ExamWritePad

[ass17]

Looks good here! Thanks.

 

Just two things...

 

The notice when saving says "Save Successfully" seems a little odd..

If you have the colour picker open and click New, you are unable to do anything... Seems like a popup opens behind which you can't see or click.

 

Do you mean the wording how it is written?

 

Yes I left that in on purpose to she what other people came back with, I also got the same issue. The main menu bar will be disabled while a dialog window is open for colour or previous version.

 

new version coming soon!!

[linkazoid]

Yeah, just the wording. Either Saved Successfully or something more grammatically correct.

 

Disabling the bar seems like the most logical solution

[ass17]

here you go, more fixes!!

 

ExamWritePad11-1520.zip

[ass17]

Can I also mention a little DISCLAIMER to say please do not come back to me if all hell breaks loose!

Please put the software through your own high standards of testing and when you are happy to use it in a live environment, then you will ultimately take responsibility, not me.

This is why I'm releasing it now to give you a good solid month of testing before the exams start.

 

I also hate disclaimers but I have to cover my own backside as I'm sure you can understand :-)

[ass17]

Spread the word to all educators! ExamWritePad is here

[ass17]

any joy folks with the new versions? Seems to work for me now on all windows platforms (7/8/8.1/10).

[linkazoid]

Working fine here now, using Windows 8.1

 

Thank you for developing this!

[BKGarry]

Tested on Win 7 32 and 64 bit and win10 64bit.

 

All working great

[ass17]

ExamWritePad-v12.zip

 

****NEW****

 

Attached is version 1.2

 

Changed in this version is now the ability to keep 24 hours worth of backup previous versions but remember only the last 1 hour worth are available within the software. When the software runs it auto deletes anything prior to 24 hours. It keep the backup folder nice and tidy

 

Added also is a small help button to mention the disclaimer, credit the icon creators and also where to get tech support from (redirects to this thread).

 

------------

If all is well then this is the final version, unless people start requesting more features or post bugs...

 

Also remember that a new build number starts a new backup folder, so please delete any older version folders within c:\programdata

 

Enjoy!!

ExamWritePad-v12.zip

Edited March 24, 2016 by ass17

[CyberDrac]

Anyone else seeing that the previous saved version with the oldest timestamp is actually the new version?

Edited March 24, 2016 by CyberDrac

[ass17]

I'm going on holiday for a week so will take a look more closely when I'm back. Keep finding bugs/issues so that one day, just one day, I might be able to release a perfect product [emoji106]🏻[emoji106]🏻[emoji1]

[ass17]

ExamWritePad-v13.zip

****NEW****

 

Attached is version 1.3

 

Fixed - Auto backups are now saved correctly with the correct content.

Added - Auto backup on application close (just in case you forgot to manually save)

 

------------

If all is well then THIS is the final version, unless people start requesting more features or post bugs...

 

Also remember that a new build number starts a new backup folder, so please delete any older version folders within c:\programdata

 

And

backups/recovery files will save every 1 minute, by default, automatically (and on application close).

Other saves are to be done manually by clicking save (whether you have saved the file or not).

 

So in theory if you never save the file manually the previous versions on offer should allow you to restore right up to the exact point at which you last entered something

 

ExamWritePad-v13.zip

[CyberDrac]

A cheeky request but one that someone was probably going to ask for, so it might as well be me, is the option of having a customisable background colour as one of the options in the pallette, even it it is by modifying a hex number in the config?

[ass17]

A cheeky request but one that someone was probably going to ask for, so it might as well be me, is the option of having a customisable background colour as one of the options in the pallette, even it it is by modifying a hex number in the config?

 

I initially was going to use a colour wheel but thought it might be easier to give a basic selection.

 

I also was going to save the colour selection to the config but to be honest I always thought that the a different person would sit at a computer each time.

 

If I get enough time I might offer a custom colour selection in addition to the predefined ones.

 

I will definitely add a default back colour to the config file that will be a string of 255,255,255 (RGB) white.

Edited April 5, 2016 by ass17

[ass17]

A cheeky request but one that someone was probably going to ask for, so it might as well be me, is the option of having a customisable background colour as one of the options in the pallette, even it it is by modifying a hex number in the config?

 

As promised!!

 

ExamWritePad14.zip

 

****NEW****

 

Attached is version 1.4

 

Added - Change default background colour on startup via config (RGB only). For example white = 255,255,255

Added - Colour Selection Chart to specify any custom background colour in addtion to the predefined colours that already exist

 

------------

If all is well then THIS is the final version, unless people start requesting more features or post bugs...

 

Also remember that a new build number starts a new backup folder, so please delete any older version folders within c:\programdata

 

And

backups/recovery files will save every 1 minute, by default, automatically (and on application close).

Other saves are to be done manually by clicking save (whether you have saved the file or not).

 

So in theory if you never save the file manually the previous versions on offer should allow you to restore right up to the exact point at which you last entered something

 

ExamWritePad14.zip

[ass17]

If you find now more issues then please spread the word, I'd love for ExamWordPad to be the application for all exams!!

 

Just remember to install DotNetFramework 4 before launching the application

[mavhc]

Looks good, would be nice to make it open source.

 

Grammar correction, in Select a background colour window remove the comma after dyslexia. And when exiting there's a capitalised To in Do you want To save your work?

 

Also the cursor is hard to see with some bg colours.

 

Perhaps Copy/Cut/Paste/Select All icons could be added, as many people don't know the ctrl-keys (also there's no Select All ctrl-a at the moment)

 

Maybe a button to open the Character Map program for foreign language students.

Edited April 6, 2016 by mavhc

[ass17]

Looks good, would be nice to make it open source.

 

Grammar correction, in Select a background colour window remove the comma after dyslexia. And when exiting there's a capitalised To in Do you want To save your work?

 

Also the cursor is hard to see with some bg colours.

 

Perhaps Copy/Cut/Paste/Select All icons could be added, as many people don't know the ctrl-keys (also there's no Select All ctrl-a at the moment)

 

Maybe a button to open the Character Map program for foreign language students.

 

I'm pretty sure you can cut copy paste select via right mouse click, so I think it is ok to keep as I don't want to over subscribe with icons on the menu bar, but I will never say never.

 

The grammar on the two issues you highlighted I have sorted thanks.

 

With the cursor, it is difficult to detect a background and change the cursor colour accordingly, so what I might do is offer a selection of basic cursor colours on the background selection screen like white, black, red, green, blue.

 

The character map is a good idea so I will implement all the above in v1.5 later this week!!

 

I'm on a mission!!

[ass17]

ExamWritePad15.zip

****NEW****

 

Attached is version 1.5

 

Added - Ability to launch Character Map

Added - Simplified Context Menu on the textarea (Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Select All) options only.

 

------------

If all is well then THIS is the final version, unless people start requesting more features or post bugs...

 

Also remember that a new build number starts a new backup folder, so please delete any older version folders within c:\programdata

 

And

backups/recovery files will save every 1 minute, by default, automatically (and on application close).

Other saves are to be done manually by clicking save (whether you have saved the file or not).

 

So in theory if you never save the file manually the previous versions on offer should allow you to restore right up to the exact point at which you last entered something.

 

ExamWritePad15.zip

 

 

Looks good, would be nice to make it open source.

 

I don't want to make it open source until I give up the project. I've spent lots of hours on it so far and as you can appreciate :-)

 

Also the cursor is hard to see with some bg colours.

 

Not possible I'm sorry after further investigations. The only colours which is really affected is Grey and black. And to be fair, you shouldn't really use these colours anyway.

Edited April 6, 2016 by ass17

[mavhc]

I don't want to make it open source until I give up the project. I've spent lots of hours on it so far and as you can appreciate :-)

 

Not possible I'm sorry after further investigations. The only colours which is really affected is Grey and black. And to be fair, you shouldn't really use these colours anyway.

 

Your choice of course, although I find it's often more fun to work with other people.

 

Pity about the cursor, I was using grey, I find black on grey easier on my eyes than black on white. 99% of people won't change the colour anyway, so no big deal.

 

Interestingly I emailed Edexcel about their GCSE controlled assessment, and although they were checking S/P/G, as their main focus was on correct use of technical terms, they said using spellcheck etc in MSWord was fine. Which explained why their template file was a .doc file that didn't work in Wordpad.

[svardy]

Any chance of an option to have a header for student details(Name,Exam,StudentID,CentreID,etc...)?

 

This is something we would use a lot for organisation.

[ass17]

Any chance of an option to have a header for student details(Name,Exam,StudentID,CentreID,etc...)?

 

This is something we would use a lot for organisation.

 

Would you like it forced upon the user on first launch? So before they can start writing their exam answers, they must fill in the basics, that when printed would appear on the final printed out. Am I correct?

 

JCQ want ideally Name, Center no, candidate no, Paper details - printed on each page as a header

and on each footer page the page number.

They also want double spacing

Edited April 7, 2016 by ass17

[ass17]

Interestingly I emailed Edexcel about their GCSE controlled assessment, and although they were checking S/P/G, as their main focus was on correct use of technical terms, they said using spellcheck etc in MSWord was fine. Which explained why their template file was a .doc file that didn't work in Wordpad.

 

We use four/five boards so we just adhere to the which board has a more stringent criteria.

[svardy]

Yes on first launch would be great! and those details sound good too.

 

My line manager also mentioned that being able to increase font size and a little formatting(eg - alignment, etc...) could be useful for us.

 

Also is it possible for us to set a location for Auto backup? and even a default save location? We use exam accounts so to easily clear backups would be useful.

 

Thanks

[ass17]

Yes on first launch would be great! and those details sound good too.

 

My line manager also mentioned that being able to increase font size and a little formatting(eg - alignment, etc...) could be useful for us.

 

Also is it possible for us to set a location for Auto backup? and even a default save location? We use exam accounts so to easily clear backups would be useful.

 

Thanks

 

The font size can be changed in the config file. It is set to 12 by default as recommended by JCQ.

 

In terms of alignment, what specifically are you referring to so I can look into it.

 

In terms of the save locations it can be changed to anywhere else because Windows 10 permission issues. The "C:\ProgramData" folder is about the only folder any user has access to. So this will have to stay. The default save location is always the users desktop so it clearly visible to the user.

 

In terms of backups, when you launch the program it will delete any autosave backups that are over the 24 hour threshold (just incase of any emergencies). Currently what we are planning to do is after the final exam to be taken on a computer, we will come back 24 hours after the last exam finished and run ExamWritePad, It will then clear all backups, thus you shouldnt have any left in the ProgramData folder.