To create a heading or change a heading, select the Create Heading button on the top left corner of your screen. A window will pop up:

Heading Picture Right

Typing and Formatting

Enter your heading information here. Anytime you are in the heading box, the program has all the functions of a basic word processor. You can type, insert, delete, copy, cut, and paste text. Move the cursor around with the mouse or arrow keys. Select text using the mouse. Cut, copy, paste, or delete text using the commands in the Edit menu, or corresponding keyboard commands listed to the right of the commands in the Edit menu. Change fonts by clicking and holding the mouse on the Font menu and selecting a new font. Change the type size for the font of any text by clicking and holding the mouse on the Size menu and dragging down to a new size. Change the type style of any text by placing the cursor in the box, clicking and holding the mouse on the Style menu, and dragging down to a new style.

Inserting a Graphic

Vocabulary Companion™ has powerful and easy tools for browsing through graphics and then inserting them into your activity sheets. You can use commercially available graphics files or the graphics that come with the program, use digital images, scan your own graphics, or create your own graphics files in a draw or paint program. Insert, change, and print any of these graphics as an integral part of your teaching product with tremendous ease.

Colorin Open to Format

  1. Simply click on the button labeled Graphics to browse through the graphics that come with Vocabulary Companion™. Clicking the Up Arrow button takes you to the next graphic, and clicking the Down Arrow button takes you to the previous graphic. You can keep clicking through all the graphics in the folder in seconds until you find the one you like, or you can simply double click on any graphic to take you to the Vocabulary Companion™ Art folder. There, you can go through the descriptions and choose accordingly.
  2. To bring in a different set of graphics from which to choose, you will need to change the Active Folder (Macintosh), Active Directory (Windows). That is, you will want to choose a graphics folder (on your hard disk, CD- ROM, or floppy) that contains graphics you want to access.

NOTE: Very important! Make sure that you see individual graphics listed in the window. In other words, make sure you go all the way into a folder that has the graphics you want. You can select an individual graphic just by clicking on it.

Customizing Your Heading

With Vocabulary Companion™, it’s easy to customize the information and style of your headings:

Heading Picture Right

  1. Just pull down the Options menu and select Heading Template. You will see a window where you can set up your heading to come up automatically the way you like it:

Heading Picture Left

  1. Notice that by default the option to insert a name and date line and a graphic, are selected on the right-hand side of the heading. Try changing the setting by checking the button next to Graphic Left of Header. This will move the graphic to the left side of the heading.
  2. Click OK and return to the header. Now click the Reset button and the graphic will change sides. All heading template options are also available through a shortcut in the Options menu. Just select Heading Options command and drag down to the heading option you prefer.

NOTE ON WHEN HEADING TEMPLATE SETTINGS TAKE EFFECT: Except for moving the graphic from side to side, or eliminating it—changes you see instantly on screen—the changes you make to heading settings do not take effect until you create a new file or use the Reset button. Of course, your saved files always have the same heading formatting you had when you last saved the file, but this feature works independently of the heading template settings.

NOTE ON RESET BUTTON, WHERE SETTINGS TAKE EFFECT IMMEDIATELY: The Reset button is used to clear the existing heading and formatting information and have it immediately replaced with the information and formatting you have selected in the Heading Template Options window.