Inspiration
The premier tool to develop ideas and organize thinking
Powered by the proven techniques of visual learning, Inspiration® supports improved achievement for students grade 6 to adult. Inspiration strengthens critical thinking, comprehension, and writing across the curriculum, in language arts, science, social studies and anytime your students need to structure research or other thought processes.
Inspiration's integrated diagramming and outlining environments work together to help students comprehend concepts and information. Educators use Inspiration to customize instruction, achieve standards, assess student progress, and energize learning.
Use Inspiration across the curriculum for:
- Brainstorming
- Webbing
- Diagramming
- Planning
- Critical thinking
- Concept mapping
- Organizing
- Outlining
Inspire Students to Develop Ideas and Organize Thinking
Inspiration®'s integrated diagramming and outlining views work together to help students comprehend concepts and information. Below you'll see a general product overview and specific Version 7 features.
Diagram to outline with one click
In the Diagram View, students easily create and use concept maps, webs, and other graphic organizers. With the integrated Outline View, students instantly transform their thoughts into the foundation of written projects. The result is clearer thinking, more creative projects, better organized writing, and improved student performance.
In the Diagram View you can
- Capture ideas as quickly as you think with the RapidFire® tool.
- Add as little or as much text as you want — symbols grow automatically to record your thoughts.
- Illustrate ideas and convey meanings by inserting symbols from the web or other applications using the insert graphic, drag & drop, or copy & paste functions.
- Show relationships between ideas with the Link tool.
- Explain relationships between ideas by adding text directly on the links.
- Rearrange symbols by dragging without breaking links.
- Differentiate among ideas with colors, shapes, patterns, shadows, fonts and styles.
- Bring writing power with visually integrated notes.
- Explore multiple main ideas simultaneously.
Transform a diagram into an outline instantly!
With the simple click of your mouse, you can transform an Inspiration diagram into a traditional hierarchical outline. In the powerful Outline View, students can quickly prioritize and rearrange ideas, helping them create clear, concise essays, reports and more.
Use the Outline View to
- Organize topics by dragging — subtopics move automatically.
- Plan projects and track ideas using the Checklist feature. Simply mark off completed items in either the Diagram or Outline View.
- Develop topics into a written report using notes text.
- Export your outline to popular word processing or presentation programs.
Toolbars make using Inspiration intuitive!
Diagram Toolbar
Outline Toolbar
Formatting Toolbar
Major Inspiration functions are at your fingertips with our smart toolbars. No need to memorize keyboard shortcuts or search through menu items to find features — just click on the toolbar and keep working! If you do have a question or problem, our fully indexed and searchable help system provides answers to all your Inspiration questions.
One click to word processing
Inspiration's NEW one-click transfer instantly moves students' work to their favorite word processor. After working in Inspiration to brainstorm, organize, and outline, students then use Microsoft® Word® or AppleWorks® to finish the writing process and prepare their paper for publication.
Simplified template integration
Inspiration sparks teacher creativity with inspiring new ways to design and use templates . . . the fastest way to introduce visual learning and Inspiration to students in all subjects, including language arts, science, and social studies.
- Template Wizard - Create customized visual learning activities! The Template Wizard gives teachers step-by-step help for designing templates to support any curriculum area.
- Flexible template access - Use and share templates with ease! Templates can be stored and launched from any location, making them readily available for students and teachers.
- 60+ templates - Quickly integrate visual learning into your classroom! A wealth of ideas from across the curriculum inspires students and teachers to plan, organize, and create.
Symbols at your fingertips
Inspiration contains over 1,300 colorful, high-resolution symbols, including several hundred photographic quality images and animated symbols. Students just scroll through the floating symbol palette to find exactly the right shape to express their thoughts. And, if you want to customize your work, you can apply new colors to an existing symbol or import images from other applications and the Internet.
Inspiration Software has the Inspiration symbol guide in Adobe's PDF format. You'll need the Acrobat Reader to read it.
Audio supports multiple learning styles
Students can hear work read aloud or record their own words, adding a new dimension to their projects. A talking interface increases accessibility for all learners.
Direct connection to the Internet
You can set up live hyperlinks in Inspiration and tie the immense resources of the Internet into your diagrams and outlines. Just type in a web address and Inspiration automatically creates a hyperlink. You can also create web pages with URL hyperlinks through the HTML export function, and drag & drop JPEG and GIF images into Inspiration diagrams straight from the web!
Gather and present information from multiple sources, including documents created in Inspiration or any other application, by hyperlinking to any file.
Web site planning made easy
Build the bones of a new web site with the Site Skeleton® export. Each symbol becomes a separate web page, complete with appropriate hyperlinks. Inspiration even creates a site map for you.
What's new in Inspiration 7
Inspiration® 7 takes visual learning to a higher level, supporting critical thinking, comprehension, and writing in all curriculum areas. Retaining the core Inspiration functions, Inspiration 7 introduces significant new capabilities to improve the visual learning experience for students and teachers.
Inspiration's NEW one-click transfer instantly moves students' work to their favorite word processor. After working in Inspiration to brainstorm, organize, and outline, students then use Microsoft® Word® or AppleWorks® to finish the writing process and prepare their paper for publication.
Inspiration 7 energizes the visual learning experience in many key areas:
Inspiring new thinking tools
Inspiration 7 gives students and educators broader and deeper ways to explore, organize, and develop ideas.
- Visually integrated notes
- Writing power comes to diagrams! Now students can start their writing process within the visual environment. By adding notes right in their diagrams, students can document research, describe content, and add detailed information to projects.
- Enhanced hyperlinking
- Information from multiple sources is now easier to gather, manage, and present. Students can tie research and other resources into projects with hyperlinks to all types of files.
- Audio capabilities
- Tap into multiple learning styles! Students can hear work read aloud or record their own words, adding a new dimension to their projects. A talking interface increases accessibility for all learners.
- Multiple main ideas
- Brainstorm with no limitations. Students can freely explore multiple ideas simultaneously as they brainstorm, analyze, and organize their thoughts.
- New Spring update!
- Inspiration's one-click transfer instantly moves students' work to their favorite word processor. After working in Inspiration to brainstorm, organize, and outline, students then use Microsoft® Word® or AppleWorks® to finish their paper for publication.
Inviting, intuitive interface
Inspiration 7 introduces a new interface that is friendly, inviting, and open.
- Quick Controls
- Manage information efficiently. Students control project notes, subtopics, and recordings with a click of the mouse.
- Formatting toolbar
- Instantly change colors, fonts, and styling. Handy, accessible formatting options invite students to quickly and conveniently express ideas and organize projects. It's a more natural, more inspired way to work.
- Multiple level undo
- Explore new ideas confidently. Students freely change information and add ideas, secure in the knowledge that undo and redo options are readily available.
- Improved Outline View
- Jump into easy, efficient outlining! Students effortlessly organize, prioritize, and manipulate information in Inspiration's enhanced Outline View.
Simplified template integration
Inspiration 7 sparks teacher creativity with inspiring new ways to design and use templates . . . the fastest way to introduce visual learning and Inspiration to students in all subjects, including language arts, science, and social studies.
- Template Wizard
- Create customized visual learning activities! The Template Wizard gives teachers step-by-step help for designing templates to support any curriculum area.
- Flexible template access
- Use and share templates with ease! Templates can be stored and launched from any location, making them readily available for students and teachers.
- 60+ templates
- Quickly integrate visual learning into your classroom! A wealth of ideas from across the curriculum inspires students and teachers to plan, organize, and create.
Rapid web site creation
Inspiration bridges the gap between students' early ideas and successful web projects.
- Site Skeleton® export
- Build the bones of a new web site. Students develop and organize their site concepts, then use the Site Skeleton export to instantly transform their work into HTML.
- HTML export options
- Share your diagrams and outlines. Quickly convert Inspiration projects into web content with newly redesigned HTML export options.
Improved operational support
Inspiration 7 integrates seamlessly into the education computing environment.
- Inspiration 6 and Kidspiration® compatibility
- Support for multiple versions! Students can access and share any Inspiration Software document, whether created in Inspiration 6 or Inspiration 7 … or even Kidspiration.
- Mac® OS X compatible
- Update your Inspiration! Inspiration 7 supports OS X, the latest operating system for the Macintosh®.
- Multi-user support
- Adapt and customize to match your needs! Students and teachers can easily create their own personal Inspiration preferences without altering network administrator settings.
Page Last Updated: Saturday, February 09, 2008
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