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Tool Factory
Workshop Tool
Factory Workshop from Tool Factory, Inc. is a comprehensive
office suite designed with the K-12 student in mind. Each of the four
application tools in the Workshop can be configured for elementary,
middle and high school, or adult learners. The Workshop suite includes
a talking word publisher, an intuitive paint program, an easy to use
spreadsheet, and a full-feature database with graphing features. All
four office suite programs use the same basic interface which makes
it easy for students to switch from one program to the next.
Tool
Factory Word Processor. This is a talking word processor that
is as easy as using pencil and paper. Writing is as easy as clicking
and beginning to type - anywhere you want to on the page! Wherever you
click the mouse, that is where text begins. A speech engine (only with
the Mac version) makes it possible to read a letter, word, or sentence.
Editing text and
objects is a simple process. Just double click to make any text an object.
A green dot will appear in the object which allows you to rotate the
text in any direction. A right click on the corner lets you resize the
text. Editing options are the same when you double click an image. You
can even grab the corner to resize a video window!
A
Bank on the left of all the application tools provides students with
a word bank, a graphics bank, a video bank, and an audio bank to add
to their work. Tool Factory Workshop provides a comprehensive library
of multimedia for use in the classroom.
Tool
Factory Painter. What a powerful art program! Choose from basic
colors to a palette of thousands, add special effects such as wash,
tint, swirl, and ripple, clone your drawing, or use the stamping feature
to grab clip art or photos and stamp them on the page. Right click on
a tool to change the property for pen size or shape. My students loved
using the tool to draw in quadrants for working with symmetry and creating
beautiful tessellations and quilt patterns for a social studies unit
on Colonial America.
Tool
Factory Spreadsheet. You’ll find all the usual spreadsheet functions,
plus the ability to add pictures, sound, and video from the Bank. Formulas
for all the standard calculations are included and can be easily graphed.
Just research a topic and enter your own data to interpret.
Tool
Factory Database. Manipulating data has never been more fun!
Use the Bank to add multimedia, collect and sort data, and create graphs
to support science experiments.
Administration
Tools. Tool Factory Administrator ties all four programs
together and gives the teacher control of options for the whole class
or individual students. The interface can be customized for all applications
to fit the lesson and the ability of students. Provide large icons and
limit the number of available icons for Kindergarten, or configure the
interface for a lesson on adding graphics and delete unused icons from
the setup. All configurations can be saved for later use.
A special Tool
Factory Bank Manager
lets teachers add to the Bank. Use the manager to edit existing
multimedia or create new banks of words, images, video, and sounds to
fit the demands of projects in your specific curriculum. All of the
banks can be searched.
Support materials
are available online, and you can download free clip art, lesson plans,
and printable worksheets. For more information, contact www.toolfactory.com
or call 800-220-8386. Mac/Win95/98; $199.95.
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