Fill points

[Kath H]

The fill points on AS1 were irritating at times but they did allow the creation of some useful objects. I do like the way you can move a filled object in AS2 much more easily but miss some of the possiblilites the old fill ponts gave me e.g. a moving window in a filled rectangle, a way of hiding objects to be revealed by the eraser, filled cells in a table, adjustable pie and pecentage bar charts, a coloured frame around a shape. Not all of these are possible in AS2. Is the fill tool in AS2 to be improved?

[Nigel Pearce]

Kath,
As far as I am aware you are the only person to say something nice about Studio 1 fill points.
If the demand is strong enough they could easily be introduced into a later v2 release.
Anyone else interested?

[Kath H]

It would be better if AS2 came up with another way of doing the things I mentioned. I agree the old fill points caused problems but they could be used to good effect. Look at the Gatsby charts I wrote that use them, e.g. number squares where they are used to create a moving window, averages or card games where they are used to create a pack of cards to pick from, charts where they are used to create alterable charts, or the numberline flipchart page where a fill point was used to create a window on the line. I still haven't managed to dupilicate that effect in AS2. If I could I would happily never see a fill point again.

[sartley]

Hi Kath

I wonder if this would work:
I looked at your Averages flipchart and put it into AS2 format. On page 2, I clicked on your top card, moved it to the side and filled the brown outline with white. I then placed it back on top of the stack, right clicked>Edit>Lock. I then clicked on the pile to pull out the cards from behind it.

Is that any good?

[Kath H]

Yes thankyou. That solves problems drawing cards from a pack. Any ideas on how to create a movable window of the type in the numbersquares flipchart? I found a new disadvantage with the fill points today. I drew a polygon pattern on the board for a class, using the dot to dot line tool. When I tried to colour sections of it I couldn't, the whole pattern filled. This also happens when trying to colour individual cells on a table, a shame because I often get students to create a bar or column chart by colouring one cell on a grid, (as in Donkey Derby), now either the whole table is filled or a large part of it. Any ideas?

[sartley]

I have created a flipchart which is a 100 number square - with each square a separate cell, so the square, or the number can be filled individually. I have also created some movable windows with some notes on how it can be done. Trying this out will prevent people being bored over the Christmas break! ;)