:promethean in 30 seconds

Whenever you are moving lots of objects around on the flipchart page, it’s useful to be able to select more than one object at once. This also comes in very handy when grouping objects.

To select multiple objects, start by clicking and dragging the arrow cursor across the flipchart page.

Draw a selection rectangle across the objects you are interested in. Note that any objects which this rectangle overlaps will become selected, not just the objects fully inside it.

For example, in the diagram below the blue, green and red polygons will be selected but the orange hexagon won’t.

If there are a lot of objects on the page, this ‘overlapping’ method of selection can sometimes be imprecise and frustratingly difficult to use. Thankfully it is also possible to add individual objects to the selection one at a time.

This is achieved by first holding down the Shift key on the keyboard. With this key still held down, click on whichever objects you want to add to the selection.

If you accidentally select an object you don’t want, continue holding down Shift and simply click the object again to deselect it. All the other objects will remain selected.

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When I first started using ActivStudio, one of the main frustrations was always having to walk across the board to the main toolbox to switch between the arrow cursor, pen or any other tool.

In front of a class of pupils the seconds really count and thankfully there’s a much quicker way of switching between tools without having to walk over to the other side of the screen.

Start by clicking on the Promethean man in the corner of the main toolbox, then click on Studio Settings…

After a few seconds the settings window will appear. In the white navigation panel on the left, select Toolboxes.

Click to place a tick in the box marked Show Quick Select Toolbox, then click OK to close the settings window.

From now on, whenever you right click on an empty part of the flipchart page, a small toolbox will appear with the most frequently used tools.

Just as with any other toolbox, it is possible to customise these tools through the Tool Store.

Note that whenever you right-clicked previously, you recieved a small popup menu allowing you to copy, paste and reflect objects. To access this menu you simply have to click on the small blue button in the top left corner of the Quick Select Toolbox.

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The first problem many teachers seem to encounter when approaching an interactive whiteboard is knowing how to use the pen. An important fact that a lot of people don’t seem aware of is that you don’t actually need to touch the board with the pen to move the mouse pointer.

If the pen is floating near the board (within about 2mm) then the technology will detect the pen’s location.

In other words, you only need to touch the board with the pen when you want to write, draw or select something.

The other important part of this is that to right click, you only need to hold the pen very near to the screen and press the small button on the side. This is incredibly useful for accessing menus and toolboxes without having to walk over to your computer.

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