Beyond SMART Notebook

A major benefit to using a SMART Board is that teachers and students can control the class computer while standing right beside the projected image at the front and centre of the classroom. A SMART Board can interact with most programs, not only SMART Notebook. Here are four ways to interact beyond SMART Notebook.

SMART Board as an Interface

Touching a SMART Board is the same as pressing the left mouse button at that location. This allows you to click buttons or drag objects in any program like you would when sitting at the computer. To use the right mouse button, press the right button on the tool tray to make the next touch on the screen a right click or drag. To type short amounts of text, press the left button on the tool tray to display the onscreen keyboard. The tray button actions can be modified in the SMART Control Panel to function as a middle mouse button or a "floating mouse" for programs where hovering the mouse without clicking is important.

Ink Layer

The Ink Layer is like a huge acetate stretched over the whole screen which you can use to draw on top of any program. First, start the SMART Board Tools. This is found under START > All Programs > SMART Technologies > SMART Product Drivers > SMART Board Tools ( ), but you can drag this link to your desktop to make it easier to find. After the tools are started, picking up any pen from the tray will add the Ink Layer frame around the screen. While this frame is showing you cannot interact with the underlying program, but you can use the pens to mark-up the screen. The Ink Layer has three buttons in the upper right corner to clear the Ink Layer, copy a screenshot to SMART Notebook to keep a record, and close the ink layer.

SMART Aware

Some programs like Microsoft Office and SMART Ideas are "SMART Aware," meaning that they recognize input from the SMART Board as more than just mouse actions. When SMART Board Tools are running and you use a SMART Aware program, picking up a pen from the tray will not add the Ink Layer frame, but instead writing will be captured directly by the program. One advantage is that you can still interact with the program. Different SMART Aware programs can use ink in different ways. In Microsoft Office, ink is captured temporarily, and can be added more permanently to documents and presentations by clicking the "Insert as Image" ( ) or "Insert as Text" ( )buttons in the Aware Tools bar. You will also be prompted to add the ink as an image when you close the program or presentation.

Transparent Background

SMART Notebook has a Transparent Background mode ( ) which removes the usual toolbars, tabs, and white background to allow you to see and interact with other programs. SMART Notebook objects (like the circle in the example at the right) are still visible. Text, graphics, and hyperlinks can be added to the Notebook page by dragging them from the underlying program to any SMART Notebook object. Picking up a pen captures writing in the smart notebook page.