At Home with Elizabeth Dole

Copyright © 2003-2007
All Rights Reserved
All content herein
published with permission
and remains the intellectual
property of the contributor.

Site sponsored by...

New Ways to Express Your Creativity

While I fully believe we are all creative, I know creativity comes from many places within us and takes different expressions. Some of us are traditionally creative – artists, musicians, writers, designers. Others are more left-brained in their creativity – engineers, architects, scientists. Some of us have to find our own way of expressing our creativity.

When I was in my early 20’s, I had a boss (yes, at one time in my life I really did work for a living!) tell me I had creative common sense. While it took time, I realized solving problems, creating systems, and finding ways to explain technology, are ways I express my creativity. Just don’t ask me to sing or draw a straight line with a ruler.

Because much of my creativity goes through my left brain (the logical, analytical side), finding ways to use technology comes easily to me. I also know there are tools that will help anyone find ways to express her own creativity.

If you’re visually creative, you surely have discovered programs to do fun and creative graphics. If you prefer hand drawing things, you could use a pen input device or scanner to get your drawings into the computer. You may have discovered desktop publishing software to create greeting cards, fliers, brochures, buttons, stickers, posters, and more.

If you’re graphically-challenged like me, those programs are even more helpful. Clipart and stock photos are plentiful and can be customized. I modify the colors of clipart to fit the color scheme of my project for a more polished look. Templates for fliers, brochures, and more are readily available. Instead of using a professional program, use Microsoft Publisher. It has tons of templates and wizards. A great place to start for clipart and templates is the Microsoft Office website: http://office.microsoft.com/home/default.aspx.

There are other hardware and software tools that help you express your creativity. One of the best ways for me to come up with ideas is to go for a walk. I bring my digital recorder so I can easily capture my thoughts. A wireless keyboard and mouse lets you sit where/how you’re comfortable. And, color printers are affordable for any budget.

I use a mind mapping program, MindManager (http://www.mindjet.com/), for brainstorming, project management, planning, and anything else I can find. I’m even experimenting with using it for presentations. I find it especially helpful for things that would normally be very left-brained (like project management) because it engages my right-brain, creative side. Instead of putting things in a sequential list, which locks me in, I use graphics, text boxes, and lines to arrange and connect items. It keeps me flexible and open to new ideas and ways of seeing things.

Another way I express my creativity is by creating products. I’ve created screensavers, posters, tips software, and an ebook. Besides more of all of these, my major project is creating a multimedia tutorial for Microsoft Word. I’ve also started using a program that lets me create movies from graphics files (I’m not sure what I’ll create with it, but it’s fun playing).

You can create CDs with audio (music or voice), video, graphics and text to promote your business, serve as a holiday greeting card or to share memories with friends and family.

One way I get ideas for things to create is by getting demos, samples, and trial products. Most software programs come with samples of what you can do with the product (many have them viewable on their website).

While I may not have the skills or tools (or time!) to do everything I want, I do find a few tools that are versatile enough to create different things and learn those. Besides presentations, Microsoft PowerPoint does other things as well. A free download from Microsoft, PowerPoint Producer, lets you add narration, video, a second audio track, and more to create stand-alone presentations (distributable on CD or the web). Or, you can use it to create a screensaver of quotes. Choose a template, type a quote per slide, and then save each slide as a graphics file (it’s under the File, Save As menu). Then, use a screensaver creator to turn those graphics into a screensaver.

For ideas on things you can do with technology, try these sites:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/default.mspx

The key to using technology to express your creativity is knowing what kind of creativity you have and finding the tools that unleash it. The best part is, when you’re doing something you love, learning the tools is so much easier.

If you want to brainstorm ideas, feel free to contact me. Remember, finding ways to use technology is one of my favorite ways to express my creativity.