James Hollis over at Teachers Love Smartboards has posted a link to a great video about how to use the Spotlight tool in Smart Notebook.
I love the Smartboard tool, its a very fun tool for focusing attention on one part of the screen and removing any distractions.
I commented on James’ post about how you can access the spotlight without being attached to the board, but I thought it was worth posting it here too.
Basically on your computer go to the C:/ drive and Program Files.. look for a folder called Smart Technologies Inc, open it and then open a folder called Smart Board Software… in here will be a file called Spotlight.exe.
Copy this file to your desktop, or make a shortcut to it and put that on your desktop. Then all you need to do is run this file/shortcut to run the spotlight on your desktop.
Cool eh?
It’s a shame that the spotlight tool isn’t on the toolbar of Smart Notebook. You can access it via the Floating Toolbar though (if you customise it a little). I can’t wait for version 10 to come out which, if you’ve seen the videos Smart released, has a Magic Pen tool that will create a spotlight wherever you draw a circle… which is just fantastic (OK, I am easily pleased!)
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About Me
Danny Nicholson : Educator, Science teacher, ICT Consultant, PGCE lecturer, Author and Web2.0 / SMART Masters/ Interactive Whiteboard Trainer. Contact me for any training requests. 
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Thanks for this tip – it’s so cool.
I’m not lucky enough to have my own SmartBoard/IWB to play or teach with, but I’ve got the SmartBoard software.
However, I’ll be able to use this ‘spotlight’ feature in some of my presentations on my laptop.
Regards,
Allison Miller
Adelaide, South Australia
http://twitter.com/theother66
Thanks Allison
I’ve also just realised you can get the Spotlight from the Start Menu.
Go to Programs -> Smart Board Software -> Other Smart Tools -> Spotlight
which is easier for those who hate messing about in their C: drive
If you are interested in this feature have a look at this idea here on my site. It mimics the spotlight tool on an IWB but enables you to still see the whole page.
There is also a tip on how to create spotlight using powerpoint and motion paths or macros here