What is on the PEP CD?
Q: I'm thinking about taking piano lessons. Does the PEP
CD provide lessons?
A: No, it does not. As we have stated many times on The Piano
Education Page, we believe that private lessons are so advantageous to
the student that we can't recommend learning to play without them. However,
if you're taking lessons or thinking about it, you'll definitely want to
read the CD's Learning to Play, Buying and Maintaining a Piano and Tips for Students and Parents pages
right away for invaluable tips on finding the best teacher, making the most of lessons,
getting the right piano at the right price
and solving some of the biggest difficulties that students encounter.
Reading these articles alone can save you many hundreds of dollars in wasted
time and lesson fees.
Q: Why should I buy the PEP CD, since
The Piano Education Page is available online?
A: Although much of the content of The Piano Education Page is free
online, approximately 30% of that content is present there only in abstract
form. If you want to have all the tips for students, Meet the Composer
interviews for kids, and all the invaluable articles for teachers found in
the The
Teaching Studio section of the CD, you can only get its entire 900 pages of material on the
PEP CD. Having the CD also allows you to read the site contents offline at
any time, without tying up your phone line to connect to the Internet. If
you live in an area where Internet service is unreliable or expensive,
having the CD will save you money and time accessing The Piano Education
Page.
What do I need to run the PEP CD?
Q: What are the system requirements for the PEP CD?
A: Since the PEP CD contains the full text, graphics, music and sound files
and downloadable manuals of The Piano
Education Page, the only requirement is that your computer be able to
run a web browser like Internet Explorer®,
Netscape®, Opera®, or Firefox®. If you're reading this on the Web, you can
read the PEP CD, so long as your computer has a working CD or DVD drive to read
the CD. The PEP CD is a hybrid CD which will run "natively" on either a PC
running Windows or a Macintosh running reasonably current versions of the
Macintosh Operating System.
Q: Do I need an Internet connection to
use the PEP CD?
A: For the most part, the answer is no. The only exceptions are to access
Internet updates of the CD's files and the PEP Message Board. Of course, any links
on the PEP CD to other sites will also require an active Internet connection
to follow.
Q: Can I use the PEP CD with a Macintosh?
A: Yes, subject to the conditions noted in the system requirements above.
Virtually all Macs will read the PEP CD Macintosh version natively (i.e. without any
additional software beyond a standard set of CD-ROM extensions provided by
Apple in the System software).
Q: Are there any compatibility problems
between Windows XP® and the PEP CD?
A: No, for the same reason as above. If you can run a web browser and have a
working CD or DVD drive in XP, you can read and use the PEP CD.
Q: Can I run the PEP CD or PEP CD Plus
under Linux?
A: So long as you have a working web browser in Linux, you can use
the PEP CD (either version). It uses standard file types that can be read by
your browser or (for the Studio Pack component of the PEP CD Plus)
WordPerfect for Linux or any Linux word processor that can read WordPerfect
6.1 or later files.
There are a couple minor differences from using it in Windows. Unless you
are running a Windows emulator, you will have to install using the "Manual"
method detailed on the CD, since the install program is a Windows
executable. Basically, the manual method involves just copying all the files
(minus the Setup.exe or Install.exe files, which aren't needed in Linux)
from the CD to a directory (folder) on the hard disk (we suggest pepcd).
Alternatively, you can run the PEP CD from the CD just by loading the
index.html file on the CD into your browser. You can update the CD online
for free using the ZIP file choice.
Another difference may be that the CD may or may not start automatically
when you put it in the CD-ROM drive. The solution if it doesn't start
automatically is to start your browser and load the index.html file from the
CD or from the hard disk directory where you have copied its files. Once you
have the index.html file loaded in your browser, you can go from there to
any other part of the CD.
Buying the PEP CD
Q: How can I order the PEP CD in either version?
A: To order, print the order form, fill it in, and mail with check
(drawn on U.S. Bank in U.S. dollars)
or money order the correct amount (add $30 if next day FedEx delivery is desired). We
currently only accept check or money order payments, but will add credit
card payments if demand is sufficient.
Q: Do you ship to locations outside the United States?
A: We can ship overseas, although the shipping costs end up being almost as
much as the cost of the CD. Currently, we only accept payment in U.S.
dollars (money order only). If your Internet provider allows you to download
large attachments (20 Mb), we can supply full content of the CD by e-mail,
upon receipt of payment in U.S. dollars. If you're willing to pay additional
shipping ($30 to $50 range) costs, the PEP CD can be sent FedEx, arriving
within a week of receipt of payment by us. We don't currently accept credit
cards for payment, but payment in U.S. dollars by international money order
(usually available at your post office), sent to the address on the order
form, is fine.
Using the PEP CD
Q: How do I use the PEP CD or PEP CD Plus?
A: Because the PEP CD has Windows Autorun information on it, as applicable, all you have to
do is place it in your PC's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, wait about 15 seconds, and your
browser will start and display the home page of the CD. We suggest that all
new users read the Welcome page linked on the home page for information on
installation, etc.
On a Macintosh running all System versions between 7 and 10, the CD will
start automatically in the same way, when it is inserted in the CD-ROM drive
(assuming that you have a working CD-ROM drive and the necessary CD-ROM System Extensions enabled). Macintosh Autostart was disabled by Apple in System X, so Mac users running System X
will have to allow the CD to mount. In most cases, a window displaying the
root directory of the CD-ROM will open automatically when the CD is mounted
on a Mac. Just click on the index.html file to open it. On either
the PC or the Mac, once the index page is displayed you can use the links on
it to access the rest of the CD contents.
Updating the PEP CD
Q: How can I be sure that I have the
latest information from The Piano Education Page on my PEP CD?
A: Periodically, the content of the PEP CD is updated online. Just go to the
Premiering page on the PEP CD, look in the lower left-hand corner of the about
page and note the Last Update date, then click on the Update
link in the PEP CD Program (upper left hand corner of the page). This will connect you over the Internet to the PEP CD Update page.
You'll find the latest update shown there. If it shows a later date than
your Premiering page, just download the file and install it according to the
instructions on the Update page. You'll have everything up to date at that
point. Note that, because the CD is a read-only medium, you must install
updates to your hard disk to use the
Update feature, even though the CD can be used without installing it to the
hard disk.
Reprinting from the PEP CD
Q: I'm a teacher and want to use the PEP
CD with my students. Can I do that legally?
A: Yes. The license allows you to use the CD on either of two machines (i.e.
your personal machine or one used by your students) at any one time. If you
intend to use the PEP CD over a network with more than two machines, you
must get the network version of the CD. For more information on the network
version, please write us.
Q: Can I reproduce hard copy versions of
some of the documents on the PEP CD for use with my piano students?
A: Yes! One of the advantages of having the PEP CD is that owners of it get
greatly increased reprinting permissions over those individuals who simply
visit the online site.
Problems?
Q: When the PEP CD starts automatically, I get a view of the home page
with missing graphics and a message in red at the top which reads: "The
Piano Education Page uses Cascading Style Sheets to improve its appearance.
Your browser does not support CSS. You can download current versions of
Netscape Communicator or Internet Explorer at no cost and view PEP as it was
intended." Is there something wrong?
A: Probably not. Chances are your browser does support CSS. You'll see this
message if your browser can't find the style sheets that the PEP CD uses. You can
solve this problem after the home page opens by clicking on your browser's
menu File, Open File.., then pointing the browser at the PEP CD. Click on index.html as the file to open and the problem should
be resolved.
Q: I'm getting error messages in Windows when I double click the
Studio Pack WPT and INS files. Is something wrong with my CD?
A: Probably not. Windows generates these messages either because there is no
file association (executable program) for these file types or because they
are used by some other program, which doesn't recognize them. They will work
fine when loaded into any word processor that can read WordPerfect files
(most can).
Q: I have a different question to ask.
Can I write you with it?
A: Yes, we're happy to answer your questions.
Click here to e-mail us with a
different question. |
The Piano Education Page on CD, Op. 8, No. 1, © Copyright 2001-2007 John M.
Zeigler. Portions copyright 1995-2000 John M. Zeigler and Nancy L. Ostromencki. All rights
reserved. 
