This post once contained lots of video tutorials demonstrating how to use various aspects of textivate.
UNFORTUNATELY THE VIDEOS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE.
All of the videos deal with aspects of textivate that require you to be logged in. The first section deals with aspects of textivate that apply to both teacher and student log-ins. The second section (including worksheets) deals with aspects of textivate which require a teacher log-in.
Note that the videos are WITHOUT audio (so you'll have to watch carefully ;-)
(Note also that some of the buttons, icons, functionality, features have changed since some of these videos were made.)
See the textivate user guides on this blog for lots of up-to-date help with all aspects of using textivate.
(If you have any requests for aspects of textivate that you'd like us to show, please let us know.)
SECTION 1: All users (teacher or student log-in required)
1. Delete the default text. No need to select all the text in the text box in order to delete it. Just click the "new" icon. (It's a good idea to do this before you start work on creating a new resource):
2. Create your own text resources by pasting in a text. Of course, you can just type a text into the text box, if you prefer. But it's a lot quicker to copy text from existing resources, news items on the internet etc, then paste it into the text box:
3. Create a user-defined gap-fill for your text (in addition to the randomly generated one). A randomly generated gap-fill always appears based on your text, and has different gaps each time it loads. This extra gap-fill is a way for you to specify which words will be gapped.
4. Create a vocab / matching resource. (And save it to local storage). This video shows how to set out your matching items with ###match## to specify a matching resource, and matching items separated by ==. (It also demonstrates saving to local storage, but there's another video about that further down the list.)
5. Save to local storage. This video shows how you can save your resource on your device. Resources stored in local storage are saved locally on your device, as part of your browser's temporary internet files cache. NB. If you delete your local internet files, your locally stored resources will also be deleted. Local storage requires version 8 or later of internet explorer.
6. Add vocab matching to an existing text resource. You can create resources based on text, on matching items, or a combination of the two! Start with your text, then type ###match###, and then type in your matching items separated by ==. (Make sure the matching items come after the text, as everything that appears in your text after ###match### is treated as matching items by textivate.
7. Search / browse resources - an introduction. Note that access to 'My resources', 'Recently viewed' and 'Favourites' is not available via a student log-in. When you open the 'Public resources' browser, you can opt to look for (a) just text resources; (b) just match resources; (c) resources with text AND match activities, or (d) all resources (this is the default).
8. Refine your search by adding / removing "tags". (Results shown are all resources containing all selected tags). You can add up to 5 tags to a search. As you click tags, resources which were not previously listed appear in the results pane, because the results pane always shows a limited number of results which match your search criteria. (If you don't click tags or use the search box, the only criteria is 'most recent'...)
9. Use the search box to add / remove a search term. Search by title, info, tags or contributor. Only 1 search term can be used at a time, but you can combine a search term with up to 5 tags. Search is a good way of finding resources by a particular contributor, or resources which have not been tagged by the contributor (which, unfortunately, is quite a lot...)
10. Copy and paste a vocab list from quizlet (and switch items so that TL is on the right). A new feature in textivate is the facility to paste in a list of tab-separated matching items, and textivate will automatically insert the == symbols between matching items. This works for various situations. This video looks at copying and pasting from quizlet:
11. Copy and paste a vocab list from quia (and switch items so that TL is on the right). Essentially the same as video 10 above. This video looks at copying and pasting from quia:
12. Copy and paste from a vocab list in a table in Word (and switch items so that TL is on the right). Essentially the same as video 10 above. This video looks at copying and pasting from a table in Word. The same should also apply to lines of matching items where the left and right items are separated by a 'tab':
13. Copy and paste from an Excel spreadsheet (and switch items so that TL is on the right). Essentially the same as video 10 above. This video looks at copying and pasting from an Excel spreadsheet:
SECTION 2: NOT available via student log-in.
14. Upload a resource to textivate. You need to be logged in to upload a resource. (This is because the resource needs to have a contributor, which is your textivate username). It's a good idea to include tags for your resource - each tag can be a word or 2, but try to keep tags short. You can have up to 10 separate tags per resource. If you include additional information about a resource, this is visible to users when they click the '+i' icon when they access your resource. If you'd like to include a hyperlink as part of the additional information, make sure it begins with 'http://'
15. Get info about a resource. Get resource url, activity url, activity embed code. All 'Public' and 'Shareable' resources that you access via textivate should display a '+i' (more information) icon and a 'share' icon. (Private resources do not show these). The '+i' icon always provides the same information about the resource. The 'share' icon, however, provides diferent information depending on the page you are on: on the edit screen, it provides a link url (and tweet button) linking to the edit screen; on the menu screen, it provides a link url (and tweet button) linking to the menu screen (containing all the activities based on the resource); on individual activity screens, it provides a link url (and tweet button) linking to the activity itself, as well as a block of html embed code which can be used to embed the activity on your website or blog.
16. Make changes to an existing resource and save changes. (Your own resource + you are logged in) If you want to make changes to one of your own resources that you have already uploaded, DON'T click the upload link again (as you'll end up with an additional uploaded resource). Instead, make your changes to the resource, and you'll see a 'save changes' icon appear at the top-right of the text box. (If you aren't logged in, don't worry - log in at this point and the 'save changes' icon will appear). Click this to save the changes to your existing resource. Note that this replaces the existing resource and uses the same resource url as the original resource, so that if you have already embedded an activity or shared a link, the urls and embed code will work based on your updated text.
17. Changing tags, info, resource type etc. (Type a space to get the "save changes" icon to appear) If you've uploaded a resource (and you're logged in) but decide you'd like to add tags or additional info, or you'd like to change the resource type (eg. to 'Private' or 'Public'), you DON'T need to upload the resource again. Simply click at the end of one of your lines of text in the text box and type a space. By changing the text in this way, you will cause the 'save changes' icon to appear at the top-right of the text box (provided you are logged in... If you aren't logged in, don't worry - log in at this point and the 'save changes' icon will appear). Click this icon to make changes to the title, tags, info and resource type, then click on the 'Save changes' button
18. Upload a resource as a "private" resource. A private resource can only be accessed by you, and only via the 'My resources' button on the 'Search / browse' screen. (Note that those with Basic subscriptions can only upload resources as private). There is no 'share' icon or '+i' icon for private resources as they cannot be shared.
19. Make changes to tags, info etc via the 'My resources' button on the search / browse screen. You can see all of the resources that you have uploaded to textivate via the 'My resources' button on the 'Search / browse' screen. You can delete resources and make changes to tags, info, titles and resource type via the links provided on this screen. (Note that you can't make changes to the text of a resource in this way - you need to open the resource to do that, then make changes as shown in video 16).
20. Copy text from a news article and include a hyperlink back to the article. Any block of text that starts with 'http://' is treated as a hyperlink.
Printing worksheets! (subscribers only - NOT available via student log-in)
21. Worksheets based on a text. Tiles, Horizontal, Paragraphs, Gap-fills, Fill-in-the-letters, Space insert, Anagrams. This video shows how quick and easy worksheets are to produce, with 17 examples.
22. Worksheets based on matching items. Vocab list, Flashcards, Matching exercise, Pairs / Menory / Snap cards, Dominoes, Fill-in-the-letters, Anagrams. Lots of examples in this video.
TEXTIVATE SEQUENCES (premium or group subscriptions)
23. How to create a textivate sequence. A simple demonstration of how to add activities to a sequence and save your resource, and how to get the sequence url or embed code.
24. Sequences from the student's perspective - completing & submitting a textivate sequence. Shows the notifications that appear after each activity, and at the end of the sequence, how to log in as a student, how to submit the sequence of work.
25. Gradebook on textivate - accessing sequence results submitted by students. A simple demonstration of how to access students' scores, time taken etc.