Tried It Tuesday JULY (Creating Editable Documents for TPT)!!

Welcome to Tried It Tuesday!  
I have to say that last Tuesday it felt so strange to not host Tried It Tuesday!
However, I am enjoying a little "time off".  This will be the only Tried It Tuesday link up for July but it will be open for you to link up until the next Tried It Tuesday planned for August 6th!
In August Tried It Tuesday will be back to weekly. :)
I would love if you linked up anything you have "TRIED" (new or old, school or personal...anything goes!).  Even if you don't link up, check out all the ideas linked up this month when you get a chance.  There are SO many creative bloggers and I can barely keep track of all the new ideas linked up!

If you are new to Tried It Tuesday, read more about it here.

My Tried It:

Creating Editable Documents for TPT
I am linking this post to the amazing blogger's TPT tips post by Erica Bohrer here in the hopes that it will reach more people and be even more helpful!

I was ecstatic to read this post by my BBB, Jivey, on making editable documents in Power Point for TPT while still keeping any clipart "locked".  Genius, I tell ya!
Jivey has a TON of techy tips on her blog, Ideas By Jivey and they are so easy to find when you click on the page "Techy Tips" in the header.
I was able to use Jivey's tutorial and figured out the differences for a Mac (Jivey is a PC gal and I'm a Mac gal:).  So, I asked her if she cared if I made a tutorial for the Mac Version.  Of course, she said she didn't mind (Can you see why I adore her?!?).  We both just love to share as much as we can and help out fellow teachers!  Don't we all? :)
Even if we are not on the same page for our choice in computers, we are on the same page in the sharing department :)

Here are the steps I took to make my APPR Binder Dividers and Organizers for the Danielson and TED rubrics editable (this was LONG overdue and please re-download if you are a buyer!).

First, open your Power Point document (yep, I create all my documents in PPT and highly recommend it!) and delete all the text boxes that you want to be editable.  Don't save over your original file with the text boxes, but go to file and save as pictures.
You can save it as a separate PPT file too if you want.

Once you have your files "saved as pictures", create a new Power Point and rename it with something that tells you this is the editable JPEG version (I mistakenly typed JPED here:).

Next, start importing your JPEG images by making them the slide backgrounds of each individual slide.  This leaves the wonderful clipart in place but buyers cannot click on the clipart and copy it or accidentally move it.  The only thing they will be able to click on are the text boxes you will add later that they can edit!

 Go to Format and Slide Background.

 Select "Fill" and "Picture" in the choice options.
Then, you will get a choice to "Choose a Picture".  Click on that.

 A window will open for you to choose your picture.  Go to the folder where you saved the PPT as pictures and select the slide JPEG image to use as your background.

 Select your picture and "Insert".

 You will be back at this screen and then click, "Apply".  Do not click "apply to all".

 When you are ready to start adding the text boxes back, you can have two Power Points open at a time and go back and forth copying the text boxes from the original PPT and then pasting them into the new PPT with the slide backgrounds as JPEGs.  If you look closely at this screen shot, you can see both of my Power Points open and I will click back and forth between them.
Once the text box is pasted on top of the JPEG, only that part of the page will be editable!

 Once you are all done, you can save the original Power Point as a PDF for buyers who want a PDF and don't need an editable version.  Make the PDF secure on a Mac by first selecting "File...Print"!
You will see this screen appear:

 Select the drop down arrow by PDF and select "Save as PDF..."  See the blue selection below.

 This screen will appear next and click "Security Options".

 Click the box that says, "Require password to copy text, images, and other content" and type your password and then verify it one more time.  Click "OK".

 If you would like to include both the PDF version and editable version with JPEGs, place the two files in a folder as shown here.

Here is the folder on my desktop.

 To convert to one file with both versions included in order to add the file to TPT, select the file on your desktop.  Go to file and "Compress".

 Your folder will be automatically converted to a zip file that you can now select for your TPT file!  Buyers will download the zip file and it will convert to two files (one PDF and one PPT with editable text boxes!).

I hope this tutorial can help another Mac user make their products editable. :) 

Thanks for reading!  

Tried It Tuesday will be back weekly in August!!

Don't forget to enter my blogiversary/birthday giveaway by 

July 11th for a $50 gift card or the scavenger hunt hosted by I'm Lovin' Lit where everyone wins!

Tried It Tuesday (PowerPoint: Making Products the Easy Way!)

It's Tuesday and you know what that means! Another Tried It Tuesday!!
I am loving all the ideas linked up each week by everyone.
No idea is too small.
You know the sayings, "I learn something new each day" or "Why didn't I think of that?"
This linky has me thinking saying the above MANY times each week.
Like, literally, until I think my head may explode!
Thank goodness for Pinterest!

What is Tried It Tuesday?  Read more about it here.

<center> <a href="http://fourthgradeflipper.blogspot.com/"><img src=" http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/04fallingstar/3AM%20Blog%20Design/3am_triedittuesday_3_zpsd7a240d4.png" width=225 height=225 border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a></center> Awesome linky button above designed by the talented Michelle at The 3am Teacher! My Tried It: PowerPoint If I had to name ONE change I made in the last year that made the most difference (with the exception of starting a blog), it would be using PowerPoint to create products and resources for my class!  Disclaimer: I have only been using PowerPoint to create resources for about 8 months.  I am by no means an expert but keep reading if you could use a few BASIC tips:))

WOW!!  I can't even imagine my life before using PowerPoint for creating basically all my worksheets and resources!  I always used PowerPoint for, well, creating PowerPoints.  Which wasn't very often.   I was a Microsoft Word fanatic.   I knew all the tricks to manipulate pictures in Word except that it still didn't work that well!   My worksheets were pretty plain with a little graphic here or there.  Nothing too exciting.   When I started exploring the blogging world, I kept reading about teachers using Power Point to create products and thought I should give it a try. I'm so glad I did!!! I know that many of my readers already know about the miracles of powerpoint, but I thought there has to be some readers out there stuck in Microsoft Word Land like I was:) What is so great about powerpoint? 1.  Ease of Inserting and Manipulating Clip Art I use only png images when I can (jpeg often leaves the white space around the image).  It is super easy to insert pictures in powerpoint AND you don't need to worry about moving the image "to the back".  If you want a different image to appear on top, I just copy, cut, and repaste the image!   The images appear in the order you place them in the document. Also, there are these handy lines that line up images as you move them.  It is genius, I tell ya!

2.  Save your Power Point as Pictures When you save your power point as pictures, you can insert each slide easily into a new document as a picture for preview files on all your teacher's products!  How easy is that?

Once you save as images, you can insert the images into a new document to create a preview display.  

(Note: The screenshots below are taken on my Mac by pressing the shift+command+4 key at the same time.  Drag the little ball to surround your image and release.  The image is saved as a screenshot on your desktop automatically).

Add a border to each image to separate the pages by formatting the "object".  

This makes each page on the preview stand out as its own page.

 

One problem I have with PowerPoint is you cannot change the page orientation within the document (it would stay all horizontal or all vertical pages).  However I found THIS POST by Erica Bohrer's First Grade that describes how to merge PDF files with different page orientations!  

I haven't tried that yet but have it bookmarked for the future!

Here are the finished preview pages of two new centers on multiplying fractions by whole numbers!

Remember I said yesterday in my Monday Made It post that I would like to give away two of these sets?  I would like to try a "Pin It to Win It" (another first for me!).  Just leave me a comment with your pin URL of my new product and I will choose two winners by random number generator later tonight! Make sure I have access to your email:)

The WINNERS are:

Check your emails Ursula and I'm Lovin Lit!

What Tried Its have you tried lately?