NeoOffice/Inspiration

Brain is full...

Neo Office is very useful for translating programs from one to the other.

I never heard of NeoOffice, but it will be good for Jenny to use on her computer (after her fake version of Microsoft Office shut down upon updating). I also learned about using two fingers on the track pad to right click, which is very useful.

Neo Office - A suite of applications similar to MS Office, specific for the Mac. Go to NIS Tools on taskbar
OpenOffice.org - Same as above but good for most platforms.

Neo Office has a variety of applications built within it. If you open the application, you can create a new document (whether it be a spreadsheet, a presentation, or a word processing document).

Some General Mac Tips:
Sometimes it's necessary to view the file extension types so that we know what kind of file we're working with (and if we need Pages, Neo Office, or whatever program to open it). You can set your computer to show all of these file extensions by opening your Finder and going to: Finder | Preferences | Advanced and choose "show all file extensions". You can do other customizations in this preferences section too.

Viewing files on your desktop and in any window the way you want:
Finder | View: From here you can use the various menu items to choose if you want things alphabetized, color coded, etc.

Right Click trick: Go to System Preferences, Keyboard and Mouse, then check the box that says "for secondary clicks, place two fingers on the....". This will allow you to "right click" by using two index fingers on your track pad + one click with your thumb (alas, a one handed "right click"), rather than having to hold down the control button with one hand and click with the other.

My downloading is still going.

Noe Office is useful that I can tranfer my files to other format.

OpenOffice was created as a direct response to Microsoft's attempted monopoly of the internet. A group of companies and individuals came together and created an open-source office suite which mimicked many of Microsoft Office's price software. While it was excellent for users of PCs, the Mac users found that the interface was not intuitive to the Mac environment. As a result, this consortium created NeoOffice, which is the Mac-only equivalent.

While iWork has only three programs, NeoOffice has a variety, include replacements for Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and even a drawing / vector based program.

NeoOffice can be used like a can-opener; it allows you to open fiiles that you could not ordinarily open with iWork. Also, it allows you to open files that need "tweaking," to move and repair any problems (e.g. images, formatting, etc.) before re-opening them in iWork.

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We can customise our desktop and Finder using Finder/Preferences and System Preferences/Keyboard and Mouse. Using the tabs at the top, we see that we can add and delete extensions, toggle our views of hard drives and servers on and off, and more. These help us to customise our computers as per our needs and wishes. Furthermore, it allows us to arrange our files in different orders, including in alphabetical order, etc.

Finder- view-show view options, then you can tidy up your desktop.

Candice wrote everything I was going to :)

Much more complicated than Dell

Very useful- Neooffice

One more tip with iCal. You can buy iCal viewer online for around US$9. It takes your calendars from iCal and actually places them on your desktop. There is a little bar that slowly moves across the screen as time progresses. This shows where you are in the day. If you're one of those people who needs the day's schedule in an obvious place for you, this might be a useful tool for you. It's useful for Billy! :)

Inspiration:

Has been around for a long time. It comes with a lot of built in pages. Pages does not have a library of pictures, but Inspiration does, so it's a good program to use. Also, Inspiration is linked to the internet, so you can use a search within Inspiration to find specific pictures off the internet.

Using Inspiration as Brainstorming / Mapping:
- Have an old student, or an experienced student, stand and use the computer while the teacher walks around the room, teaching and talking,

1. Click on CREATE to create a symbol.
2. To link two pictures, click on the picture, then click the link button and drag it from the first picture to the second. You can do one picture at a time, if you like.
3. There is something called rapid fire. Click first within the symbol, and then click on the rapid fire button. As you type within the first box, and press the Enter key, new boxes are immediately created and then linked together.
4. Rapid fire can also be used with COMMAND+R.
5. You can link from other, subboxes by clicking within them and hitting the rapid fire button.
6. In the outline section, you can click on individual boxes and hit the enter button. There will now be room to write much more information. When you go back to the graphic section, the added information will not be shown, but rather there will be an icon indicating that more information is currently available.
7. Add images by clicking on the image, and then dragging it to the necessary area on the document.
8. Saving files -- COMMAND+D will save directly to the desktop.
9. Hyperlinking -- Click on the symbol/box until the 8 handles appear. You can then right click on the object to see additional options. One of those options is hyperlinking. You can hyperlink to other documents, the internet, etc.
10. You can export to different file formats, including HTML. Now you've created a webpage. If the images had have been hyperlinked, then you could have clicked on images or links to go to other areas.

When searching for images to add, you can hover your mouse over the image and it will be zoomed so that you can see it easily.

** The internet search function is available on the later versions of Inspiration. Billy has that version, but the staff does not.
** Kidspiration is the same program, but made fun and exciting for children.

Using Remote Desktops

To highlight student work, you could unhook your laptop from the projector, and then hook up the student's laptop. Too much hassle.

Or, you could get a computer program called Remote Desktop that will control other people's desktops. This can also be used to monitor what other children are doing in the class. You can either monitor or control other people's desktops.

Paul, you've got to type more quickly! :)

Amy wrote everything I was going to :)

Inspiration is a good tool for outlining and brainstorming information for notes. I also like the program shown to us that can observe students' computers and control them if needed.

I want to thank this class for great participation and great use of inspiration

1. Make a new inspiration file, save it.
2. Make another inspiration file, save it.
3. Hyperlink 2. to 1.
4. Go "File", Gather Hyperlink the files, save it.
5. Export as HTML.
That's it! Cool!

A Russian and a Korean will have difficulties speaking to each other if they only speak their languages. In the same way, files speak specific languages and have specific protocols. If you try to open a file that is speaking a different "language," then there will be formatting problems, or it might refuse to load. Microsoft Office is particularly problematic with this -- With Office 95, Office 97, Office 2003, Office 2007, etc., they all have different file protocols. And there are other programs that speak different languages as well. This is why NeoOffice is particularly helpful -- It can speak many, many languages (a.k.a. it opens lots of different file types).

As programs get more mature and more developed, they are able to open many more types of files. Sometimes you just have to be patient. E.g. CorelDraw 1 could only open CorelDraw files. CorelDraw 13 can now open dozens of files, including it's competitor "Photoshop."

There is a helpful drawing program included within NeoOffice.

A painting program allows you to paint pictures. This involves little drops of ink. This is where you open your vacation photos. This is where you take the red eye out of your pictures. A drawing program allows you to create pictures using geometric shapes. You get a series of geometric shapes - triangles, squares, etc. - and you layer them on top of each other until they form a picture. This means that you can create large pictures, as big as an apartment building, and they will always be perfect quality.

Anyone wanting lessons on using drawing programs, please come see me. I know CorelDraw, I can figure out NeoOffice, and I'm competent in Adobe Illustrator.

two finger right click!

Please! Use Inspiration to help Special Needs kids organize their writing, ideas and planning! It is great, helpful and easy!

Inspiration is excellent for ESL students /visual learners and Drama work

Also - use the pictures to add visual information to create meaning, and links between concepts.

Apple shift 4 drag over what you want and make a picture of it onto your desktop

link files - right click.... then what?
Gather files - what a great idea and helpful for students who need help!

Alice in Discoveryland...

Love Inspiration-can't wait to get started. I managed to incorporate some hyperlinks to other files and to the web. This is really useful-thank you

NeoOffice - Mac's version of Open Office

Use it if you want to change formatting of a word document before opening it in pages.

CHANGE WHAT YOU WANT TO USE TO OPEN A DOCUMENT: You have a word document and you want it to always open in pages - right click on the document - get info - open with ( choose pages) - then click change all and what this does is automatically open all word documents with pages.

When saving on desktop quickly:

SPRING LOADED FOLDERS: click on file- drag onto an icon - hold it and then the folder will open - keep holding an dragging until the folder where you want to put the file opens and then drop it

INSPIRATION:
Great for brainstorming - type title - then turn on the rapidfire - this allows it to do the branches automatically for each idea you have.
hyperlink - to another inspiration file - to the internet - etc
Can turn the inspiration file into an html - group all the hyperlinks(if you have multiple links) - back to file - export as html -

command/control/shift/4 - shortcut for picture capture

A great widget for grabbing pictures, make screen shots etc - It is called SCREENSHOT PLUS