Background – Drawing with Word is probably some peoples idea of a nightmare – but in our Lower School room we have to date, limited computer access in the Textile room. This activity was devised to extend our pupils CAD capability as a homework or library lunch task. All computers throughout the school have Word, as do a reasonable percentage of our pupils home computers. We are now looking at the possibility of writing an Open Office self help guide too. This unit is written more in the style of a pupil’s self study guide, than any of the other units. Sometimes we print this guide and pupils follow it.. Pupils of all abilities have enjoyed the task either as a homework or as an extension assignment. Background – There are many useful drawing tools in Word but before you can access them the Drawing tool bar needs to be opened. 1. Possible teaching/discussion point e.g. the red circles appear in order, indicating how to open the tool bar. The black arrows serve a recap.

Background – Pupils have enjoyed this task and it gives them further confidence to complete more demanding CAD related tasks. Possible teaching/discussion point This task is devised to build on the skills previously acquired, and to give an idea of the possible range of ideas than can be developed quite quickly. It can also be an opportunity to discuss how to layout ideas on a page. The task could be extended further and they could annotate their designs. Issues related to allowing room for comments could be considered. These skills could also be integrated into the morphing design strategy task. Possible teaching/discussion point e.g. Pupils need to click on AutoShapes in the Drawing tool bar to open the AutoShapes drop down menu. In this menu they will find the Basic Shape menu. Within the Basic Shapes menu, a range of possible outline shapes can be selected from. The half circle can be used to form a handle, but it needs to be made thinner using the yellow diamond (node tool) on the left hand side. Some pupils find this a little fiddly but get there with a little help from another pupil or staff. Adding a line for the topstitching make a difference especially if they them change it into a broken line (dash style) on the Drawing toolbar.

Possible teaching/discussion point e.g. The Gradient Effect is a relatively effective means to give an object an appearance of depth, in particular if the base is darker that the top of an object. The transparency tool is useful to give fabric a sheer effect. We have found only a limited use for the Texture Tool. Background – Adding colour and shade. Pupils are quite familiar with adding colour to objects in Word, most are also aware of the Fill Effects range, but these are covered to ensure all pupils have parity of skills and knowledge.

Possible teaching/discussion point e.g. Interesting results can be achieved with the Pattern Effect. A wide range of textures can be created, e.g. tweeds, self-striped etc if care if taken to select the Foreground and Background colours. Possible teaching/discussion point e.g. It took us a little time to discover this aspect of Fill Effects and we have used it considerably since. Again the red circle highlights the process and the re-cap is undertaken using the black arrows. To give a relatively realistic fabric effect, a photograph can be taken of any fabric e.g. denim or tweed and used to fill the object (bag). Scale can be a little bit out, but pupils of all ages and abilities have found it helpful.

Background – This is a quick revision of all the features i.e. on how to draw and add colour and texture to a bag. It is animated to allow it to be a front of class activity or it could be a self study guide. Possible teaching/discussion point e.g. Freehand drawing with Word does require some patience and perseverance. There are three line styles that we use - Curve, Freeform and Scribble. We use in the main, Curve and Freeform – these will give you an outline shape but in order to achieve refinement in the drawing you can follow one of these two routes. Route one – having drawn the object –with your object selected - right click on your mouse and in this menu select Edit Points. Click on a edit point on your object, and right click again, and it will open up another menu that will allow you to edit your design considerably. Route two – draw your object - select it, and at the bottom left on the Drawing toolbar is a Draw menu. Click on this and select Edit Points, again click on an edit point and right click your mouse, and the edit point menu will open. More guidance is given on this feature on the Hat unit.

Background –This short animation serves to give an idea of the possible effects of the drawing features in Word. Background – This is a quick revision of all the features i.e. on how to draw and add colour and texture to a bag. We have found that pupils are able to draw more proportionally if they select an outline shape. For example to draw a drawstring bag, an oblong about twice as long as it is wide is selected. Pupils seem to get a better effect by drawing within/around this area and do not loose the proportion when drawing the bag.