Why I Made My Own AssemblyTube EasyPlay

[Piman]

I don't mind taking Assemblies but I do find they take up a lot of time in preparation.

I am always looking for ideas to help me.
I have found this website, AssemblyTube, really helpful in giving me ideas. But I wanted more shortcuts.
I had seen the adverts for EasyPlay and TeacherStick. I couldn't really wait for the postman. I am impulsive.

I decided to try the EasyPlay DIY version. EasyPlay DIY

What I Found
The download of the main file was really instant. This gave me a zip file. When I used winzip on this file, it asked for a code. When I tried to unzip it without the code it gave me error messages. So I guess I needed to buy the code.
I probably should have read the installation instructions first!


I purchased the unlock code for £4.99 on this page.

Then I tried again to unlock the downloaded zip file. When it asked for the code, I typed in the code and the zip file began to unzip.

I put all of these files on a blank usb drive and double clicked on "starteasyplay.exe".

The software loaded and asked for my personal password. This had been given with the unlock code I had bought, so I entered this.

I now had a fully working EasyPlay.

Can Anyone Do this?
If you have used winzip before, you will find this a breeze.

If you have not used winzip before, you might find it a bit confusing but you can do it. Basically a zip file is made of several files squashed together for faster transfer over the internet. To use these files you have to unsquash them using a program called winzip. In this particular case you need to add a password before winzip will do its magic on the files.

If you want to find out how difficult it is before risking your £4.99, download the FREE EasyPlay Lite and try it out. This version does not have all the features of the full EasyPlay DIY, but it will let you try out unzipping and installing, so you can see whether you can manage it.

If you are next to computer illiterate, don't try this. Just buy a ready made EasyPlay

[Sara]

Great post Piman. Here's a way of getting an EasyPlay FREE.
For anyone who wants to try an EasyPlay for absolutely nothing, get the EasyPlay Lite which you can download immediately. Being the Lite version it does not have all the features of the EasyPlay, but it is free and you try out unzipping the files onto a USB stick. You can see how the EasyPlay menus work in practice and decide whether an EasyPlay would be useful to you.

To compare all of the EasyPlay versions see here.

[DaveT]

I think this could be great for Supply Teachers who visit different schools and don't know all the systems.

[Sara]

Thanks DaveT.

I have produced a Supply Teacher friendly version of the EasyPlay Lite instructions.
If you download this pdf it allows you to create your own EasyPlay Lite. Supply teachers can then take their files with them and use them anywhere.

<a href="http://assemblytube.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=1212" target="_blank">http://assemblytube.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=1212</a>

If your browser will not let you view this pdf, you can download the pdf from here.