:promethean in 30 seconds

Okay, so the truth is that I haven’t updated this blog in a very long time. What I’ve been doing in the meantime is designing an onscreen scientific calculator for interactive whiteboards…  and here it is!



My calculator not only looks like the real thing, but can evaluate complex mathematical expressions using order of operations, for example (7+4)×5.2–3.9÷8.

Trust me, to Maths teachers this is very important! You can find out more on my website at www.timschmitz.co.uk.

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Another useful feature of ActivStudio is the ability to make a background grid invisible without switching it off. This makes it possible to align objects to a grid even when the gridlines are hidden.

If you want your gridlines to be invisible, select the cursor arrow and double click somewhere on the flipchart to open the Page Edit toolbox.

In the Page Edit toolbox, click on the Zorro Mask and watch the gridlines magically disappear!

While the gridlines are hidden, try arranging some objects with the Snap To feature switched on to see what happens. When you want the the gridlines to reappear, just click on the Zorro Mask again.

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If you’re anything like me, you probably get really tired of always writing the date on your flipchart pages.

On the plus side, ActivStudio does feature a timestamp function. Whenever you click the Timestamp icon (shown opposite) you end up getting something like this:

Unfortunately this is far too small for any pupils to read from across a classroom. It’s a text object, which means you can edit it and change the font size, but this is far from an ideal solution.

The flipcharts below each contain a Flash object, which has been programmed to automatically update itself with the current date in a large, friendly font whenever you open the flipchart.

There’s three fonts to choose from:

Full instructions are included on each version of the flipchart. To download, right click on any of the different dates above and select Save Target As…

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All background grids in ActivStudio initially start the same size and colour, but thankfully is possible to resize the grid and change the colour of the gridlines to one of your own choosing.

To resize the grid, select the cursor arrow from the main toolbox and double click on an empty part of the grid. The Page Edit toolbox will appear somewhere on the page.

In this toolbox, click on or to change the grid size.

It is also possible to change the colour of the gridlines. This is done by first right clicking on an empty part of the grid. If you are using the Quick Select toolbox you will also need to click on the button.

In the right click menu which appears, click on Grid Colour… and select a new colour for the grid.

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By far the most useful feature of background grids is the ability to make objects automatically ’snap’ to the gridlines.

Although this feature is initially turned off when a grid is added to add a flipchart page, it can be switched on in a few clicks of the mouse.

After adding a grid to your page as described here, select the cursor arrow from the main toolbox and double left-click on an empty part of the grid.

A small horizontal toolbox will appear marked Page Edit:

In this new toolbox, click the Snap To icon. Any objects and text on your page will automatically align themselves to the gridlines whenever you move them.

To switch this feature off, click on the Snap To Icon again.

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When creating flipchart pages, it is often useful to be able to automatically align objects to a grid. There are lots of different types of layout grid availble in ActivStudio, all of which can be found in the resource library.

To access background grids from the resource library, click on the Library icon in the flipchart navigation toolbar.

The library browser window will appear somewhere on the screen:

Before you do anything else, make sure the Library Browser window is fully expanded. You can do this by clicking on the arrows at the top of the window:

Now click the icon for the Shared Resource Library, then click on the Shared Grids icon.

A wide variety of backgrounds can be selected from the explorer panel on the right, including squared grids, isometric grids, patterns of dots, graph paper and musical staved notepaper.

Any of these grids can be used for aligning objects, but the basic squared layout is by far the most useful. To find square grids you will need to select X-Y Lined in the explorer panel.

Once you have selected a grid you want to use, simply drag it onto your flipchart page using the mouse.

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The basic range of colours in ActivStudio is not very wide, and also not often ideal for use with a data projector.

If you want to get the most out of your toolbox, a good starting point is to increase the range of available colours.

Start by clicking on the Promethean man in the top left of the main toolbox. A small system menu will appear. Click on Toolbox Customise, then Colours. Finally, click on 24 to expand the range of colours to maximim.

This will produce a larger colour palette with a slightly random selection of colours, including two identical purples. Thankfully it is not difficult to reorganise this selection by choosing your own colours.

This is done by simply right-clicking on the colour which you want to change, and selecting a new colour from the list which appears. Alternatively, click the    button to mix your own colour from scratch.

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Although there are only three basic Layers in any flipchart page, it is also possible for objects to be stacked on top of each other within the same layer.

For example, in the image below all the objects are on the Top layer, but some objects are stacked above others within this layer.

To move an object to the front of its layer, right click on it and select Edit, then click To Front. Similarly, clicking To Back will send an object to the back of whichever layer it happens to be on.

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An extremely useful feature of ActivStudio is the ability to arrange objects on different layers. Layers make it possible to place objects either in front of, or behind one another along the user’s line of sight, as shown in the diagram below.

Every flipchart consists of three main layers, Top, Middle and Bottom, plus the background layer. To move an object to another layer, start by selecting the Cursor Arrow from the main toolbox.

Right-click on the object you want to move to another layer. A small popup menu will appear. Click on Edit, then Layer. Finally, click on Top, Middle or Bottom to move the object to that layer.

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Hmmm. No new blog posts in over a week then two at once! It must be nearly Christmas or something…

The main advantage that PowerPoint has over ActivStudio, and the only reason some teachers still use it, is the ability to reveal information or solutions one step at a time.

This is especially important with complicated worked examples in Maths, where layers of understanding must be built up gradually. Although there are various ways of revealing information in ActivStudio, these have always felt complicated and slightly inelegant.

Thankfully help is at hand The flipchart below contains a ‘revealer’ rectangle, which will disappear whenever you click on it. This allows information or diagrams to be revealed one at a time and in whichever order you like, significantly enhancing the thought process for pupils.

Full instructions are included in the flipchart. To download, right click here and select Save Target As…

It’s probably worth nothing that there are still quite a few things which PowerPoint is extremely useful for… but then that’s another story

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