TSBVI Technology Institute

Using IntelliPics to Make Sound Activities

The idea:

You will make 2 files.

Once this is done, the child can activate the picture and sound by pressing the corresponding spot on the IntelliKeys.

The look of the screen.
- Notice that lots of things show up on the screen. We can control what. To adjust, go to Options menu, Activity Preferences, Picture Items. I prefer an "X" in the Picture Items square and nothing else. I also like the picture item to show up as its name, not the actual picture. To do that, in the Options menu go to Activitiy Preferences. Under General Settings, be sure "Show Items By Icon" is not checked. Notice also you can change the color of the window here.
Making the "pictures."

This is a necessary first step. IntelliPics hangs everything on a "Picture Item." You create the picture first, then you can "edit" it. (Add sounds to it.) Generally, I count how many sounds I want then make that many pictures. Once all my pictures are made I go back and add sounds. Conveniently IntelliPics comes with its own Picture Library. We can copy pictures from there to use as our picture items.
- Create menu, Picture Items. Click New. Type in name for picture, click OK.
- Now go get a picture: Edit menu, Picture Library. Select picture, click on Copy.
- Edit menu, Paste. The picture should appear in the box on the screen.
- Repeat until you have enough picture items.

Making a new sound.
- For each picture item, you can record whatever sounds you want your children to hear.
  - Select a picture item to give sound: Create menu, Picture Items, highlight the picture's name, and click on Edit.
  - You get a new window. Click on Sound, Digitized, New, Better, OK.
  - Click on Record, record your sound, click on Stop, Play to listen.
  - Save, Done, Done. You should be back in your Activity.
  - Notice that there is one list for picture items and a separate list for the sounds. These sounds are separate files and can be copied and used for other things.
Import the sound.
- You can take sounds off already made IntelliPics activities. Instead of clicking on New sound, click on Import. Then locate the activity with the sound you want and select.
- If you do this, you may want to Rename either the sounds or the pictures (or both) so they match. Go to the correct list (pictures or sounds) and select Rename. Then type in the new name.
Test your activity with mouse.

Click on your picture items. Your pictures should print to the screen and the sounds should playback. At this point you also have keyboard access. Type in the name of a picture item and press enter. This causes the same action as clicking on the item. For IntelliKeys access, make an overlay.

From the File menu, select Make overlay. This creates a separate file and you are asked to supply a name. Type in the name of the IntelliPics activity followed by a space and the word "overlay." Save and close IntelliPics.

Tinker with the overlay
- Click-click on the new overlay. Rearrange and re-size the buttons until you are happy. I always get rid of the pictures because I don't want to use my printer's ink on them. To do this, click once inside a button. Corner dots should appear. Under the Edit menu go to Select Picture. The ants line should surround your picture. Press backspace and the picture disappears.
- Another thing I often do is put the buttons in the same locations as another overlay. So I often have a second overlay open to be a guide of where the buttons go.
Labels and content

Click-clicking on a button will open up the "content," i.e., the signal that is sent to the computer. By having IntelliPics make your overlay, each of your buttons has the content corresponding to one of the picture items. Since all my buttons look alike, I label them. Use the text tool to do this.
Once you are happy with the overlay, save it and close OverlayMaker.

The automatic "send"
- Be sure your pair of files, the IntelliPics activity and the accompanying overlay, are located in the same folder and are named correctly. The OverlayMaker file has the same name as the IntelliPics file followed by a space and the word "overlay." If this is the case, when you open the IntelliPics file, the other will automatically be sent to the IntelliKeys.

Try it out.

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Last Revision: October 22, 2002