Tutorial Game Show Presenter

 

 Quiz Editor

Using the "Quiz Editor" is you can create a quiz, edit quiz questions or set the difficulty ratings of questions.

Here's a look at the main screen (Fig.1).


Fig.1

The Quiz Editor's main screen is the Quiz View, where you select quizzes to play or edit. Note the tooltips box in the lower left corner will display what each blue button does when you rollover those buttons while in the Quiz Editor.

Basics:

You can't get too lost in the "Quiz Editor" because there are only two possible places to be. If you are looking at a list of all your quizzes, you are in the "Quiz View" (shown above). If you are looking at a specific question (or blanks for a question), that's the "Question View" screen (shown below). Here's how these two views work (Fig.2).


Fig.2

The "Quiz Editor" normally opens with a list view of all your quizzes. The list on the left shows the available quizzes by name; the list on the right shows the questions in the selected quiz. To select a quiz, just click on its name. As soon as you do, the questions for that quiz fill in the facing window. Jump directly to any specific question in the list simply by clicking on that question in the list. It will open in the "Question View" so you can edit it.

When you are in the Question View, you can create or edit questions. This window seems similar to (but not exactly the same as) what will be shown during the game show. Use the blue VCR-style buttons to cycle through the questions in a quiz. For a new question, use the NEW?. DELETE will erase the question that is currently on screen in Question View. SAVE saves your data and QUIZ LIST will close the quiz you are editing and return you to the "Quiz View".

When you click the blue NEW? button in question view, a blank question screen appears. Type in your Q&As. Then be sure to click either A, B, C or D to indicate which answer is correct. When you do, that line of text will change color to indicate it is the correct answer.

You can write TRUE/FALSE questions as well as multiple choice. Simply leave blank any answer field you do not want to appear for that question.

Important: Since all your quizzes are stored in a central database within Game Show Presenter, it's important that you back that file up regularly.

Rating Questions:

In Question View, you have the option of rating each question as either Easy, Medium or Hard. If you don't rate a question, it will default to Medium. Also notice in the box below there's a size summary. It shows how many questions are in your quiz and how they are rated. These ratings are important if you want a game show that presents questions that get tougher in higher rounds of play. The ratings are applied when you have USE DIFFICULTY RATINGS turned on.

QUIZ MENU:

The Quiz Editor has several menus at the top (Fig.3). (The PREFERENCES menu is covered above and the REGISTER and HELP menus are self-evident.)


Fig.3

Below is a summary of the commands to be found under QUIZ and EDIT:

  • New will create a new quiz. (Same as a click the blue NEW button.)
  • Close Quiz command leaves the Quiz Editor and opens the Quiz Player in a stand-by mode in other words, the game show does not begin to play automatically. Whichever quiz was selected at the time you left the Quiz Editor will be the quiz that is loaded for playback.
  • Save saves any changes to quizzes and settings in the central database file. (Be sure to backup the central data file often with the backup feature!)
  • Save A Copy and Load A Copy commands create or load external quiz show files. When you Save A Copy, you are making a file that contains your current quiz show settings. This file can be played by user who have the Playback Only edition of Game Show Presenter. It can be used to transfer a game show set-up to another copy of the Presentation Edition, such as when you want to move a quiz show from your desktop to laptop computer. (Note: In prior versions, this feature was known as TRANSFER SHOW but is now called Save A Copy and Load A Copy).
  • Backup and Restore is discussed in detail in its own section.
  • Play closes the Quiz Editor, opens the Quiz Player, and immediately begins the game show playing with all the current settings in use. This menu item is the same as clicking the blue PLAY button.
  • Import Quiz reads in a tab delimited text file. Your text file should conform to the expected fields as shown below with a return at the end of each complete set of question data. Otherwise, your data will not flow into the correct positions when you import, or the import process may be aborted. Here is the format:

    Question<TAB>Answer A<TAB>Answer B<TAB>Answer C<TAB>Answer D<TAB>A*<TAB>1**<RETURN>
     
    * is a single letter indicating which answer is correct. It should be either A, B, C or D
    ** is a number between 1 and 3 to signify the difficulty rating for that question, with 3 being the hardest. You can leave this field blank and the program will add the default setting of 2 whenever it is blank. But you still need to have the expected tab.
  • Export Quiz creates a tab delimited text file of the current quiz. (But if you want to move complete show set-ups to another computer, see Save A Copy)
  • Print provides a printout of the currently selected quiz with all its questions and answers.
    TIP: You can use the printouts with a class so that everyone can play along with the game show. The printout will list the questions in the order they appear in the quiz editor. (So you may want to turn OFF the shuffle questions and difficulty ratings.) The printout also has a space labeled "Your Answer" where people can write in their own responses. (The correct answer is not shown on the printout.)
  • Quit exits the program.

EDIT MENU:(Fig.4)


Fig.4

  • Cut, Copy and Paste commands are activated when you are in the Question Editor. There are limitations if you try to cut and paste blocks of text from other programs into the editor. If you run into these limits, try pasting one line at a time. Note that a better way to import a lot of text for a quiz is to use the programs IMPORT feature to read a tab-delimited text file you created in another program. A good way for you to know the exact format is simply to EXPORT one of the sample quizzes and open that in another program where you can see the format needed for the tabbed fields.
  • Rename Quiz is the same as the blue button Rename. Use it to change the name of a quiz.
  • Delete on the EDIT menu will delete the currently selected quiz. (The blue DELETE button does the same)
  • Password is only available to registered users of the program. You may set a password and require that the password be entered in order for Game Show Presenter to start running (Fig.5). This feature is useful in settings where you might have students with access to a trainer's computer. Registered users may set up a password in order to restrict access to Game Show Presenter. (Don't forget that password! You don't want to be locked out of your own program.)


Fig.5

Smooth Moves in the Quiz Editor:

The cluster of buttons in the corner of the Quiz View has a ToolTip window so you can quickly find out what they do. Usually, the menus at the top do the same things as the buttons. But there is one notable exception:

  • PLAY versus CLOSE QUIZ. There's a button and menu command for PLAY. Clicking either of these will close the editor, open the show player, and launch into a game show. That show will use whatever quiz you had selected and whatever preferences you had set at the moment you chose PLAY. The CLOSE QUIZ command under the QUIZ menu is slightly different. It closes the "Quiz Editor" and sets up your game show screen, but it does not start the show. You have access to the menus in the "Quiz Player" so you can see the various sets, change stage size and other preferences, then click the PLAY menu command when you want to start the show.
  • Change the quiz description box that appears in the "Quiz View" above the list of quizzes. First, make sure you have the quiz selected. It's description will appear above. Right click on the text in the box, and now you can edit the text. Right-click a second time to lock it in. Note: This only works on the quiz description and not on the size summary. (Mac users, use Control-Click for the same effect)