removes any information in the buffer so that a newly cut or copied tree object or section can move into the buffer. This means that the buffer is only capable of storing the object or section that you most recently put there. This means that if you cut or copy an object and cut or copy again before pasting the previous object, the first object is lost (i.e., deleted and replaced by the second cut or copied object.