2.1 First-time installation

You have a laptop or desktop computer that uses the Windows operating system, any one from Windows 98 to NT to 2000 to XP. If you're reading this, you must know how to start your computer already. And if you're reading this, you must know how to connect to the Internet.

If you have never installed Wordcorr on this computer, you're on the right page to do a first-time installation. If there is already a copy of Wordcorr on this computer, you should go to the Upgrade page to install the current version. Or if you bring up the version of Wordcorr that's already there, click on the Help menu item and the About Wordcorr item, and it tells you that it is Version 2.0.0, then you don't need to do anything.

What kind of Internet connection are you using? Wordcorr is a fair sized program, 20.1 megabytes. It can take a long time to download if all you have is a dial-up telephone connection through a modem, more than 48 minutes at the fastest phone modem speed, and over 3 hours at the slowest.

If you have any way of connecting to the Internet through a broadband connection, use that for the installation. Once Wordcorr is installed, however, you can use it without broadband. Broadband connections come through cable television companies, a DSL link provided by your telephone company, or a direct arrangement often found in universities and corporate offices. Internet cafes sometimes don't have broadband; many Starbucks and Borders, airports and shopping malls, do.

When you click on Download at the very end of this module, it takes you to the place on the Internet where you can always find the latest version of the program: a Web site called SourceForge.net that is the distribution point for millions of downloads. SourceForge confirms that you are downloading Release 2.0.0 for initial installation, and shows you a list of mirror Web sites around the world that you can download from. Pick one reasonably near you and click on the "Download" link to its right.

A "File Download" box will come up and ask if you want to open the file being downloaded, or save it. Choose "Open".

From that point on, you're in familiar territory. The downloaded file contains an installer, which offers to put Wordcorr in C:\Program Files\Wordcorr for you. Accept the offer, and any others that it makes. It also puts some files with internal configuration information in a special folder, and sets up a copy of the Java Runtime Environment where it knows how to find it -- behind the scenes modules that you don't need to worry about.

Got all that? Good! Now here goes: Download