Phonology Assistant 3.0.1 ReadMe
	Contents
Phonology Assistant 3.0.1 ReadMe
What’s New
Upgrading from Phonology Assistant 2.x
Upgrading from Test Versions of Phonology Assistant 3.0
Upgrading related software
Additional software needed
Custom keyboards
Known Issues
Technical Support

Phonology Assistant is a computer program to assist users in phonetics and phonology. It creates consonant and vowel inventory charts from a data corpus and allows a user to search that corpus for phonetic patterns within specified environments. 
	What’s New
Phonology Assistant 3.0.1 is a complete rewrite of Phonology Assistant 2.0. Although many of the features in version 2.0 are included in version 3.0.1, there are many new features found in Phonology Assistant 3.0.1. Some significant ones are:
New in Phonology Assistant
•	Unicode support.
•	Direct reading of data from FieldWorks Language Explorer, Toolbox databases, and transcribed Speech Analyzer audio files.
•	Uncertain transcription support.
•	Experimental transcription support.
•	Ambiguous Sequence support.
•	Customizable XY Charts
•	Custom Fields.
•	HTML and XML export.
•	Support for ignoring in searches diacritics, tone, stress and length markings.
•	Dynamic data corpus updates as underlying data sources change.
Improved in Phonology Assistant
•	Searching capabilities.
•	User interface.
•	Performance – both reading and searching data.
Upgrading from Phonology Assistant 2.x
Phonology Assistant 3.0.1 does not offer an automatic upgrade path from Phonology Assistant 2.x databases. The best way to make use of data from a Phonology Assistant 2.x database in Phonology Assistant 3.0.1 is to export the data from the Phonology Assistant 2.x database into a standard format file, convert the data to Unicode, and use the resulting file as an SFM data source in a Phonology Assistant 3.0.1 project.
The installer for Phonology Assistant 3.0.1 will not remove an existing (older) version of Phonology Assistant or Speech Tools. Phonology Assistant 2.x and Phonology Assistant 3.0.1 may coexist on the same computer without conflict. When you no longer need the older version, remove it by using the Windows Control Panel. (If you do this after having installed Phonology Assistant version 3.0.1, your application desktop icon may be removed, in which case, it must be recreated manually.)
Note: previous versions of Phonology Assistant have been bundled in the Speech Tools package. Removing Speech Tools also removes any other currently installed Speech Tools applications including Speech Analyzer 2.x and IPA Help 2.04.
	Upgrading from Test Versions of Phonology Assistant 3.0
Phonology Assistant 3.0 was released to a limited number of test users and only exists as a test version. Version 3.0.1 is the final, corporate release of version 3.0, the only difference being some bug fixes. Before installing version 3.0.1, you must uninstall version 3.0.
	For users of beta versions before 13-Feb-2007
If you have used test versions of Phonology Assistant 3.0, be aware that opening projects created with test versions dated before Feb. 13, 2007 will cause the loss of the project’s ambiguous sequences. Therefore, if you are running a 3.0 test version dated before 13-Feb-2007, it is recommended that you run that version, open all your Phonology Assistant projects, and note their ambiguous sequences. Then uninstall version 3.0 and install 3.0.1. Then, open your projects using version 3.0.1 and reenter those ambiguous sequences in their appropriate projects.
	For users of beta versions before 3-Aug-2007
If you have Phonology Assistant projects created using a 3.0 test version before Aug. 3, 2007, you will need to delete the project’s field information file before opening the projects using version 3.0.1. The field information file is saved in the same folder as the project file (.pap file) and is given a name in the format x.FieldInfo.xml where ‘x’ is the name of the project. If the project contained custom fields, you must re-add them after deleting the field information file and opening the project using Phonology Assistant 3.0.1.
If projects created before Aug. 3, 2007 contain FieldWorks data sources, after opening the project in Phonology Assistant 3.0.1, click the File menu and choose Project Settings. Remove all FieldWorks projects from the Data Sources list and then add them back again, making sure to specify their properties on the FieldWorks Data Source Properties dialog box.
	Upgrading related software
If you are using Phonology Assistant, FieldWorks, Speech Analyzer, and/or SIL Converters, you should upgrade them all to avoid eventual conflicts with older versions of the others. If you no longer need one of these products, first remove it, then upgrade to at least FW 5.0, SA 3.0.1, and/or SIL Converters 2.6.1. The new software is available on the SIL Language Freeware CDs or may be downloaded from:
  FieldWorks 5.0: http://www.sil.org/computing/fieldworks
  Speech Analyzer 3.0.1: http://www.sil.org/computing/sa/
  SIL Converters 2.6.1: http://scripts.sil.org/EncCnvtrs
Technical Details: Old and new versions can be installed and work together normally. However, if you then uninstall any of the programs, it will remove some core encoding converter registry settings that any remaining programs depend on. As a result, encoding converters within FieldWorks, Speech Analyzer and Phonology Assistant will lose some functionality until the registry settings are restored. Typical error messages may state “Encoding Converter not found” or “Error initializing Document reader”. The problem can be fixed by doing the following: (1) Log on to an administrative user account; (2) copy RegisterSEC.bat to your hard disk (RegisterSEC.bat is found on each installation package in the FieldWorks, Speech Analyzer, Phonology Assistant or Encoding Converters directory); (3) run RegisterSEC.bat by either (a) right-clicking RegisterSEC.bat and clicking Run As Administrator (Windows Vista) or (b) double-clicking RegisterSEC.bat (Windows XP or 2000). Alternatively you can fix the problem by running the appropriate installer and selecting Repair, or, if you know how, you can also use Regasm to register SilEncConverters22.dll in c:\Program Files\Common Files\SIL\2.6.0.0 or 2.6.1.0.
	Additional software needed
Word Viewer. Phonology Assistant Training materials require Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, or another program that can read Word documents. If you do not have one of these programs, you may download the free Word Viewer from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=95E24C87-8732-48D5-8689-AB826E7B8FDF. In addition, an RTF viewer such as Word, OpenOffice or the Word Viewer is required to view RTF files exported from Phonology Assistant. WordPad is able to read simple RTF files, but is not recommended since Phonology Assistant exports fairly complex RTF that is rendered poorly in WordPad.
We recommend never using WordPad to edit Toolbox/SFM data sources because by default, WordPad does not save the file as a Unicode text file. Therefore, when your file is not explicitly saved as a Unicode text file, WordPad will make your data unusable by Phonology Assistant.
Custom keyboards
Microsoft Windows provides many built-in keyboards for typing major languages. These can be enabled in the Control Panel under the Regional and Language Options option.
If Windows does not provide a built-in keyboard that works for your language, or if you type transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) or using characters not supported by a built-in keyboard (for example in tone or orthographic text), then you will need to install a custom keyboard. There are two basic methods for installing custom keyboards.
•	Keyman. If you already have Keyman 6.2, it will continue to work with Phonology Assistant 3.0.1. For new Keyman users, or those who wish to upgrade, Keyman 7.0 is available for download from http://www.tavultesoft.com/70/download.php.  There are several editions to choose from. All of them require that you purchase a license within 30 days of installation.  (Note: there are no longer any free editions of Keyman.) For more information on the Web, go to http://www.tavultesoft.com/keyman/editions.php. A Keyman keyboard developed by the Non-Roman Script Initiative (NRSI) for typing IPA characters can be downloaded from: http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=UniIPAKeyboard
•	Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC). You can download a free version of MSKLC from http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/msklc.mspx. MSKLC allows you to create, modify, and install custom keyboards without any purchases. If you have an existing MSKLC keyboard, you can install it without downloading the MSKLC package. You only need the full package to create or modify existing keyboards. A keyboard developed by the NRSI for typing IPA characters can be downloaded from: http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=UniIPAKeyboard
	Known Issues
•	There may be occasions when the insertion point is not displayed, and you are unable to enter text using the keyboard in the Current Search Pattern box in Search view or splitter bars in any view are unresponsive to moving. When this happens, you may restore normal behavior by minimizing and restoring the Phonology Assistant window.
•	Occasionally in XY Chart view, the cursor gets stuck displaying as a wait cursor (e.g. an hour glass) even when there is no processing going on. In this case, Phonology Assistant otherwise works normally.
•	When running Phonology Assistant on Windows Vista, occasionally, there are painting anomalies in word lists when they are grouped. Installing Vista service pack 1 fixes this problem.
•	When running Phonology Assistant on Windows Vista, using the mouse scroll wheel to scroll in word lists while the mouse is over the phonetic column sometimes causes Phonology Assistant to be unresponsive to certain actions. Installing Vista service pack 1 fixes this problem.
•	After clicking “Do not show this dialog again” on the HTML Viewing Options dialog box (i.e. shown when exporting to HTML), there is no way to change the HTML Viewing Options afterward without removing the “HTMLExport” settings element from the pa.xml file.
•	The place and manner of articulation sort orders for ambiguous sequences will always follow the order of the characters in the sequence. When the base character is not the first in the sequence, it should, but does not, take priority over the other characters in the sequence.
•	When using the Find feature (not to be confused with the Search feature in Search view) to Find whole words only in phonetic data may erroneously find matches due to a bug that interprets some diacritics as white space.
•	After a certain sequence of steps, a consonant or vowel chart may get mixed up. An example is, first, in Consonant Chart or Vowel Chart view add a Preceding Row, then add a Preceding Row Heading immediately afterward. Restarting Phonology Assistant causes the mixed-up cells in the chart to be corrected.
•	Due to font rendering limitations in Microsoft Window’s RichTextEdit control, some diacritics on characters in the record view do not align properly.
•	Stopping a repeated playback (selecting Playback Repeatedly from the File menu) in an undocked window cannot be done using F8. Instead, select Stop Playback from the File menu.
•	A few bugs exist while doing various things during the playback of audio files. For example, rereading data sources, applying changes in Phone Inventory view, performing searches, undocking and docking views. To avoid such bugs, it is best to allow audio playback to complete before doing anything else in Phonology Assistant.
•	Changing minimal pairs options for a search result word list (that’s being viewed in minimal pairs mode) changes the minimal pairs options for all other displayed search result word lists, although the changes for the other displayed search result word lists are not realized until they are refreshed.
•	Sorting the Data Corpus word list by Unicode Order will include the parentheses surrounding uncertain phone groups when comparing phonetic transcriptions to determine their relative order.
•	After displaying a search result word list and opening the find dialog box, editing the search pattern, redisplaying the search results, then clicking the Find button on the find dialog box, will cause Phonology Assistant to crash.
•	When a Speech Analyzer audio file is used as a data source and phonemic segments are transcribed in the audio files, it is important that, when one or more of phonemic segments exist in a word, the first segment in the word must contain a transcription in order for Phonology Assistant to correctly read the phonemic data. This is also true for tone and orthographic transcriptions.
•	For a Speech Analyzer audio file data source, Phonology Assistant is unable to read references transcribed in the audio file and the file’s description field (viewed on the File Information dialog box in Speech Analyzer).
•	For other tips and troubleshooting help, see the “Troubleshooting” topic in the Phonology Assistant help file. Additional helpful information may be found in the help topic “Limitations in Phonology Assistant”.
Known Help File Errors
•	The topic entitled “OR groups” contains two errors in example search patterns. The corrected patterns are as follows:

[[V][+back][+rnd]][[Bilabial][Plosive]][[V][+back][+rnd]]/*_*

[[V][Back][Rounded]][[Bilabial][Plosive]][[V][Back][Rounded]]/*_*
•	The topic entitled “CV Patterns tab, Options” refers to the CV Syllables. The correct term is CV Patterns.
•	The topic entitled “Help” mentions clicking “Send to create and open an e-mail message…” It should say “Create to create and open an e-mail message…”
•	The topic entitled “Help” says “To see the software version of Phonology Assistant, click About.” It should say “To see the software version of Phonology Assistant, click About Phonology Assistant.”
	Technical Support
Phonology Assistant is distributed as freeware. As such, no warranty or free personalized technical support from SIL International will be provided. We do provide you with the following sources for technical information. 
•	Go to the Help menu
•	Read the Known issues section above.
•	Read the PA service bulletins listed in the \SILSoftwareSupport\Index.htm on the SIL Language Freeware Disc.
•	Read the Phonology Assistant web site for the latest information, go to
http://www.sil.org/computing/pa/
We welcome bug reports, which you may send to PaErrors@sil.org. However, when you submit a bug report, we cannot guarantee that you will receive a reply or that the bug will be fixed.