Apple has updated its series of “Find Out How” videos on how to use the Mac, iLife, and iWork. Available online or as a Podcast through the iTunes store.

Mac Basics

iLife: Photos, Movies, Web, Music

iWork

Access these videos through iTunes

Apple Pages Logo

I Work in Pages: Design a holiday greeting in Pages:

“With the holiday season approaching many of you will be looking for ways to do greetings projects. Pages is a fun tool to accomplish them – with all the family taking part.

Clipart is one way of designing a greeting card. But there are tools in Pages that let you design your own original holiday greeting. Here, I have put together a list of posts about tools, techniques and tricks that can help you design an original greeting. (The apple image top right  is designed in Pages, read how to here)

It seems that many Pages users are simply unaware of the power that Draw Tool gives. It is not just curving lines you can create with it,  with drawing tool you can do exactly what it says – draw. And ‘write’ too. In fact, you can create your own full alphabet in any language – and original cards and drawings. I have published several articles here on various uses of the drawing tool.

Here is a list of posts about curving lines and irregular shapes:

Curving lines and shapes – make them in Pages

Doodling memorable dates in Pages

Creating clipart and original shapes in Pages

Designing D-Day map in Pages

Doodles: Picasso’s room

Jigsaw cutouts with Pages

Christmas graphics and clipart: a few easy tricks

Valentine: make your own in Pages

Drawing letters and numbers in Pages: Happy New Year

Yes, we can: drawing in Pages

Keeping your lines straight

How to design folders

Maps in Pages

(Via I Work in Pages.)

by Sang Tang via The Unofficial Apple Weblog

In Apple’s iWork suite, the ‘Paste and Match Style’ or ‘Paste Style’ options, as implied in their names, allow you to paste the style from one element onto another; or to paste an element into a document and to match the style of the document that it’s getting pasted to. In many ways, they’re the iWork equivalent of ‘format painter’ found in Microsoft Office. And, in many ways, they’re much better.

For example, say I’m working on a presentation on my company’s frozen banana sales in Keynote. I’ve created my first slide, with a title of ‘Frozen Bananas Sold.’

But, I also have a Numbers document that I’m working on, and I want to take the ‘Frozen Bananas Sold’ title to have the same font and color as the ‘Bluth’s Frozen Bananas – Balance Sheet.’ To do this, I’ll need to click on the ‘Bluth’s Frozen Bananas – Balance Sheet’ element and select ‘Copy Style’ (or command-option-c) from the Format menu within Numbers. Then, I’ll need to move back to the Keynote document, click on the ‘Frozen Bananas Sold’ element, and select ‘Paste Style’ (command-option-v) from the Format menu. Now, the title of my Keynote presentation has the same font formatting as title from my Numbers document.

While the ‘Paste Style’ option allows you to apply the style elements from one element onto another, ‘Paste and Match Style,’ on the other hand, applies a document’s style onto the object that’s being pasted. For instance, in my Numbers document, I have a sales chart that I’d like to paste onto my Keynote document.

Unfortunately, the font is dark, which would clash with the colors of my Keynote presentation. With the ‘Paste and Match Style’ option, my chart will take on the style elements of my Keynote document.”

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW.com).)

Here at District 181 we are beginning to roll out the iPod Touch as a supplemental tool for providing students with a unique and engaging experience, but this exciting new platform can be challenging for teachers to fully utilize.

I’d like to highlight a site put together by Instructional Technology Coordinator, and ICE Board Member, Nadine Norris that serves as an excellent starting point for iPod Touch use in schools. It contains some general tips for using the iPod Touch along with some great resources for making the most of the platform in your classroom.

Check it out: iPod Touch in the Classroom

Nadine also operates the blog “Life Long Learning!” another great resource for technology in education resources.