Questions and Answers

A list of questions about SMART Boards and the answers I’ve found.
Last updated January 27, 2011.

What is a SMART Board?
A SMART Board is an interactive whiteboard designed by SMART Technologies.

How does a SMART Board work?
(A non-technical answer…) A SMART Board has four main components: a computer, a short-throw projector, a touch sensitive whiteboard, and software.  The projector allows the image from the computer to be projected on the whiteboard.  The whiteboard has a touch sensitive surface.  The software converts contact with the interactive whiteboard into mouse clicks or digital ink.  Without the software a SMART Board functions as a plain projector screen.

How do I turn on a SMART Board?
Assuming everything is properly connected – turn on the computer attached to the board and then turn on the SMART Board projector by pressing the round power button located on or near the pen tray.  If the board won’t turn on even though your components are connected and your projector is functional, try unplugging the projector to allow it to reset and resetting the board.  If you still need to connect the SMART Board components check your installation guide or if you want to check your connections, run the Connection Wizard from the Notebook control panel.

Do Microsoft Office applications like PowerPoint, Excel, and Word function differently on a SMART Board?  What is ink aware?
It is possible to use these applications exactly as you would use them on a regular computer.  However, Microsoft Office PowerPoint, Excel, and Word are “ink aware”.  This means you can integrate digital ink notes into your document and in most cases you can convert digital ink to typed text.  If you save a document with digital ink, the digital ink saves as clip art objects, and can later be deleted or moved.  In addition, Microsoft PowerPoint has additional functionality while in slide show mode.
SMART provides a number of handouts on using Ink Aware functions (it best to search SMART for the latest, but here is an example).  Here is a partial list of Ink Aware Applications.  For a full list, check the Welcome Center on the SMART Board.

What special software is included with a SMART Board?
Owning a SMART Board gives you access to the SMART Notebook software package.  This package includes:

• SMART Notebook – a software application that can be used to create documents and presentations with text, embedded multimedia, and attachments.
• SMART Notebook Gallery – similar to clip art, it is available when using Microsoft Office.  It is a collection of images, sound/video clips, interactive flash objects and page templates.  The gallery is broken down into categories.  When installing the SMART Notebook package, you may choose to not install the gallery or to only install certain gallery categories.  If you choose to install the entire gallery, it may take up to an hour.
• SMART Video Player –a typical video player with the addition of creating screen captures with one-click.
• SMART Recorder – allows you to record everything that happens on screen.  To record audio, you would need to attach a microphone.
• SMART Tools – writing tools like digital ink and an on-screen keyboard, and presentation tools including highlighters, a screen shade, screen capture tool, and magnifier.

Does Flash need to be installed through Internet Explorer to work in SMART Notebook?
Yes!  If you installed flash using Firefox or another internet browser, you need to install it again.  Otherwise, when you add a flash object to your Notebook page, you will only see an outline.   See more info here.

How do I open a .notebook file without SMART Notebook?
Use SMART Notebook Express (blog post about Express here).  If you are about to share a Notebook file with others, I would export it to pdf or ppt before sending it (open your Notebook file and then go to File –> Export).