Helpful Hints for Easiteach Users

Graduated colour
Here's an easy special effect for brightening up text on an Easiteach screen when you're using the computer keyboard. In Edit Mode, highlight the first letter of the text and apply a Fill Colour to it. Then highlight the last letter and apply a different Fill Colour. Finally, select all the text and press Ctrl-G. Presto—colour-graduated text!

Add an accent
To enter a special character or foreign letter in Easiteach, an easy way is to copy the character you want and then paste it into the Easiteach screen. All the available characters can be found in the Windows Character Map, which you can access from the Windows Start menu (in Windows XP, click on Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Character Map). Going in and out of Easiteach to do this is easier if you select Glass Mode.

More or less
Less can be more. When you're composing Easiteach screens, it's usually better not to include all the information as you would if you were writing a book. The Easiteach screen is there to support the teacher, not as a substitute. Leave yourself some work as a teacher, and it will help make your pupils think.

Cloning a page…
When you want to make two or more similar screens, it's easiest to make the second, and subsequent screens, from a copy of the first. Then when you click from one screen to the other, it looks much better because the backgrounds will be exactly aligned.

…and how to do it
When you're using the computer's keyboard, you can copy a whole page by selecting it in Storyboard view, then using Ctrl-C to copy and Ctrl-V to paste (or hold down the Ctrl key and drag away a copy to the place you want).

Bank your own resources
Can you add pictures to the resource bank? Yes you can - all you need to do is move the picture files into existing or new folders within the Multimedia or Resource Banks folders. Easiteach picks them up automatically.

Need to hide an answer?
Here's how. Write the answer first; then use the Rectangle tool, or any shape or picture, to cover the answer. In Edit Mode, highlight the object covering the answer. Then click the Utilities button on the Easiteach toolbar, then Links, then the Animate tab, and select the Hide/Show on Click button. Now when you click the object the answer will appear, and when you click it again it disappears - easy if you know how!

Neatly does it
Easiteach gives you the freedom to position objects anywhere on the page - so how can you align a lot of text items, or pictures, to quickly give a neat and professional look? Select all the objects and use one or more of the Align tools on the Easiteach toolbar. There are 11 of them - as well as lining up things, they let you easily even out horizontal and vertical gaps between pictures or text, and to centre one object over another.

Colours to be seen in
Whiteboard screens aren't always easy to read. Some colour combinations are a lot more readable than others, especially for visually impaired or dyslexic pupils. Complementary colours such as orange and blue or green and red work well for this. For more information, visit the RNIB's website.

Level lines
When creating screens, try them out on the full-size whiteboard before you show your class. Sometimes lines which look straight on a computer screen can appear broken and jagged when looked at on the larger whiteboard.

Don't be dazzled
To be sure of your pupils' attention when you don't want them looking at the screen, use the Fade Easiteach Screen button to dim the screen temporarily. Then you can step in front of the whiteboard without looking like The Illustrated Man!

Smooth moves
Are you having trouble moving small objects around the screen? You can sometimes end up accidentally re-sizing the object instead of moving it. The problem is cured if you change the object's properties so it can't be resized. To do this, select the object and then choose Object from the Utilities menu, and click to de-select the Sizes checkbox.

Get the big picture
When you use the Multimedia Bank, double-click on a picture to display it full-screen. Click once again to return to the previous view.

Mini story
Does your file have too many pages to see in Storyboard view? Just drag the corner of any one of them to resize them all and make them fit.

Get up, stand up
Easiteach isn't just a presentation tool - the power is really when pupils use it themselves. Ask questions that will get pupils involved at the front of the class - such as "Could you show me what that will mean?" and "Come up to the whiteboard and show your solution to the rest of the class."

Reversing direction
When you use Easiteach to make an object follow a path, the object normally moves clockwise around the path. How could you make it go counter-clockwise?
You need to create the path in a special way. Let's say you want an elliptical path. From the Easiteach toolbar, choose the Shapes, not the Ellipse, tool. From the selection of predefined shapes, drag a circle onto the page. In Edit mode, use the Objects window to turn off the Strong aspect property for this circle. Now squash it into an ellipse, and then flip the shape over. When you link an object to follow this path, its orbit will be flipped as well, making the object travel counter-clockwise.