1. Create a directory on your hard drive ("Prosody," for example) from which you would like to run these programs.

2. Click on the button below and then, following screens in your browser, place this file (prosfile.exe) in that separate directory.

3. Run prosfile.exe, following instructions so that all files are placed in the same directory. The files will be on your local computer, not on the Internet.

(You must run prosefile.exe. You cannot open it--or any of the files it contains--in a browser or a word processor. Use your "My Computer" feature to locate it in the directory on your disk  to which you downloaded it, and click on it to run it.  You may also find it by using "Start" in Windows and then "Run"; use the "browse" feature under "Run" to find "prosfile.exe." )

3. Running prosfile.exe will cause it to unpack the prosody files. Be sure to set the directory to which they are unpacked so that it is the same as where prosfile.exe resides.

4. To use the programs, you must then run the files that are unpacked, using the "start.bat" batch program, or "prosody.exe," both of which will run them. You may do this in the same way as you ran "prosfile.exe"

See your Windows Help for further information on unpacking and running programs, or get help from a lab assistant or from someone familiar with downloading, unpacking, and running DOS programs.

These programs were written some years ago in QuickBasic. They are in an unattractive black-and-white format and lack point-and-click convenience, but include a lot of information and will provide a basic education in poetic metrics and terminology.

They will run under any version of Windows, in a DOS window. One can also operate them using the DOS utility built into Windows.; to get to this you click your Windows Start button and then under "Programs" look for "MS-DOS Prompt" and click on that. There are also many other ways to run these, using, for example, older versions of "File Manager."

But the programs will not run under Netscape, WordPerfect, or any other browser or word-processor. They can be linked to an icon on a window.

The basic compressed file (prosfile.exe) can be copied onto any floppy and transferred to any computer Windows-running, and also most Macs (using DOS-adapting fetaures).