Communicate: SymWriter
Help Sheet
Emerging Writers
Word Banks
From the launcher, select Design Environment
In the Environment Designer dialog,
create a stage on the left and a stage at the bottom
Click the New Grid button on the toolbar to create a new grid
Create a grid that has 1 column and 5 rows
Untick the box next to Add a send command to
each cell
Drop the grid onto the stage on the left
Using the blue handles, resize the grid until the cells are a
little wider than they are tall
Communicate: SymWriter
Help Sheet
Emerging Writer
Word Banks
Created by: Tina Voizey
Widgit Software, www.widgit.com
Press F2, or use the text/object mode icons to change to text mode
Click in the first cell then click the Show/Hide symbols
button on the toolbar
Type ‘Subjects’
In the rest of the cells type the
names of subjects and choose
appropriate symbols from the
symbol finder
Click the New Grid button on the toolbar to create a new grid
On the Layout tab of the Create grid dialog, select 4 columns and 3 rows
This time tick the Add a send command to each cell
Click the Appearance tab and make
changes to:





Line Colour
Line Thickness
Corner Radius
Border Width
Internal Margin
Click the Create button and drop the grid
onto the stage at the bottom
The grid should fill the entire stage. If it does not, resize the grid to fill the stage.
Communicate: SymWriter
Help Sheet
Emerging Writer
Word Banks
Created by: Tina Voizey
Widgit Software, www.widgit.com
Fill in the grid with vocabulary from the first subject you listed
Don’t forget to type a space after each word so that the words don’t join together when they are
sent to the document.
Click the Tidy cells button on the toolbar to make the font size in all of the cells the
same.
In object mode, right-click on the ‘history’ grid to bring up the context menu for the
grid
Select Add a new grid here to create a blank grid on top of the ‘history’ grid
In text mode fill in the grid with words that writers can use when creating sentences
the next subject
Communicate: SymWriter
Help Sheet
Emerging Writer
Word Banks
Created by: Tina Voizey
Widgit Software, www.widgit.com
Press Control on your keyboard while selecting words which you want to highlight using a
different background colour.
In object mode right click on the grid and choose Edit Grid Appearance
Edit the grid appearance using the Edit Grid box that appears.
Repeat Step 6 to make another grid
In object mode, right click and choose Edit grid appearance to make the cells all one colour
Press control and click to highlight all the cells in the first column
Click the merge button
Repeat to merge the cells in the last column
Communicate: SymWriter
Help Sheet
Emerging Writer
Word Banks
Created by: Tina Voizey
Widgit Software, www.widgit.com
Go to Graphics Panel
Click on clipart button
Click on a picture and then add it to a merged cell
Press control on your keyboard and click to highlight the two cells
with the pictures
Right click and select Edit actions for selected cell
1. Click on
Send cell
contents
3. Click on
See more
actions to
get a longer
list of actions
2. Click
to delete
4. Click on
Send>Graphic
(a box will pop up so
you can choose
alignment)
5. Click
Add
6. Click
OK
Go to text mode and fill in the words in the remaining cells
Communicate: SymWriter
Help Sheet
Emerging Writer
Word Banks
Created by: Tina Voizey
Widgit Software, www.widgit.com
Repeat Step 6 to make another grid
In object mode click into the big cell at either ends
Click on Split cells up to get the original amount back
Press control and click in all the cells on the top row and merge
Click into the top cell and click on the show symbols button
It will change to become text button change symbol
Type ‘Use all the words in red.’
In object mode click on the cell actions box
Delete send cell content
Go to See more actions
Click on Speak & Sound > Predefined text
Type ‘Make sure to use all the words that are in
the red cells to get bonus points’
Control and click into cells you want to change
Right click and choose Edit cell appearance
Change the background to red
Communicate: SymWriter
Help Sheet
Emerging Writer
Word Banks
Created by: Tina Voizey
Widgit Software, www.widgit.com
We need to link the cells in the ‘subject’ grid to the vocabulary grids.
Click the Grids tab in the side panel so that you can see the grid viewer.
If you like, you can label the grids to make them easier to identify.
Switch to object mode
Links are made by dragging the link icon from the cell onto the grid in the grid viewer
As soon as a link is made, the linked cell changes colour; the link icon becomes bold, and in the
grid viewer, there is a link icon by the side of the grid label to show it has a link.
In this illustration the ‘history’ grid has been linked.
Select the ‘history’ cell in the ‘menu’ grid and drag its link icon to the ‘history’ grid in the grid
viewer.
Repeat this with the rest of the subjects.
Since this activity is not using symbols, you need to set the document to reflect this. In
object mode, click in the document and then click on the Show/hide symbols icon so
that it is showing the text view.
You may also want to set the font and font size. Type a word into the document. Highlight it, and
make whatever changes to the text you require. Delete the word, and Save the environment.
Save and test your work.
Communicate: SymWriter
Help Sheet
Emerging Writer
Word Banks
Created by: Tina Voizey
Widgit Software, www.widgit.com
Communicate: SymWriter
Help Sheet
Emerging Writer
Word Banks
Created by: Tina Voizey
Widgit Software, www.widgit.com