ExamWritePad

[ass17]

No add-ins, don’t know where you got that from.

 

photo magician is a side project I did years before EWP, I have bought it back to life a few months ago so I’m giving it a little air time on the footer.

 

It is a separate product with its own website.

 

No up sell in EWP. Both totally independent.

[mavhc]

The ads are in WordPad https://twitter.com/WithinRafael/status/1219407568583319553

[ass17]

The ads are in WordPad https://twitter.com/WithinRafael/status/1219407568583319553

 

I see, well best time to use EWP as a basic word processor. [emoji1][emoji1303]

[Iansl2020]

Sorry this does not add to the development of EWP (other than a morale boost maybe!) but I just wanted to thank the author/authors? of this excellent, very well written and thought out piece of software that I am hoping to begin using in our school.

 

I have only one comment that I struggled to find an answer to on the EWP website - it doesn't look like there is but can I clarify, is there a cost to use it?

 

Thanks once again from our staff and students!

 

Ian

[ass17]

Sorry this does not add to the development of EWP (other than a morale boost maybe!) but I just wanted to thank the author/authors? of this excellent, very well written and thought out piece of software that I am hoping to begin using in our school.

 

I have only one comment that I struggled to find an answer to on the EWP website - it doesn't look like there is but can I clarify, is there a cost to use it?

 

Thanks once again from our staff and students!

 

Ian

 

Thanks for your kind words,

 

EWP will continue to be free to use with no up-sell or built-in adverts. Makes life easier for everyone!!

 

Enjoy...[emoji1][emoji1303]

[DrewMcC]

Hello ExamWritePad!

 

We've recently looked at using this application for exams within our school and it's a brilliant bit of software, but we've hit a rather large issue;

 

When I changed the value of "Startup_FullscreenMode" from 0 to 1, the full screen mode doesn't work quite well.

 

Instead, it sits on the user's machine similar to an application running in windowed border-less, it can be moved around and the desktop and task bar can still be accessed. This means that students who, when launching the application shouldn't be able to access anything else while the application running can now mess around.

 

The window can be either double-clicked or moved to the top of the screen to snap it into full screen but I don't expect them to do something like that.

 

Is there any advice that you can provide for us to get around this at all? We don't want it sitting on the machine like a standard application, but without this feature working we won't be able to implement it at all.

 

I really appreciate any and all help.

 

Cheers!

 

Drew

[ass17]

Hello ExamWritePad!

 

We've recently looked at using this application for exams within our school and it's a brilliant bit of software, but we've hit a rather large issue;

 

When I changed the value of "Startup_FullscreenMode" from 0 to 1, the full screen mode doesn't work quite well.

 

Instead, it sits on the user's machine similar to an application running in windowed border-less, it can be moved around and the desktop and task bar can still be accessed. This means that students who, when launching the application shouldn't be able to access anything else while the application running can now mess around.

 

The window can be either double-clicked or moved to the top of the screen to snap it into full screen but I don't expect them to do something like that.

 

Is there any advice that you can provide for us to get around this at all? We don't want it sitting on the machine like a standard application, but without this feature working we won't be able to implement it at all.

 

I really appreciate any and all help.

 

Cheers!

 

Drew

 

New version this issue is fixed, but for now set the option in the config called disablecontrolboxes back to 0 then the full screen functions ok.

 

 

disablecontrolboxes is deprecated in the new version out next week so isn’t an issue moving forward.

[DrewMcC]

Ah thank you so much! I'm glad to hear a new version will be out next week, we'll keep our eyes peeled.

 

Really appreciate it.

[Iansl2020]

I have only found one small issue.

 

I have the config forced to save the file immediately after completing the exam credentials. When this initial save is done, a notification pops up to say it has saved successfully and it somehow manages to make a notification bong noise even though the sound is muted on my PC (set to a volume higher than zero but muted) and I have mute the sound selected in the config file.

 

I guess this will only generally happen at the beginning of the exam and I am planning on sliding the volume down to zero on the PC's to prevent it anyway so not a biggie.

 

Thanks again for the software, Ian.

[ass17]

I have only found one small issue.

 

I have the config forced to save the file immediately after completing the exam credentials. When this initial save is done, a notification pops up to say it has saved successfully and it somehow manages to make a notification bong noise even though the sound is muted on my PC (set to a volume higher than zero but muted) and I have mute the sound selected in the config file.

 

I guess this will only generally happen at the beginning of the exam and I am planning on sliding the volume down to zero on the PC's to prevent it anyway so not a biggie.

 

Thanks again for the software, Ian.

 

Not sure about that one but in the new version you can suppress the save information boxes so they don’t appear in the config. It’s one thing less for the user to have to click on :-)

[Iansl2020]

Not sure about that one but in the new version you can suppress the save information boxes so they don’t appear in the config. It’s one thing less for the user to have to click on :-)

 

Hi, thanks for that. I am using 3750 but cannot see that config option. It must be right in front of my nose but can you help me find it?

 

Thanks,

 

Ian

[ass17]

Hi, thanks for that. I am using 3750 but cannot see that config option. It must be right in front of my nose but can you help me find it?

 

Thanks,

 

Ian

 

It’s in the new version next week [emoji1303][emoji1]

[ass17]

Just for your reference, as promised, are the release notes so you can prepare for anything that may be of interest.

 

 

 

· NEW: Ability to auto print a coversheet after printing the main document. There is now a checkbox next to each Coversheet print button that you can manually set. Or set option ‘PrintCoverSheet_Form2_AfterDocumentPrint’ or ‘PrintCoverSheet_Form4_AfterDocumentPrint’ to 1 in the config, to have the auto print turned on without the candidate having to do it.

 

· NEW: ExamWritePad now uses an XML Schema XSD file to detect any errors in the ExamText files you are trying to load. What used to happen is if you loaded/opened an incorrectly formatted ExamText file then the main document window would be blank. It’s now as simple as “now you see me, or I quit” outcome. The schema XSD file resides in the ‘Assemblies’ folder, so please do not move it or else you cannot open or save EWP files.

 

· NEW: You can now retrieve all Candidate Names for Active Directory which will be displayed in a drop-down list on the Candidate Information window. The config options you need to look out for to set this up are: ‘AD_GetCandidateNames’, ‘AD_GetCandidateNames’, ‘AD_OU’, ‘AD_Auth_User’, ’AD_Auth_Pass’ and ‘AD_LDAPServer’. All LDAP connections are now via SSL (port 636) hence the request for a username and password. NOTE: This depens on how you have formattd to the first name (given name) and surname (sn) fields in AD.

 

· NEW: ‘Test Default Printer’ Button now includes the computer name, IP Address and Username on the test printout. This has been added for situations where you have multiple computers printing to the same printer.

 

· NEW: You can now specify the following defaults in the config: Candidate Name, Candidate Number and Exam Board. These options appear in the config editor as ‘ExamDefaultCandidateName’, ‘ExamDefaultCandidateNumber’ and ‘ExamDefaultBoard’.

 

· NEW: Candidate Information screen, when re-editing the information, upon clicking “Exit” will display a yes/no message box to suggest there are unsaved changes. ‘Yes’ will cancel the exit allowing you to click on ‘Save and Exit’ and ‘No’ will exit without saving changes.

 

· NEW: Added new option “Supress_Save_Messages” to supress the two saved file message boxes to aid the efficiency. Displaying these types of boxes sometimes are deemed overkill and unnecessary. ConfigEditorGUI has also had this option added.

 

· FIXED: Encrypted ExamText files that try to run on EWP with no specified/incorrectly specified encryption key, would open up blank then you click on save or wait for the autosave timer to elapse and it would save also, overwriting all the work in the file. Now when you try to open an encrypted file it will go through a verification check before loading it or quitting the open file process with an error. You will no longer get a blank screen and the possible of losing your encrypted file.

 

· FIXED: When 'Save Prompt After Candidate Info Screen' and 'Auto Save' are both enabled, if you leave open the ‘Save As’ dialog window and the Auto Save Interval has elapsed, a second ‘Save As’ window will appear. The Auto Save Interval has now been set to start after the ‘Save As’ dialog has been closed, thus now only one will appear.

 

· FIXED: Restoring from Previous version via the splash screen, with also having option “Startup_SavePromptAfterCandidateInfoScreen” set to 1 would force you to save the same file twice.

 

· FIXED: Error handling information has been added to those handlers that didn’t have any at all.

 

· FIXED: ConfigEditorGUI when clicking on “Reset to Defaults” would not offer the save changes on closing the application.

 

· FIXED: Fullscreen didn’t work when the ‘Startup_FullscreenMode’ was set to 1 along with option ‘DisableControlBoxes’ also set to 1. The latter option ‘DisableControlBoxes’ has now been removed and depreciated is it doesn’t serve a purpose. You either want a full screen with no control boxes (‘Startup_FullscreenMode’ = 1) or a normal screen with control boxes (‘Startup_FullscreenMode’ = 0).

 

· FIXED: All text boxes and Combo boxes, when right clicking on them, bought up a generic context menu that isn’t relevant and pointless, all these menus have been removed so that the only context menu you now have is the main document window.

 

· UPDATED: TXTextControl control has been updated to service pack 2, to fix known issues including an issue where message boxes appear behind the main EWP window when in full screen mode when using the Find/Replace option.

 

· UPDATED: ConfigEditorGUI has been update to v3.9.0.0 to align itself with the new/deprecated EWP config options.

Edited February 26, 2020 by ass17

[CHiLL]

Got another request - don't know how you'd feel about it. I have configured ours to auto-save every x minutes and it creates an auto-save file in save location. Some of our students are getting a little confused when it comes to save the final version manually because they're seeing all the auto-save files. Plus it adds a (small) amount of time when it comes for us to print them to find the final saved copy through the list of auto-saves.

 

Would it be possible to have these auto-saved files marked with a hidden attribute, so they aren't visible by default?

[ass17]

Got another request - don't know how you'd feel about it. I have configured ours to auto-save every x minutes and it creates an auto-save file in save location. Some of our students are getting a little confused when it comes to save the final version manually because they're seeing all the auto-save files. Plus it adds a (small) amount of time when it comes for us to print them to find the final saved copy through the list of auto-saves.

 

Would it be possible to have these auto-saved files marked with a hidden attribute, so they aren't visible by default?

 

Yes I’m sure I can do it but I’m confused.

 

The auto-save feature saves the file back to the same file name. So are you suggesting that every students saved files are sitting the same folder? If so, that is not best practise as any user could essentially open up another persons file copy their work.

 

I can create a config option that will allow the save to add a hidden attribute flag.

[CHiLL]

Yes I’m sure I can do it but I’m confused.

 

The auto-save feature saves the file back to the same file name. So are you suggesting that every students saved files are sitting the same folder? If so, that is not best practise as any user could essentially open up another persons file copy their work.

 

I can create a config option that will allow the save to add a hidden attribute flag.

No, the auto-save feature is configured to save to the Documents folder for each account.

 

When the student goes to manually save the document at the end of the exam and navigates to their Documents folder - they're seeing a lot of ExamWritePad files already there, which is all of the auto-saved files. I've attached a screenshot.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]56897[/ATTACH]

[ass17]

No, the auto-save feature is configured to save to the Documents folder for each account.

 

When the student goes to manually save the document at the end of the exam and navigates to their Documents folder - they're seeing a lot of ExamWritePad files already there, which is all of the auto-saved files. I've attached a screenshot.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]56897[/ATTACH]

 

Oh, you mean the auto-backups, I see!

 

Yep I can do as you wish

[ass17]

Oh, you mean the auto-backups, I see!

 

Yep I can do as you wish

 

The auto-save and auto-backup locations should ideally be in different places for various reason but ultimately it’s your choice an what paths you choose...

[CHiLL]

Oh, you mean the auto-backups, I see!

 

Yep I can do as you wish

Sorry, my mistake! I thought it was just auto-saves. Maybe I've gone overkill, I only enabled it because we've had a scenario where a student had written out their exam and then accidentally deleted it and closed the application before coming to me to print it. It turns out the auto-save feature had kicked in and auto-saved the blank document. Because the application had been closed, I couldn't undo the changes and couldn't figure out another way to get that data back. Luckily it was just a mock exam.

[ass17]

Sorry, my mistake! I thought it was just auto-saves. Maybe I've gone overkill, I only enabled it because we've had a scenario where a student had written out their exam and then accidentally deleted it and closed the application before coming to me to print it. It turns out the auto-save feature had kicked in and auto-saved the blank document. Because the application had been closed, I couldn't undo the changes and couldn't figure out another way to get that data back. Luckily it was just a mock exam.

 

The auto backup feature stores copies in either the default location of the c:\ProgramData folder, or a path that you select in the config, so that if EWP is closed, you can reload EWP and go to previous history to recover the auto backup file, hence the time stamp in the file name.

 

If you separate out the save path and backup paths do you still need me to create the feature you requested?

[CHiLL]

The auto backup feature stores copies in either the default location of the c:\ProgramData folder, or a path that you select in the config, so that if EWP is closed, you can reload EWP and go to previous history to recover the auto backup file, hence the time stamp in the file name.

 

If you separate out the save path and backup paths do you still need me to create the feature you requested?

That makes sense, maybe I'll just use the default path instead. I just thought it might make life easier if it's all stored on the network.

 

I know some applications (like Microsoft Word) really don't like having auto-backup like features configured to a folder that doesn't exist. For example if I configure it to backup to H:\Documents\AutoSave but the AutoSave folder doesn't exist within Documents - it won't create the AutoSave folder for you and save the stuff in it, it will complain that the folder doesn't exist and breaks that feature. I'm assuming the same would happen with ExamWritePad?

 

I will change the configuration of our ExamWritePad to save to the default path, so no, you don't need to create this feature.

 

Thanks.

[ass17]

That makes sense, maybe I'll just use the default path instead. I just thought it might make life easier if it's all stored on the network.

 

I know some applications (like Microsoft Word) really don't like having auto-backup like features configured to a folder that doesn't exist. For example if I configure it to backup to H:\Documents\AutoSave but the AutoSave folder doesn't exist within Documents - it won't create the AutoSave folder for you and save the stuff in it, it will complain that the folder doesn't exist and breaks that feature. I'm assuming the same would happen with ExamWritePad?

 

I will change the configuration of our ExamWritePad to save to the default path, so no, you don't need to create this feature.

 

Thanks.

 

EWP creates the paths if they don’t exist. If that fails it goes to the users temp folder. So the features never break [emoji1][emoji1303]

[Bhavesh78]

Hi there.

Could you tell me if the spelling checker can be disabled on Exams Writepad software? before i install it onto student machine for their exams

 

Kind Regards

Bhav

[ass17]

Hi there.

Could you tell me if the spelling checker can be disabled on Exams Writepad software? before i install it onto student machine for their exams

 

Kind Regards

Bhav

 

Yes, via the config file, look for “Disable_Ribbon_Btn_Spelling” and set its value to 1.

[Bhavesh78]

Ahh i got it now.. i have managed to get it working.. woohoo.. now i can install this lovely software onto student laptop and uninstall office 365 word