Note: You will need a HyperStudio Software Program to complete these activities.
HyperStudio is a great presentation program for both teachers and students. It is extremely versatile and easy to use. The underlying concept of the application is creating cards. Each card is an individual screen on your computer. Two or more of these cards are called a stack. To move from one card to another, you make buttons on each card. That's all there is to it. The buttons can go from card to card, jump around in a stack, go to different stacks, go out to different programs, start devices such as a laser disk player, even go out to the WWW. This tutorial will give you a good start in HyperStudio. Be certain to look around on the Menu Bar and try all of the items available.
Let's get started. It may be easiest for you to print the following tutorial. That way you can have it in front of you while you work in HyperStudio. Remember to save your work frequently.
Getting Started
Double-click HyperStudio to launch the program. At the opening screen, you can look at sample projects if you wish. When you are ready to start your own stack, continue with the following instructions.
To create your first card, click on New Stack. This will take you to your first card. To color the background of the card, go to the Edit Menu and pull down to Erase Background. Select a color you like and click. Now your card is ready for text.
Text
There are two ways to add text to your card. But first go to the Tools Menu and "tear it off". Just hold down your mouse button and pull the tool palette down and to the left. You can place the tools anywhere you like.
Text Tool--card one (to stamp letters on top of objects; text does not wrap)
Select the T (text) tool from the tool palette. The mouse pointer will turn into an I-beam. Now go to the Options Menu and choose Text Style. Here you can tailor the look of your text to meet your needs. When you have made your choices, click OK. Next, click on your card at the point that you wish the text to start. Type in some text. Use the delete key to fix mistakes. Save your stack. Get a new card (Go to the Edit Menu and pull down to New Card.) Notice that the new card is labeled card two and it has the same background color as card one did. You may change the color if you wish (Edit Menu . . . Erase Background).Text Field--card two (more flexible; will text wrap; blocks of text can be moved and sized as needed)
To add a text field, go to the Objects Menu and pull down to Add a Text Object. Read the dialog box and click OK. The text field that appears can be sized and moved as desired. Do not click outside of the field until you have it the size you need and placed in the proper location. (It can be easily sized or moved at any time, however.)
To change the size and shape of the text field, move your mouse onto the field. Notice that when your pointer is over any of the sides of the field, it changes into a two directional arrow. When you have that 2 directional arrow, hold down your mouse clicker and drag the side of the box. Now place your pointer in the center of the field. It should become a 4 directional arrow. By holding down your mouse, you can now drag the text field anywhere on the screen. Try it.
Now click outside of the text field. You will go to a dialog box that allows you to make selections for the appearance of your text. As you make selections, you can see how your text will appear. Click on Style to change font, alignment, and size. Clicking the scroll bar, scrollable, read only, and draw frame boxes on or off will change the appearance of the text field. Make your choices and click OK. You are now ready to type in the text field. Make sure that the browse tool is selected. It is the pointing finger in the tool palette. Type in some text. Save. Get a new card.
Clip Art
There are two ways to add clip art (graphics) to your cards.
Add a Graphic Object--card three (less flexible; stamps the graphic in place; can't change image size)
Pull down the Objects Menu to Add a Graphic Object. Scroll to the Icon Library-Clip Art and click Open. There are two selection tools that appear in the upper left corner of the window. The rectangular tool will select a rectangular area WITH the white background. The lasso tool will select only the art itself. Click once on the lasso and draw a cirlce around one of the objects. Don't worry about getting to close to the image. The line you draw will collapse to the object. Click OK. Your object should now be on your card. Place the object where you want it and click outside of it. Next is a dialog box that will allow you to change the size of the border area (frame width) of the object. Watch in the preview area as you change frame width. Click OK. To move the object, click once on the Graphic Tool (the square with the G in the middle) in the Tool Palette, move your pointer on top of the object, and drag it to the new location. Save. Get a new card.
Adding Clip Art--card four (more flexible; can change image sizes; won't stamp a graphic over an existing object)
Go to the File Menu and pull down to Add Clip Art. Select planets, click OK. Using the lasso tool, select one of the planets. You won't be able to see the line that you are drawing because of the black background, but just make sure that you close up the circle that you draw. Click OK. Notice that as you move your pointer over the planet it changes to the 4 directional arrow. This will allow you to position the planet anywhere on the screen. Try it. Now click off of the object. Select the rectangular selection tool and draw a box around the planet. Move your pointer to one of the corners so that you have a diagonal, 2-directional arrow. Hold down the mouse and pull to the side. Notice that you can shrink and enlarge clip art items. Save. Get a new card.
Buttons--card five
Adding buttons is where you and your students can spend a great deal of time. Not because it is difficult, but because there are so many choices and it is so much fun. Therefore, it is a good idea to create all of your cards before you add any buttons.
To add a button, go to the Objects Menu and pull down to Add a Button. You will see a dialog box that allows you several choices. The top four button shapes on the left side are visible buttons, as are those in the icon library. The bottom four button styles on the left side are invisible buttons. Those are used when you want to have users make unassisted choices while going through your stack (quiz items).
Click on one of the four visible button types and type in the word NEXT. Notice that the button has the word NEXT on it. On the right side of your screen, select a color for the text and one for the background. Click OK. A dialog box will appear. Read it and click OK. Now position the button where you want it and click once outside of the button. Notice the large number of choices to be made. Places to go is where the user will go when the button is clicked on. Click on Next Card. A Transitions window should pop up. A transition is how the screen will look when it goes from one card to the next. Try some of the transitions by clicking on one and then clicking on Try It. When you have one that you like, click on OK.
At this point, your button is fully functional and you may click on Done, if you wish. If you want to add a sound, click on Play a Sound. This will add a sound as the transition is being made from one card to the next. There are a few sounds located on the right of the screen. They can be tried by clicking once on the name of the sound and then clicking on play. There are also a great many more sounds available in the Disk Library. Select a sound that you like and click OK. Now click Done. Save. Get a new card.
Adding Video--card six
This option will allow you to have a video disk, QuickTime movie, VHS, or show live video when a button is clicked on.
Pull down the Objects Menu and go to Add a Button. Select a button style and click OK. Position the button and click once outside of it. Places to go . . . None of the Above. Things to do . . . Play a movie or video. Now make your selection. We will use Disk File. Select that and click OK. Select Heat Movie and click Open. Read the next dialog box and click OK. Position your movie and click outside of it. Another dialog box appears, select Erase when done. Then select Show first frame, and Use movie controller. Click OK. Click Done. You can try your movie by clicking on the play button located at the bottom of the movie. Save. Get a new card.
Rolling Credits--card seven
Rolling credits at the end of a presentation gives it a real look of professionalism, and students love it.
First we have to have text to scroll. Create a new Text Field from the Objects Menu. Make it scrollable, but turn off the draw scroll bar and draw frame. Make your background in the text field the same color as your card background. Click OK. Now type in the names or text. Be sure to leave some space between each line (4 or 5 returns) so that the text doesn't become difficult to read as it scrolls.
To make the text scroll, select the text fieldtool (square with the T in the center) from the tool palette and click once on your text field. Now go to the Objects Menu and pull down to About this Card. Name the card Credits, and click once on Arriving at this Card. In the next dialog box, click on New Button Actions. Click on RollCredits and then on Use this NBA. On the next dialog box, type in the name of the card (Credits). Leaving the number of steps at zero will cause scrolling to the very end of the field. Leave the scroll pixels checked and change the Speed to 10. Click OK, OK, Done, and OK.
To get your text to scroll you will have to create "dead space" at the beginning and end of your text. To do this, place your cursor in front of the first word to appear and then press the return key enough times to send that word to the bottom of the text field. Use the arrow key now to get to the last line of text. Do the same thing until the last word goes off the top of the field. Now to try your rolling credits, go to the Move Menu and select last card. Save. Get a new card.
Animation--card eight
To add a simple animation, go to the Objects Menu and pull down to Add a button. Click on New Button Actions. Click on Animator and the Use this NBA. Next click on the From Disk Library. The program may make you find the HS (HyperStudio) Art Folder. It should be on your Hard Disk inside of the HyperStudio Folder. Open the HS Folder, go to the Icon Library and open it. Draw a box around the shaking hands and release the mouse. You can position the shaking hands on your screen without holding down the mouse now. Move it to the center of the card. Now hold down the mouse and move the graphic up and down about 8 times, release the mouse. A dialog box will appear that allows you to preview the animation and to make any changes. Change the playback rate to 10. Click on Playback. Now click on Draw multiple and then on Playback. To change the path or the look of the graphic, use the pop up menus in the lower left corner. When you are satisfied with your animiation, click OK, OK. When you return to the Actions dialog window, click on Automatic Timer and make your selection. Click on OK, and then on Done. Get your tool palette back and click on the browse tool. The animation should now play.
Story Board
The Story Board is very useful if you need to change the order of cards in your stack. It allows you to shuffle them in any way that you wish. Go to the Extras Menu and pull down to Story Board. HyperStudio will show a thumbnail of the cards that you have created. To change the order of the cards, simply drag a card to a new position and release. The moved card will assume the new position and the others will all slide one to the right and re-number themselves. To get out of Story Board, click the close box.
Making Changes
Buttons: To move a button to a new location, select the button tool (oval with a B in the center) and click once on the button. You can now re-size or move it.
To change what a button does or looks like, select the button tool and click twice on the button. Clicking on Actions will allow you to change where a button goes and how it looks getting there.
Text Fields: To change the location or size of a text field, select the text field tool (square with T in the center) from the tool palette and click once on the text field. You can now re-size or move the field.
To change the way the text field looks, select the text field tool and click twice on the text field. You can change the appearance of the field by checking boxes off or on, and you can change the text appearance by clicking on the style button.
Click the Back button to return to the main menu.