Issa Manual

Issa User Manual Last modified November 12, 2002. By Ben Haller. Copyright © 2002 Stick Software. [ This manual is only available in English at present. ] Issa is a "fridge poetry" application for Mac OS X. This manual assumes that you have already downloaded a copy of Issa; if not, visit Issa's main page at http://www.sticksoftware.com/software/Issa.html. It also assumes that you know all the basics of using the Macintosh in Mac OS X, including using the mouse, menus, and windows, and opening and saving files. Right now this "manual" is really an FAQ (frequently asked questions) list, because Issa is a simple enough app that it doesn't seem to merit a full manual — that would just be a lot of work and would probably be less effective at answering actual user questions. Let us know if you disagree, however; if a full manual is needed for Issa, it can be made. Please send comments on this manual to us at support@sticksoftware.com. Thanks! Questions What is Issa and what does it do, in a nutshell? Where are the tiles like "ed", "ing" and "an"? What is the virtual fridge? What are the different ways to select tiles? What keyboard controls does Issa have? How can I share my poems with others? How do wordlists work? Where can I get more? Can I make my own wordlists? Can I save the way Issa is now and restore it later? What bugs and issues are known for Issa? What is shareware? How do I pay? What is Issa and what does it do, in a nutshell? Issa is a "fridge poetry" set for Mac OS X. It gives you a bunch of word tiles that you can arrange to form poetry. For example: Everything about this poem, from the words and the font it uses to the background image it is presented upon, is configurable in Issa. For more information on the basic concept of Issa, as well as links to sample poems and wordlists, and an explanation of where Issa's name comes from, please check out its home page at http://www.sticksoftware.com/software/Issa.html. This manual will try, for brevity, to concentrate on explaining the more difficult or confusing aspects of Issa. Where are the tiles like "ed", "ing" and "an"? This is the chief difference between Issa and the magnetic poetry you probably have on your fridge. Issa takes advantage of the fact that it is on a computer to both increase the available vocabulary and decrease the number of tiles. It does this by allowing a single tile to have more than one word on it. The words on a tile should all be related to each other, such that it makes sense to place them together. For example, "run", "runs", "running", "ran" and "runner" are on a single tile. This means that the "ending" tiles like "ed" and "ing" are not needed in Issa; just choose the word form you want. That begs the question "how do you choose the different forms?" This is as easy as a control-click on the tile (or, if you have a two-button mouse, a right-click). At the top of the menu shown, before the other contextual menu commands, will be th…