Using
Inspiration
6.0
Office of Instructional Technology
Use Inspiration to create
webs, concept maps and
diagrams of ideas. The
possibilities are endless. Get
Inspired!
Find it on the web at
http://www.inspiration.com
Before using Inspiration, it must be installed on a
computer with at least 20 megabytes of available hard
drive space. It requires at least 8 megabytes of RAM to
run properly. Inspiration is compatible with both
Macintosh and Windows systems. Contact the school’s
technology liaison to insure installation is licensed. Any
other installations are illegal.
Revised August, 2001
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Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Instructional Technology: Using Inspiration 6.0
March 2003
Using Inspiration 6.0 (Windows)
Inspiration is a powerful multimedia learning tool that allows students to develop ideas
and organize thinking by creating webs, concept maps, and diagrams. Students can move
back and forth between graphic organizers and traditional outlines. Templates are
included that provide basic frameworks for writing, designing webs, and publishing
reports. Teachers can design webs, outlines, Venn diagrams, and progress reports.
In this tutorial, a graphic organizer will be created to show the author, title, main
characters, setting and important events in a story.
Opening Inspiration
1. Double-click the Inspiration icon to open the Inspiration application.
2. If the words “Tip of the Day” appear, choose the Close button.
3. Inspiration opens in a Basic Template with one highlighted symbol, the Main
Idea symbol, in the center of the window.
This is the Basic
Template in
Inspiration.
Symbol Palette:
If this is not visible,
go to the View
menu and select
Symbol Palette
Menu Bar
Toolbar
Main Idea
symbol
4. In the Main Idea symbol, type the title of the story or novel. The highlighted
words "Main Idea" will be replaced by the title of the story being described
Adding Related Symbols
5. Click on the shaded edge of the Main Idea symbol to select it.
Red “handles” will surround it:
6. Find the two Create buttons in the Toolbar at the top of the screen:
Notice the four arrows on each button. Clicking on an arrow
creates a new symbol headed in the direction of the arrow.
7. Click one of the arrows on a Create button to make a new symbol that
is linked to the title (Main Idea) symbol. Type “Setting.”
Link
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Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Instructional Technology: Using Inspiration 6.0
March 2003
Notice that the link appears as an arrow between the two symbols.
8. Click the Setting symbol to select it. Click on the Create button to make a new
symbol that links to the Setting symbol. In this symbol, type details about the
setting of the story.
9. Click on the Main Idea symbol that now contains the title of the story.
10. Using the Create buttons, click on another arrow to create a new symbol.
11. Type Characters in the new symbol.
12. Use the Create buttons to make a new symbol that is linked to the Characters
symbol. In the new symbol, type the names of the main characters in the story.
13. Repeat steps 9 and 10 as many times as necessary to add new symbols for each of
the following:
Major Story Events
Main Problem
Resolution
14. Use the Create buttons to add one or more symbols to each of the story elements
just created. Type in the story details. (Note: It is best to write only one sentence
or phrase per symbol.)
15. If a mistake is made, select Undo from the Edit menu in the Menu Bar, OR select
the error by clicking on it and click the Delete or Backspace key.
Re-Arranging the Story Map
By now, the graphic organizer may look a bit jumbled.
To arrange the organizer into an easy-to-read tree:
16. Click on the Arrange
button in the toolbar at the
top of the screen.
17. Choose Right Tree in the top frame of the window
that appears. Click the OK button.
Now the story map is easy to read and contains all the
necessary story elements.
Changing the Look or Shape of the Symbols
To change the look or shape of some of the symbols:
18. Select many symbols at one time by Shift-Clicking:
hold the Shift key on the keyboard and click once on
the following symbols: Setting, Characters, Major
Story Events, Main Problem, and Resolution.
19. Release the Shift key and notice that these symbols
now have square red “handles” surrounding them.
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Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Instructional Technology: Using Inspiration 6.0
March 2003
20. Look at the Symbol Palette located on the left side of the Inspiration window.
(Note: If the Symbol Palette does not appear, go up to the View menu and select
Symbol Palette.) Inspiration comes with many symbol libraries, which can be
accessed using the triangle buttons at the top of the Symbol Palette:
Symbol Palette
Clicking on the Right or Left
triangles will move sequentially
through each symbol library.
Clicking on the Down
triangle at the top of the
Symbol Palette will
display a list of all
available symbol libraries.
Some symbols are
animated.
To change a symbol:
Select any symbol from the screen. Click
on a different symbol in the Symbol
Palette. The selected symbol will change
to the new one.
21. Find the diamond symbol from the Basic symbol library.
Click on it, and the selected symbols in the story map will
instantly change to the diamond shape.
22. Click on any empty white space in the Inspiration window.
The symbols will no longer be highlighted.
Viewing as an Outline
Inspiration presents ideas as a graphic organizer (Diagram view) and as an outline
(Outline view).
To view the story map as an outline:
23. Move from the Diagram View to the
Outline View by clicking the Outline
button in the toolbar at the top of the
screen in the
Diagram View.
It is possible to add information while in
the Outline View by clicking on the Add
Topic button and typing the new information. New information added in the
Outline View will appear in new symbols upon return to the Diagram View.
24. To switch back to Diagram view, click the Diagram button on the top left corner
of the toolbar.
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Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Instructional Technology: Using Inspiration 6.0
March 2003
Printing an Inspiration Document
To print an Inspiration document it is convenient to make the entire document on one
page.
25. From the File Menu, choose Print Options.
26. In the Print Options dialog box, select Fit to 1
Page. (Note: in Inspiration 6, this is the default
setting)
27. Click OK.
28. Choose Print from the File Menu to print a
hard copy of the diagram or outline.
If the printed diagram should be black and white,
with no shading where color exists, there must be a
check beside “Print Without Greyscale”.
Saving an Inspiration Document
29. To save a document, choose Save As from the File menu.
30. In the Save in box, click the downward-facing arrow and choose a location from
the scrolling list.
31. Type a name for the file in the File name box.
32. Click the Save button. (Information from both Diagram and Outline views, as
well as any Notes, will be saved.)
Exploring Other Features
 Spell Check: Inspiration has a Spell Check feature on the Toolbar in both
the Diagram and Outline Views. The Spell Check feature allows a spell
check of the text in all symbols. To test this feature, click on one of the
symbols and misspell a word. Now click on the Spell Check button again.
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Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Instructional Technology: Using Inspiration 6.0
March 2003
 Live Hyperlinks: An Internet address (URL) in an Inspiration organizer or outline
will open that site on an internet-enabled computer. To create a hyperlink:
1.
2.
3.
4.
In the Diagram View, click in a white space away from story map.
Click a Create button arrow to make a new symbol.
In this new symbol, type www.inspiration.com.
Click in a white space away from the new symbol. This will turn the text
into a hyperlink.
5. Now click on the hyperlink. On a computer with Internet access, the
Internet browser will open to the Inspiration website.
Note: If clicking on a hyperlink does not connect to the Internet, make sure the
appropriate properties in Inspiration are active. Go to the File menu and select
Application Properties. Both URL Hyperlink Auto-detection and Live
Hyperlinks must be checked.
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Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Instructional Technology: Using Inspiration 6.0
March 2003
Tips on Using Inspiration 6.0
Getting Help
Selecting Inspiration Help from the Help menu brings up
this screen.
Information is grouped by topic and subtopic under the
Contents tab. Double-clicking on a topic will reveal a
cascading menu of subtopics.
Subtopics
To search for a specific topic, click on the Index tab. Then
enter a keyword.
Online help is also available through this menu. From the Help menu, select Help on the
Web.
Rapid Fire
Rapid Fire is an excellent tool to use when brainstorming. If there are several topics to go
with a main idea or several subtopics to go with a topic, use the RapidFire button to
enter information quickly. Select the symbol that needs to have links created from it, click
on the Rapid-Fire button, and let the brainstorming begin. Here is how to begin a new
web for brainstorming:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Open Inspiration.
In the Main Idea symbol, type “Geometric Shapes”.
Click on the RapidFire button located on the Toolbar.
Notice that a lightning flash appears after the words
“Geometric Shapes” in the selected symbol.
Type “Square”.
Press Enter. Within a second or two after the Enter
key is pressed, the new entry will appear in a linked
symbol.
Continue typing the entries “Circle”, “Triangle”, and
“Rectangle”, pressing Enter after each word.
When finished, de-select the Rapid-Fire feature by
clicking away from the selected object or by clicking
the RapidFire button.
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Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Instructional Technology: Using Inspiration 6.0
March 2003
Adding Unrelated Items
To add information that is important but unrelated to the topics shown, click on an open
white space in the window and begin to type the information. As the text appears on the
screen, Inspiration will automatically surround the text with a new symbol, but the
symbol will not be linked to any others already in place.
Add links later to connect the new symbols to the rest of the diagram. Linking to any
symbol is simple.
1. Click on the Link button on the Toolbar at the top of the window.
2. Click once on the symbol from which a link is needed.
3. Click once on the symbol to which the link is needed. A new link will
appear as an arrow between the two symbols.
Moving Links
Occasionally, a link is incorrectly placed or needs to be redirected.
To move or change a link:
1. Click on an existing link (an arrow between two symbols).
2. Press the Delete key on the keyboard to eliminate the link.
3. To re-link to a symbol, click once on the Link button in the
Diagram toolbar.
4. Click on the symbol from which the link should extend.
5. Click on the symbol where the link should end. A new link
will appear where the items are located on the screen.
Link Direction Changed
Adding an Explanation to a Link
Each time a link is created, a text box will appear on the link arrow when it
is selected. Add text to describe the link connection.
Zoom Control
Use this feature to re-size the screen. This has no effect on the final
printed copy, but it allows for full view or close-up of the screen.
Click the Zoom boxes at the bottom left corner of the screen to
change screen size.
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Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Instructional Technology: Using Inspiration 6.0
March 2003
Exporting Inspiration
An Inspiration outline can be exported to another program. For example, an outline can
be exported to create the basic slides for a slideshow in the Microsoft PowerPoint
program. Follow these steps to move the Inspiration diagram or outline into PowerPoint.
1. Select the Outline View of the Inspiration story map.
2. Go to the File menu and select Export.
3. Choose "Microsoft PowerPoint RTF" format and
click on the Save button.
4. Open PowerPoint.
5. Select Open an existing presentation. On the next
window that appears, click on More Files…, and click OK.
6. In the Open window, select All Files for file
type.
7. Navigate to the RTF file and click Open.
8. The complete outline will appear with slides
created for the main points and bullets for the
subtopics.
Diagram View Tool Bar
Tool Icon
What Tool Does
Switches to Outline view.
Use this to change symbols to a uniform look.
1. Select the symbol or link that has the preferred look.
2. Click the New Look button.
3. Press a directional arrow on one of the Create buttons. A new symbol
will appear with the chosen “look.”
Use this button to add more detail than is contained on a symbol.
1. Select the symbol to which a note will be added.
2. Click the Add Note button.
3. A separate window opens for typing notes.
4. Click the Close box to close the note.
To see if a note is attached, click once on the symbol. If there is a red
square in the top left corner, a note is attached.
This button allows the screen to be re-positioned at will.
1. Click this button once.
2. Point, click and drag the mouse on any area of the screen. The entire
diagram will move accordingly.
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Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Instructional Technology: Using Inspiration 6.0
March 2003
Tool Icon
What Tool Does
Use this button to set the appearance of the printed diagram. Change the
way the diagram cascades.
Use this button to check the spelling in a selection or entire document.
Outline View Tool Bar
Tool Icon
Tool Name
Diagram
Add Topic
Add Sub
Add Note
What Tool Does
Switches to Diagram View
Adds a topic below and at the same level as the selected
topic
Adds subtopics below and one level to the right of the
selected topic
Moves the cursor into the Notes text area for the selected
topic
Left
Moves a topic and its subtopics to the left by one level
Right
Moves a topic and its subtopics to the right one level
+- Sub
Hides or shows the subtopics for the selected topic
+- Note
Hides or shows notes text for the selected topic
Prefix
Allows changing of the prefix levels for the outline
Spell
Check
Checks the spelling in a selection or entire document.
Draw Tool Bar
Tool Icon
Tool Name
What Tool Does
Selection
Turns off a tool and returns the cursor to a pointer
Freeform
Line
Draws freeform lines
Line
Draws lines. Hold the shift key to make the lines
straight.
Oval
Draws ovals. Hold the shift key to make perfect circles.
Polygon
Rectangle
Draws polygons (many-sided figures.)
Draws rectangles. Hold the shift key to create perfect
squares.
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Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Instructional Technology: Using Inspiration 6.0
March 2003
Tool Icon
Tool Name
Rounded
Rectangle
Text Box
What Tool Does
Draws rectangles with rounded corners. Hold the shift
key to create perfect rounded squares.
Draws a text box
Nudge Left,
Right, Up
and Down
Moves a symbol or drawn object one pixel at a time in
the direction chosen.
Fill Color
Changes the fill color of the selected symbols or draw
objects.
Text Color
Changes the text color of the selected symbols or links.
Line color
Changes the line color of the selected symbols, links or
draw objects.
Symbol
Color
Changes the colors in selected multi-color symbols
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Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Instructional Technology: Using Inspiration 6.0
March 2003
Using Inspiration Templates to Make Curriculum Connections
Templates are ready-made diagrams that contain the format for commonly used
organizers. Inspiration Templates are unique because they have been specifically
designed for teacher and student use. Templates can be used directly from Inspiration or
can be adapted to fit a specific curriculum activity. Newly created Templates can be
saved as a new Template. Teachers should become familiar with the Basic Template and
then explore the other available templates.
To open and use a Template:
1. Open Inspiration. If the “Tip of the Day” appears, click the Close button. The
Basic Template will be on the screen.
2. Choose Template from the File menu in the Menu Bar.
3. Select a Template from the list and click the Open button.
4. To remove directions “How to use the template” click on it to select it. A text
box will appear. Press Delete.
5. To remove the text in a symbol, double-click inside the symbol to see a flashing
cursor.
6. Press Delete or begin typing new text inside the symbol.
These suggestions can be adapted for Secondary and Elementary settings.
Curricular Area
Suggestion
Art: Compare and contrast different styles Template: Thinking – Venn Diagram
of art.
Any content area: Vocabulary
Template: Language Arts - Vocabulary
Any content area: Illustrate the sequential Template: Basic
order of any topic.
Any content area: Indicators
Template: Language Arts-Comparison
Web or Social Studies-Cause and Effect
 Identify cause and effect
 Compare and contrast events or
circumstances
Any content area: Preview and review
Template: Teacher – KWHL Strategy
unit information
Any content area: Project Planning
Template: Teacher – Goal Setting
Career and Technology Education:
Template: Basic. To create diagrams of
Identify technical procedures
procedures.
English: Autobiography
Template: Basic. To create a timeline.
English: The writing process, to select a
Template: Basic. To create a diagram with
topic, identify a sequence and add
labeled links as transitions.
transitions
English/ Social Studies: Character study
Template: Language Arts - Character
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Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Instructional Technology: Using Inspiration 6.0
March 2003
Curricular Area
English: Reading Indicators
 Identify character, setting and plot
 Identify the most important events
 Summarize the story
Foreign Language: Vocabulary
Health: Identify the relationship between
self-concept and the development of
healthy behaviors.
Health: Develop a long term wellness plan
Library Media: Organizing research
Math: Algebra
Math: Algorithms
Math: Geometry
Music: Demonstrate understanding of
music from different historical periods and
varying world cultures.
Physical Education: Illustrate a process
Science: Illustrate a cycle or process
Science: Chemical reactions
Science: Show the steps in any scientific
investigation.
Science: Explain the uniqueness and
interdependence of systems and their
interactions influenced by the external
environment.
Social Studies: Historical Events
Examine the causes leading to an event and
factors influencing the outcome.
Social Studies: Demonstrate empathy for
others OR illustrate the impact of an event
on sub-groups of people.
Social Studies: Compare forms of
government and how they interrelate.
Social Studies: Historical Figures
Suggestion
Template: Language Arts - Literary Web
Template: Language Arts - Vocabulary
(Use the symbol libraries, if applicable)
Template: Social Studies - Cause and
Effect
Template: Social Studies-Cause and Effect
Template: Thinking – Idea Map
Template: Basic. To illustrate the steps in
solving an equation.
Template: Basic. To illustrate a model for
any algorithm, such as how to add two
fractions.
Template: Basic. To identify properties of
different geometric figures.
Template: Language Arts – Comparison or
Thinking – Idea Map
Template: Social Studies-Cause and Effect
Template: Science - Simple Cycles
Template: Social Studies - Cause and
Effect or Thinking - Interrelationship
Template: Basic. To create webs and
charts to illustrate findings.
Template: Science-Simple Cycles to
illustrate the life cycles of organisms
graphically.
Template: Social Studies - History Web 1,
Social Studies – Events, or Social Studies –
Cause and Effect
Template: Social Studies - Events
Template: Social Studies – Events or
Social Studies - History Web 1
Template: Social Studies - History Web 2
Visit http://www.inspiration.com for additional curriculum integration ideas.
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Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Instructional Technology: Using Inspiration 6.0
March 2003