Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and
interactive whiteboard tool that lets you annotate, animate, narrate,
import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere.
Credits:
Create slides, draw in any color, add shapes, add text, and use a laser
pointer. Rotate, move, scale, copy, paste, clone, and lock any object
added to the stage.
Explain Everything is based on the same animation concept as
PhotoPuppet HD. If you'd like to do some animated
storytelling (including frame-switching animation), give it a go!
Add new or existing photos and videos. Import PDF, PPT, DOC, XLS,
Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and RTF files from Google Drive,
Evernote, Dropbox, Box, WebDAV, Email, iTunes, and any app that
allows you to open these file types using "Open In…". Export MP4
movies, PDF documents, PNG images, or XPL project files directly
from your iPad.
The Constructivist Toolkit, LLC collaborated with
MorrisCooke to help connect visual and functional designs to
both current educational research and the practical realities of
school settings. While not exclusively designed to be used in
schools, the app was meant to help the Constructivist
Toolkit’s founder explore the intersection of assessment,
multimedia, and mobile technology as part of his dissertation
research.
No account is necessary to use Explain Everything and share creations.
MorrisCooke - iOS development studio, working together
with idea-makers to create innovative apps. C
Iwo Rzepiela works together with MorrisCooke designing
graphics for mobile apps.
Other Credits:
For more information please visit www.explaineverything.com.
To find answers to common questions and examples of usage of EE in schools around the world,
check out:
The "Calligraphy" draw tool is based on concepts developed in
"Smooth Drawing" (c) 2012 by Krzysztof Zabłocki,
www.merowing.info. Kazmath library, copyright (c) 2008, Luke
Benstead. All rights reserved. WTClient, Copyright (c) 2009
Alex Chugunov, http://code.google.com/p/wtclient/.
our Facebook page with links to lots of movies and blog posts,
our frequently asked questions page.
To ask questions, report bugs, or make suggestions please email [email protected].
Home Screen
This is where you manage your existing projects and create new projects.
Create a new blank
project
Export project
Create a new project by
importing existing files
You can delete and merge projects here.
To delete, press and hold a project. A red "X" will appear enabling you to delete the chosen project.
Help and other
information
Settings and preferences
Press and hold any project to
reveal editing functions
Press to delete the project
To merge two projects, press and hold a project, then move it over the project that you wish to merge it with. You will be asked whether the first held project
should be the "first one" in the merged project, or the second one. After that, a new project will be created, with merged contents. The two source projects
remain unchanged.
Move one project onto another to
merge their contents
New Projects
Start with a blank presentation - choose among four default templates, each having its own set of colors.
Select a color template
You will start your project with a blank slide having the chosen background and preset colors in the draw tool palette.
Import a file or image(s) from multiple sources, starting a project with a number of slides. Each photo, slide, or PDF page will be placed on an individual slide in
Explain Everything. Once imported, slides can be deleted and moved.
Exporting Projects
Press the Export button and select a project thumbnail to export a movie or project file from the Home Screen. Click on the Preferences tab on the Preferences
menu to change the video resolution, video quality, and audio export options.
Preferences
This button will take you to preferences for the general behavior of the app, preferences for exporting, recording and cloud services.
General
Drawing style: Choose a style for the drawing tool: Calligraphy - quick strokes will become thicker. Ink - the smooth, default style.
Divide PDF/PPT/KEY into pages: Turning this option off for the listed file types enables you to import a multi-page document as a single, very long page. This
allows you to keep the entire presentation on one slide, and you can simply scroll up and down the document.
Adonit Jot: Slide to ON to pair with your Adonit Jot Bluetooth stylus.
Pogo Connect: Slide to ON to pair with your Pogo Connect Bluetooth stylus.
Cregle iPen / Smart Pen: If you have one of these styli for your iPad 1, 2 or 3, you can use this switch to activate the calibration screen.
Use wrist guard with iPen: When using the Cregle iPen or a Smart Pen, this will lock all the objects during drawing. Therefore a PDF document will not move
under your hand when using the draw tool. To move objects again, please switch to the Hand tool.
Classic PDF import: Turning this option to ON will use the legacy Explain Everything PDF import engine (that you might like for some reason as one of our
early users). You can use this when importing a large PDF file on a single slide to make it load slightly faster during recording or when opening older projects
to solve compatibility issues with PDF files. Otherwise Explain Everything (with this option set to OFF) will use the default PDF import engine which ensures
the integrity of the imported PDF and correct page division.
Toolbar/Control bar: Set bars to appear on the left/right side and top/bottom of the screen.
Wrist guard (control bar on the top only): When you are writing and need to rest your hand on the screen, this will prevent accidental drawing on the part
covered with the Wrist guard layer. Note: It will set the control bar to the top position.
Objects Fade In/Out: Inserting and deleting objects from the stage will display a fade in/fade out animation on them. You can choose to display the animation
always, only while playing or recording, or disable it completely.
Backup folder retention: Explain Everything will automatically save backups of your projects to the backup folder when working in background. Here you can
turn off backups, and control how often this folder will be cleaned. You can also do it manually by tapping Clean now button.
Parental Gate On/Off: This is an option for restricting children under 13 the access to external sources (eg. cloud services). When this is set to "ON", a user
will have to confirm his/her age before logging into external sources and solve a small riddle.
Export
Video export settings
Resolution: This allows you to change the size of the movie that is exported (the default is 1024 x 768).
Show 1920x1080 guides: Turns ON or OFF two horizontal guides in the stage indicating the space that will be exported as 16:9 movie when exporting in
1920x1080 resolution.
Quality: This setting allows you to reduce the file size and speed up compression, but will make the exported movie blurry.
Compress movies as: You can choose whether to save exported movies in the MOV or MP4 format.
Export slides without recordings: In Explain Everything you can export slides without recording. This option adds 5, 10, or 15 seconds of empty recording
time while exporting so that slides that didn't have a recording will be present in your video. You can also disable it by setting added time to 0 seconds.
Fast Compressing: You can turn on this option to reduce compression time. This gives the best effects on iOS 7 and higher.
Optimize for Network: This setting exports the movie in a format that is optimized for streaming video. Note: This setting is not necessary for YouTube
exports as YouTube will independently optimize the video for streaming when it is uploaded.
Audio Export: When set to OFF, the app will export a silent MP4 movie.
Optimize Identical Frames: Compression will be much faster if you have mostly non-moving objects and voiceover.
PDF export settings
Quality: Set the quality in which the PDF presentation will saved when using the Export to PDF option in the export menu.
Record
Front and Rear camera resolution: Sets the resolution of video recorded by the iPad camera. Lower resolutions will result in a lower quality video, but
presentations will compress much faster during export.
Audio Fade In for external mics: When set to ON this option will mute the very beginning of each audio recording so that any "pops" caused by some
external microphones are edited out.
Compress sound in XPL: This option will help keep the file size down and is turned on by default. Turning it off will result in recording Apple Lossless audio
format in your presentations - useful for post-production.
Show MIC MUTE button: Turning this on will reveal a small microphone button to the right of the time counter which will let you control when the iPad
microphone is active during recording.
Mute mic while playing inserted video: When recording while an inserted video is playing, the iPad microphone picks up the sound from the video creating an
echo effect. This option when set to ON mutes the iPad microphone while a video is playing, though it also means that audio narration can't happen at the
same time. When this setting is OFF, you can reduce the echo effect by using headphones while recording - or turn down the volume of the iPad speakers
(or use the volume control on the video itself to turn down the sound from the video).
Mirror front camera video: Flips the video recording horizontally.
Screencast recording quality: Set your presentation recording frame rate to 30 or 60 frames per second (FPS). 30 FPS is set as default. 60 FPS causes that
animation of transitions in your project will be smoother during recording.
Accounts
This panel lets you log out of accounts you have logged into during your Explain Everything session. Note: If using a shared iPad, you might want to log out of the
cloud services before letting someone else use the device.
Record Screen
Explain Everything utilizes slide-based storyboarding for preparing explanations and presentations. When recording, all actions on the screen including drawing,
moving, scaling, rotating, and addition of objects are recorded along with any audio narration which is captured through the iPad microphone. Explanations and
Presentations can be exported and shared as movies and images. Project files can be shared via Email and Dropbox for collaborative design.
It is best to avoid using the Undo or Delete tools while recording. Use the Eraser tool to remove pen drawings while recording, but otherwise pause the
recording, delete unwanted objects, and then resume recording in order to prevent objects from reappearing during playback.
Toolbar
Hand tool
Draw tool
Shape tool
Text tool
Insert object
Delete/Erase
Laser pointer
Inspector
Undo
Zoom and Pan
Presentation mode
Color picker - choose a
color to use with the active
tool
New slide
Control buttons –
record, play, pause,
rewind
Recording mode
switch
Export icons – share
results or save locally
Control bar
Previous slide
Slide sorter - arrange
the slides
Next slide
Timer and Timeline - tap to
show
Exit to the home
screen
Design Tools
Everything that you add to the stage in Explain Everything acts as a separate object that can be moved around, scaled and rotated with the hand tool. Multiple
objects can be grouped together to act as one, movable object. Group and ungroup objects by either triple tapping an overlapping region while the hand tool is
selected or use the inspector to group and ungroup any objects on the stage.
Enable automatic grouping for drawings, shapes, and text objects in the pop out menus which can be accessed by double tapping the tool icon. This will make
newly created objects with that tool automatically "stick" to an object or group directly beneath them (e.g., annotations to documents). Drawings made with the
draw tool become objects once another tool is selected. The eraser will only erase parts of the active drawing.
Hand tool: Selecting this tool turns off any other active tools. While using this tool, you can freely move objects around the screen, scale them and
attach to other objects by triple-tapping.
Draw: A quick press selects the pen. Press and hold to choose the pen thickness and pen tip (soft or hard). The drawing color is chosen via one of the
color pickers.
Width
Auto-group
Shapes and lines: A quick press selects the current shapes and lines (the default one is an arrow). Press and hold the icon to choose other shapes and
lines, shadow and border thickness. Choose colors and transparency via the color pickers. Press and drag on the stage to draw the initial shape or line
object. This tool will retain the previously selected settings.
Shadow
Border
Auto-group
Text: A quick press selects the Text tool. Press and hold to choose size, font and text box border. This tool will retain the previously selected setting.
Double-tapping an already existing text box allows you to edit text within it.
Font
Font size
Border
Auto-group
Confirm the position and size
Double tap here to edit the text
Resize
Text formatting menu is placed
above the pop-up keyboard
Insert object: Insert documents, images or videos from your iPad Photo gallery and other sources. You can also take a new picture using the iPad
camera (except iPad 1). When a picture has been selected, you can scale, rotate, and crop the image (rectangular or free select) before inserting it into
the project slide.
Existing
Photo/Video
File
New Browser
New Picture
New Video
Existing Sound
Existing Video: Will insert an existing video onto the stage. You can start playing the video while recording globally - and all your actions will be
recorded. You can change the audio volume, scrub the video backwards and forwards or pause it - all this while recording your screencast.
Play video button
Looping switch
Audio volume control
Time remaining
Current time
You can move the scrubber back
and forth. This action is recorded
by EE
File: Will insert any of the supported file types onto the stage. Choose the source of the file from the sources panel.
Path - tap to navigate
Your files
Active source
Sources
New Browser: Insert a fully functioning web browser onto the stage. Double tap the browser to activate. Press the eraser icon in the top right to clear
annotations. Limited recording capabilities (e.g. EE will not record a YouTube video within a web page). Swipe with three fingers to the right to capture
annotated web page image to a new slide at end of project, swipe to the left to put image at the beginning of the project.
New Video: Will insert an empty video to the stage. If you are already recording, you have to press the record button at the bottom of the video object
to start recording. If you are in pause mode, pressing the global record at the bottom of the screen will simultaneously start recording the video object.
Record button
Switch between the front
and the back camera
Current time
Movie size (MB)
Existing Sound: Will open the iTunes popup from which you can choose a sound file from your iTunes library. The inserted sound file can be controlled
just like an inserted video.
Insert sound popup
Audio volume control
Current time
Play sound button
Scrubber
Looping switch
Time remaining
Delete/Erase: Select the Delete tool and then choose objects on the stage that you want to delete. You will be prompted before permanently deleting
the object. When the Pen tool is selected, the Delete tool becomes the Eraser that can erase drawings that are currently being made (not the drawings
that have become objects).
Eraser: Erases drawings (that have not yet turned into objects). You can tap longer on this button to reveal 3 possible sizes of the eraser.
Laser pointer: This tool will display a laser pointer just below your finger. A longer press reveals the Laser pointer options: 9 regular pointers and 3
animated "laser swords" with 3 color options. The third "laser sword" comes with a rotation control that lets you set it at any angle.
Regular laser pointers
Rotation circle - slide to set the angle
Animated laser sword pointers
Laser sword pointer with rotation
Color picker for laser sword pointer
Inspector tool: Send overlapping objects forwards and backwards on the stage. You can also copy objects, enable automatic rotation, lock various
attributes etc. To set properties for an object, tap on this tool and then tap the object that you'd like to change.
Arrange
Edit
Lock
Arrange
Edit
Lock
Edit
Lock
Bring to Front
Group
Lock
Bring Forward
Ungroup
Lock Rotation
Send Backwards
Duplicate
Lock Scale
Send to back
Copy
Lock Horizontal
Paste
Lock Vertical
Set Rotation
Set as Background
Flip horizon
Flip vertically
Arrange
Bring to Front will move the chosen object to the very top of the stage.
Bring Forward will move the chosen object one layer forward.
Send Backward will move the chosen object one layer down.
Send to Back will move the chosen object to the back of the stage.
Edit
Arrange
Group: will group the selected objects together so they can act as one object.
Ungroup: separates grouped objects.
Duplicate button creates a clone of the selected object(s) and places it on the stage next to the original object.
Copy button puts a copy of the selected object(s) in the clipboard.
Paste button adds copied objects to the stage. You can copy and paste supported images and videos from outside of Explain
Everything as well.
Set Rotation turns on the control circle overlay - set the automatic rotation by placing your finger anywhere on the circle and
spinning it slow or fast. To stop rotation, tap anywhere on the circle. You can also move the rotation center point using the
control element on the bottom of the control circle.
Set as Background will lock the object as a background element meaning that drawings will not stick to it and when you use the
Zoom and Pan tool, the background image will not change its size, scale or position.
Flip horizontally will flip selected objects on the horizontal axis.
Flip vertically will flip selected objects on the vertical axis.
Lock:
Lock button will lock the object and keep it in place until it is unlocked with the Unlock option.
Lock Rotation will prevent the rotation of an object when using the Hand tool. Useful for documents.
Lock Scale will prevent the object from resizing.
Lock Horizontal allows the object to move only up or down. Great for scrolling documents in slides when you want them to keep
them steady.
Lock Vertical allows the object to move only left and right.
Undo: Undoes the last action.
Redo: Redoes the last undone action. The button appears after you Undo an action.
Zoom and Pan: Zoom in and out on the entire stage using two finger pinch and reverse pinch gestures. Use one finger to move the stage around.
Double tap to return to 100% zoom of objects framed in the view.
Color picker: There are 3 color pickers that can be individually set to any color.
Predefined colors
Custom color selection
Select either the fill color or
the line (draw) color
Transparency/opacity slider
Color brightness slider
Wrist guard: Move the slider up or down to adjust height. Double tap on the slider to show or hide the Wrist guard quickly. We recommend turning off
Multitasking Gestures in the iPad settings menu (Settings > General > Multitasking Gestures > OFF) while using the Wrist guard.
Wrist guard slider - tap to
hide or show quickly
Protection layer - objects and drawings
underneath it can’t be edited or moved
Editable space
Presentation and Navigation
Presentation mode: Full screen viewing. This hides the control bar and provides a mini toolbar only with the navigation arrows, new slide, and drawing
tools. This is especially useful for live presentations.
Previous slide: Go to the previous slide.
Next slide: Advance to the next slide.
Add slide: Adds a new slide after the currently selected slide.
Slide sorter: Displays the slide sorter window, which allows you to sort, delete, duplicate and change the color templates for individual slides.
Change the template for all slides
Delete the slide
Duplicate the slide
Change the template for a single slide
Recording and Playback
Rewind: Go to the beginning of the recording on the current slide.
Record: Begin recording from the current time. Press while recording to pause/stop. If any video inserts are used, you can separately set their
preferences in the Record tab on the Preferences menu. For newly recorded videos, it's possible to change the video resolution and quality, and
whether the front camera should be mirrored.
Play: Playback the recording on the current slide. While recording, this becomes a pause button.
Golden Play: Playback the recording beginning from the current slide to the end of presentation (all slides in sequence). This button appears while
pressing and holding the regular play button.
Fast Forward: Go to the end of the recording on the current slide. Additional recordings can be added to the end of a slide.
Timer: Displays the current time within a slide. Tapping it will display the timeline, which can be scrolled backwards and forwards. The timeline consists
of two parts - the video track and the audio track. The video track displays movements of objects, drawings and other actions that were recorded. The
audio track displays the corresponding audio wave file for reference.
Blue draw tool used
Red draw tool used
Object moved
Video paused
Video track
Audio track
You can scroll the timeline and pinch
it to zoom in or out
Recording mode switch: choose between two recording modes. Tap to display the recording mode menu.
Recording mode menu
replaces existing
is mixed with existing
Recording mode switch
Replaces existing: when selected, new recording will replace all existing clips in unlocked tracks after the current time. You'll be shown a confirmation
popup each time you start recording in this mode.
This part of recording will
be unchanged
Playhead
This part of the recording
will be removed
Recording switched to
"replace existing" mode
Is mixed with existing: selecting this option will cause new recording to create new clips along already existing clips in the video track and overwrite the
part of recording in the audio track. A "+" symbol will be present on the record button when this mode is selected.
This part of recording will
be unchanged
Playhead
Record button has a "+"
symbol in this mode
This part of the recording will be
mixed with the new recording
Recording switched to "is
mixed with existing" mode
Selective locking of tracks: Since version 2.10, both tracks are independent from each other and can be selectively locked. This allows for replacing the
voiceover. There are 2 examples below, showing one of the tracks locked. Please note - the recording for the unlocked track will be replaced from the
current time to the end of recording. This goes both for the video (tool) and audio track.
The video track is unlocked - you
can record over it
Video track
Audio track
The audio track is locked and will not
be changed while recording
Track editing: your recording can be edited in a variety of ways by accessing track editing options. After recording, tap and hold on the tool track, the
audio track , or a clip in the timeline to reveal the track editing menu. It will display different options, depending on where the timeline has been pressed.
If you tap and hold a clip while the playhead hovers over it, you will be able to: Set mark, Split, Delete, Fade In Audio (for audio clips), and Delete all /
video / audio clips to the end (depending on whether a track is locked). If you tap and hold a clip while the playhead is outside its bounds, you will be
able to Delete the clip from the timeline. If you tap and hold an empty track, the menu will display above the playhead and you will be able to Set mark
or Delete all / video / audio clips to the end. Editing locked tracks is not possible. Note: track editing can’t be undone.
Set Mark
Split
Delete
Fade In Audio
Delete all tracks to end
Tap and hold the track to reveal
the rack editing popup
Playhead - marks the current
position in the timeline
Set mark: this button will create a mark at current playhead position. After adding two marks to the timeline the space between them will be marked in
yellow and you will be asked if you want to Delete or Delete and compact it. If you choose Delete, clips between the two markers will be removed.
Delete and compact will clear the marked space and join the two remaining parts together.
Split: this option is available only when the playhead hovers over a clip, while you tap and hold it. Choosing this button will split the clip at the position
of the playhead creating two separate clips.
Delete: this button removes the chosen clip from the timeline entirely.
Fade In Audio: add one second of silence that fades into sound at the beginning of selected audio clip.
Delete all / video / audio clips to the end: this button will delete all clips from the current time, marked by the playhead, to the end of the recording. It
will cut the clip it is hovering over. You can lock the tracks to prevent clips from being deleted in that track.
Mic Mute: Mutes the microphone. It's invisible by default. Can be switched on in the Record tab on the Preferences menu: Show MIC MUTE button.
Saving and Exporting
Export Image: Export the current view as an image to your iPad Photo gallery, Evernote, Dropbox or Box accounts. Options to export the image as
PDF to Email, Dropbox, Box and Evernote. The PDF will export all slides using the current view (of what is framed on the stage).
Photo to
Camera Roll
Photo to Mail
PDF to iBooks
More
Export Video: Export your presentation video tor your iPad Photo gallery, Dropbox, Box, YouTube, or via email. You can also export the project files
to DropBox, Box and email so that others can work on the project. Change resolution and other export options in the Export tab on the Preferences
menu.
Movie to
Camera Roll
YouTube
More
Save or Export Project: Save your project files in Explain Everything. You can overwrite existing files and save copies of files. This dialog allows you also
to export the project to Dropbox and other cloud services.
Export options - More: All of the above export options will present to you 2 or 3 simple choices and the More option. You can export locally or to a
cloud service. In each case you can determine the type of exported file and the cloud service to export to. You can also choose which slides (or all) you
want to export.
Source screen: Here you can choose the source of your choice and log into it by tapping the center of the screen.
More sources “Open
in...” and Mail options
Tap on the screen to log
into the desired source
Sources
Active source
Login Popup: After you tap the screen a login popup will appear. Type in required info and press Login to connect
to the source.
Service name
Tap to cancel
Port
Address
Username
Password
Tap to log in
File type options: This panel lets you choose a file type of exported content and select between exporting whole
presentation or chosen slides.
Export all slides
Choose which slides
to export (for video)
Choose the file type
of exported content
Start exporting your
videocast or file
Number of slides selected for export
Slide selection: After you tap Choose slides you will be able to select the slides you wish to export. Tap to select
the slides and confirm by tapping the Confirm button on the bottom.
Tap “Choose slides” if you want to
export only specific slides
Tap on slides to select them
Confirm your choice
Home: Return to the home screen. If the project has not been saved you will be prompted to give the project a name.
Advanced Functions
Group Objects: Triple tap any two overlapping objects to group/ungroup them. By default, drawing objects automatically become grouped to any
objects below.
Straighten Image: Double tap an image object on the stage to straighten it to the nearest right angle.
Adjust Text and Shape Objects: Double tap a Text or Shape/Line object to stretch the object or edit the text.
Multi-object movement: Multiple objects can be moved, scaled, and rotated on the stage simultaneously.