Welcome to Parliament Hill: An Interactive Tour, a new multimedia CD-ROM by Voyageur Interactive Technologies Limited, which provides users with an introductory tour of historic Centre Block, the seat of Canada's parliamentary democracy. This presentation has four sections: the virtual Tour, an introduction to Canada's Political Process, Biographies of our Prime Ministers and Governors General, and a section containing some of Canada's fundamental Documents. You can explore each section starting at the Home Page, but first take some time to familiarize yourself with the Interface.
Interface
The interface design of Parliament Hill: An Interactive Tour reflects the philosophy of the developers:
• it is intuitive, fun, and easy to learn,
• certain key functions are always available so you don't have to waste time looking for them (like SAVE, PRINT, and the INDEX for example),
• the information on the CD-ROM is organized in a flat hierarchy, so that you are at most 2 levels away from finding what you need (i.e., you don't have to wander through a maze of screens and levels to get anywhere), and
• Home, or the main menu, is always one mouse-click away, so you can't get lost.
The interface has five key areas:
Main Viewing Window: The large window located to the right of your screen is the main viewing window. This window is used for viewing most of the content of Parliament Hill: An Interactive Tour. The Quicktime VR tour, the Political Process, the Biographies, and the Documents are all displayed within this window.
Permanent Buttons : On the left side of the interface are seven permanent buttons:
• PRINT: Clicking on the PRINT button prints the document currently displayed.
• SAVE: Clicking on the SAVE button saves the current document to your computers hard drive. ** note: if you happen to click on the background while the Save dialogue box is on the screen, it will be sent to the background. Pressing ALT F6 will return the box to the forground.
• HELP: Clicking on the HELP button will allow you to access information about how to use PARLIAMENT HILL: An Interactive Tour.
• INDEX: Clicking on the INDEX button activates a search engine enabling you to conduct a "key word" search of the documents on this CD-ROM.
• HOME: Clicking on the HOME button returns you to the Home, or main menu, of PARLIAMENT HILL: An Interactive Tour.
• QUIT: Clicking on the QUIT button exits the program and ends your virtual visit to Parliament Hill.
• BACKGROUND SOUND: In the upper left corner of the interface is the Background Sound Button which enables control over the volume of the background sound. Clicking your mouse on the arrow pointing up increases the volume. Clicking on the arrow pointing down decreases the volume.
Context-Sensitive Items: The Items located to the immediate left of the Main Window change depending upon the choices you make when exploring Parliament Hill. Clicking on these Items will allow you to access different functions or pieces of information relevant to your current location in the presentation. For example, during the Quicktime VR tour, clicking on one of these Items will play a short video describing a feature of Centre Block or explaining an aspect of Canada's political system. These titles were chosen to be as descriptive as possible. Many of the Items have an Active Help feature. Rolling your cursor over an Item will display instructions about its use or function in the Help Text Display.
Help Text Display: Immediately below the Main Viewing Window is an area that dynamically displays Help Information when your cursor is rolled over a main Interface feature. As well, during the Tour you will find "hot spots" within the Main Viewing Window. Clicking on a "hot spot" will display a detailed still image in the Main Window. A brief explanation of this photograph will appear in the Help Text Display at the same time.
Map/Video Window: The smaller window in the lower left corner of the interface is used to display navigational maps and short video presentations. When taking the virtual tour of Centre Block, this window will display your current location within the tour by highlighting your position on the map.
During the Tour, this area will display a locator map of the room you are in. On the map will be a series of coloured dots enabling you to pinpoint your current location within the room. The red dot indicates where you are. The green dots show other locations available to you within the room. Clicking on one of the green dots will jump you to that location.
As you move from room to room, the map will be automatically advanced to display the room you are entering. As well, a title which appears at the top of the window will tell you what room you are currently navigating. For an overview of accessible areas, click on the Context Sensitive button labelled "MAPS" in the Help section, and an overall floorplan will be displayed.
You may also access an overall Floor Plan of the navigable areas within Centre Block by clicking on the top button to the right of the window which displays a Building icon. A Floor Plan of the level you are currently navigating will be displayed in the Map Window. Clicking on the Stairs Up or Stairs Down button to the right of the Floor Plan will move you up or down one level accordingly. Clicking on another room on the map will switch the main viewing window into Transport Mode, and you will be quickly transported to that location. All of the major rooms are accessible via Transport Mode. Some areas, such as hallways and alcoves, are not.
During the Tour, this window will also be used to display videos that you have selected by clicking on a Context Sensitive Button. The videos begin playing automatically once you have made a selection from the Context Sensitive Buttons. The button to the right with the triangular icon will rewind the video and begin playback from the start. The button with the square icon will stop the video, and return you to the Locator Map of the room you are in.
The Home Page
The Home Page, or Main Menu, is the starting point from which you can easily access all of the information contained in Parliament Hill. No matter where in the presentation you are, clicking on the HOME button will take you back immediately to the Home Page.
The Home Page presents you with four options for exploring Parliament Hill: An Interactive Tour. You may choose TOUR, POLITICAL PROCESS, BIOGRAPHIES, or DOCUMENTS to move into one of the four main areas of the presentation.
Help Screens
Pressing the button labeled "HELP" at the left of the screen will take you to the HELP section. When you first choose this option, the information displayed in the text window will reflect the section you were exploring when you clicked HELP. If you need help on another topic, refer to the Context Sensitive Buttons to the left of the Main Viewing Window. These buttons provide you with help concerning the other operations of the Parliament Hill CD-ROM.
INTERFACE - informs you about the general operation of the Parliament Hill CD-ROM, and how to use the interface to navigate effectively.
QTVR TOUR - tells you how to use Quicktime VR to take a virtual tour of Centre Block, and access other interesting information about the history, architecture, and functions of Canada's national legislature.
REFERENCE - provides you with information on how to use the Political Process, the Biographies, and the Documents sections of the Parliament Hill CD-ROM.
SEARCHING - gives you instructions on how to use the search engine in the Index section to search the printable documents contained in this CD-ROM.
MAPS - will present you with floor-plans of the three levels of Centre Block.
