Textease Quick Guide - RM.com

Textease Quick Guide - by Yvonne Lynch
Multimedia Textease is a Word Processor and Desktop Publisher which is fun and easy to
use. Speech can be used to read aloud individual words or sentences and word/resource
banks can easily be created to support the pupils writing. Pages can contain a mixture of
text, pictures, sound and animation. Links can be set up to create multimedia
presentations and storybooks. Textease can be used to create documents of any size
from small leaflets to huge banners. Use these notes to help you produce a range of
effects available. For additional help, refer to the in built help facility or the user guide.
Click on Toolbars and tick General and Additional.
Text
Task 1 Click any where on screen and type your full name.
Double click on text (anywhere) to select – a dotted box appears around
the text.
To move on page – drag mouse over text until pointer becomes a hand. Drag and click.
To make text bigger – move mouse over red corner until cursor becomes a 4 sided arrow
then drag and click.
Click on green handle and drag to rotate text.
While selected, click on
and try other fonts, colours and options.
Speech
Task 2Type a sentence about yourself.
Click at start of text – click on mouth on toolbar Text will be spoken out loud.
(Right click on mouth to adjust speed etc and tick boxes for speak words, sentences).
Try using the speech option to hear part words eg. ‘ent’
Try typing ‘fantastic’ then select and drag “fan’, ‘tast’ and ‘ic’ to separate and click on
each syllable to hear sound.
Note : It is possible to copy/paste a Word doc into textease (or File, Open a Word doc)
and then Textease will read it out aloud.
Task 3 Open a web page and copy and paste a paragraph into TextEase. Use speech icon
to hear it read aloud.
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Spelling
Any spelling to be checked is highlighted automatically. Right click on highlighted
misspelt word. (You can also select a piece of text by dragging over it, or simply click
anywhere in the sentence) and then click spelling icon which is visible if Text toolbar has
been ticked.
If you wish the word to be added to dictionary, click add. Tick dictionary to get more
words to choose from.
Task 4 Type ‘tooday’ and right click on it – choose correct spelling. Tick dictionary box
and see dictionary collection of words.
Text frames
TextEase does not act like a normal word processor but can be made to do so if a text
frame (F7) is added to a page. If the whole page is in a text frame then it will perform
like a standard word processor.
Graphics
Click on . Clip art is opened. Drag your picture on to page. Click to select so that you
can move, enlarge, rotate etc (as for text).
Home icon takes you to C:\Program Files\Softease\Textease Resources\Curriculum
Resources. Green arrow takes you to further resources.
It is also possible to add your own pictures (and also videos) which are already stored in
the drives associated with your computer by clicking on My Resources tab after clicking
on picture icon.
(C:\Documents and Settings\Toshiba User\My Documents\My Pictures)
You can also
●Crop picture files (not clipart) by using the
●Flip by holding control and click and drag comer.
●Duplicate by hold control and drag to side
Task 5
Find a suitable picture and insert in the TextEase window.
Try duplicating it by holding control, clicking and dragging.
Try holding control then grabbing a corner and dragging it to flip picture.
Also try to put a frame around one of the duplicate pictures (select and effects, frame).
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Labelling Diagrams
It is very easy to choose a clipart graphic and then add labels. Click on screen at the
point where you need to type a text label. Use the drawing tool line to point to the
appropriate spot.
You can make lines into arrows by selecting
line and using Effects, Arrows tab.
You can group objects by holding control
while you select each one, (or click on Select
all icon) then click on
Task 6 – Find a picture and add some labels. Group them to make it all one object.
Word Banks
You can easily make up your own word banks associated with a particular topic.
Task 7
Click on Other, Create Word Bank. Type a glossary list of words (eg one, two, three,
four) Note: all the functions of textease are able to be used in this window also. Save
this file with an appropriate name. Now click on TextEase page then Other, Select
word bank, so as to use it when working on an assignment relating to that topic.
Sound linking
It is very easy to link sound with any object. You can link a text, sound or your own
creation.
Task 8
a. Select object eg a picture then click on link icon .
Click on the Speech tab. In the window next to Say, type a few words eg “testing sound”.
Tick Say box and close window.
When mouse moves over picture a sound icon will appear which when clicked speak text.
b. If you attach a microphone to your computer then you can select an object or picture,
then use Tools, Record a sound. A sound icon appears when mouse moves over object –
click to hear recorded sound.
Polygon Tool
Right click on the polygon icon – a shapes window opens and a shape can be dragged on to
page.
Select and use Effects
to fill it with colour etc.
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Animation
To create an animation there has to be on object (text or graphic) and a path for it to
follow and for them to be linked together.
Task 9
Insert a graphic on a page.
Use one of the drawing tools and draw the path to be followed.
Select the graphic then select the path (double click left button on graphic then click
the right button on the path so they are both selected).
Click on the links button then on the animate tab on the links window.
Check to ‘Follow over’ box.
The graphic should move over the path.
If you select path and make the line colour “None” then you will see object move without
the path being visible.
Note If one graphic needs to sit on top of another, select it then choose Tools, Higher.
Talking Books: Task 10
Insert more pages by clicking on Edit, Pages, Insert pages.
Type some text on the second page (eg. page2). Select, click on
links, Bookmark. Type in a bookmark name one word eg two) and
click bookmark name box.
Click on link graphic on page 1 (eg.the shark picture).
Find two in Jump to bookmark window.
Now test your link by clicking on the shark.
This idea can be used to create multiple pages of your book – a
young child can now have your book read out aloud to them and
they are able to move to the next page at their own rate.
Don’t forget to add some multimedia effects.
You can add page numbers and graphic to every page if wish.
Click where you want the page number to appear, then click on
Tools, Insert Page Numbers, and first option. Then select the
“1”, click Other, Header and Footer, All Pages. Repeat for a
graphic which you want on every page.
Copy/Paste
You can select any text or object and then click on copy icon.
Click where you want this to be pasted and click on paste icon.
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Other features. Look at File, Examples – Paint, Database, Spreadsheet and Presenter
folders contain examples demonstrating ways to integrate features into the curriculum.
Paint
Note: Can open either Graphics toolbar or Paint toolbar but not both at the same time.
Eg
Database
Eg
Using the Database wizard, it is very easy to create a collection of fields to contain text
information or a picture. (Students first need to plan what fields will be appropriate).
The student then has to research the details of the relevant creatures (or whatever) and
create a record for each.
It is possible to then use the database to look up organisms, do a query on a particular
feature or generate a table based on those records. (Note that the toolbar icons now
relate to the use of the database).
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Spreadsheet
Simply click Spreadsheet, ‘Create Spreadsheet”, then click and drag to produce the size
you want. Create the relevant columns headings and row labels.
You can insert/delete columns and rows, add formulae and use auto sum and sort.
It is very easy to draw a chart of selected
region.
It is also possible to
a. select spreadsheet data, copy and
paste into Excel.
b. Select chart/graph and paste into
another document.
Presenter – operates in much the same way as PowerPoint. When running presentation,
you can use right click to find controls.
Help menu brings up excellent manuals for each tool.
Don’t forget to use the Highlighting tools as a wonderful tool to assist finding the main
points in a piece of writing.
These training notes were written by Yvonne Lynch. March 2009
ylynch@hotkey.net.au
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