Rationale

The flipchart concept comes from the idea of the paper flipchart that stands on an easel. After each page is used, it is flipped over and a new one appears. This allows the presenter to go back when needed to review a concept on a previous page. The basic use of a paper flipchart is to brainstorm and quickly organize as a group. This same concept is used with flipcharts. As a presenter, don't fall into the assumption that you have to create an elaborate, cutesy flipchart with lots of actions and links. Leave that to the computer programmers.  

Pop-up Dashboard

When you start the program, a "dashboard" screen pops up.  Like blogs, it contains a lot of menus, sub screens, and links to things that you may want to use throughout your time designing flipcharts. As you become more familiar with using flipcharts, you may decide to prevent the dashboard from showing itself by disabling it in the configure tab of the dashboard.  

Decide where to save

Before you begin working with flipcharts, decide where you want to store your flipcharts. The dashboard offers you a number of choices, from "Shared Flipcharts" to "My Flipcharts" to "Other Location." Because there are so many folders and resources provided by the website, you will want to be very clear as to where you save your charts. At home I tend to save them to the "other" folder, which defaults to a folder on my desktop for easy storage and access. At school I usually save them to "My flipcharts."  

Tools and toolbars

There is a "toolbar" that pops up immediately when you open the program. This toolbar can be customized in the future to include tools that you like and that you need to teach or present your subject. The toolbar can be set to stay in one position on the screen or float around if you set it in preferences. There are also other buttons that look like "tool" buttons. These are spread all over the screen. Some show themselves at the top of the screen only in "design" mode, some are added to the normal toolbar for only certain slides, and some show themselves usually on the right side of the flipchart in what looks like a margin area.  

Where's my flipchart?

Just like a paper flipchart, you can have many flipcharts open on your desktop at the same time. You may forget that you have one open or think that you closed it unless you follow one of two methods. Either use the buttons in the right margin area of the flipchart to "flip" through the different charts, and/or configure preferences on the dashboard to show the "Windows" design, instead of the "Flipchart" design. This will allow you to see and click on each flipchart file on the bottom of your screen in the Start Menu.  

Using or Designing

There are two main ways that you can view and use flipcharts: presentation and design mode. Look at the "Main Menu icon" at the very top left of the toolbar. If the icon is not selected, you are in presentation mode. Presentation mode is for students, teachers, and presenters to use on the white board. If there is any "design" flaw or problem in the flipchart, it will show! Don't try to fix anything while presenting or teaching, work around it and remember to fix it later.

If the icon in the top left of the toolbar is selected and orang-ish, then you are in design mode. This is the mode to use when you want to edit, fix, or change flipcharts. Make sure that you are not in design mode when presenting or teaching because the flipchart won't act the way it's supposed to, you or other users may accidentally delete items and special "actions" won't usually work in design mode. To change between the two modes, place your mouse over the main menu icon on the toolbar and left-click on it. A drop-down menu will show. The first item says "design mode." If a checkmark is next to it, it is currently on and being used. If there is not checkmark, it is inactive. To activate it, click on it.