Backgrounds

[simongreen]

Hello all,

A bit of a designy tip...

I think backgrounds can really make-or-break a flipchart. Use the same background to tie together one flipchart, so students have a good visual representation of a subject.

Here's a quick way to create a background which is guaranteed to tie together the colour scheme used in your flipchart:

1. Take a snapshot of a detail in a picture on the page.
2. Then drag this detail into My Backgrounds.
3. Drag it out again to turn the detail into a background...

See attached flipchart for examples...(spot where the details have come from!)

I've also played with the transparency options when creating the snapshots...

[Dug]

Nice idea.
BTW, I need a makeover on my living room. You free, Simon?

[simongreen]

Available for makovers... interior design... any type of design work... but note that I'm not free - I charge a fortune!!!

[Peter Lambert]

That's a great design tip Simon, any more tips on flipchart design out there?

[J Boucke]

Simon very subtle. Yes a great way to keep your color scheme intact. Another forum idea I can relate to and quickly put into practice. Thanks.

I too believe backgrounds can enhance a flipchart. I love the subliminal message backgrounds can send. I teach World History to 7th graders and use my backgrounds to present subtopic information or introduce or reenforce more primary information.

Making the pictures as background somewhat transparent allows text over the background. But to keep colors vibrant I also insert, between the background and the text, a light-colored shape made semi-transparent so the text can be read, but the background peeks through.

I also use the point to point or freehand camera tools to take photos of part of the background and hide information, answers, or instructions behind these. It's just that sometimes I forget where I have hidden them.

[J Boucke]

Simon,

I was at home when I responded, but now I'm at school and played around with several of my existing flipcharts using your "small part of main image" background idea. Very Cool.

[debs]

Hi,
I am no artist at all but I have really enjoyed playing with this snapping a piece of a picture for a background! It actually looks very effective and is quite simply to achieve[clap] Add a piece of classical music to really create the ambience. The children will love this.

Debs+wave+

[Margaret Allen]

This has reminded me of something I did a while back. Copyright prevents me from submitting the whole flp - but here are two pages which are quite fun. The story is called "there is no such thing as a dragon" the author wanted hundreds of thousands of pounds for the rights (!) to use this....

Anyway, in my version the little boy called Flip is trying to get everybody around him to recognise that there is a dragon. On the first page notice how the wallpaper is flowers and then changes to dragons on the second page.

I did this using the same principle as has been suggested.

[Simon34]

A great website here full of free backgrounds to add to your resources..


www.backgroundcity.com (http://www.backgroundcity.com)

[J Boucke]

Simon,

Thanks so much for the website. Very useable.[clap] [clap] [clap]

[J Boucke]

Debs and Margaret,

Two different variations on the backgrounds theme. Bravo![clap] [clap] [clap]

This is giving me so many ideas. Thank you for the sharing.

[scaulfield]

Simon,

Great idea. I really like taking a smart part of the larger picture and using it as your background. It was fun trying to find out where you took your snapshot from!

[mrsb]

Thanks for sharing that website info. It was really helpful.

[jepatton]

Hi Simon --

I tried your tip for custom backgrounds, and it doesn't seem to work on the Mac version (2.5 Build 69). Is there a way to make custom backgrounds on the Mac? I've searched the help pretty thoroughly, but I can't find anything.

Thanks for your help.

[juliefowler]

Great idea! I am all about coordinating colors throughout-anal retentiveness coming out in me. I just got my Activboard and took only 2 days of class thus far. Thanks for a great tip!
Julie:D

[colobill]

Dear Simon,
I am using the Mac version, 2.5 B 70 to be precise and I can not seem to make these snippets into backgrounds. I can drag them into My backgrounds folder, but they remain little squares when I insert them. Am I doing something wrong or is this operation not possible on the Mac?
Thanks,
Bill
Denver, CO

[leslieramsey]

Another great backgrounds website...Absolute Background Textures....I have used this site to design web pages. But after you pick a background color/design, right-click on the background (not the jpg image) and "Save Background As" into your Activstudio or Activprimary backgrounds folder.

http://www.grsites.com/textures/ (http://www.grsites.com/textures/)
clwn

[caryn]

Thanks for that link Leslie. I love the way you can change the colours etc and customise them.

[sciencequeen]

I was able to make a cool background like Simon's, however, I could not figure out how to make the background more transparent, or lighter. I tried making the object I copied in to "my backgrounds" lighter, but when I made it the background, it went right back to not being transparent. Can someone help me out?

[Margaret Allen]

Yes I have had that problem in the past. You need to take a photograph of the background made more transparent and then add it to your backgrounds...[clap]

[JanP]

Thanks Margaret! I was just trying to do that for my week 6 level 2 flipchart. Didn't think of taking a picture of it to keep the transparency![clap]

Janice

[simongreen]

Dear Simon,
I am using the Mac version, 2.5 B 70 to be precise and I can not seem to make these snippets into backgrounds. I can drag them into My backgrounds folder, but they remain little squares when I insert them. Am I doing something wrong or is this operation not possible on the Mac?
Thanks,
Bill
Denver, CO

Hi Bill/ Hi everyone,
Sorry for the delay, I've been on my hols... I'm afraid that backgrounds don't work in this way on the Mac so this is not possible. Sorry :(

Very pleased to see that this thread is still going, however....

I'd encourage anyone to read through all the Top Tips threads (including the older ones), contribute further ideas to the older threads and create any new tips that come to mind... all tips appreciated!

Simon

[simongreen]

Great idea! I am all about coordinating colors throughout-anal retentiveness coming out in me. I just got my Activboard and took only 2 days of class thus far. Thanks for a great tip!
Julie:D

Hi Julie, welcome to the forum! Pleased to see you're enjoying your activboard...
Simon

[jurczak]

Hi Bill/ Hi everyone,
Sorry for the delay, I've been on my hols... I'm afraid that backgrounds don't work in this way on the Mac so this is not possible. Sorry :(

Very pleased to see that this thread is still going, however....

I'd encourage anyone to read through all the Top Tips threads (including the older ones), contribute further ideas to the older threads and create any new tips that come to mind... all tips appreciated!

Simon

Do you know if it will work on Macs once we download Version 3?

[simongreen]

Hi jurczak,

I've checked this, and backgrounds won't change with version 3... there are lots of other new features to play with though...!

I've passed your feedback on to the relevant people...

Hope that's OK,

Simon

[Selda Ziya]

Great ideas, thank you! My suggestion is more simple. I have used the digital camera to take pictures of key places around a school. I have then made the image in to a background, which I have used as a back drop to a drama scene. I have found this particularly powerful when I have applied it to bullying. Children are able to plan and act out scenes and feel it is more real having the picture behind them on the Activboard. It also makes the teacher alot more aware of what is happening beyond the classroom! The background can then be used to drop in images of the children, helping them to write their own scripts.

Any further ideas and enhancements are always welcomed.

Selda

[caroleu]

Tiled backgrounds like y'all are doing with the picture and those on the website above only work in ActivStudio, right? I was reading about tiled backgrounds in another thread and managed to get one done on ActivStudio (installed on my computer, but I use ActivPrimary and haven't seen the feature in the settings.

[caryn]

Works in AP. Double click on background, go to properties, then appearance and select how you want the background displayed from the drop down menu.

[colobill]

I have been playing with this on my Mac, running V3.6 and I can make the snippets into backgrounds, but they insist on maintaining a faint border across the top edge, ruining, in my opinion, the overall effect. I have tried making the snippets either transparent (creating a white edge) or not transparent (creating either a pink or other colored edge).
What am I missing here?
Bill
Denver

[LisaD]

Here's how I do it on a Mac.


I bring in an image I want to make a background from. I double click on that image and set its properties so that is is indeed 1024 x 768 and its position is set to 0 at top and 0 on left.
Then I choose export as jpeg.
Then I add a new page. I make sure my menus are showing and choose import as background from file and I import the jpeg I just exported.
Now I have a new background. Open your resource library to backgrounds or collections. Then right click on that page and add it to your library.
Works great for me!

Lisa

[caroleu]

Works in AP. Double click on background, go to properties, then appearance and select how you want the background displayed from the drop down menu.

I just tried this. I opened a background image that needs to be tiled, double clicked it, but the only appearance choices I have are layer (top/middle/bottom), transparent, visible/reflected/inverted, Is there a different version of AP?

[Peter Lambert]

Hi Carole,
I'm guessing it is an image and not a background. You are seeing the image properties. Drag the image to your background library and then drag it out on to a new page, then go to properties, you will see that it now shows page properties and the option under Appearance are different.