ExamWritePad

synaesthesia · January 20, 2020

Isn't Narrator sufficient for this?

ass17 · January 20, 2020

Isn't Narrator sufficient for this?

Never tried it to be honest

ass17 · January 20, 2020

I think I’m going to give it a go, I’m going to try to piggyback on the Windows 10 voice stuff, so moving forward if I can get narrating to work direct within EWP, this will be a win10 only feature, on other windows the feature will be automatically disabled.

Will report back in a week or so with what I have found.

ass17 · January 22, 2020

Quick update on “narrator” or “Text-to-speech”......

I’ve do it and will be ready in the next version. It’s better than windows narrator and I’ve also built in highlighting of the text to every spoken word. This bit I had to find a different way using the third party text control than using a visual studio control...

Only draw back if you do use the text highlighting within you document and you run the EWP narrator, it will reset the highlighting back to white/none. I can’t get around this....

I’m currently working on a solution to start the speech from any given cursor/caret position so you don’t have to always start from the beginning... but what I have done for now is a start.

It’s also in its very own ribbon tab that can be disabled by config if you have no plans to use it.

See image for a sneak peak [emoji3]

Edited January 22, 2020 by ass17

ass17 · January 24, 2020

Quick update:

I’m delaying the next release of EWP as I need to work through finalising the narrator.

Oh, and another bonus is I’ve decided to add an exam countdown timer. So that the candidates can see the start time, finish time and a live countdown in hours:mins, this includes extra time % if specified.

Hence the delays, but all for the better I think you’ll agree!!

simpsonj · January 24, 2020

Quick update:

I’m delaying the next release of EWP as I need to work through finalising the narrator.

Oh, and another bonus is I’ve decided to add an exam countdown timer. So that the candidates can see the start time, finish time and a live countdown in hours:mins, this includes extra time % if specified.

Hence the delays, but all for the better I think you’ll agree!!

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think students are allowed to see a countdown of time remaining in exams:

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/how-do-you-do/212529-alternative-laptop-clocks-exams-3.html

ass17 · January 24, 2020

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think students are allowed to see a countdown of time remaining in exams:

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/how-do-you-do/212529-alternative-laptop-clocks-exams-3.html

It’s was put in at the request for mocks and other internal exams by a few people on here.

The decision to use it in the finals is down to the exam officer. Can’t say I’ve seen anything but the clocks bit is not in the same section as the Word Processing stuff on JCQ and CIE.

Linfit · January 24, 2020

Yep - countdown timers are explicitly not allowed and have not been for a couple of years.

Its in the ICE booklet - Section 11.7 "Countdown and 'count up' clocks are not permissible".

There is in fact a broader issue with clocks on laptops because there can be issues if they do not show the same time as the "official" clocks in the exam room and the canddiate relies on that rather than the clock on the wall.

We have had that come up a couple of times here in the last few years: not sure what can be done about it though.

Edited January 24, 2020 by Linfit

ass17 · January 24, 2020

Yep - countdown timers are explicitly not allowed and have not been for a couple of years.
Its in the ICE booklet - Section 11.7 "Countdown and 'count up' clocks are not permissible.

There is in fact a broader issue with clocks on laptops because there can be issues if they do not show the same time as the "official" clocks in the exam room and the canddiate relies on that rather than the clock on the wall.
We have had that come up a couple of times here in the last few years: not sure what can be done about it though.

With EWP, you can put the app in full screen to hide the taskbar clock, and you can also set the config to disable show the internal EWP date/time.

No clocks what so ever them [emoji6][emoji1303]

ass17 · January 24, 2020

The countdown timer will be disabled by default so you don’t have to worry in finals.

Zammo · January 24, 2020

You can hide the clock:

https://superuser.com/questions/1417624/how-can-i-hide-the-clock-from-windows-10-taskbar

https://www.sevenforums.com/customization/114473-hide-time-date-taskbar.html

ass17 · January 24, 2020

You can hide the clock:

https://superuser.com/questions/1417624/how-can-i-hide-the-clock-from-windows-10-taskbar

https://www.sevenforums.com/customization/114473-hide-time-date-taskbar.html

Let EWP do all the work for you [emoji1][emoji6]

mavhc · January 27, 2020

Wonder why they added that countdown clocks aren't allowed.

Now that Wordpad is going to have ads in it, more reason to use EWP. What's your plan for the long term existence of this software? Open source? Starting a business?

ass17 · January 27, 2020

Wonder why they added that countdown clocks aren't allowed.

Now that Wordpad is going to have ads in it, more reason to use EWP. What's your plan for the long term existence of this software? Open source? Starting a business?

Long term is always free to download and free to use. Open source, probably no, as it’s taken me 4 years to get this far and given the fact I have put in everything everyone has asked for, it doesn’t warrant others jumping on board. If I gave up the project then yes it would be open sourced on a repository somewhere.

I don’t need to advertise to obtain funds, as the very few donations and my own money have got the project this far and will continue to do so for the foreseeable.

I really hope people can help push this product to other schools, there are just under 7000 establishments that could benefit from this software and I’m guessing I’m only in around 400-500 of those schools right now.

So if your exams officers are members of Facebook groups or have linked in accounts they need to be pushing EWP to others.

I’m always open to ideas, offers, donations, free publicity [emoji1] as I feel this is the best out there for the purpose it was designed for....

Thanks to everyone so far and I can’t wait to release v3.7.5.0 next week to you all[emoji1303]

mavhc · January 27, 2020

A promise to open source it if you give up on working on it is good enough, thanks

ass17 · January 27, 2020

A promise to open source it if you give up on working on it is good enough, thanks

I wouldn’t want to see something like this go to waste, it’s the right thing to do [emoji3][emoji1303]

ass17 · January 27, 2020

In an unusual turn of events, I will be publishing the release notes before the download so you all can have an idea of the new stuff, fixes and updates. As it stands now, there are 16 new features, 17 fixes and 4 updates. THis makes it the biggest release since v3 in September. These will be posted here on Wednesday, for a software release on 1st Feb.

F_admin · January 28, 2020

I seem to have an issue relating to ExamWritepad, where when I open the .exe (as a shortcut on the desktop) - it opens up a window and states the below:

'Search for app in the Store?''You need to install an app for this task.Would you like to search for one in the store?'

If I click 'No' then the application opens which is fine, but I was wondering if anyone else had the same issue.

This is on a VM (soon to be exam build) running Windows 10 x64 1909

I've amended the local group policy to remove the option to look for apps in store (as per. https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/91453-remove-look-app-store-open-windows-10-a.html ) but to no luck.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. Thanks for providing a brilliant exam tool, you are a saviour!

F_Admin

Edited January 28, 2020 by F_admin

ass17 · January 28, 2020

I seem to have an issue relating to ExamWritepad, where when I open the .exe (as a shortcut on the desktop) - it opens up a window and states the below:

'Search for app in the Store?''You need to install an app for this task.Would you like to search for one in the store?'

If I click 'No' then the application opens which is fine, but I was wondering if anyone else had the same issue.

This is on a VM (soon to be exam build) running Windows 10 x64 1909
I've amended the local group policy to remove the option to look for apps in store (as per. https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/91453-remove-look-app-store-open-windows-10-a.html ) but to no luck.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
P.S. Thanks for providing a brilliant exam tool, you are a saviour!
F_Admin

Never had this issue before, how weird!

Do you VMs have a suitable PDF viewer installed? This is the only thing I can think of but it is not initialised until you click on documentation.

Can you send me a video of what is happening to see if I can shed some light on it, thanks.

F_admin · January 28, 2020

Thanks for such a prompt reply - I'll download a pdf viewer on the VM, as it doesn't have one installed currently and I'll try again.

If that doesn't work I'll create a video of the process - knowing Microsoft I wouldn't be surprised if it was an issue on their side :-)

bald_pig · January 29, 2020

Thanks for such a prompt reply - I'll download a pdf viewer on the VM, as it doesn't have one installed currently and I'll try again.
If that doesn't work I'll create a video of the process - knowing Microsoft I wouldn't be surprised if it was an issue on their side :-)

Do you have the correct .NET and C++ runtime installed?

ass17 · January 29, 2020

Do you have the correct .NET and C++ runtime installed?

.net on 1909 is already installed but if the C++ runtime wasn’t the app wouldn’t run.

At this point I’m taking a punt on a pdf reader not being installed but could be wrong [emoji1]

ass17 · January 29, 2020

As promised, below are the release notes for the new version out this weekend.

NEW

• NEW: Config settings are now stored in a JSON file, instead of XML.

• NEW: ConfigEditorGUI has been re-written and overhauled, making it easier to use and less clunky. Biggest difference is that the config file now needs to be in JSON format instead of the old XML style. Reason? It is easier to work. New features include: automatically adding missing config options upon loading your existing config, you can in your existing config set it back to default values, you can also import an existing older XML config and import your existing settings to the new JSON config.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS: ExamWritePad will now be using the JSON config settings as its primary means but if you have not yet converted over, do not worry as EWP will still work with the older XML config settings. EWP will look for ExamWritePadSettings.json (JSON config) first, then if not available will look for ExamWritePad.exe.config (XML config), else load the defaults built into EWP if no configs are found. For example, if you have an older XML that you wish to use, you MUST rename or remove the ExamWritePadSettings.json file or else EWP will load it and ignore the XML file. Version 4 of EWP will be JSON only.

• NEW: A ‘Narrator’ has been added to EWP to aid those that require a basic form of text-to-speech. Please see section below “Narrator – Installing Text-to-Speech languages in Windows 10” for guidance on installing the required voices. A new config option has been created called “Disable_Narrator” which will allow you to hide the narrator tab from view if you have no need for it. Narrator will read the text from any cursor position or you can highlight a section of text and it will read just that selection. Each spoken word will also be highlighted in grey. If you have set to ‘MuteSystemAudio’ to enabled in the config, the narrator will turn it on, speak, then mute upon finish.

• NEW: Layout flows have been introduced to the whole ribbon bar so that if you disable a button, the other buttons will move up and close the empty space/gaps, give the ribbon bar a better flow and feel.

• NEW: ‘How to locate your Syllabus/Unit codes’ dialog has been added to give a visual guide as to where to look on your question paper for the codes needed to fill the candidate information details. To access this feature, select an Exam Board from the drop-down selection and then a blue message will appear in-between the code boxes , click on the text or ? symbol to display a visual guidance.

• NEW: You can now preview the header/footer before printing. Right-click on the first page only, select ‘Preview Header/Footer’ with the top of the first page in view to display the header. Scroll to the bottom of the first page and right-click, select ‘Preview Header/Footer’ with the bottom of the first page in view to display the footer. Both with disappear once you scroll the first page out of view.

• NEW: No overwriting of existing files would be possible when using the ‘Save As’ option. This will only happen if you set a new config option called “SaveAs_NoOverwrite” = 1. For existing config files, you will need to manually add this option in, for new users to EWP the option is in the default config.

• NEW: The updates function has now been changed so that if a newer version of EWP is available, it will download the ZIP file and extract out all the contents, and relaunch EWP afterwards. It’s now a more automated process than previous. The only files that will NOT be updated are your settings files. You will need to run these through the ConfigEditorGUI in order to save any newer config options.

• NEW: A new splash screen button called “Test Default Printer”, this will allow you to quickly test that the default printer is working without having to fill in all the details and then type a few word on the document before printing, it’s a quick and simple way to test printing.

• NEW: Font dropdown list, by default, will now display a preview of each font of how it will look, exactly like other word processors do. You can disable this preview via the config option “Disable_DisplayFontPreview”.

• NEW: The syllabus Codes and Unit Codes boxes have been extended to 10 characters and forward/backwards lashes ( / , \ ) and hyphen ( - ) symbols are now allowed so you get more control over how you candidates wish to enter in the paper reference codes.

• NEW: New watermarking feature which if set in the config, will print a faint grey watermark on each printed page. Use config options, “Watermark_Enabled” and “Watermark_Text” to setup.

• NEW: New config option to disable ‘Backup History’ button.

• NEW: JCQ Scribe Form 2 has been added as a button on the Print sidebar. And the descriptions for the coversheet buttons now include either JCQ/CIE Form 4 or JCQ Scribe Form 2. A new command line option has been added also: /COVERSCRIBE

• NEW: On the ‘View’ tab there is now a ‘Go to Page’ drop down so you can go to the top of any given page quickly, A config option to enable/disable it has been included also.

• NEW: Branding is now possible on the splash screen, top left-hand corner. EWP will look for a file called Logo.png in the ‘Branding’ folder. The dimensions are 240 x 120 pixels max. If you use a square logo, for example 96x96, then it will be centred automatically.

• NEW: Exam Timer Countdown – Not allowed in actual final exams as per JCQ/CIE regulations, this is ideal for your own internal exams where a visual timer is important if you cannot gain access to clocks or whiteboards to display necessary information. PLEASE NOTE: Because this is not allowed in final exams the decision has been taken to disable it as default. In order to enable it/use it, set the config option “Disable_CountDownTimer” to 0.

FIXES

• FIXED: When setting margins via the Margin sidebar, a minimum and maximum value have been restricted to stop your page/s from going out of bounds and looking ridiculous. The minimum is 20 and maximum is 100 (millimetres). Errors will now be highlighted in red.

• FIXED: Some Sidebar width were not consistently display in full width when switch between different sidebars.

• FIXED: Splash screen buttons have been realigned and correct spacing applied.

• FIXED: Page Margins when set, using the ruler bar, would not update the document margins description on the ‘help’ tab.

• FIXED: When loading a document, the page margins would not be reflected in the document margins description on the ‘help’ tab.

• FIXED: When document margins have been set, the values are now reflected in the Margins sidebar control when in view.

• FIXED: When opening a document with a page background colour, if you print without modifying the document, the background colour is removed back to the default screen colour instead of staying coloured.

• FIXED: When opening a document with double line spacing, if you print without modifying the document, the double line spacing would revert to single line spacing instead of staying as double.

• FIXED: When saving a file and the message box appears saying ‘Saved OK’, the focus is returned back to the document so you can start typing.

• FIXED: The Undo and Redo button now function correctly, where the button state will be enabled/disabled based upon the undo/redo history state.

• FIXED: When printing a batch command line folder, it would print the odd files and never print out the even files.

• FIXED: When printing a batch command line folder, it would print the coversheets apart from the last on in the list.

• FIXED: EWP would not close on the splash screen if you clicked on the ‘X’ control button. The control boxes have been hidden during the splash screen and become visible again when you are on the document window screen.

• FIXED: Spelling mistake on the disable view 100 percent button.

• FIXED: When clicking on the documentation button, while in Fullscreen mode, the documentation fails to load and is stuck behind the main window.

• FIXED: If you have filled in the all the Candidate Details and decide to start a new document, you should have been asked if you wish to use the same details or start with no details, this did not always work on all circumstances when clicking on the ‘New’ button.

• FIXED: When “Disable_DateTimeClock” was disabled, the clock function would still run behind the scenes, updating the date/time label that was hidden from view. This is wasting resources in memory that are not required.

• FIXED: If ‘Symbol’ button was disabled then you could still access the insert symbol option via the right-click context menu.

• FIXED: If ‘Startup_Fullscreen’ was enabled, the full screen/normal button is now hidden completely (previously visible but disabled).

• FIXED: You can now click anywhere on the font name or font size dropdown list boxes to reveal their lists, previously you had to click on the arrow to the right of each control to drop the list down. For consistency the same has been applied to the font name control in the quick formatting panel.

UPDATES

• UPDATED: When printing, if you get a delay when printing the document, the user now gets a visual printing in progress image appear, so they know not to do anything until the printing has completed and the document window returns. Without this visual image, users may think the program has crashed. This image may not display if EWP is still communicating with the printer or the print job has been sent so quickly it didn’t have time to display.

• UPDATED: Help button content has been updated as it was out-of-date from version 2 of EWP.

• UPDATED: USB Monitor, Key Generator code base has been updated/optimised and GUI tweaked for icon consistency throughout the EWP family.

• UPDATED: Spell Check UK English dictionary has been updated to v6.1.0

F_admin · January 30, 2020

Do you have the correct .NET and C++ runtime installed?

.net on 1909 is already installed but if the C++ runtime wasn’t the app wouldn’t run.

At this point I’m taking a punt on a pdf reader not being installed but could be wrong [emoji1]

Hi Both,

As ass17 says, .NET is preinstalled on 1909 - but I have installed C++ runtime

I'll DM you the video recording, ass17.

Thanks,

F_Admin

ass17 · January 30, 2020

Hi Both,

As ass17 says, .NET is preinstalled on 1909 - but I have installed C++ runtime
I'll DM you the video recording, ass17.

Thanks,
F_Admin

Can I also ask how are the user profiles setup? Roaming or super mandatory?

Did you install a pdf viewer?

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