BY EILEEN R GARZA, PHD, OTR, ATP BOARDMAKER 6 PLUS BY EILEEN R GARZA, PHD, OTR, ATP

Opening screen No board is loaded…..yet

File menu Gives you access to a new board, open a board you previously made or open a template that was developed by Mayer Johnson. Recent boards will list items you have recently worked on.

New Board If you select “New” you will get a fresh board. The ruler lets you tell the size and orientation of the board.

New board continued The dashed green line lets you know that your configuration between the program and the printer do or do not match. For example, here the printer is set for portrait, but the program is set for landscape.

Paper matches setup Ideally you will want your green line to match your paper size. This lets you maximize your use of paper.

Let’s look at the toolbar The Ugly man brings up the Symbol Finder. We will look at that more in a minute.

The arrow This tool allows you to select a cell or part of a cell for editing.

The cell tool This is the tool with which you draw a cell or button.

To free hand draw a button

The cell sprayer Lets you reproduce a cell multiple times in seconds! Just select the tool, then left click on a cell, hold and drag.

The line tool Lets you draw lines on the board or in your button/cell.

Your text tool Lets you place or replace text on the board or in the cell/button.

Symbolate tool Pairs text with a symbol for supported reading. Great for social stories.

Color palate Depending on the feature you have highlighted, this will allow you to change the background, border, or other features of a board or button.

Line thickness

Cell/button shape

Shadow tool Primarily for when making dynamic screens for communication devices.

Zoom tools For fine tuning. Use of these tools does not change the size of what is printed.

Let’s make a button! Choose your button tool. To make a perfect square, hold your shift key down while you drag from the corner.

Now let’s make more! Take your spray tool. Drag it across the page.

You can do the same thing with a filled button.

The Symbol Finder tools The top part is the search command. The input could need to be at the beginning of the word, the exact word, or somewhere in the word.

Search Window Where you type in the title of your search.

All symbols view When you click this button you view all icons that fit with the search you indicated in the window.

Categories If you click this button you can see all the categories in the program. If you make custom icons you will label and file them according to the categories.

Change symbol names This tool is also used when custom icons are to be saved to the library. You can indicate the search terms that you will want related to the icon. If you change a name this way, it is a permanent change.

Alternate names If you click the drop down you can see alternate names for your symbol, or type in the text you want to appear on this particular board.

The toolbox lets you set the parameters for the text, what size, location, language, etc.

Lasso tools Let you select part of the button to use it in your custom button. You can choose the rectangular one or the free hand lasso.

Open Board Will direct you to the “My Boards” folder where you have saved your custom boards. They should be saved to your H drive.

Open Template Will take you to the templates that ship with the software or can be added from the website.

Templates Communication devices Schedules Calendars Displays Activity pads

Keyboard commands speed you up. Ctrl A Select all Ctrl C Copy Ctrl V Paste These commands are common to many other programs.

Additional resources are available at the following websites: http://www.mayer-johnson.com http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/boardmaker/adapted_ library/asp http://webquests.esu16.org:8080/atcupboard/stor ies/storyReader$4 http://www.region2library.org/DATA/Boardmaker/ EZRA_AAC_resources_May_2007_FINAL4.pdf

and many many more!

Take a few minutes and play.