CAITs' Corner

Dan Mooney - Gisèle Winger - Ric Woltz c eTeacher 3 If you are like many teachers, over the first few years using eTeacher, you have accumulated a large number of comments, some are very good, some not so good, some that you may never need again, and in many cases, you have all three terms mixed together. This many comments can become unwieldy when you are trying to flag students. Last month, we explained how to export and import your libraries. In the next few sections, you will learn how you can easily customize these saved libraries, to save yourself both time and aggravation. Customizing Your Comment Library After entering eTeacher3, go to Report and choose Comment Builder. From the Comment Builder click Manage Library (at the top). The most common, and most functional way to save your comments is by term. Some teachers have saved their libraries by subject, but that means exporting and importing libraries several times each term, and that can be too time consuming. Click on the red label for your library. Since you have exported your comments as a library, we can safely clear the My Comments panel on the left. Click on the small garbage can below your My Comment pane. Once the My Comments section is blank, we will move the appropriate comments over. Only those statements in this pane are available when you flag students. You can edit these comments at any time after they are moved to this side. Click on a term 1 comment in your library on the right side. Your comment will appear in the turquoise box, so you can make sure it is a comment you want to use. Click on the small black triangle at the end of the line, and that comment will move to the My Comments window. Unfortunately, there is no way at this time to highlight more than one comment on the right, so you simply repeat the process for every comment you wish to move over. As is characteristic of eTeacher, your list will always revert to the top after you transfer a statement. After the term ends and your reports are finished, edited and sent home, export these comments as Term 1. At your leisure, you can clear the My Comments window again, and transfer your second term comments over.  eTeacher3: Saving Your New Library After entering eTeacher3 go to Report and choose Comment Builder. From the Comment Builder click Export Library (at the top). In most cases you will want to include all of your comments and statements in this library. However if you wish to create a library consisting of only some of your comments and statements click the appropriate buttons. Fill in the relevant Library Details (i.e. Your name and Term 1) Click the Save As button at the bottom. The next box to be displayed requires you to indicate the type of file, the file name and the location on the computer you wish to save the tab file. Click on the small black triangle at the end of the Save In: line and a menu will pop up. Select Desktop with your mouse. Release your mouse button when Desktop is highlighted Type the name of your tab file in the small box below the words Save as:. Name it lastnamelibrary.tab to indicate that this is your library file (i.e., smithlibrary.tab or smithlibrary). Select Tab (Tab-Separated Text) in the Save of Type area by using the same technique you used for selecting the Desktop. Click Save. Windows: eTeacher 3 Importing Your Library Open eTeacher3 Runtime. Click the Login button and enter the password. Enter the Comment Builder in the Report section Click the Manage Library tab at the top. Click the Import Library button on the bottom. A box will appear requiring you to locate the comment library tab file. The next box to be displayed is the Open File box. Click on the small black triangle at the end of the Look In: box and a menu will pop up. If you have saved your library tab file on the Desktop choose Desktop. If you have saved it in another location choose that location in the Look In box. Choose All Available in the Files of type section at the bottom. Locate the file that contains your saved comment library and click once on it once to highlight it. If you followed the directions for saving your comment library in eTeacher2 the file will likely be named lastnamelibrary.tab or simply lastnamelibrary (i.e., smithlibrary.tab or smithlibrary). With the correct file highlighted click the Open button. The process of importing the comment library will begin. When this process is complete a new button with your library name will appear in an appropriate box.   Macintosh: eTeacher 3 Importing Your Library Open eTeacher 3 Runtime. Click the Login button and enter the password. Enter the Comment Builder in the Report section Click the Manage Library Tab at the top. Click the Import Library button on the bottom. A box will appear requiring you to locate the comment library tab file. The area near the bottom and to the left of the words Show: should say All Available. Make this change if necessary. Locate the file that contains your saved comment library and click once on it once to highlight it. If you followed the directions for saving a comment library in eTeacher 2 the file will probably be named lastnamelibrary.tab. With the correct file highlighted click the Open button. The process of importing the comment library will begin. When this process is complete a new button with your library name will appear in an appropriate box.   Customizing a Library | Windows Saving Your New Library | Windows Import | Macintosh Import | Home 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 next