Locking down word for exams

[Dan23]

Hi all,

 

We’ve had group policy settings in place for a while that would disable spell checking and thesaurus on MS Word when an exam user account was logged on to any computer. We are using 365 and this was working fine on version 2201. We were quite out of date with our versions as Office hadn’t been automatically updating until recently and we’re now running 2411 I believe.

 

However, I was checking three of the laptops we use for exams today in preparation for mocks and found that two of them I could reenable spell check by opening options from the search in the title bar and also thesaurus was working. One laptop looked to ok and still locked down. All running version 2411 and all in the same OU getting the same group policies.

 

I’m going to do some more work on this tomorrow to try and see if I can get them locked down again. But has anyone successfully got spell check and thesaurus disabled on the latest versions of word, without being able to turn it back on in options

 

Also is there a way to restrict access to options in word and completely turn off the search in the title bar (not just collapse it)? I’ve not found anything that says you can do for either of these.

 

Also is there a way to completely disable the text prediction feature? I’ve turned it off using a reg key and hidden it from the status bar but can easy re-enable in options.

 

I’m also going to look into exam write pad as I’ve seen it recommend by several others on here.

 

Thanks for any help.

[Steve21]

Generally M365 version of office we found too much could be re-enabled so went back to older versions for Exams. We did start using ExamWritePad but after that was sold off and they bumped price we couldn't justify the price for only a handful of devices when the pricing doesn't scale with users.

 

Steve

[6Foot2]

... We did start using ExamWritePad but after that was sold off and they bumped price we couldn't justify the price for only a handful of devices when the pricing doesn't scale with users.

 

Steve

 

ExamWritePad threads:

 

Link: examwritepad - Search Results - EduGeek.net

Edited February 4, 2025 by 6Foot2

[TRSJon]

Generally M365 version of office we found too much could be re-enabled so went back to older versions for Exams. We did start using ExamWritePad but after that was sold off and they bumped price we couldn't justify the price for only a handful of devices when the pricing doesn't scale with users.

 

Steve

 

Steve - my understanding is that if you still have the old, free version of examwritepad you can continue to use it - it's just unsupported. I've not been able to identify anything that the old version doesn't do, that the new version does - happy to be shown wrong - and would like to be if there is an issue that I've missed before live exams...

[Olliedawg]

I'm still using the free version of EWP (v23.02.04.2338). No issues with any of the exams sat last year.

 

If you want any more info send me a PM.

[LSIT]

On 04/02/2025 at 08:16, Olliedawg said:

I'm still using the free version of EWP (v23.02.04.2338). No issues with any of the exams sat last year.

 

If you want any more info send me a PM.

Is there any missing features due to it not being supported anymore? I'm just trying to find a free/cost effective solution for getting rid of Word for exams.

[Olliedawg]

26 minutes ago, LSIT said:

Is there any missing features due to it not being supported anymore? I'm just trying to find a free/cost effective solution for getting rid of Word for exams.

 

I think the latest versions have dictation features, as ExamWritePad has a partnership with TextHelp. 

 

We run the Read&Write software alongside the free version of ExamWritePad & have zero issues.

[DeGrimmy]

We use Trelson Assessment for our exams. It is, of course, licenced and paid for, but it works really well with Chromebooks in kiosk mode as it completely locks out any other functionality on the Chromebook. They also have a Safe Exam Browser for Windows and MacOS, a Browser Lockdown Extension for ChromeOS, an iPad app and a less secure web browser mode. It does require the device to be connected to the internet, however.

 

 

[LSIT]

26 minutes ago, DeGrimmy said:

We use Trelson Assessment for our exams. It is, of course, licenced and paid for, but it works really well with Chromebooks in kiosk mode as it completely locks out any other functionality on the Chromebook. They also have a Safe Exam Browser for Windows and MacOS, a Browser Lockdown Extension for ChromeOS, an iPad app and a less secure web browser mode. It does require the device to be connected to the internet, however.

 

 

While it seems like it has some great functionality, the real kicker is that it needs to be connected to the internet for us.