it2go Episode 37 – Word Find and Replace
On this week’s episode, we’re talking about how to do a find and replace in Word. Let us know what you think of the new format!
Archive for March, 2012
Modifying your Photoshop CS5 workspace
You Photoshop users probably know that you can move your windows and panels around so that everything is exactly where you want it to be. Now when I was a Photoshop newbie, I knew it was possible to modify the workspace, and I knew how to move things around, but I wasn’t sure how to put things back. Because I was intimidated, I decided to just leave everything where it was.
Here’s a little video tutorial for those of you who hesitate to take advantage of the workspace flexibility that Photoshop offers.
Click the image to watch.
Click image to watch tutorial.
it2go Episode 36 – Photoshop Basic Retouch
On this week’s episode, we’re talking about how to do a basic retouch in Photoshop. Let us know what you think of the new format!
The (too) long path home
I’ve encountered a problem I never thought I’d have: I’m too organized.
No one looking at my office (or my house) would suspect it, but all of my computer files are very neatly stored and nested, sub-folder within sub-folder. My virtual desktop is almost completely empty, save a few shortcuts. Any time I see two or more files in a folder that have something in common, I make a new sub-folder and drop them in.
As I’ve transitioned to paperless grading in Oncourse, particularly for my Spanish composition class, I’ve run across “Destination path too long” errors that baffled me. In Assignments 2, I make regular use of the “Download All” option, so that I can grade all of my students’ submissions for a particular assignment at once.
Oncourse is also hyper-organized (evidently we have this in common), so the zipped file that I save to my computer has a very detailed name: AssignmentName-Semester-Campus-Department-CourseNumber-SectionNumber.zip
Obviously in real life most of those come out shorter. Here’s a more true-to-life example inspired by my class.
Creating an interactive quiz using PowerPoint
You can create interactive quizzes and games with PowerPoint. Now of course there is software out there dedicated to creating this type of application, but before you purchase one of those solutions, why not try PowerPoint?
Hyperlinks work in PowerPoint. You can create links to Internet pages, files on your computer, and even slides within your presentation. The latter is what we’ll be doing to make our quiz.
Before you start designing your quiz, you’ll need to have an idea of who your users are and what you want them to get out of their experience with your application. Will they learn something? Will they have fun? Maybe both.
If you’re an instructor, you might consider making this type of quiz creation an assignment for your students.
Once you have some goals in mind, you’ll need some questions and answers. I created a short true or false quiz about geography so I could write this post. These are my quest ions.
True or False
- Helena is the capital of Montana.
- The Nile is a river in South America.
- This flag is the flag of Botswana. (Image of flag appears on slide.)
- Alaska became a state in 1922.
- The clock “Big Ben” is located in Toronto.
So there’s a slide for each question, and a “Correct” and “Incorrect” result slide for each question. That’s 15 slides. There is also a title slide to start the quiz.
There’s a bit of logic you have to work out to make your quiz run successfully. Try making a flow chart of how things should go. Here’s a sample:
This one was simple, but yours can be as complex as you like.
Here’s a run-down of my process. (more…)
