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Themes
Clip Art
Fonts
Themes
Do you ever get tired of the same old icons,
wallpaper, sounds, and cursors? You can change these to be just about anything you
want. Your current collection of these is called a theme. You can change your
theme to be anything, for instance...a Christmas theme. With a Christmas desktop
theme your sounds could be jingle bells, your background santa, your cursors falling snow,
etc.....
Changing your themes to correlate with a topic
you are covering is a good way to integrate computer use with the rest of the class.
If you are studying oceans, get an ocean theme. As I said, just about any
theme you want is available. If you have Microsoft Plus on your computer, you are
probably already aware of how to change your theme. There is now a program that
allows Windows 95 users who do not have Microsoft Plus, to change and edit their desktop
themes. You can get one here.
Once you download a theme editor, you can create
any theme you want...or you can download a premade theme by clicking on the button toward
the bottom of the screen. Once you download the editor, unzip it into your
"program files-Plus" folder. When you run it, the screen above will
appear. The theme you are using at the moment will be under current theme.
Make sure you have saved this theme so you can go back to it whenever you want.
Notice in the screen above, that the current theme is listed and saved under
"MINE" If you decide to download a premade theme from the site
listed below, you will have to install it. Do this by clicking on the
"Install" tab. You will get the screen below:
Click on the "Browse" button to locate
the theme you downloaded. It is a good idea to place all of your themes in the same
folder as the desktop theme editor. Notice that the new themed I selected to
install is "Pooh", a nice Winnie the Pooh desktop theme. Once you have
located the theme of your choice, click on "install". Now your new theme
is installed.
Now, I have to select the theme I just installed
as my current one. I click on the arrow next to "current theme", under the
"theme" tab, and select the new "pooh" theme. The window shows
me a preview of my new desktop theme. The image you see below, is my new desktop
wallpaper. I can also choose to use all of the fonts, sounds, cursors, and icons
that come along with it. I select what "active components" I want to use,
and click on the "apply" button at the bottom.
Below is a screenshot of my new desktop theme.
It also has Pooh sounds, animated cursors, fonts, and a Pooh screensaver.
If I want to return to my original theme, or
choose another one, I simply open my desktop theme editor back up, pick a different
"current theme", and hit "apply".
Imagine how you could use this on your computer
at school. If you were studying spiders, you could download a spider theme that
would have pictures, animations, and screensavers. You can integrate your computer
to match your current topic in almost any case, as there are thousands of desktop themes
ready to be downloaded and installed. Just click on the button below to go to
a site on the web with many desktop themes to choose from.
Reminder * When you find a theme that
you like, simply download it and install it. To install it, open the desktop themes
editor you downloaded, and click on the install button. After the theme is
installed, you can select it...click apply...and you're all set. ** It is a good
idea to make sure your current theme is saved. If it is not, assign it a name and
save it.
Clip Art
I. Saving Clip Art to Disk
First, label a clean disk "clipart" and put it A
drive. I recommend keeping all oof your clip art that you collect from the internet on
this disk.
Next, to save an image, right click on the image with your
mouse. You should get a dialog box with a few options (Back, Forward,View this image, Save
this image, Copy this image location) Click "Save this image" You will get
another dialog box.Change the drive to A:, then click "OK" You have now saved
the image to your disk.
II. Retrieving Your Clip Art
Now that you've saved your clip art, you'll want to insert it
into a document or be able to view and print it. You have one small problem, thought. Clip
art on the internet is in .gif and .jpeg format. The Windows paintbrush does not recognize
these formats. You have two choices.
1. If you are using a word processor or a publishing program
like Print Master Gold to create a newsletter or the like, they often are able to
import the clip art. To insert an image into a word document such as a newsletter,
just click on the "import" or similar button, and select "image."
It will now ask you where to import the picture from. Change to the disk and
folder where you saved the clip art, pick which picture you want, and click "ok"
or "import". The picture should now appear in your document. If you
are wanting to print the clip art by itself.....see below.
2. Open the clip art file with another graphic utility besides
Paintbrush. I have Paint Shop Pro, Top Draw, LView and GraphX Viewer. All of these are
graphics programs that will open many different versions of graphics files, and are freely
downloaded from the internet. There are hundreds of graphics programs. I have also found
that my cardshop program will open these files.
3. If you don't have any of these programs, you can
download a program from ZD Net called "HyperConvert." It will convert these
images into .bmp format. Once your file is in bitmap format, you can use Windows to open
your clip art. Print your clipart.
4. If you are still having trouble, try this. Right click on
the image. Choose the "view" option. You will then be view only the
selected option. Next click on the "print" button on your browser. This
will print out the image. If you want to save, go to File, then choose
"Save" or "Save As".
Here are some great places to get lots of free clip art:
Caboodles Clip Art -
Helpful
clip art resource, with a handy search engine to help you find what you need. There's also
a cool animated GIF section. While you're there, get yourself a free animated mailbox with
your name on it!
Clip
Art Warehouse -
Thousands of clipart
images for your site. Most are totally free. If you use `em on your page, this site
requires a linkback. Great site from Great Britain.
The (Clip) Art of Romance
- Here's a nice selection of romance-related graphics and
clip art. Categories include: animations, backgrounds, bars, couples, cupids, gifts,
hearts, icons, "love," roses, words and more. For non-commercial uses.
Fonts
I. Locating Fonts
Browse through some of these font archives.
FontFace -
Often imitated, but never equalled, this pioneering font site is home of
the original "Font of the Day." Font guru Steve Young offers an excellent collection of fonts and
font resources, including the "Top 25 Fonts" section, which shows you, at a
glance, what the hottest new fonts on the Web are.
Divide
By Zero -
A welcome new addition to the Web's free font resources, Divide By Zero
serves up a eye-catching collection of original TrueType fonts. They're free to use, but
may not be resold (as part of a collection on CD, for example). Webmaster Tom Murphy
doesn't beat around the bush on this site; he gets straight to the fonts on the main page.
Each font is annotated with interesting commentary about its creation and suggestions for
use. For those in a hurry, you can get all the fonts in a convenient ZIP file.
Astigmatic One Eye
Foundry -
A major resource, Astigmatic offers many original
TrueType fonts for both Windows and Macs. When you
click on a listing here, you're taken to a separate page that helpfully displays the full
font set and offers a detailed description.
Free TrueType Fonts for the
Web -
This site by Microsoft offers free fonts for use with Windows and Macs. The
sets include the new Euro currency symbol. Install these TrueType fonts, and whenever you
visit a Web site that specifies them, you'll see pages exactly as the site designer
intended.
Happy Hour
Fonts -
Here's a hip, new free fonts site "targeted toward Generation X."
Categories include graffiti, grunge, themes, dingbats and "foreign flavors."
Spinola
Free Fonts -
There's over 400 free fonts at this bilingual (English & Spanish) site.
Categories include Asian, Balloon, Balls, Blackletter, Broken, Brush Stroke,
Chisled,
Computer, Crazy, Decorative, Dingbats, Handwritten, Historical, Outline, Runic, Sans
Serif, Scary, Script, Slant, Star Trek, Stencil, Typewriter, Uncial and Western.
TrueType
Font Library -
Excellent German site offering freeware fonts. Here, you'll find lots of
TrueType fonts for use in your graphics, DTP and word processing tasks. All Font Samples
are 22 points in size. There are standard, design and symbol fonts here.
Font Mania -
This is one
classy free font site. I almost expected there to be valet parking here! Font Mania offers
over 400 free Windows TrueType fonts, conveniently organized. There's a "Top 10"
listing and an archive of past favorites. A nice collection, with many fonts that we've
not seen elsewhere. This site offers a message board for you to place requests on. There's
also helpful tips and tricks on using fonts.
BigFont -
This is a good
resource for free fonts. There's a "font of the day," as well as an extensive
font archive.
Kemosabe's Font
Source -
This site offers a nice roundup of free TrueType fonts for Windows and Macs.
Each font has a full character set, with no missing letters. Each preview has been
"carefully anti-aliased for your viewing pleasure."
KatGyrlr's Fontain of
Youth -
A freeware and
shareware font site that includes many cool and unusual fonts. Nothing ordinary here.
Fonts are available in ZIP format for quicker downloading. Installation instructions
available.
Free
Musical Fonts -
Matthew
Hindson's site offers free music notation fonts, such as tablature clefs and metronome
markings. For Windows and Macs.
Free TrueType Fonts for
the Web - Free fonts for both
the Mac and Windows at this Microsoft site. Lots of goodies here.
Free
Font Fiesta -
Do you tire
easily of the installed fonts on your computer and yearn to see your words displayed with
little feet attached to them or blood dripping off the serifs or as if they have been
carved out of hunks of pungent Swiss cheese? If so, click over to this site. A free font
to download each week and a very complete link list brought to you by Mary Forrest,
"Fontmonger to the Masses."
David and Alex's
Font World -
Plenty of
eye-catching TrueType fonts here, with instructions on how to use them.
Looking for Fonts -
Lots of free original Windows TrueType
format fonts here. You may download these fonts and do whatever you'd like to with them
"as long as you don't make money out of using them." The fonts may be
redistributed as long as the text file in the ZIP file is distributed with the font.
Windows 95 Font Smoother -
Great, free utility that previously was
available only with the commercial Microsoft Plus! package. This program makes text easier
to read and more pleasant to look at. Note: This utility will only work on machines
capable of, and set to, 16bit (HiColor) color display modes or higher.
II. Saving Fonts
Once you have located a font you like, click on it. You will
need to choose the option "Save to disk." After the download is complete,
locate the file with either File Manager (Windows 3.1) or Windows Explorer (Windows
95). The file will be "zipped." You will need to run the WinZip program
in order to be able to use the file.
III. Placing the Fonts in Windows
Move the unzipped file to C:/Windows/System (for Windows
3.1) or C:/Windows/Fonts (for Windows 95). Next, open the Windows/Fonts folder and
click on the name of the font you just added in order to initialize it. Your new font
should be ready to go!
If you are using Windows 3.1, go to the control panel, select
fonts, then click on add, you will get a directory box. Change the directory box to
Windows/system. Wait until it brings up all the names of the fonts; click on the name of
the font you want to add, then click ok. That's it! It's really easy to add new
fonts!
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