Getting Started Basic Features Helpful Hints

Templates & Lessons Technical Issues Slide Shows

 

Getting Started Login and Saving: Kid Pix Deluxe 3 launches to a login screen for users as they begin the program (below, right). A suggestion is for the teacher or Instructional Tech Specialist to create at least one, and possibly a set, of generic logins so that each user does not need to enter their name (this also creates a profile and so takes disk space on the computer for each one). Students should save their work to a folder on the server. However, if they forget to navigate to the correct folder, Kid Pix will store all of their pictures and slideshows on that computer. Below (left) shows the default location user's folder.
Default Saving (not recommended)	Kid Pix Deluxe 3 Log in Screen
Saving: Where should my students and I save our files? All Kid Pix users should save to a space on the school server. This allows students or teachers to use any computer in the school to bring up, edit, or present their work. Each student can have their own folder to save all of their items or students can save to a class or grade level folder. Talk to your school's Instructional Technology Specialist for more help. If you are a teacher and are creating templates for your students to access, visit the Templates and Lessons page for more details.

	Always open Kid Pix Deluxe 3 first. Then navigate to the file or template to open.
	Each school's lab has at least one printed Teacher's Manual and User's Guide that comes with Kid Pix Deluxe 3. See your Instructional Technology Specialist if you cannot find it. The manual has tutorials, lesson ideas, a curriculum matrix, and a rubber stamp index, as well as planning tips and an extra Teacher Sample CD. The User's Guide explains all of the tools and features. Searching the index may answer an advanced question.
	The user's guide can also be found in Acrobat .pdf format in the Kid Pix Deluxe 3 "Paint Zone". Simply go to the HELP menu and down to View User Guide.
	Where are the menus? Press the "ALT" key and the menus will appear above the "Paint Zone". You can also move your mouse up and to the left in the black area above the "Paint Zone". When the mouse changes to a down arrow, left click to see the menus. TIP: When your mouse changes to a down arrow Right-click to minimize Kid Pix Deluxe 3.
	Saving: Teach your students to always save to the server. This allows working on assignments in the lab and  in your room.
	Printing You only have two choices for printing in the "Paint Zone": full page or multi-page poster (2X2 or 3X3). In slide show you have more printing choices: Full Page = 1 slide per page, Card/Booklet = 4 slides per page, Comic Book = 6 slides per page, and Thumbnail = up to 24 slides per page. Kid Pix pictures will print to the default printer. If you want to print to a different printer, you need to change the default printer first, then print.
	The Color Picker has grays, regular colors, skin tones, and an Eye Dropper! The Eye Dropper can pick up a color already on your page. This allows you to quickly continue using this color without guessing which shade it is.
	Teach your students to use the Little Eraser. The Big eraser always erases the entire page.
	Stickers, text boxes, animations and, movies can be "flattened" to become part of the background (Toolbox menu and Flatten Stickers and Animations or Flatten Text). Once they are flattened they cannot be edited, will not animate or play. The value of flattening is when you want to export a file, when you want to apply a paint tool to the entire page, or even to keep Slideshow from reading the text in a text box.
	If you want to delete an object that "floats" above the background simply select the hand in grabber tool and click once on the object. Next press "Delete" on the keyboard.
	Be sure to "flatten" text boxes to keep Slideshow from reading them aloud (student voices sound so much better).