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To download the latest Windows (2000, XP, Vista...) version of Praat, it is easiest to use the self-extracting archive:
(if you have Windows 95/98/NT4/ME, try praat4601_win98sit.exe of 17 May 2007)
After downloading this file, double-click it and click OK to install Praat on your desktop.
If this installation does not work, you may use the ZIP archive instead (after downloading, double-click to open):
(if you have Windows 95/98/NT4/ME, try praat4601_win98.zip of 17 May 2007)
Either way, a file called Praat or Praat.exe will appear.
This is the Praat program. You can put it anywhere on your hard disk
(so that you can use Praat even if your system administrator does not allow you to install other programs!).
To start up the Praat program, just double-click it. If you use Praat for the first time, choose Intro from the Help menu.
If you find that Praat takes a long time to open or write files (e.g. it takes several seconds before the file selector window opens), try switching off the "file info tool tips": in an Explorer window, choose Folder Options, then View, then switch off Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items (the slowness is due to a mistake in Windows XP that Praat has to work around in order not to crash).
To make sure that phonetic and international characters show up correctly in Praat's text windows, you have to install Windows' international support.
For best results with phonetic characters in the TextGrid and Picture windows, you should also download the Charis SIL and/or the Doulos SIL font, which were created by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. To install them, first download the archives:
Then unpack the .zip files (the files with the zipper icons), if your web browser has not already done that. This will give you folders called CharisSIL4.106 and/or DoulossSIL4.106. When you open these folders, you will see TrueType fonts such as CharisSILR.ttf, CharisSILB.ttf, CharisSILI.ttf, CharisSILBI.ttf, and DoulosSILR.ttf. To install them on XP, go to Start, Control Panel, Appearance and Themes, Fonts, then drag the TrueType fonts from CharisSIL4.106 and/or DoulossSIL4.106 into the Fonts window.
If you do not install these fonts correctly, Praat has to fall back on its own built-in one-size-only 24-point phonetic symbols, which will look rather large on your screen and unacceptably small on your non-PostScript printer. Printing on a PostScript printer (directly or by including EPS files in your word processor) will succeed even if you have not installed the font, because the Praat program contains a built-in version of the TeX XIPA font for PostScript.
If you want to create PDF files from Microsoft Word documents that contain EPS pictures made by Praat or any other programs, you can install Adobe Acrobat (not just Reader!) and use the "printer" called Acrobat Distiller. With EPS files, you cannot use the "printer" called PDFWriter, nor can you use Print to PDF file... from Word's File menu; these direct PDF creation methods do not support EPS pictures. Instead of the rather costly Distiller, you can also use the free GhostView program; in that case, you would have to print to a PostScript file first ("Print to file" if you have installed a PostScript printer driver).
There is also a special program called Praatcon, which you run from a console window (the "command prompt"). Download either of the two compressed archives:
(if you have Windows 95/98/NT4/ME, try praatcon4601_win98sit.exe or praatcon4601_win98.zip)
Unpack as above. The resulting program Praatcon(.exe) is the Praat console application.
You should not double-click it. To run it,
write a Praat script and specify this script on the command line, optionally with arguments, e.g.:
praatcon playsinewave.praat 377 0.9