How to Create a GIF file

You can really jaz up your posts in online forums with the insertion of  a custom GIF file. There are free GIF files available on the Web but most of them are pretty old and used. Some of them can be used as emoticons in your writing to add emphasis. However, you can also make your own emoticon just by making the GIF small enough to fit in a line of your text and then inserting the GIF at your cursor location.

Okay, you know what to use them for let's see how to make them.

Using any graphics program like Paint or Photoshop you can create art and then an animation of that art by creating several frames that change slightly from frame to frame.  For example, look at the animation below.

The art was easy to create and didn't require any artistic skills. I just created one frame with some straight yellow lines, another with the text, and a third with the orange angled lines. So in this post the frames look like this:

The second frame looks like this:

And, finally, the third frame looks like this:

Each is played for about 1/2 seconds in sequence creating the animation. The tools for creating the animation can be found in several common software tools including Adobe Photoshop (TM) or Adobe Flash (TM). After creating your file in one of these tools (you can create the art there as well) be sure to save your file as a .GIF type file!

Then, insert your GIF file into your forum post using the image insert tool just as you would any other type of image. Make sure your image is set to public view or you may be the only one who can see it!

How to Use the Screen Capture Tool

One of the most important tools you will need to master as an online student is the screen capture tool. This is especially true if you are using software in the class you are taking. You can capture the actual screen in which you are having trouble along with any special pop ups that occur describing the problem. You then insert the screen capture as an image in your course messaging or course email tool. If you do not know how to insert the image you can attach it. However, inserting the image is more useful as you can add language around it describing the problem.

There are several ways to do a screen capture depending on which hardware or operating system you are using. For example, if you are using Windows XP or earlier you do a screen capture by holding down the function (on a laptop) or shift key and then pressing the “prt sc” (for print screen) key in the upper right corner of your keyboard. When you do this you capture the contents of the screen to the Windows clipboard and can then paste it where ever you wish.  The easiest thing to do is open up a Word document and paste it there. Save the Word document and then attach the document to your message. If you want to insert the image in your message you will need to paste the screen copy into Photoshop or Paint and then save the file as a jpg.

A second way to do a screen capture is using the Snip tool which is available in Windows Vista, 7, or 8 but not on earlier versions of Windows. Open the Snip tool by clicking on your start button in the lower left of your screen and then typing Snip in the search box. Snip will then let you capture the screen and save the file directly without using a second piece of software.