Doodling With MS Paint

Your computer came with lots of standard software that you might not even be aware of.  In a previous technology tip (Number 33) we showed you how to access the calculator on your computer.  Today's technology tip will show you how to access a very simple program for manipulating images and just doodling. The name of the program is Paint and if you have a computer with Microsoft Windows on it you should be able to find it by going to: START menu then All Programs then Accessories and then look for PaintDepending on the version of Windows you have the pathway might be a little different but you should find it under Accessories (the same place where you found the Calculator). The program is pretty simple to use.  Try doing these activities to get the feel for it: Enlarge the Work Area: If you opened Paint and the work area (the white space) appears to be too small you can easily enlarge it by grabbing the bottom right hand corner of the white space and dragging it down: Draw a Rectangle: Click on the tool bar button on the left.  Move your pointer into the work area, left click where you want the top left corner of the rectangle to be, hold the button down and drag out a rectangle: Fill a Shape with a color:At the bottom left of the screen you'll see a color palette.  Choose a color for inside your rectangle by clicking on it.  Then select the "Fill with Color" tool bar button.  Then just click inside your rectangle and it should change to the color you selected.  Pretty easy so far right! Try Doodling: Lets experiment with some other tool bar buttons.  Try each of these: With some experimentation you can make some simple drawings.  If you don't like how it's going you can always start over by going to "File" and selecting "New" to clear your work area.  If you like your art work you might want to save it by selecting "Save" off the "File" menu.  Copy and Paste a Picture into Paint: You can also copy images off the internet, put them in Paint and make changes to them.  Try this:  Right click on the "180TechTips.com" log below and select "Copy" from the menu that appears.  Next, go to Paint and go to "Edit" on the menu bar and select "Paste" from the drop down list.  You should now have a copy of the image above in paint.  Have some fun messing around with it! Paint is a great little program for messing around with pictures and doodling.  There are many more practical purposes for it such as setting your desktop background but that will be for another technology tip.

PRACTICE ACTIVITY:   Sometime today use Paint make an original logo up for something.  If you're a classroom teacher it could be for your classroom or school.  If your in business make one up for your company.  Or just make one up for yourself.  Even as adults we often learn best by playing. TO KEEP ON LEARNING:  If you'd like to find more information about paint your could check out the Help menu in the program.  Or you could search the internet for: Microsoft Paint Tutorials Using Microsoft Paint