A tabbed dock with all tools

[cdewolfe]

I would love to see a comprehensive dock that lives in the same spot on the screen at all times. When training folks to use the Promethean, I have a hard time getting them to find tools as the tools are always moving, popping up in a new location, being dragged off screen, etc. If we could have tabbed interface docked to the side of the screen on which all toolbars could exist, I can say...click the advanced tab and then click this tool. Now I say, click this button and a toolbar will appear somewhere on your screen. Drag that toolbar out of your way and then click this button. I would sacrifice the screen real estate without hesitation if I could always guarantee the location of a particular button and guarantee that it would not be hovering on my flipbook page but rather tucked neatly to the side. I understand that this could sometimes involve one more tap, but I believe that by keeping the tools off the page and consistently in the same spot, teachers would actually pick up the use of the board faster.

Just my .02. Post yours in response!

[Margaret Allen]

Hi and welcome!

Couple of things.... the board space is an interactive potential area having tools readily available, all of the time, means that there is an implicit encouragement to engage with whats on the page, or to ensure that what is being created needs to be interacted with ie protractor, ruler, or just the pen! :D

I would suggest the best way to support some of your other points is to encourage your users to exploit the user profile option. This ensures that each time individuals use AS they are seeing a toolbar with which they are comfortable, but also that only displays tools that they want.

Now if you really want to get going you could use the gestures option (I am assuming you are using V3?) Then they could hide the toolbar, by scrolling it up and just confining their actions, maybe in the early days, to a few which they initiate by the gestures functionality.....

As you are new, I hope I haven't just overwhelmed you with some of the options and please shout if you want any more help with any of the above, if any of them sound possible.

Alternatively you may want to search the forum for any of the above and see what others have already been saying about things like profiles, gestures, and non 'Powerpoint" type of adoption.

Where are you based?

[LisaD]

I think there is a way that you can "right-click" anywhere on the board and a small selection of tools will appear right where you right clicked. You can customize that toolbar to include the tools you want.

Once you select that tool, the toolbox disappears again. I think this is a great feature.

This option should be in your preferences "Toolbox"- check "show quick select toolbox" (at least that's how it is on my Mac.) It should be similar on the PC.

If you want to have access to the typical right click stuff, just click on the menu icon on the Quick Select toolbox and it will show up as normal.

Alternatively, I know some teachers who put many of the tools on the side "flipchart" toolbar so if the main toolbar is rolled up and out of the way, they still have access to the tools.

Lisa

[markrobinson]

This is a good thread - getting teachers using the full breadth of the software is always desirable and some of these ideas are noted for inclusion in future software releases.

As Lisa says - you can fill up the side bar in AS with tools and keep them all consistent - you can also alter the tools in the Special Tools popup.

I must say I have not seen much "profile sharing" in the forums.. (I asssume I can attach them to posts)

We could perhaps see if people wanted to develop some "power profiles"