Whiteboard helpers

A number of software products are available to help people get the most out of their interactive whiteboards. Here are a few to consider.

Ideogramic Ideas
Ideogramic's Ideas software makes whiteboarding easier by turning handwritten circles, rectangles, triangles and lines into perfect geometric shapes. Great for neatniks with lousy handwriting. Macintosh and Windows. Price: $1,250. www.ideogramic.com

Microsoft Visio 2003
Microsoft's Visio software is a popular program for creating business and technical diagrams. In addition, Visio data fields can be synchronized to databases to provide up-to-the-minute information customized to the needs of the organization. Windows only. Price: $199. www.microsoft.com

Hot Potatoes
Created by Half-Baked Software Co., Hot Potatoes is not interactive whiteboard software per se, but many teachers use it in conjunction with their whiteboards to create fun online tests and quizzes. Hot Potatoes is designed for creating multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises, primarily for education purposes. For Windows and Linux computers. Prices: free to publicly funded educators and institutions, otherwise, $120 for a one-person license, $600 for a 10-person license. www.halfbakedsoftware.com