Mac users

[Thea]

Hi
i can't be the olbly mac user! Where are you all?
I have 16 Active boards connected to emacs and ibooks we have few problems with them. Our worst problem is the hash 5000 error and we think this has beeen cured. Handwriting recognitionis a bitiffy, but I am learning more each day.

Perhaps some one ca ntell me how to add my own resources. I look forward to reading more.

Sally Caplan

[Kris Vassos]

Hi Sally,
Nope, you're not the only Mac user. I'm in a school district in the US that currently has over fifty ACTIVboards. Our main issue was with the USB ports, but that seems to be rectified now. What type of resources do you want to add?
Kris

[mstokes]

Absolutley not the only Mac user. I now have over 75 boards connected to Macs in five different schools.

[Peter Lambert]

Hi Thea
Most of our MAC Users are in the US and I'm pleased to see they are in the forum! You can add annotations to your annotation library by creating them on the board, marquee selecting, right click and choose Add to anno library. Images and so on can be added to folders by dragging and dropping within OS9 or X. Or again, if you have an image on a flipchart page (from file or snapshot), right click and choose Add to image library.
HTH
Pete

[Peter Tilghman]

Hi Sally,
Nope, you're not the only Mac user. I'm in a school district in the US that currently has over fifty ACTIVboards. Our main issue was with the USB ports, but that seems to be rectified now. What type of resources do you want to add?
Kris

I am the Information technology Coordinator at the American Community School in Cobham, Surrey, United Kingdom.

We are thinking of installing ACTIVboards throughout the school. What experience have you had on
1. single user (stand alone workstations) versus networked macintosh comptuers
2. life of projector bulbs
3. quality of software (how are you finding ACTIVstudio)
4. have any of your users experienced a loss of links to web sites or photographs?
5. how do you handle dry ink markers on the ACTIVboards?

[Peter Tilghman]

Absolutley not the only Mac user. I now have over 75 boards connected to Macs in five different schools.


I am the Information technology Coordinator at the American Community School in Cobham, Surrey, United Kingdom.

We are thinking of installing ACTIVboards throughout the school. What experience have you had on
1. single user (stand alone workstations) versus networked macintosh comptuers
2. life of projector bulbs
3. quality of software (how are you finding ACTIVstudio)
4. have any of your users experienced a loss of links to web sites or photographs?
5. how do you handle dry ink markers on the ACTIVboards?

[Holdbrook]

Hi,
The bulb has just gone in my projector after more than 2 years hard usage. I miss it terribly. Have to wait until next week for a new bulb to be fitted.
The macs work well with activ board once they've been set up properly - there seems to be a slight problem with the linking device from the computer to the board.

[daskey]

My laptop runs on OS 10.4 (Tiger). To my horror, I realized a week before school was to start that Activestudio runs on Panther at best. It is now a week into the school year. When will the Tiger upgrade be available and what can I do in the mean time? My students are becoming very impatient as am I!

[UzMac]

Hi,

Have you heard that Promethean announced and releazed a brand new cool look and feature full 2.0 version of ACTIVstudio Professional? It's fully Tiger capable. Contact a local Promethean office in your country for more details.

Mac fan.
*******

[MacManiac]

I have just received my Mac OS X (Tiger) version of ACTIVstudio PE Version 2.0.16. I was wondering whether flipcharts created in the Mac OS version are compatible with Windows XP and vice versa. My school is all Windows XP, and I am the solitary Mac user. I want to be able to create flipcharts on my Powerbook and use them in the Windows XP of ACTIVstudio PE. No doubt trial and error will tell me whether this is possible, but I wondered whether anyone else was in this position?

[Jos]

Flipcharts are compatible between Mac and PC. Please make sure you have the latest versions of Mac (v2.0 b16) and PC (v2.1.23). The most common problem users have is using a font on one system that is not available on the other. It is best to stick to most common fonts – Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana etc.

[LisaD]

I create stuff on my Mac every day (I have 2.0.16) and post them to the resource section. Other that the fonts resizing in fields sometimes (You have to double click and edit to resize the field so the text doesn't clip off), I think everything is working. At least PC users haven't contacted me otherwise. There was a flipchart where some of the objects were somehow "restricting" movement of the other objects. Still trying to find a fix on that.

Lisa

[ojsaunders]

Hello mac users,
I too have the new version of AS 2 that works with Tiger and its great. I have 2 problems though. I can't seem to get handwriting recognition going. Can anyone give me a dummies guide to doing this!! Also when I set up a user defined link to word on my toolbox it goes instead to You Synchronise which is the bottom of my applications folder instead.
I have the only iwb in my school teaching history with it and am now the envy of my colleagues who all want one!

[Jos]

To make Handwriting recognition work:

1. Make sure ACTIVboard of any kind is attached to your Mac and the ACTIVboard driver is installed.

2. Go into System Preferences, choose Ink preference pane. Select the option "Handwriting recognition is:" ON (see attached image ink.jpg).

3. For Handwriting Recognition within ACTIVstudio, launch ACTIVstudio and select the Recognition Tool (see image Ink AS2.jpg). Now if you annotate on the flipchart, after a short delay the annotation is converted to text.

4. If you wish to have your annotation converted into text in another application (e.g. Word) you need to have the option ‘Allow me Ink in any application’ selected. Pen input then appears on yellow notepaper before being converted to text (see image Ink word.jpg.)
The trick here is to get the Operating System to interpret your input as a pen (for recognition) or as a mouse (for selecting and drag and drop). For mouse operation hold the pen still on the surface of the board for certain amount of time. The length of time can be adjusted by selecting the Options button on Ink preferences (see image ink2.jpg). This can take some getting used to. Personally I prefer to have the option ‘Show Ink in the menu bar’ option set and to toggle ‘Write anywhere on or off’ when needed (see image Ink menu bar.jpg).

5. Please note the Apple Handwriting Recognition Engine does not support cursive handwriting. However it can recognise English, French and German languages. You can also set it to recognise gestures as actions such as space, delete, undo, paste etc.

[Jos]

If you wish to set up a link to Word via a user defined button the best way of ensuring that you have the correct path is to drag the application icon straight onto the toolbox menu (see image Word User Link.jpg) instead of trying to edit it via the Shortcut Definer.

[ojsaunders]

Thanks Jos! Your replies have solved my problems
Oliver Saunders

[Peter Lambert]

Hi
Flipcharts are totally compatible both ways between Version 2 of the software.
The only issue is fonts not available on either machine may cause slight text box sizing issues. No probs if you stick to Arial, Times new Roman, verdana etc.

[ojsaunders]

Hello Jos,
UD link on keyboard to word still gets you synchronize even when I drag the programme icon as you suggest! Any further ideas?

Thanks

[tobiaswilson]

Does anyone know how to bring back the standard toolbar in AS for mac? Someone managed to close the toolbar on a colleagues mac, then closed ActivStudio, now when you open AS it opens with a totally blank screen and no toolbar.

[UzMac]

Hi,

I have seen such problems when we were using ACTIVstudio 1.2.1 for Mac on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Is this your case? Since Promethean released ACTIVstudio 2 Professional for Mac v 2.0 I have not seen anything like that.

Please get back with the software version you use.

UzMac.
******

[tobiaswilson]

Uzmac, his machine is still using AS1.2.1, on 10.3.8, is there a cost to upgrade to AS2?

[davidlloyd]

My personal machine is a Mac too - the new G5 iMac. Being a Promethean UK employee I use a PC lap top for work :eek: I haven't put AS2 on my mac yet but will do shortly and I'll be very interested in the differences.

[UzMac]

Hi tobiaswilson,

Not sure about UK, but for USA there is a page on Promethean site that describes the procedure:
http://www.prometheanworld.com/n-america/en/html/solutions/AS2_mac_order/index.shtml.

I think you should contact Promethean on this. You will certainly like the newly released ACTIVstudio 2
Professional for Mac. This one is a HUGE advance comparing to AS 1.2.1 you currently have!

UzMac

[jayartibee]

What I miss, hugely, is the British Isles and Europe tools which were in AS1 for OS9.

Promethean lent me AS2 for Tiger (US version) which had a US state map to pull out.

When the UK version came out last month- none!

Promethean- please bring them back, or make them installable as options from the toolstore.

Jeremy
Moor Park
Ludlow

4 activboards and counting!

[LisaD]

There are actually more (and better) maps in this new version, but they just aren't on the toolbar. If you click on the stack of books (Resource library), you can find maps in several places (annotations, background and images) Depending on what you are looking to do with the map.

The outline maps are in the annotations, icon looks like a squiggly line, under maps, Europe Britain.

The background maps are in the background library (not my favorite ones)

The more colorful maps you wil find in the image library...icon looks like a flower in a frame. Scroll down to maps, British Isles.

If you want to put them on your toolbar, just drag the one you want to the flipchart page and then drag it from there to the tool bar (third column). If the third column isn't showing, click on the green dot on the toolbar to extend it out.

Finally, if you decide you don't want the image on the toolbar, you have to click on the flipchart menu, choose toolbox/toolstore and drag the image off your toolbar and back into the store. I put things on my toolbar temporarily lots of times if I can going to use an image over and over in a flipchart and then remove them.

I keep the action icon for showing page notes there as well as the speech bubbles which I used often in flipchart development.

One more thing... you may want to check out the US website's resource section, lots of new flipcharts there.

Lisa

[jayartibee]

All useful stuff, of course- I just miss the "draggable" maps.

On another subject, does anyone have for Mac the "Blockbusters"ACTIVity based on the TV quiz?

[airskeeter]

Jay, you missed Lisa's point...they are draggable maps. you can make ANY image draggable.

You just have to put them there.

They are in the library, they just need to be dragged to the toolbar. :)

[jayartibee]

Yes, don't worry, I'm keeping up. I just used to like the way the map pulled out like a square or elipse (rather than appear and have to be re-sized).

[LisaD]

I want to know why I am a "Junior Member" as opposed to a "Senior Member" or just a "member!"

Can anyone enlighten me? Not really an issue, just wondering!!

[LisaD]

Not sure if you can do this from the toolbar, but I know that from the resource library itself, you have the choices of:
"drag and drop" (image comes out the size that it "is" then, resize and move.)
"grow" you drag it from top left to bottom right to grow (like the AS1 annotations did)
"rubber stamp" when this is selected you can click on the page and make the objects stamp all around. Great for smaller objects like money or things to count.

But I have to remember to change it back to drag and drop. Otherwise, I start stamping things around, each time I click!

Lisa

[jayartibee]

The other thing I cannot do with AS2 is turn off the "helpful" hint at the beginning. Unchecking doesn't work, either at the start or in the preferences.

[LisaD]

Yes, I have found that issue myself. Hopefully, this has been noticed and will be fixed soon.

Lisa

[jayartibee]

How do you find the new driver? I thought it was going to fix the sleep problem (disconnecting from the board after sleep) but it doesn't.

Also- the board driver doesn't kick in now till after the Mac login screen. Now that is odd!

[jayartibee]

I think that the variety of replies and subjects discussed in this thread shows that we need the Mac forum back.


Who agrees?

(cat is now among pigeons)

[airskeeter]

Hey Lisa,

I think it is based upon the number of posts.

I hope it's not based on weight... :eek:

I am looking forward to spending more time on the mac platform and learning the nuances...

[airskeeter]

Jeremy,

If I remember correctly, the old mac forum was basically a bunch of complaints and the same topics were the only ones being replied to. I am not sure why they combined them but this is what I saw when I looked at that area.

That said, if more mac users were to post and have fruitful(apple, get it) posts, it might convince the powers that be to re open the forum.

[jayartibee]

the old mac forum was basically a bunch of complaints
The way the Mac software was, I'm not surprised- and the same thing would happen here if the software hadn't been improved.
But we are much happier bunnies now. AS2 for Tiger finally arrived and it's good.

[airskeeter]

You are correct Jeremy it is improved. Every fix that the software engineers put out, is an improvement.

That said, I don't know of another piece of software that can touch AS2 on either platform.

What it can do greatly outweighs what it cannot do!

I look forward to learning the Tiger version with you!!

[jayartibee]

I think that the variety of replies and subjects discussed in this thread shows that we need the Mac forum back.


Who agrees?

(cat is now among pigeons)

suddenly the forums seems to be re-organised again and no mention of it. Am I imagining things?

[Mike Dawson]

I have successfully moved flipcharts back and forth between OS 10.9.3 and WinXP without difficulty. They seem to not care which platform they are on.

[Westlake]

I want to know why I am a "Junior Member" as opposed to a "Senior Member" or just a "member!"

Can anyone enlighten me? Not really an issue, just wondering!!
There is another category too - Most Senior Member (Jos)
I was quite enjoying being a Junior.... Suddenly becoming a Senior made me feel my "best before" date is approaching faster :rolleyes:
Hilary

[Jos]

Please remember I am 108 years old