Functionality for Maths

[jtw521]

We recently upgraded to Professional Edition only to find that in many ways this has reduced functionality. Examples are the auto joining of two shapes drawn at the same time and toolboxes that are harder to reach than was previously the case.

My latest encounter is the loss of the yellow button that allowed a shape to be centred outside its boundaries thereby allowing demonstration of rotations and reflections about lines and points of my choosing. I have a lesson in two days and have only now realised this too is missing. What next?:mad:

Sorry to be complaining but I didn't find the previous version particularly user friendly, now it just seems even harder to work with.

[sartley]

Not too sure quite what you mean by auto joining. If you mean automatic grouping - then there's a setting in Studio settings which is turn on or offable. Promethean Man > Studio Settings > Flipchart Objects.The bottom tick box is automatic annotation grouping. If ticked this should mean that it will automatically group things drawn close together. If you mean something else, post again with a bit more detail.

Now to your other point - fear not, you can still rotate round other points. Click on Promethean Man > Toolbox customise > Tool store. This will open up all the available tools. If you look in the Presentation tools section, you will see the X-Y origin tool. It looks like a blue square with a blue cross through it. Drag that from the tool store onto your Promethean tool bar. It will now be there for you to use whenever you want. You can drag any other tool from here onto your tool bar as well - so they are there for easy access. Make sure that you drag it onto one of the two columns on the left - ie somewhere under the select tool or the pen tool. Happy rotating!!

[jtw521]

Thanks very much! Both points answered perfectly. Its just odd (and frustrating) that something which was previously there and ready to use now has to be looked for. Thanks again.

[Ros J Walker]

You raised a third point about not being able to find annotations. I know that in version 1 there were several 'stock annotations' down the side of the toolbar. Fear not! You can still do this - in fact, it is even more customisable than before!

The annotations are all there in the Resource Library (I am assuming that you have found them). If there is something that you do want to use regularly, just add it to a page and then drag it onto the toolbar (third column) and you will notice that it is added as a mini icon.

This toolbar is so versatile. I have the word 'Dictionary' with a hyperlink to an online dictionary, so that any time we need to look up a word in a lesson, I can drag out the word from my toolbar and then click on it straight away and open up the online dictionary.

For maths, you can add all your shapes as before.

I am attaching a sort of helpsheet that I have done for Maths which runs through all the tools talking about usage for Maths. Hope it may be of use to you,

All the Best
Ros

P.S. Did you know about right-clicking over the pen tool to bring up shapes?

[jtw521]

Now to your other point - fear not, you can still rotate round other points. Click on Promethean Man > Toolbox customise > Tool store. This will open up all the available tools. If you look in the Presentation tools section, you will see the X-Y origin tool. It looks like a blue square with a blue cross through it. Drag that from the tool store onto your Promethean tool bar. It will now be there for you to use whenever you want. You can drag any other tool from here onto your tool bar as well - so they are there for easy access. Make sure that you drag it onto one of the two columns on the left - ie somewhere under the select tool or the pen tool. Happy rotating!!

Having done these rotations a few times, it does work but is less user friendly than before. In the previous version I could set up the centre of rotation for each shape, allowing me to set up a page full of rotations of different shapes about different points. Now I am restricted to one centre of rotation for the whole file, it is always in the middle until I move it and is on all pages whether I want it there or not! :mad:

Snap-to on the grids is useful but I could do with triangular paper appearing as a grid rather than just paper so that I can snap to it.

For future versions can you please improve on what is already there rather than making it less user friendly?

[sartley]

Maybe I'm missing the point here, but as I still have ActivStudio on my PC, I thought I'd remind myself about the point of rotation with this version. You still only have one point of rotation on a page, which you can move anywhere on that page - just like in AS2. You can rotate different shapes round a point which you can move and move again. It does not have to stay in the middle of the page. The difference is that with AS2 to remove it the X-Y origin tool from the page or the flipchart, you just click on the X-Y origin icon again to run it off - one click on, one click off. It works just like using the reveal or the spotlight tools.
Re triangular paper - this only appears as a background - which I think you must have found as the last in the Maths section of the backgrounds.

However, the grids do give the option to increase or decrease the grid size - something not available in AS, to change the colour (right click > Grid colour), snap to and mask.

Now I know it's not triangular, but have you considered using the 60° grid in the X-Y lined section of the grids? I have put some blue triangles onto a flipchart page for you here. If you enlarge or decrease the grid, the triangles of course will not enlarge or decrease because they are just annotations, but it might be a halfway house and perhaps give you some ideas.
Hope this helps.

[Westlake]

Thanks for the Maths Ideas sheet Ros.
Another useful trick is to save those expressions you have created in Equation Editor or MathType into your Resource Library (drag them across and name the file...). Great to pull onto the page when you need them. I also do that with chemical formulae - you do NOT want to be doing the subscripts/superscripts while your class watches... Make up a set of the complex ions for example, and share them with your colleagues.
I have the word 'Dictionary' with a hyperlink to an online dictionary, so that any time we need to look up a word in a lesson, I can drag out the word from my toolbar and then click on it straight away and open up the online dictionary.
You could also set up one of the "User defined buttons" in that 3rd row for this - go to the Tool Store for them. Once you are out of the Tool Store right-click the ? icon and customise your button. Then you simply click on the icon to bring up the web browser.
I have set up shortcuts for Excel, Word and Powerpoint in this way, linking to the .exe file in Program Files.
Hilary
PS Can anyone recommend a downloadable Scientific Calculator? In the meantime, I selected "work offline" from the online calculator I was using, then saved the webpage to open when I am not online. Seems to work OK.

[jtw521]

Latest ones!

The ruler does not rotate and as such will only be of use for measuring horizontal objects, not much good when trying to demonstrate constructions, especially when there are no compasses and the 'arc' tool does not draw arcs but an exponential curve.

I'm not too keen on the way symbols are written into text, for example if I wished to put in a greater than or equal symbol it is inserted as a font rather than as a symbol. This can cause confusion if the font in a quantity of text including the 'symbol' is altered. It also looks ugly when different fonts are used in the same sentence, less than (<) in comic sans and less than or equal to in Activ symbol font.

I'm still not keen on the way superscript and subscript are done by raising and lowering rows. This 'style' is ssaved and continued in the next text box rather than going back to a default setting.

[AirSkeeter]

Are you saying that your ruler does not rotate?? That is a first for me.

You need to take your cursor and place it in the incremental lines for measuring. You will see your cursor change to two rotational arrows and rotate away!!

I can't take a picture of this on the page, you will have to trust me.

Have you right clicked on the tools in question to get the context sensitive help? When I have a hard time figuring out a tool, I do that and it helps me greatly.

[jtw521]

Got you, cheers! I was trying to rotate it like a normal object. Thanks again.

[AirSkeeter]

Always willing to spread the message!!

Westlake: Here are some links for scientific Calculators:

Might be one on this page!!! (http://dmoz.org/Science/Math/Software/Calculators/)

Good luck finding one here.

[Westlake]

Thanks for this link - what a collection! Not sure I understand what some of it means, but will have a play.
Hilary