Welcome to SymPrint SymPrint is an easy-to-use tool for creating communication overlays, worksheets, classroom activities and more using a modern toolbar and common-sense interface modeled after the programs you already use. SymPrint comes with more than 100 built-in templates and the ability to create your own new templates for commonly replicated activities. Using SymPrint to Make Overlays, Templates & More... Creating overlays for today's most popular picture communicators is a breeze with SymPrint's easy toolbar and built in Symbolstix symbols. Simply select the template for your device and search by keyword to drag and drop symbols into your grid. We are constantly creating new templates for devices as they are released and are happy to help you create your own specialty templates upon request. Using the built in templates it is possible to quickly load the layout for your specific device and begin to add text and images from your own libraries or from the built-in symbols
databank. When you've got it laid out the way you want it save your work and choose to print to printer or export as a.pdf or.png file. Of course you also have the option to create your own templates using the wizard or from scratch, or to begin cart blanche from a blank document. Starting with a blank document it is possible to make anything you want from homework, calendars, flash cards, worksheets, signs and more! To learn more on how to get started please go to the Getting Started section. Examples of SymPrint Projects Flashcards Classroom Calendar Matching Worksheet
Getting Started When you first launch SymPrint the following four choices are shown: (Click on each link for more information.) Create new document from template Create new template using wizard Create new document from blank page Open saved file Uncheck Show this window on startup if you do not want to view these options when SymPrint is launched. Instead an untitled blank document will load.
Creating a New Document Using Templates After selecting 'Create new document from template' on the Quickstart menu, SymPrint will load a selection of available templates for you to choose from. Templates are listed alphabetically the first time you run the program but after you begin use it will begin to show the most recently used templates at the top of the list instead. Select a template from this list by highlighting and choosing 'OK' to load it. Alternatively, if the template you need is not in the list you can click 'Browse' to search for the.sypt file yourself. By default, the Device/Project Templates window will show only those templates saved to the Library > Documents > SymPrint > Templates folder. Once the template has been selected, it will load in SymPrint ready to be populated with text and images. See the Customizing Documents section on how to customize the document with images, text and color.
Creating New Templates Using the Template Wizard After selecting 'Create new template using wizard' on the Quickstart menu, the template wizard will ask you for basic measurements and configuration patterns that will create the base arrangement for your new template. After answering these questions and clicking Create! you will have the opportunity to add more objects, resize existing objects, insert default text or images and more. Setting up the Wizard The template wizard is designed to create symmetrical grids of symbol holders. The space between rows and columns will be identical and the cutting guide will be centered around the grid boxes. You can specify default settings such as shape and text placement which will apply to all objects on the page except for the cutting guide. The cutting guide by default will be a solid line but this and all other default settings can be changed on the fly, after completing the wizard. Page margins will align the cutting guide as specified from only the top and left sides of the paper. Other margins will be defaulted to space left available on the specified paper size. Below we have outlined each of the wizard settings one by one:
Template Setup Rows: number of rows of shapes. Columns: number of columns of shapes. Width: the width of each shape. Height: the height of each shape. Row Gap: the measurement of the gap between each row. Column Gap: the measurement of the gap between each column. Text Placement: how the image and text should be positioned in each shape. The three options are: o Image Only: the shape can be filled completely with an image (no text). o Text Below Image: the image will display in the top of the shape and the text underneath. o Text Above Image: the image will display in the bottom of the shape and the text above. o Text Only: the shape can be filled with text only. Shape: the shape to use for each shape created by the wizard. Cutting Guide Use Cutting Guide: check this box to create a cut out guide for the template. Width: the width of the cutting guide. Height: the height of the cutting guide. Page Setup Orientation: whether the page is portrait or landscape. Paper Size: the size of the paper. Page Margins o Top Margin: the gap between the top edge of the paper and the start of the template. o Left Margin: the gap between the left edge of the paper and the start of the template. Next Steps Once the measurements are complete, SymPrint will open your new template for verification and further manipulation. See the Customizing Documents section for more information on customizing your documents and templates. And of course, once you are satisfied be sure to save your work!
Creating a New Document From a Blank Page When you select 'Create new document from blank page' on the Quickstart menu, SymPrint will open a blank page so you can unleash you inner designer to create overlays, worksheets, activities, charts and more. The only limit is the limit of your own imagination. See the Customizing Documents section to learn how to customize the document by drawing and editing shapes, lines, images and text. Examples of SymPrint Projects Flashcards Classroom Calendar Matching Worksheet
Opening a Saved File You can open an existing document by selecting 'Open saved files' on the Quickstart menu. SymPrint will open a file menu allowing you to browse to your document through the standard windows interface. To open a document from within SymPrint's regular environment, click on the program button and select Open.
Customizing Your Templates & SymPrint Documents There are many ways to customize your document in SymPrint. These include: Adding and editing shapes Adding images to shapes Adding and editing lines Altering the page layout
Using Shapes in SymPrint SymPrint shapes can be stand alone objects or can contain symbols and/or text as you desire. Simply drag and drop symbols from the search panel or double click to enter text. On this page we will outline many of the ways to create and customize shapes in SymPrint. Drawing Shapes To draw a new shape, first select the type of shape you need from the shapes section of the ribbon toolbar. Hold down the left mouse button over a blank space in your document and drag the mouse until the shape is the correct size, releasing the mouse button will complete drawing the shape. For information about adding images to the shape, see the Images page. Selecting Shapes To select a shape, left click on it. Once selected, you can move it by dragging it and resize it by dragging the square side & corner handles. Shapes created by the template wizard cannot be rotated but shapes drawn using the shape tools on the ribbon toolbar will have a circular handle above them when selected. When you hover your mouse over these circles it will change to an arched arrow and you can rotate the shape by left clicking and dragging the image to the rotation you would like. To select more than one shape you can either hold down Ctrl and select each shape individually, hold down Ctrl and use the left mouse button to drag a box around the objects you'd like to select. Alternatively, you can also hold down and drag the right mouse button to draw a selection box around the objects you wish to select. To quickly move from one selected shape to the next press the down or right arrow key. To move to the previous, press the up or left arrow key.
Editing Shape Text To edit the text in a shape double click with the left mouse button, select the shape and press F2 or right click and select Edit Text. If you are editing the text in a shape and want to quickly move to edit the text in the next shape, press the Tab key. To move back to editing the previous shape's text press Shift + Tab. When you have finished editing the text, press Enter. To insert a line break, press Shift + Enter. Altering Shapes Shape options can be customized using the Home tab in SymPrint. To edit an existing shape outline, first select the shape to be updated and click on the relevant Shapes button. To draw a new shape with different layout settings, ensure no exiting shape is selected within your document and then click on the relevant Shapes buttons, then draw your new shape. Clipboard The usual clipboard operations: cut, copy, paste and delete can be performed on selected shapes using the buttons in this group. Font Common font operations can be performed on selected shapes in this group. Shapes In the Shapes group you can format your shapes in the following ways: Shapes: choose the outline of your shapes e.g. rectangle, circle, triangle, etc.
Text o o Text Alignment: choose where to align the text in the shape. If the shape's text placement is set to Image Only there will be no text alignment options. If the shape's text placement is Text Above Image or Text Below Image, only 3 text alignment options will be visible: left, center & right. If the text placement is set to Text Only, 9 text alignment options will be visible: top, middle & bottom vertical alignment combinations with left, center & right horizontal combinations. Text Placement: choose where the text should be placed in relation to the image: Image Only will stretch the image to fill the shape. Text Above Image will place any text in the top of the shape and the image below it. Text Below Image will place any text in the bottom of the shape and the image above it. Text Only will only allow text in the shape. Image: Choose whether to remove the current image, fit the image to the current shape (retaining the aspect ratio of the image), or stretch the image to the current shape (discarding the aspect ratio of the image).
Fill: Choose the fill color of the shape. If the shape is a line, this color will be applied to the inside of its middle and end shapes (arrowheads and pointers). Border o Line Color: Choose the color of the shape border. o Line Width: Choose the thickness of the shape border. o Line Style: Choose the style of the shape border. Select from solid, dashed or dotted.
Right Clicking on Shapes Right clicking on a shape brings up the following options for that shape: Cut: Cut the selected shape to the clipboard. Copy: Copy the selected shape to the clipboard. Paste: Paste the clipboard contents. If a shape is on the clipboard, this will be pasted. If text or an image is on the clipboard, this will be pasted into the selected shape. Delete: Delete the selected shape. Select All: Select all the shapes. Edit Text: Edit the shape's text. Remove Image: Remove the shape's image. Bring to Front: Brings the selected shape to the front. This is useful if you have shapes which overlap and want the current shape to sit on top of another shape. Send to Back: Sends the selected shape to the back. This is useful if you have shapes which overlap and want the current shape to sit behind another shape.
Customizing: Images The Images panel is displayed by default to the left of the SymPrint document. Searching & Selecting Images To search for an image in the installed image bank, type your search term in the search box and press return or click the Search button. The images whose name or keyword matches the search term will be displayed.
Image Browse To view images within a folder on your computer, click on the Browse a Folder button and select the folder. Once selected, any images within that folder will be loaded into the Images panel. Adding Images to Shapes To add an image to a shape, either click and drag the image from the Images panel to the shape, or select the shape and double click on the image in the Images panel. Alternatively, you can create a new, borderless shape which contains the image and any text by simply clicking and dragging the image into an empty area of your document.
Editing Images To edit an image's name or keywords, right click on the image and click Edit. In the edit image window it is possible to change the name of the image by clicking on the Change default text button. To add a keyword, type the word into the box under the keywords list and press return or click on the Add button. To remove a keyword, select the word in the keywords list and click the Remove button. When editing is complete, click the OK button to save the changes. Click Cancel to discard the changes. New Images Use the add new image button from your clipboard. to select and add images from files on your computer or To add an image using the clipboard (an image form the web as an example), right click on the image & select Copy, then in SymPrint click clipboard. and select From To add an image from a file on your computer, click and select From file. An open file dialog box will ask you to select the image file.
The Add Image window will appear, enabling you to change the default text and add keywords. Once the details are complete, click OK to save the image details. Next time you search for an image, this new image will be included. Images Panel Settings View Settings Choose the display size of the search result images in this setting, either small or large icons. Text Transfer Settings Choose what text should be inserted into the shape along with the image, either no text, the image's name or the search term. Search Settings
Choose whether the search term should match the image's whole text (either default text or keyword), the beginning of the image's text or anywhere in the image's text. Choose whether the search feature should match image's keywords. Switching this off will give you fewer but more accurate results. Choose whether or not to use instant search. Instant search is a search feature which automatically searches as you type (over 3 characters). If you are searching for a word under 4 characters you will still need to press the Enter key or click on the Search button to view the results. Images Panel Display To show or hide the Images panel you can check or uncheck the Images check box in the View tab in the ribbon along the top. An easy access show/hide button can also be found half way down the window. This button allows you to quickly show or hide the Images panel.
Customizing: Lines Using the Shapes section of the ribbon toolbar, you can select the line shape and draw lines in your document. To alter the look of the line, simply click to select it and the following options will appear in the toolbar to the right of the default tool sections: These new options allow you to format your line in the following ways: Style Choose the style of the line. Select from straight, curved or stepped. Middle Choose the line's middle shape and size.
End Choose the line's end shape and size.
Customizing: Page Layout To customize the page layout, use the Page Layout tab. From this tab you can alter the following: Orientation Choose from portrait or landscape page orientation. Page Size Choose from a range of paper sizes or enter custom values.
Measurement Units Choose the units which the ruler will display, either inches or millimeters. Page Color Choose the background color (or image) of the document.
View Options Using the View tab you can: Show or hide panels and features Set the document's zoom level
Show/Hide Use the Show/Hide option group of the view tab to select what is shown in the document and in the left and right panels. Alternatively, click on the X button in the top right of each panel to hide them. Ruler Checking this option shows the document's ruler. Gridlines Checking this option shows gridlines in your document to help you align the shapes. Images Checking this option shows the Images panel to the left of the document. Search and view images in this panel.
Overview Checking this option shows the Overview panel to the right of the document. This overview is useful if you are zoomed in quite closely to your document or the page size is quite large. Click and drag the viewing lens to move around your document quickly.
Zoom & Zoom Group Use the Zoom group to view the document at different zoom levels. Zoom This button will open a Zoom window allowing you to customize the zoom level of the document. 100% This button will set the zoom level to 100% One Page This button will set the zoom level so that the whole document fits in the available document area. Page Width This button will set the zoom level so that the width of the document fits in the available document area. Page Height This button will set the zoom level so that the height of the document fits in the available document area. Zoom Toolbar You can also zoom in and out of your document using the options at the bottom right of the SymPrint window. For manual adjustments you can use the slider bar to change the magnification level to the required setting between 10% (smallest) and 400% (largest). A small line on the slider bar shows the position of 100%.
Saving, Printing and Exporting When your document is complete, you can do the following: Save as a document or template Print and use print preview Export to image file (.png) or PDF
Save Document or Template Always remember to save your work regularly. To save your document use the Save menu item on the File menu. You can create a copy of your document, or change its name by using the Save As menu item on the File menu. Then you have the option to save as a SymPrint document (.syp) or SymPrint template (.sypt).
Next, you will be given the option to choose a new name and location for your document. When you are ready click on the Save button. NOTE: Only SymPrint template files (.sypt) saved to the SymPrint > Templates folder will appear in the Quickstart templates selection window.
Printing and Print Preview To print your document, select the Print menu item on the File menu. You will be given the option to select your printer, the number of copies you require and other options before printing. Note: If your document orientation is landscape, be sure to check your printer properties to ensure the printer is set to print the document in landscape mode.
Print Preview Before you print your document you have the option to preview the final outcome before sending it to the printer. You can use the Print Preview menu item on the File menu to do this. The Print Preview window has its own toolbar that you can use to change the way your document will print. Use the Print button to print your document on your default printer or use the dropdown list of printers to choose an alternative printer. Use the drop-down list on the Zoom button to change how large your document is displayed in the Print Preview window. This does not change how large the document will be printed. For that, use the Resize button.
You can quickly change how many pages are displayed in the Print Preview window by clicking on one of One Page, Two Pages, Three Pages, Four Pages or Six Pages. When a document spans multiple pages you can move between the pages using the First Page, Previous Page, Next Page and Last Page buttons. The number in the centre of these buttons displays the page number of the currently displayed page. To change how large the document will be printed you can use the Resize button. The options are: Fit To Page: resizes your document so that if fits onto a single printed page. Original Scale: sets your document to be the size you created it. Double Scale: increases the scale to double that which is currently set in the Print Preview window. Half Scale: decreases the scale to half that which is currently set in the Print Preview window. Increase Scale: increases the scale from how it is currently set in the Print Preview window. Decrease Scale: decreases the scale from how it is currently set in the Print Preview window. You can use the Double Scale, Half Scale, Increase Scale and Decrease Scale menu items repeatedly to fine tune the size that your document will print. The Landscape/Portrait button switches between these two printing modes.
Export To Image or PDF SymPrint offers an export feature to quickly and easily convert your work into images (.png) & PDF's (Portable Document Format). When you chose to export to a PDF file or a.png file, SymPrint will first prompt you to select a file name and location for your new file. Once you click Save, the file will be created and opened for you to review right away.
Keyboard Shortcuts Many of the standard Windows keyboard shortcuts can be used in SymPrint. Some of the more common key combinations are listed below along with some new shortcuts specific to working within SymPrint. Function Shortcut New Ctrl + N Open Ctrl + O Save Ctrl + S Save As Ctrl + Shift + S Print Ctrl + P Undo Ctrl + Z Redo Ctrl + Y Cut Ctrl + X Copy Ctrl + C Paste Ctrl + V Delete shape Del Bold Ctrl + B Italics Ctrl + I Underline Ctrl + U Edit shape text Select shape + F2 Select all shapes Ctrl + A Show Ribbon shortcuts Alt Go to previous shape Up/left arrow (or Shift + Tab if editing text) Go to next shape Down/right arrow (or Tab if editing text)
Contact The EnableMart team is very please to bring you this software program and hope that you will enjoy using it as much as we have enjoyed dreaming it into reality. Should you have any issues or need support on any project or device template please contact us using the information below. We also welcome your feedback and review of this product and invite you to leave comments on our website using the reviews tab of the SymPrint product description page www.enablemart.com/symprint EnableMart Customer Support Phone: 888.640.1999 Fax: 866.487.0410 Email: support@enablemart.com In addition to these methods you may also chat live with us online. Or use our convenient online submission form to request a return contact from one of our customer service professionals. For more information on Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) devices and symbolized communication tools please visit www.enablemart.com. EnableMart - 5353 South 960 East, Suite 200 - Salt Lake City, UT 84117