TextWand
What is TextWand?
A toolbar for Microsoft Word which enables educators to manipulate the appearance of projected text. Check out this demonstration of the basics.
How do I get TextWand onto my computer and start using it?
How do I ask questions, make comments/suggestion on TextWand
Go to the TextWand WikiSpace Send me an email.
The basic idea
Microsoft Word has a feature which enables what it calls "character styles" to be defined and then applied to text.
TextWand uses 5 different character styles which are called TextStyle1, TextStyle2 and so on.
You apply a TextStyle to parts of your text which you want to change interactively. Using TextWand you can make the sort of changes you see in the examples in the table below. Here, TextStyle1 has first been applied to all the nouns in the sentence. Then TextWand has been used to alter the appearance of those nouns.
| plain text |  |
| text style with colour |  |
| underlined |  |
| bordered |  |
| invisible with underline, border or nothing |    |
The TextWand Toolbar
When you open a document based on the TextWand template you should see the following toolbar.
The following table describes the function of each of the parts of this toolbar. Please note that each button has a Tooltip which reminds you of its function.
Applying a TextStyleThe first step in using TextWand is to apply a TextStyle to some text. This is what you do:
| |
 TextStyle 1 active  TextStyle 4 active | Making a TextStyle activeBefore you can change the appearance of text to which a TextStyle has been applied, you must make the style active. This is achieved simply by clicking the button corresponding to the TextStyle you want to change. Only one TextStyle can be active at a time. The active TextStyle is indicated by the red square beside the number |
| After you have applied a TextStyle and made it active you can now manipulate its appearance. | |
 | Changing the colour of the textThese 3 buttons alter the colour which the active TextStyle uses.
|
 | UnderliningThe left button applies underlining for the active TextStyle, the right removes it. If the Shift Key is held down while the button is clicked, the action will affect all 5 TextStyles. |
 | BordersThe left button applies a border for the active TextStyle, the right removes it. If the Shift Key is held down while the button is clicked, the action will affect all 5 TextStyles. |
| We are now going to skip three buttons. We'll come back to them later. | |
 the three multi icons  /  the "left" buttons set the colour of text to black or colour  /  /  the right button sets what happens when the text is invisible  use this to perform the action on the active TextStyle | The "MultiChange" modeClassroom experience has shown that it is often best to have 2 changes occurring to the text simultaneously. For example you may want some words replaced by underscores using a single click. This is the purpose of the MultiChange Mode. This mode allows you to select
To operate MultiChange mode all you do is
|
 | Making Invisible Sentences and Paragraphs ReappearIn practice, it has been found very useful to have sentences or paragraphs invisible on the board and to reveal them when appropriate. This is an alternative technique to those described above, and involves the removal of TextStyles, rather than using TextStyles to make a reversible change. In each case the text reverts to its underlying formatting. You will usually use these buttons by hiding a paragraph or sentence completely using a TextStyle. Four buttons are available.
Points to note:
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 | Removing the TextStyle from the First Letter of a WordYou can remove the TextStyle from the first letter of a word by pressing this button. You do not have to have selected the entire word first; provided the insertion point is in the word then the action will be performed. If you want to remove the TextStyle from more than one word, then select all the words and then press the button. |
 | Apply all 5 TextStyles at onceThe use of this button enables you to apply TextStyles to selected text. The first word select will get TextStyle1, the second word TextStyle2 and so on. Entire paragraphs can be treated this way. The result will look like the following:
|
 | Use this button to inform you which style is applied to the beginning of the current selection. |
 | Scramble a sentenceFinally, this button will scramble all the words in a sentence. There are some provisos however,
|
Practical applications in the classroom
TextWand does not, of course, prescribe any method of use. It is a tool, like chalk, like talk, like the OHP, like the whiteboard marker. However, it has been developed because it seems to be effective in capturing the interest of students and teachers. So here are a few ways I have found it to be useful. New ways of use will spring to mind as you incorporate it into your own practice.
- Mark items (e.g. nouns / verbs / adjectives / adverbs / clauses / phrases etc) with a Text Style which is initially made invisible. Students can then determine on the basis of context and meaning what the missing words are likely to be.
- Vanishing text. A text of relevance is discussed; maybe it has come from some previous work. Students recite the text to form an aural memory of it. Text Styles are progressively made invisible, maybe gradually increasing the number until the entire text is recalled from short-term memory.
- Prepare cloze exercises easily using same text for student exercise and teacher copy. Switch easily between student and teacher versions.
- Reveal answers to exercises, quickly or word-by-word. The word-by-word reveal is interesting to students and gives them a new way of experiencing the text. They will often sub-vocalise as it appears word-by-word, a helpful language learning phase. It works well with dictated sentences, or when revealing the correct order of scrambled sentences.
- It works great with DictaSpell!
Usage Notes - sudden unwanted changes to text
When you use one of these four buttons to make text revert to its normal black (usually after having been hidden by making it white) you may find other attributes of the text also change. For example it may become smaller. This will occur when the text to which you have applied the text style has had manual formatting applied to it. For example you may have manually changed the font size to 16pt. To prevent this happening you should not apply manual formatting to text you use with TextWand; its appearance should be under control of the underlying paragraph style.
The correct way to enlarge text to which you want to apply TextWand is to change the text attributes of the style attached to the paragraph. (If this talk of styles is new, check out Word’s Help file, for more information about one of the most powerful features of Word.)
Bugs
This resource is a work in progress and though there are no known bugs, you may find one. If you do find one, please notify me.
What does TextWand cost?
TextWand™ is free to use and distribute for non-commercial use, as is the code which controls its operation. It was not developed for profit, but to be of benefit.
Notwithstanding what I've just said, if you find TextWand to be of real benefit in your paid work, and bearing in mind that it represents hundreds of hours of development time, please consider supporting it by making a donation through PayPal using the button below. This will support the costs of this website and help inspire the development of further features and other tools!
Legal things
I'm not a lawyer but here are some of the things I think I need to say: No guarantees are made in respect of TextWand. All other rights not herein mentioned are reserved. © 2006.
Finally
I hope your you and your students find TextWand™ an interesting and enjoyable way of being involved with language!
Jim Brook, Massey High School, New Zealand.
email: mailto:jbrook@clear.net.nz (You can email me with comments, queries, and suggestions, which are welcomed, and will be answered as time permits. It is my intention to add to and improve TextWand and your feedback will be invaluable.)