ExamWritePad

[howartp]

An alternative to inserting images is that candidates are allowed to submit multiple answer scripts.

 

So they could type full exam on EWP except the drawing question, which they draw on paper.

 

If broken arm then a scribe can draw what they’re told/pointing at.

[MrWu]

Hi

 

Has anyone had issues with the latest LTSC 2019 Win 10 working with Examwritepad? works great there's just one quirk that at random times the print dialogue (point where you enter candidate print info) goes behind examwritepad and locks up but you can't get to that pop up to respond.

 

Not a huge issue (the invigilators use Impero to close that print dialogue thats sitting behind examwordpad, but anyone else experiencing this? (again its not all the time)

[k-strider]

ive seen this but our exam laptops run 8.1 when printing to PDF the dialouge gets stuck behind examwritepad

[Cthulhu]

Do you have Top Most Priority enabled? I had the same issue when we first started using EWP and I found this to be the cause. Switching DisableTopMostPriority to 1 fixed it for me.

[ass17]

ive seen this but our exam laptops run 8.1 when printing to PDF the dialouge gets stuck behind examwritepad

 

which PDF printer are you using?

 

I test EWP with PrimoPDF and always works for me...

[ass17]

OK everyone,

 

I'm back home now from holidays and will get round to sorting out all the issues listed in this forum. Bare with me, I don't expect them to be sorted before the finish of the exam season but will try!!

 

:-)

[ass17]

How to get the latest version?

1) Check for updates from within EWP if you have v2.5 or higher

2) Download Link: https://sheldnet.co.uk/examwritepad/ExamWritePad_2600.zip

 

Changelog and information

CHANGED: Backup file names with naming convention like actual file saves, no problem.

 

FIXED: Centre name can now be blank as before v2.5 and will not throw up an error if using a JCQ exam board.

 

FIXED: When 'DisableWinKeys' was enabled it stopped the down arrow key from working and the zoom out key combination.

 

ADDED: New config options 'SpellCheck_DisableSuggestionsContextMenu' and 'SpellCheck_DisableSpellAsYouTypeUnderline' have been added to aid speeding up the spell checking process and for those that may be experiencing issues with the right-click context menu in general. The whole spell check function is from a third party built in 2010, so I can only do limited things with it.

 

'SpellCheck_DisableSuggestionsContextMenu' will disable any suggestions from being displayed on the right-click context menu.

'SpellCheck_DisableSpellAsYouTypeUnderline' will completely disable the spelling context menu and spell check as you type (red underline).

 

Just to give you an idea of speed/timings: a 10,000 word EWP file with 100 spelling mistakes take around 40 seconds to load the spell check window. 5,000 words and 50 spelling mistakes takes 8 seconds. Using an Intel Core i5-8250U (1.6GHz) Quad-Core Processor, 8GB RAM, SSD Disk.

 

ADDED: 'DisableClock' config option to stop the clock from showing/running. If you don’t need it, then disable it so that in future I will know or have a better idea if the status bar disappearing is related to the clock or not.

 

ADDED: 'DisableCharacterCounts' and 'DisableWordCounts' can now be disabled via config option. They will do as their name suggests.

 

ADDED: Inserting Images - Basic version now implemented on the mini toolbar only, this is disabled by default via config option 'DisableInsertingImages' and value set to 1. When inserting images, please note that when using double line spacing, the line height of the line after the image is the same height as the image. This is by design of the double line spacing method using PInvoke Win32 API calls and cannot be altered.

 

KNOWN ISSUE: The information on the status bar disappears and replaced with a red box. I think the issue is related to the clock. (Only few reported incidents)

 

KNOWN ISSUE: After clicking on start new exam and candidate window not appearing, I cannot replicate using the supplied config file from the single reported incident. This is marked as an ongoing incident.

 

NOT IMPLEMENTED: Tables - No chance, doesn’t work well with rich textboxes even with the right RTF specification. Text goes outside the cell boxes and can resize grid after creation, totally not workable. This may appear in later builds using a different framework.

[rheibel]

Changelog and information

CHANGED: Backup file names with naming convention like actual file saves, no problem.

 

Many thanks for the quick addition.

[MrWu]

Do you have Top Most Priority enabled? I had the same issue when we first started using EWP and I found this to be the cause. Switching DisableTopMostPriority to 1 fixed it for me.

 

Hi

 

Thanks for the suggestion, have set this up on half the PCs in the room to test.

 

I have captured one of the laptops giving trouble and it seems theres no Print Document screen behind Examwritepad, it freezes but running Impero it seems there's no print dialogue appearing so the screen remains greyed out, anyone had this behaviour before?

 

thanks all!

 

[ass17]

Hi

 

Thanks for the suggestion, have set this up on half the PCs in the room to test.

 

I have captured one of the laptops giving trouble and it seems theres no Print Document screen behind Examwritepad, it freezes but running Impero it seems there's no print dialogue appearing so the screen remains greyed out, anyone had this behaviour before?

 

thanks all!

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]53636[/ATTACH]

 

Not seen this before and what is interesting is that the boxes are all empty. You cannot print until the boxes are filled in, until all the boxes are filled the print dialogue window will not appear.

[MrWu]

Not seen this before and what is interesting is that the boxes are all empty. You cannot print until the boxes are filled in, until all the boxes are filled the print dialogue window will not appear.

 

Ah I blanked out the boxes for privacy, all boxes were filled in.... so the Windows print dialogue won't appear until the Exampad box has been filled in properly..I willcheck...

[Cthulhu]

Ah I blanked out the boxes for privacy, all boxes were filled in.... so the Windows print dialogue won't appear until the Exampad box has been filled in properly..I willcheck...

 

Also something to note, I've had issues printing when I customised some of the items under Exam Boards. I reverted the options back to default and printing worked fine.

[ass17]

Also something to note, I've had issues printing when I customised some of the items under Exam Boards. I reverted the options back to default and printing worked fine.

 

If you change the options or add your own then coversheet will not work as it is hard coded text.

 

I will change it next time so that any non-standard board will use the JCQ coversheet.

[Cthulhu]

Two things -

 

1) Had several more crashes with Spellcheck. Menu bar etc still resposive and can you save, just the window with text is unresponsive.

Closing down and re-opening fixes the issue.

 

2) Had a new document open without double linespacing, despite it being enabled as default in the config. Double Linespacing was applied when the document was closed and re-opened.

 

We're using the latesest version.

[ass17]

Two things -

 

1) Had several more crashes with Spellcheck. Menu bar etc still resposive and can you save, just the window with text is unresponsive.

Closing down and re-opening fixes the issue.

 

2) Had a new document open without double linespacing, despite it being enabled as default in the config. Double Linespacing was applied when the document was closed and re-opened.

 

We're using the latesest version.

 

Have you disabled spell as you type? Then the user will have to click on spell check each time.

 

This could narrow it down to a specific feature.

[Cthulhu]

I can give it a try if it happens again.

 

Also it seems to crash when a user right clicks on a word.

[ass17]

I can give it a try if it happens again.

 

Thanks

[Cthulhu]

The student that had the linespacing issue as had it happen again. Double linespacing was definately there when I closed and re-opened the document. I've left it for the time being as don't want to disturb the exam any further.

[ass17]

The student that had the linespacing issue as had it happen again. Double linespacing was definately there when I closed and re-opened the document. I've left it for the time being as don't want to disturb the exam any further.

 

If you have spell as you type on so it underlines spelling mistakes, when you right click on the word and select the correct spelling, it reverts to single line spacing. I cannot do anything about this at the moment.

 

Hence why I suggested to disable spell as you type. You might get better results in terms of stability and speed.

[Garacesh]

2) Had a new document open without double linespacing, despite it being enabled as default in the config. Double Linespacing was applied when the document was closed and re-opened.

We had a document single-line spaced, and then suddenly changed to double-spacing. If you highlighted the text and changed it 'back' via the formatting bar, it went back fine.

No idea if it was a bug, a keybind accidentally triggered, or if the kid manually changed it to be awkward. Wasn't in the exam when it happened.

[Cthulhu]

If you have spell as you type on so it underlines spelling mistakes, when you right click on the word and select the correct spelling, it reverts to single line spacing. I cannot do anything about this at the moment.

 

Hence why I suggested to disable spell as you type. You might get better results in terms of stability and speed.

Ah understood, I didn't understand that you meant these were related.

[rheibel]

For those who are having difficulty printing with symptoms such as: printer selection is behind ExamWritePad or Coversheet prints fine then printing the candidates exam work the program freezes. check the event log under the users profile > appdata >local > Temp. I found the log had an access denied XML error such as the one bellow on each Candidate PC affected by printing issues today. I did not get a proper chance to test before I finished for the day, but looks like a permissions issue on the network share where the backup files are stored. If stored locally in the default location then no issue printing. I gave everyone full Control on the network share on 2 test PC’s after today's exam and had no issue printing.

 

 

 

The backup file has the following permissions when created locally:

 

 

SYSTEM > Full Control

 

User > Full Control

 

Administrators > Full Control

 

Everyone > read

 

My network share had:

 

Creator Owner > Full Control

 

Administrators > Full Control

 

There is no System or Everyone permission. What user account is used for printing? I relay need to test this further tomorrow but simple solution is store both work and backups locally not on the network. Odd thing is this dose not happen every-time so killing examWritePad and opening again works about 50% of the time as dose logging the user in to another PC , with no changes to the permissions.

 

There are no issues saving either to the users %homedrive% or the network backup location during the exam only access denied error is when printing.

 

04/06/2019 15:53:31: OpenXML - System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path '\\10.x.x.x\Examwork\ExamWritePad\04-06-2019-15-53-31.ExamTextBackup' is denied. at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath) at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy, Boolean useLongPath, Boolean checkHost) at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize) at System.Xml.XmlDownloadManager.GetStream(Uri uri, ICredentials credentials, IWebProxy proxy, RequestCachePolicy cachePolicy) at System.Xml.XmlUrlResolver.GetEntity(Uri absoluteUri, String role, Type ofObjectToReturn) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.OpenUrlDelegate(Object xmlResolver) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData) at System.Threading.CompressedStack.Run(CompressedStack compressedStack, ContextCallback callback, Object state) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.OpenUrl() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read() at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace) at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader) at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(String filename) at ExamWritePad.RichTextEditor.Form2.OpenXML(String FilePath)

[ass17]

For those who are having difficulty printing with symptoms such as: printer selection is behind ExamWritePad or Coversheet prints fine then printing the candidates exam work the program freezes. check the event log under the users profile > appdata >local > Temp. I found the log had an access denied XML error such as the one bellow on each Candidate PC affected by printing issues today. I did not get a proper chance to test before I finished for the day, but looks like a permissions issue on the network share where the backup files are stored. If stored locally in the default location then no issue printing. I gave everyone full Control on the network share on 2 test PC’s after today's exam and had no issue printing.

 

 

 

The backup file has the following permissions when created locally:

 

 

SYSTEM > Full Control

 

User > Full Control

 

Administrators > Full Control

 

Everyone > read

 

My network share had:

 

Creator Owner > Full Control

 

Administrators > Full Control

 

There is no System or Everyone permission. What user account is used for printing? I relay need to test this further tomorrow but simple solution is store both work and backups locally not on the network. Odd thing is this dose not happen every-time so killing examWritePad and opening again works about 50% of the time as dose logging the user in to another PC , with no changes to the permissions.

 

There are no issues saving either to the users %homedrive% or the network backup location during the exam only access denied error is when printing.

 

04/06/2019 15:53:31: OpenXML - System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path '\\10.x.x.x\Examwork\ExamWritePad\04-06-2019-15-53-31.ExamTextBackup' is denied. at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath) at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy, Boolean useLongPath, Boolean checkHost) at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize) at System.Xml.XmlDownloadManager.GetStream(Uri uri, ICredentials credentials, IWebProxy proxy, RequestCachePolicy cachePolicy) at System.Xml.XmlUrlResolver.GetEntity(Uri absoluteUri, String role, Type ofObjectToReturn) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.OpenUrlDelegate(Object xmlResolver) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData) at System.Threading.CompressedStack.Run(CompressedStack compressedStack, ContextCallback callback, Object state) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.OpenUrl() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read() at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace) at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader) at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(String filename) at ExamWritePad.RichTextEditor.Form2.OpenXML(String FilePath)

 

Thanks for this, because I don’t get the error when I test it on my network it’s difficult to understand problems without details this you supplied.

 

What is interesting is why is it calling the OpenXML function to load the a file from a backup location.

 

I will have to check this as it shouldn’t load anything and take text from the richtextbox and the details from stored variables.

 

I do know that when attempting to print EWP should generate a backup file just in case the printing goes titsup but this isn’t necessary as the file is saved before printing. So I don’t need both happening if you see what I mean.

 

I think moving forward with EWP3 which is currently under consideration and development I will actively be going through the whole codebase and taking out unnecessary calls and checks. Thus streamlining the whole app.

 

The only issue I will have is the spellchecker so I might have to move from WinForms to WPF in order to use the native spellcheck within WPF rich text editing.

 

Long term with EWP4 I’m hoping it will move over to .NET Core 3 thus making it cross platform on macOS and Linux, sometime in 2021 and hopefully using a different framework for rich text editing that will allow basically a clone of Microsoft Word functionality.

 

Without your help and support I couldn’t have got this to where it is today!

 

Big big thank you [emoji1][emoji1303]

[UmerIT]

Hello,

 

Is there a way to convert the students work to PDF?

 

Regards

[ass17]

Install a pdf printer and print it that way to PDF. I use primoPDF.

 

I’m thinking of allowing a built conversion to PDF but it’s for future versions.