Your Student File
Your student file keeps track of your progress and also automatically saves your personal preferences for using the program (that is, your choices made in the options menu, and your MIDI setup, if any, etc.).
When you first start the program you'll be asked to provide your name, and your student file will be given your own name plus a number to make sure it's unique. After that you can just choose your own name from the list you see when the program starts up.
If you are the only person using the program, and have only one student file in the Practica Musica Students folder, then Practica Musica will automatically choose that file for you when it starts, saving you the trouble.
If no student file is chosen you'll see a menu title
"No Student Chosen", like this:
And you can use the "Sign in" command to choose a file if you didn't do it when the program started.
Once you choose a student file, that menu item will contain your own name, and the "sign in" command will change to "sign out," in case you want to leave the program running when you depart:
Passwords
When using Practica Musica at a school you might want to enter a password for your student file. When you type in your name there's a box for a password, and you can also add a password later if desired. Passwords are entirely unnecessary if you're using the program alone at home, and you can save time by not having one.
WebStudents [tm]
If you are using Practica Musica in a school you might be asked to enter a WebStudents account name in your student file, so that your progress report will be copied to Ars Nova's own servers in a place where your instructor can see it. You can enter a WebStudents account name by choosing the command "Enter or change WebStudents account name" from the above menu. Once you enter the name it will be saved in your student file, and you won't need to enter it again unless you need to change it.
More information on WebStudents is available at Ars Nova, here.
When using the Standard or Site Editions, the person signed in as the "instructor" has access to the special commands found in the Instructor Options menu.
The instructor file is just a special type of student file; it keeps personal progress like other student files. Like other student files, it will name itself according to the name you choose when first signing in. Instructors will generally want to use the password feature when signing in their files, so that students won't have access to the instructor options.
Site license installations include a "visitor file," which is nothing more than a student file that has already been signed in using the name "visitor." It used to be necessary to have a visitor file for drop-ins, because earlier versions of Practica Musica required choosing a student file in order to run the program. Current versions no longer require a student file to run, but if you have not chosen a student file they will still remind you each time you start an activity that no student file is chosen. A student who doesn't have a personal student file can avoid seeing that warning by choosing the visitor file.
Getting fresh (empty) copies of student files
If your have the "Standard Edition" of Practica Musica you can replace the 4 student files it came with at any time by using the Create Student Files command in Instructor Options. No authorization number is needed to recreate those four files. If you need a fresh copy of the instructor file you need to install that one from the CD.
If you are using Practica Musica with additional student files, either with the Site Edition or with the Standard Edition, you'll use the Create Student Files command with an authorization number that will generate the required number of new files. For more details on using student files in a school settings please see Installing Practica Musica at schools.