Help

Navigating and Using IDE

The opening screen , shown below, is your starting point to access all the labs and tools of IDE. Within IDE this screen is sometimes referred to as “ Main ” and throughout IDE selecting the “Main” button will return you to this screen.

IDE is divided into six parts corresponding to the major topics of differential equations. Each part has a number of associated labs corresponding to subtopics and each lab has one or more tools to demonstrate the important concepts of the lab. By selecting the desired lab, the relevant tools can then be seen and chosen.

Activities and exercises for each lab are described in the included PDF file. By clicking on the PDF file link the document will automatically open in Adobe Acrobat if your browser has been appropriately configured. If not, you can save the document to your hard drive and open it manually. The lab will describe how to use each tool most effectively. It also provides questions and exercises to guide the use of the tools and to test the understanding of the topics.

Tool Index

The Tool Index is an alphabetical list of all the tools in IDE. This list is helpful when you know the name of the tool you need and want to link directly to it. You may access the Tool Index from the opening screen or from the horizontal menu on the top of all screens throughout IDE. The alphabet displayed across the top of the Tool Index screen will help you navigate through the long list of tools. Clicking on a letter will take you to tool names beginning with that letter. Clicking on the name of a tool will link you directly to the tool.

Using a Tool

A specific tool can be located through the “Main” screen or the “Tool Index”. Though every tool is different, some of the basic operations are similar (further instructions that are specific to the tools appear below each tool):

• Click Close Tool to close the tool and return to the previous screen.
• Use the sliders to set or change the values of parameters. Click on the slider knob and drag the knob to the desired value, or click in the slider channel at the desired value for the parameter.
• Click Draw Field to draw a slope field in the phase plane.
• Click Start to start a trajectory using a pre-set initial condition.
• Clicking in a phase plane will start a new trajectory.
• Click Clear to remove all trajectories from the phase plane.
• Click Pause to stop a simulation without erasing it. Pause becomes Continue when you pause the simulation.
• Click Continue to resume a paused simulation. Continue becomes Pause when the simulation is active.

For Optimal Viewing

This software is best viewed with a screen resolution of 800 x 600 or greater (1024 x 768 preferred). To change your screen resolution do the following:

Windows - You want to launch the Display control panel in order to change your screen resolution. There are two ways to do this. One is to go to the Start menu, select Control Panel and then select Display. The other is to Right-click on your desktop and select Properties. Once the Display control panel is open, click the Settings tab and then adjust the screen resolution with the slider that is in the lower left of this screen. You want to choose a setting of 1024 x 768 if possible.

Macintosh - To change the screen resolution, choose System Preferences... under the apple menu, select Display and under the Display tab choose your desired resolution.

Technical Support

If you need assistance, please first make sure that you have read the Help section that pertains to your problem as well as the Getting Started link, which can be found on the home page. If you need further help, call Technical Support at 1-800-677-6337 or visit our student support website at http://www.aw-bc.com/techsupport.

Please help us to assist you by providing the following information:

• The computer make and model you are using.
• A description of the problem you are experiencing.
• A description of the steps that result in the problem you are experiencing.
• The exact text of any error message you receive.