How do I upload activities in Boardmaker Online?

If you have boards and activities you made with Boardmaker v.6 (the disk) or Boardmaker Studio, you can upload them individually (single activity), or in bulk (multiple activities at once) to your Boardmaker Online Activities list, where you can manage them like any Boardmaker Online activity: Print, play, edit, assign, and organize.

Get Ready to Upload

Use the computer where the activities were created as you follow the uploading procedures.
OR
Copy your activities from that computer to a USB drive and access the activities on any computer using the USB drive.  

1. Log in to your Boardmaker Online account.
2. From the toolbar, select My Boardmaker.      
3. Hover your cursor over Upload Activity and the dropdown menu will open with two options. You may upload a single activity (one activity at a time), or you may upload multiple activities (several boards/activities in bulk). Select the desired option.
   • Uploading a single activity allows you to add tags, associate with standards, and share the single activity as you upload.
   • Uploading multiple activities allows you to quickly upload in bulk but does not allow for tagging, associating, or sharing during the upload process. Directions continue below.  

Bulk Upload Multiple Activities made with Boardmaker v.6 or Boardmaker Studio

Your activities will be one or more  of the following file types:

• .bm2:    A single page activity made with Boardmaker v.6 (disk)
• .zip :      A multipage activity made with v.6  (many .bm2 files) that you have packaged manually
• .zbp:      A multipage activity (many .bm2 files) packaged using Boardmaker (for example, aninteractive activity made with v.6 that included sound files.)
• .bfp:    All activities made with Boardmaker Studio 
• NOTE:  You must package multipage .bm2 files (i.e. pages of a book) in a folder > .zip file before uploading to keep the pages together as a single activity.  Individual boards uploaded separately cannot be combined in Boardmaker Online later.

1. Select the Activities Tab and then Upload Activity > Upload Multiple Activities
2. Select Browse.
3. Navigate to where your activities are stored.  For v.6 activities, navigate to Documents > My Boards on your computer, and Open the folder.  For Studio activities,  navigate to Documents > Boardmaker Studio > Projects, and Open the folder.   If you have stored activities  elsewhere (i.e. desktop, USB drive), locate and open the appropriate folder.
4. Select single-page boards/activities (.bm2 or bfb), or packaged multipage activities (.zip and.zbp) to upload by holding down the CTRL key on your keyboard and clicking on each activity in turn. When all are selected, click Open. (There is no limit on the number of activities you may select. Selected activities will form a queue and upload in groups.)              
   • WARNING!  V.6 single page files (.bm2) uploaded individually cannot be connected into one activity after upload. To join the pages of a multipage activity together, create a .zip file with the pages (see Uploading multiple page boards as one activity instructions on pages 6-7 of this tutorial).  The .zip file is selected the same as .bm2 files or. .zbp files in step 3 above as you select for upload.
5. Select Upload.
6. A progress bar will show for each activity as it uploads. 
7. As each activity completes the process, you will see it listed in the Uploaded box.  Select Close when completed. Important Note: :  In order for the upload to process correctly, do not close this screen before all files in the upload have completed stage 1 as indicated by the progress bars.
8. The uploaded activities will now be found in your My Activities list and may be managed as you like (play, edit, assign, etc.).

Individually Upload Activities made with Boardmaker v.6 or Boardmaker Studio

1. Uploading your activities individually allows you to provide description, tags, and to associate standards with the activity as you upload.
2. Select the Activities Tab and then Upload Activity > Upload Single Activity Review the rules for uploading.
3. Select Browse.
4. Click Select to navigate to your activities.
5. Navigate on your computer to your Documents. All Boardmaker v.6 activities are stored in My Documents>My Boards. All l Studio activities are stored in My Documents>Boardmaker Studio/My Projects.  Select the appropriate folder and click Open. 
6. Click to highlight the specific activity you wish to upload and click Open.  
   • The Title is brought forward.  You may edit if you like.
   • You may add a Description if you like.
   • Language is brought forward.
   • Select the Privacy dropdown menu if you would like to share the activity, either with Everyone (the whole Boardmaker Online community) or My Organization Only (just your enterprise or school district).
   • Select Associate Educational Standards to attach standards (Common Core or your state) to the activity.
7. A form will open
8. Click in any boxes to add information about the activity. You may also add verbal tags in the Tags text box. When complete, Select Upload File.  
9. A message will let you know that the upload was successful. Click Finish.  
10. Access your activity at My Boardmaker > My Activities. 

Uploading multiple page boards as one activity

If the single Boardmaker v.6 activity that you wish to upload has multiple pages, you must first put the pages in a folder within My Boards (v.6.)

1. Right click your cursor on the folder and select Send to > Compressed (zip) folder.  
2. Select the zipped file and Open to upload.
3. Complete the form as in steps #6 & 7 above and then click Upload File.  
4. As a final step you may reorder the pages of your activity if needed. Select Next. 
5. Select Finish. 

To access the pdf version of this article which includes screenshots, click here.