Technology

The Overview of Scratch

So, you want to start on scratch? Alright, let's get you started with an account and what some of the basic tools on scratch are. In this, we will NOT be going very deep into scratch, and this is not recommended for people who have some experience with scratch. 

To get started, make sure you have and are signed into a scratch account. The steps are straightforward, and following them is hopefully not too difficult. To save, you will require this account. The ‘save now’ button will be in the top right corner. Remember to save often. I cannot stress this enough, as I myself have had times where failure to save often has led to major setbacks. Every now and then, especially before you close scratch, click save now. It takes one click, and can save you so much time.

To create a new project, click the ‘create’ button on the top bar, next to the scratch logo.

Let's get into it! On the top(ish) left side of your screen, there will be three buttons. Code, costumes, and sounds. 

Okay, in the bottom right of your screen, there are your sprites. Sprites are the things in your project people interact with. They can be decorative, or have a use. 

The drop down menu under code is the different sections of code. You can click them to fast travel to their section of the menu. Costumes are sprite specific, and are different states of the same character. They can be useful for simple animations, or states. Sounds are just that, sounds. 

You can explore these menus, as well as the others, to really understand how to code on scratch. It can be useful to discover the features by yourself, but don't worry! In part two, I will give you the steps to making a basic bit of code. We will end this here, but I assure you that part two is coming soon! Now, go and play with scratch. Maybe watch the first video from scratch, and next time we are going to start coding a project!