Help-page

Technical documentation

Technical requirements:
Macintosh

  • PowerPC/Intel-based Macintosh computer
  • At least 128 MB of RAM
  • Mac OS X v10.1.3 or higher

Windows

  • A Pentium processor-based PC or compatible computer
  • At least 128 MB of RAM
  • Windows XP/Vista/7 or higher
  • A Sound Blaster or compatible sound card and speakers recommended
  • DirectX version 3.0 or later recommended

Recommended Browsers

  • Internet Explorer 7 and later (Microsoft)
  • Firefox 2.x and later
  • Opera 7 and later
  • Safari 1.x and later (Mac OS X)
  • Camino 1.x and later
  • Google Chrome


Français interactif textbook

Is there a textbook, CD, or DVD of the website?

  • The textbook (available from lulu.com or downloadable by chapter in pdf format) contains classroom activities that are integrated with the media on the website to form a complete first-year French curriculum. The media may be downloaded, but we do not make them available in CD or DVD format.

    The Français interactif website is intended to be used online. We do not provide a print version of the pages as they appear. You can print single pages according to your needs.

Where can I get the textbook?

  • Download the chapter PDFs from the website under the textbook heading of each chapter page (free!)
  • Download the chapter PDFs from the site map (free!)
  • Purchase the textbook in b/w or color from our lulu online store (not free, but inexpensive)
    (The newly revised textbook (2011) is now available from lulu and the new chapter PDFs are downloadable from the website. Previous versions of the chapter PDFs are available on the site map)


FI Website

Can I use the Fi website in my classroom?

  • All of our online materials are free of charge and intended for educational purposes. You can use the material provided that there is a reference to the original site. The textbook is also completely free and can be downloaded through the website.

Where can I get the Français interactif audio and video files?

  • Audio zip archives can be downloaded from the vocabulary and phonetics pages and all zip archives including the videos can be downloaded from the site map
  • Additionally we offer rss feeds which can also be accessed by clicking on the rss symbols on the vocabulary and phonetics pages. A list of rss feeds/iTunes podcasts is available on the site map


When I try to view a video or listen to an audio file, I see a blank screen.

  1. Have you updated to the latest version of your browser (and restarted your computer)? 
    Possible solution: Go to your browser menu bar and look for the browser update section (can usually be found under browser preferences). It's usually recommended to enable automatic browser updates.

  2. Have you tried opening the page in another browser? 
    Possible solution: If you are using Chrome (or another browser), try opening the website in a different browser (e.g. Firefox, Safari, Explorer) to see if the issues is tied to the browser. If it is only occurring in a specific browser, it might be the browser cache.

  3. Are you or your school blocking ports through your Firewall? 
    Possible solution: Port 1935 and 8080 cannot be blocked by your computer's or networks firewall if you want to use the media on our websites. 
    (If you don't know or are not sure how to unblock a port, email the port numbers to your school's technology staff or server admin)