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PsyScript: Getting started part 1: installation

Installing PsyScript

  1. Download PsyScript from the link on its homepage: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/psychology/research/research-software/.
  2. Expand (decompress, unzip, whatever you call it) the .zip file you download and you should have a folder with folders in it.
  3. Move that whole folder somewhere where you can keep files and find it when you want it.

Once you have installed PsyScript, open the 'readme.html' file you find in that folder. You should be able to double-click that file to make your computer open it in your favourite web browser. If this doesn't work correctly for you, consult whoever set up your computer. Once the PsyScript editor is open you can use it like any other web page: bookmark it, find it in your History menu, etc..

Starting a new project with a blank script

To do anything useful with PsyScript you need a folder with two files in it. On the PsyScript editor page you will see a link which lets you download a blank project folder. You will also find this folder in the PsyScript folder.

  1. Click on the link and download the folder.
  2. Put the folder somewhere on your computer where you'll be able to find it again. Do not put it inside the PsyScript3 folder. Do not put the PsyScript3 folder inside it.
  3. Rename the folder to indicate what project it is connected with.
  4. Rename the script file in the folder to indicate what project it is connected with. The filename must end in '.txt' or '.psyScript'.
  5. Open the script file in a text editor (not a word processor like Microsoft Word). Good editors to use are TextEdit (on a Mac) or Notepad (under Windows).
  6. Make a trivial change to the script (perhaps put your name into the comment about who wrote the script) and save the change.
  7. Drag the script file to the script file icon near the top left of the editor page.

When you do the last step you should see the text under the icon change to the name you've given the file, and the contents show in the big text field. If it did that, everything worked and you're ready to start using your new project folder.

Saving the changes you make to your script

From now on you normally make changes to the script text by typing in the editing window rather than manually changing what's in the text file. Unfortunately it is not possible for a web browser to save changes to your script file by updating the script file on your disk. You will have to do it yourself.

PsyScript remembers what script file you're working on and what's in it, but you will want to save a copy of the script for use safe storage, or for use on another computer, or for when you need to switch from one script to another. So when you want to save your changes …

  1. open the text file with the text editor software you used in the above section
  2. select and copy the text of the script from the editor page
  3. paste into the text file replacing everything that's currently there
  4. save the change

If you like to work that way, it's safe to keep the text file open the whole time you're working on your script in the PsyScript editor, just occasionally copying your changes back into the file and hitting 'Save'.