Adding annotations in Studio2

[Paul P-M]

Could anyone tell me if it is possible to create diagrams etc in ActivStudio2 and save them as annotations for use on the toolbar? I am able to do this on ActivStudio1 but have not found a way to do this. I am a maths teacher and I found being able to drag sets of axes, graphs etc very useful and quick in version 1. Maybe I am being dense (quite probably) but no links to the help facility have got me any closer to succeeding in version 2. Please help!!!

Thanks

Paul P-M

[Margaret Allen]

http://www.prometheanworld.com/common/html/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=646&highlight=annotations

http://www.prometheanworld.com/common/html/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=518&highlight=annotations

http://www.prometheanworld.com/common/html/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=489&highlight=annotations

http://www.prometheanworld.com/common/html/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=87&highlight=annotations

Hi

As I wasn't exactly sure about the answer I did a search within the forum for annotations and some of these seem as though they may answer your problem.

The search facility is a tab at the top of the page.

Don't feel as though this is saying much other than look yourself ;) :D

Hope it helps nonetheless! +wave+

[Liz Canham]

Hope this helps...

1. Roll out the Shortcut Bar (the 3rd column) from the Main Toolbox.

2. Draw your annotations on the Flipchart.

3. Select all the annotations you want to add to the Toolbox.

4. Drag and drop them on the Shortcut Bar area.

Or,

1. Open the Resource Library and select the annotations button.

2. Draw your annotations on the Flipchart.

3. Select all the annotations you want to save.

4. Drag and drop them into the Annotation Resources.

5. Enter a Filename and click OK.

[Paul P-M]

Thanks for that, Liz. Now that I can do this, there's just one more thing...

Is it possible to put an icon for My Annotations onto my toolbar, so I don't have to trawl through the resource library every time? Not that this takes very long to do, but it would be neater to click and go to exactly the selection I wanted.

Regards

Paul

[Liz Canham]

In PE, no. I can't think of any way to do this.

However when DE is released, yes you can!

[sartley]

But you can add annotations onto your tool tray. Having created the annotation and saved it for future use in your annotations library, those that you use most frequently can be dragged onto your tool tray, so you can then put them on the page directly. Place the annotatiions you wish to use frequently on a flipchart page. Then drag them one at a time onto the tool tray - the bit below where you can see the green British Isles map, the calibrate icon, etc. You could set up and save a number of tool trays with different annotations on them for different settings and open the one you wish to use on that occasion.

[bobwordsworth]

As a maths teacher who has used AS1 for the last 4 years I am now trying, without much success, to change to AS2 and the lack of all the old annotations is one of the things I miss most.

They actually were more like the pen modifier as far as I can see. You could drag them on and watch a triangle grow in any of four directions, in the current pen colour. The new annotations come in only one colour, grow very slowly, often moving to where you don't want them and have to be selected and rotated to be turned.

Now that we have been advised to protect our eyes by only using dark backgrounds, black annotations are often invisible!

I am wandering if I could use the old annotations by running AS1 and AS2 at the same time. I know I have got to go back to AS1 to make new links to new software. Links to files being another very important feature to us.

[Liz Canham]

Hi bobwordsworth,

You are not restricted to using one colour. The Pen Modifier picks up the currently selected pen colour. Try selecting a different colour from the colour palette in the Main Toolbox before you draw your annotation.

I've had a practice growing the annotations in all directions and have not experienced any problems. Can you give more information?

'I know I have got to go back to AS1 to make new links to new software.'

Your comment here is quite disturbing! It's easy to create links in AS2, why revert back to AS1? Right click on the page and select Insert > Link Object. If you need help, click on the '?' button in the top right-hand corner.

Hope this helps! Let us know how you get on.

Liz

[bobwordsworth]

hi liz

Thanks for replying.

I know the pen modifier picks up the pen colour but the annotations I want ( right angled triangle, pentagon, hexagon, cuboid etc) are not in the pen modifier.

We set up links to software eg autograph, geometers sketchpad, fathom etc and to files that load these programs, from the TOOLBOX so they are always there when any maths teacher opens a new flipchart - which we do every lesson. The links are therefore already there without having to be set up again. Now if I write a new geometer's sketchpad file which I want to be accessible from every flipchart I have to load AS1 make the link and replace the link library in AS2.

I also can only grow the annotations in the resource library from top left to bottom right not in any other direction.

Bob

[sartley]

Bob,
If you go into the Resource Library - the pile of books - and Shared Annotations (blue squiggly line icon) and down to Shape 2d and Shape 3d, You will find pentagon, hexagon, cuboid and others in those two places. I couldn't see a right angles triangle, but that is ver easy to create with the point to point tool and then save in your annotations folder.
Hope you find what you're looking for. If not, post another message - I am sure someone may well have created some of the annotations you need and may be willing to put them on a flipchart for others to use.

[bobwordsworth]

Sharon

Thank you for replying.

I do know there are annotations in the resource library and in fact there is a right angled triangle there but it is nowhere near as good as the annotations that were in AS1 for the following reasons:

1) It does not come on in the current pen colour so now that we are all using dark backgrounds to lesson harmful effects on our eyes the black triangle is invisible! I know I could save one in each colour but somehow sticking with AS1 seems easier.

2) It only grows from top left to bottom right. I know I could select it and rotate it, but as above, AS1 was easier.

3) It slides downwards as it grows so the end position cannot be controlled. I know I could select it and move it but again AS1 was better.

4) Going to the resource library in the middle of a lesson obscures nearly one third of the board and does not appear or disappear very quickly. The little annotation box in AS1 was small and could be moved about.

It seems to me that AS2 is better for sitting at home at night preparing tomorrow's flipcharts, but for using it on the fly in maths lessons with new blank flipcharts every lesson, isn't AS1 preferable?

Bob

[sartley]

Hi Bob

I'll start with your last point first - erm ... no I really do think that AS2 is far superior to AS1 for a load of reasons too long to list here.

Can I address you other points and make some suggestions?
1) "It does not come on in the current pen colour so now that we are all using dark backgrounds to lesson harmful effects on our eyes the black triangle is invisible! I know I could save one in each colour but somehow sticking with AS1 seems easier."
I take your point here - I also prefer darker backgrounds - but having put a chosen annotation on your page, why not change the colour to something appropriate, then drag it onto your tool tray. Then the next time you want that annotation, just drag it from your tool tray and it will be the colour you have determined instead of black. While it's selected, you can always then click on yet another colour and it will change to that colour.

2) "It only grows from top left to bottom right. I know I could select it and rotate it, but as above, AS1 was easier."
Doesn't that depend on which resizing handle you drag? You don't have to use the bottom right "size object" - try one of the others.

3) "It slides downwards as it grows so the end position cannot be controlled. I know I could select it and move it but again AS1 was better."
See point 2. It depends on which handle you choose for resizing.

4) "Going to the resource library in the middle of a lesson obscures nearly one third of the board and does not appear or disappear very quickly. The little annotation box in AS1 was small and could be moved about."
Yes, but if you put the most frequently used annotations onto your tool tray so you no longer have to open the resource library, that may help. You could even have a number of toolboxes set up for different topic areas or year groups.
Let me know if any of these make it easier.

[Dave Harrington]

Please excuse me for butting in to this conversation, but Bob, are you tring to create links to other software? You can do this by adding a user defined tool to the toolbox from the toolstore, then assign a link to the software by right-clicking on the icon. I cant see how you can get it to link to specific (autograph say) files that you have created, but at least you can launch the basic software.

[sartley]

Feel free to but in, Dave - you can actually open a specific file by doing what you said re the user defined tool, clicking on the Program/File button, then the the three dots to navigate to the specific folder which contains your document, then clicking on that and clicking Open. What a lot of clicking! :D

[bobwordsworth]

Thank you for replying Dave and Sharron. I have been too busy to look at the forum for a while and am happily using AS1 in the classroom.

On the question of links, we have too many to put them all on the toolstore. At the moment there are about 20 and this is growing all the time. It is easier to make the links in AS1 and then save the link library for AS2 as the manual suggests I think.

I am still frustrated that nobody seems to understand what I am talking about re annotations. AS1 annotations were like the pen modifications in AS2 but there were far more of them - all the polygons, tables, 3-d shapes etc. Can we add any of them to the pen modifier?

[daverosthorn]

I am still frustrated that nobody seems to understand what I am talking about re annotations. AS1 annotations were like the pen modifications in AS2 but there were far more of them - all the polygons, tables, 3-d shapes etc. Can we add any of them to the pen modifier?

I know what you're talking about re: tables... they were fantastic. Could you not just import these into the AS2 resource library??

Edit: A lot of work, I know.. could be worth it. Take a look at the resource directory on the promethean site.. i'm almost sure i've seen something on there before.

[sartley]

Well, guys, I must be missing the plot - because I think all the annotations you describe are still available in AS2. See attached flipchart, then open the Resources Library and follow the blue wiggly line to go to the Shared Annotations library to find them! :)