Comparing...

[myrtle]

I've not had the new Inspire for very long, my initial reaction was..........'Why on earth is it so different?'.......and general annoyance. I'm a pretty proficient user of AP3 and so far I'm getting annoyed by how long it's taking me to do things on Inspire. I'm sure that eventually I will be delighted - love the way handwriting on the board is SO much better - but why do I have to constantly look for how to do things? Does not feel at all intuitive to me......

[JanP]

Once you learn the basics of Inspire and get over how things are different then V3 I think that you will find it takes less clicks in Inspire to do something than V3.

Have you done the Introductory Course and the Migration Course on Activlearning? I expect that for you the migration course would be the best place to start!

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/server.php?show=nav.17567

I found them to be very useful to help me get the hang of how things are now done in Inspire. I have also just completed the Level 1 Core Skills online course for Activstudio and found that helped as well. Like you I am a proficient user of V3 and am having to break myself of trying to use Inspire just like the old versions! Getting there and loving it though!

Also have a look at the Inspire Activtips as well. They are very useful!

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/server.php?show=nav.1147

Handwriting recognition is great in Inspire! I love the way that you now get a drop down of alternatives for the whole sentence and not just the first word. Have you had a try of putting labels on objects using the Property Browser? Tooltips are great for labelling activities where the class can get immediate feedback by hovering over and object to reveal the tooltips to see if they are correct.

I could go on.....:)

Janice

[marks]

Sorry, I have to agree with Myrtle. I'm proficient as well as are the majority of my customers and Inspire is not intuitive at all. I've done the tutorials and they are not extensive enough. I'm on the forum now trying to find out how to do what I consider basic functions that are not at all covered in the tutorial.

I agree there are some wonderful new features, but teachers are going to be frustrated with the time it takes to figure out how to do simple things like add a resource to the library.

[davidlloyd]

First on a specific, Inspire is not very different to version 3 in the way objects are added to libraries.

Second on training courses, there are the free Introduction and Migration courses online. If customers need more there is the chargeable Core Skills course.

Third, I've created a user defined button to open a website (the BBC home page). Just type or paste the URL into the file box and click Done.

If you are an authorised Promethean Partner there should be training available to you. Check with your account manager at Promethean.

[myrtle]

Thanks for your replies, I shall persevere.......

I'm just going through the online tutuorials and my home edition (personal edition) does not seem to be the same as my school one.........is this right?

[myrtle]

for instance - and it may well be I can't see for looking - but I cannot find the 'edit user-defined buttons' icon or the tool bar that appears underneath it on the tutorial...:confused:

[JanP]

If you have a license for the professional version at school why not use that to install the professional version at home for preparation purposes. As far as I am aware the licensing allows for that.

Have a look back through the forum topics. There is a document that outlines which features are not available to personal version users. It might very well be that customising the User defined buttons are limited to the Professional Version.

Janice

[myrtle]

ok - thanks

[Rosie MacAlpine]

Have you had a try of putting labels on objects using the Property Browser? Tooltips are great for labelling activities where the class can get immediate feedback by hovering over and object to reveal the tooltips to see if they are correct.


Janice

Hi Janice, how do you do this? It sounds v cool :)

[LisaD]

There is a great video overview of ActivInspire where they demonstrate the new label feature. Check it out!

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/server.php?show=nav.1130

Lisa

[Rosie MacAlpine]

Thanks for sharing Lisa. I can see that this is something that I will use a lot! Cheers.

[enseye]

I'm with Myrtle. Frustration galore!! To download this program, I needed THREE serial numbers, one of which I had to get by called long distance to Georgia. I finally got it downloaded, but now every time I open it up, it wants the serial number or I have to use home edition. What's the story? Should it be this hard?

[LisaD]

When you downloaded, didn't it send you a serial number or show one on the screen?

Lisa

[samadmin]

There's another one of Inspire's new features to be seen in this video.
The highly increased number of clicks you need to make before accomplishing anything.
You can see it when the guy is using the shape tool. Click, click, click.
And how he pins the browser everytime he uses it (it is not shown how he unpins it).
Sorry.

Guido

[cmansell]

I have been trying to use the browsers so they roll away, but sometimes they roll away before I can click a button. The pin button is very small, too, so can be missed if you're not quick enough, then the browser rolls away!

Is there a setting to control how long a browser is open for before it rolls away?

Thanks

craig

[dcsherwood]

I went to Property Browser, but I don't see Labels under any of the categories. Do I have to add something to be able to use Label mode?

[LisaD]

Are you using the Personal Version or the Professional Version?

Lisa

[Louise Chew]

you also need to ensure you have an object selected on the page

[dentje]

I have my own fair number of problems with Inspire borne of my familiarity with V3, but there is no way I would say this was because it is not "intuitive" This is because I don't think V3 is intuitive either - in fact, I can't think of any software I have ever used as being intuitive at all.

I think some of the frustration is because it is new and we all know V3 very well. As a complex tool, learning to use V3 has taken a lot of hard work and time. Now I am trying to use Inspire, I can't help comparing it to V3 and getting annoyed when it does things differently. I expect the same happens to people using V3 primary, then moving to V3 studio, or vice-versa.

Whether or not the transition to Inspire should have been less radical is open to question, but I for one am enjoying learning some new skills - I just wish it wouldn't crash quite so often when importing V3 flipcharts.... clwn