Clicker Paint HELP SHEET: Putting Stamps on a Background Picture
by Penny McCulloch, January 2008
Using Clicker Paint, you can create activities to support many areas of learning using a background picture where learners can add stamps or draw their own pictures to illustrate what they have learned.
To view sample activities that are included with Clicker Paint that use backgrounds as their basis, go to the Example folder and locate Habitats. Sample activities include Cold Land, Savannah, Rainforest and Under the Sea.
Setting up your canvas
- Open Clicker Paint.
- To select and save a particular window size, go to Options, and select Program Management. Choose the window size you want Clicker Paint to start up with and click OK.

- Select the canvas you want for your picture.

Adding a background picture
- Go to File, Settings and Activity Details.
- From the Assistant Layer section, click on Choose Picture.

- Browse for a saved picture on your hard drive. Select one and click Open. (Sources of pictures include clip art, photos and pictures from the internet or pictures you have created in Clicker Paint and saved as a jpeg file.)

- Select Underneath painting for the Assistant Layer position. This means that you will be able to add pictures over the top of your background picture. (The Save assistant layer with painting option is used in Clicker 5 activities to hide the background picture.)

Customising tools to display
- Click on the Tools tab.

- To make any of the tools unavailable within Clicker Paint, simply click on them to deselect. Try de-selecting all the tools excepting the stamps, eraser, undo and save. Keep your default tool as the stamp.

Selecting your stamps
- Click on the Stamp tab. You will see available picture libraries registered in Clicker Paint. Picture libraries registered in Clicker 5 will be displayed in Clicker Paint. You will also see to the right of the Activity Details window the default stamps.

- Click on one of the pictures, then click on the double left arrow to remove all the pictures from the default list.
- Now browse picture files. Double click on one of the folders (e.g. Crick Picture Library 2, then category.)
- Find and click on a picture you want to add to your stamps.
- Click on the single arrow pointing right to add a picture from the picture library files.

- From the stamps list you can select the default size you want.
- Click OK to go back to your activity.
- You will now see your Clicker canvas with a background picture and a customised toolbar and selection of stamps.
- To save the document go to File, Save, name your file and save it as either a Clicker Paint Document or a Clicker Paint Template. Saving the file as a template will ensure that your picture is not overwritten.

Creating your own stamps
Learners can use Clicker Paint to create their own pictures that can be used as stamps. Pictures created in Clicker Paint simply need to be saved as image files (png, bmp, jpeg or gif) rather than as a Clicker Paint document into a folder in My Pictures or wherever you like to save your graphics.