How to use the eyeTrainer

Assuming you started eyeTrainer, and you can see a big white Window. To start guessing, just type the "Enter"-Button on your keyboard once, to display a grid with some random characters in it. The grid is beeing displayed for a default period of 200 milliseconds.

Your Task is now, to guess what kind of characters have been placed at which cells of the grid.
To verify that you was right, hit the Enter-Button once again, and the same grid with the same content is beeing displayed at the same position as before - but now it is persistent.
To erase and start again just hit the Enter-Button again, the old grid will dissapear, and one cycle is over, you can start with a new grid now.

How to config eyeTrainer

Assuming you already started the eyeTrainer, and you can see the white Window. Hit the Space bar to display the configuration panel.
You have several options now:

Grid Options

In the tab "Grid Options" you can specify everything concerning the grid and how it"s displayed.

• Size: Move the slider to adjust the size of the grid. Number of cells stay the same.
  
• Line Thickness: Move the slider to adjust the thickness of the lines of the grid.
• Position: You can choose between a random position everytime you display a new grid, or the center position (middle of the screen).
• Radius: This option comes only into effect, if you choose random positioning. New grids will be displayed randomly on the specified radius around the middle of the screen.
• Color: Choose the color of the Grid and it"s content. (Should not be the same as Background-color)
• Background-Color: Choose the background color of the window.
• Interval: Here you can specify the amount of millisenconds, every new grid should be displayed. Values smaller than 20 do not make sense at all, beceause the computer and/or graphic card maybe are not able to display it correctly.

Content Options

In the content options, some parameters concerning the characters in the grid could be specified.

• Filled Cells: You can specify, how much of the cells should be filled with content at all.
• Size of Chars: You can adjust the size of the characters in the cells. Some big values depending on the current grid size maybe not adequate. Also, too small values make the characters invisible at all.
• Fill with Random Characters: You can choose some classess of characters, which should be displayed in the cells. If more than one category selected, eyeTrainer will randomly select. The category "A-Z,a-z" will display some characters of the alphabet in upper or lower case randomly, the same with numbers from 0 to 9.

Configuration File

In the current Version, eyeTrainer saves configuration settings into a file namend "eyeTrainer.cfg" in the home directory of the user (in Windows this is usually "C:\Documents and Settings\eyeTrainer.cfg"). If you delete it, you can reset all the settings to default values.

Getting eyeTrainer running

Usually, you just have to double-Click the .exe-File or .jar-File to start the eyeTrainer. Only use the .exe-File if you are running Windows XP/2000/Vista Systems. If you operate under Linux or Macintosh, you have to use the jar File.

Starting the .jar file manually

If both does not work out, the .exe-File and the .jar-File, and you are sure you have installed the java virtual machine, you can try to start it manually by command Line. Regardless of the operating system you are using (Mac, Windows, Linux ...) just open a command line (e.g. in Windows: START -> execute -> "cmd" -> ENTER) and change to the directory you placed eyeTrainer.jar into. Example: eyeTrainer.jar is downloaded to "D:\Downloads\eyeTrainer.jar" you change the directory by typing "D:" -> hit RETURN -> type "cd Downloads" -> hit RETURN again.
Current Directory is now "D:\Downloads\" - now you just type "java -jar eyeTrainer.jar" and hit RETURN again.
The eyeTrainer now starts, if you installed your Java Virtual Machine correctly.
By the way: you can check if your Java Virtual Machine is set up correctly if there appears some "Java"-Entry in the system control.

Install the Java Virtual Machine (JVM)

To install the JVM you need a special Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for your operating system.
First Step: Download the Java Runtime Environment for your Operating system from the official Sun Java download Site. (You have to scroll a little bit down, and then click on "Download" for downloading JRE 6. You can also download JDK instead, but you won"t need and it is much larger than the JDK.) After accepting the Licence Agreement, you can choose for which operating system you want to download (Offline Installation would be appropriate). For Mac Users:Only if you use Apple Mac"s you have to download the JVM from official Apple Site.

After downloading the JVM, double Click the downloaded file and the JRE-setup will start. You are beeing guided through the setup until complete Installation.
After the installation is complete, reboot your computer once (I think, linux users can ignore that, but you can"t reboot Windows often enough ;-)). JVM is now installed, and supports a lot more Applications than only the eyeTrainer!

If you have any further questions, you will find help in many forums on the internet (just search Google), you also can use the Contact Form to ask me about some help.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. By double clicking the .jar File, Windows asks me what to do with the file.
   => Check if you have installed the Java Virtual Machine correctly, and install it if not. Otherwise, try to execute the .exe File. If the .exe displays an error, it is very likely that the JVM is missing.