How to Fix Activinspire Text Box Issues: Tips for Ensuring Your Flipchart Looks Perfect Every Time

How to Fix Activinspire Text Boxes

Don’t you hate it when you’ve built the perfect flipchart for your class at home or in the office, but when you go to teach, all the text is messed up? This happened to a colleague of mine this week. On her laptop, the welcome page for her flipchart said “Hello” in big letters, but when she opened it in the classroom, it displayed only the first four letters “Hell.” Not a good message for the start of class.

Why Does This Happen?

There are a couple of reasons why this happens:

1. Your computer and the classroom computer don’t have the same fonts.
2. The text box may be too small, causing upscaling issues and misalignment when you show it on a different display or use it in the classroom.

How to Fix It?

To fix this issue, both computers need to have the same font installed. If they don’t, the computer opening the file will try to find a font that matches or display the standard font for the operating system.

There are a couple of ways to fix this:

1. Make sure both computers are using the same fonts.
2. Convert your text into PNG files.

Make Sure Both Computers Are Using the Same Fonts.

This one isn’t as easy as it sounds. Sometimes, we don’t have access to the target computer before it’s time to go live. If you do, you can do a couple of things:

1. Build the flipchart on the computer you will use it on.
2. If your computer doesn’t have those fonts, try to download and install them before you create the flipchart.
3. Look at the fonts in Activinspire on the target computer and make a list. Use fonts that both computers have.

Convert Your Text to an Image

In the past, I have made materials that were to be used in different schools and by different teachers. I had no idea what the target computer would be. To get around the problem of having the text boxes being a message, I would make each piece of text into an image.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Write down all the text you want to use in your flipchart and have it ready before you create the image.
2. Use image editing software like Photoshop. Create your text boxes there. Make the text look and feel the way you want it.
3. Export it as a PNG or JPEG. PNG is best as it will let you resize within reason.
4. Add that to your flipchart where you wanted the text.