This is turning into a bit of a series of posts to properly cover templates in Explain Everything. I’ve just finished writing a post on how to share these types of resources in a centralized location.
Once I had created that centralized space, I realized I needed to create a template to test out the process to see if it worked. In some of our Levelled Literacy Intervention (LLI) classrooms we have explored using the iPad, along with a couple of different apps, to explore a more tech-rich delivery of that program. One of the activities in LLI involves using a cookie sheet and magnetic letters to explore word patterns. The app that we used initially for this has since increased in cost, but you can read more about the benefits here:
I’ve taken the concept of that app, and created a template in Explain Everything. I thought it would be worthwhile to detail the steps.
I knew I needed letters that could be manipulated within the 
app, so I went out to Google Images, filtered by imagery with reuse rights, and found an image of the letters I needed.
I then took that image into Pixelmator (a photo editing app for Mac for those of you not willing to pay the exorbitant cost of Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription service) and used the magic wand tool to erase the background, providing me with an image with a transparent background. (If anyone has a great free app that does this, please share it in the comments. I would love to be able to suggest something to complete this entire workflow from an iPad).
Once I had a transparent background, I was able to take the image and complete the rest of the work directly within Explain Everything, using the Insert Photo, and accompanying photo editor functionality.
I first needed to import the letters one at a time from the transparent png file into the Explain Everything canvas. I used the editing tools within EE to crop each letter out of the image:
Once that was completed, I locked the bottom instance of the letter in place, and created a duplicate of the letter:
Once that was done, I was able to take the duplicate and make copies of it. In the following video, you’ll notice I initially set the letter above and to the left of the locked instance of the letter. When EE creates a duplicate, it creates that duplicate lower, and to the right. My aim was to create a stack of 20 letters aligned on the initial locked instance:
Once the letters were all duplicated, I exported the project to Google Drive, changed the permissions of the file so that anyone with the link could view it, and then uploaded it to our our TLE Resource Repository. You can also download a copy of this particular file here:
alphabet.xpl