Worksheet Crafter User Manual

 

This is the version history for older application versions.

Click here for the most recent version history.

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2020.3

 

Version 2020.3 of Worksheet Crafter was released in November 2020 and contains the following improvements:

 

 

In one of the following releases Worksheet Crafter will be converted to a 64 bit application. By this change the application can allocate much more memory, so you may open and edit bigger workbooks. This new version will then no longer support 32 bit Windows. But do not worry:  most systems are already 64 bit so nearly no one should run into problems. On Mac this is irrelevant.

 

This version 2020.3 of Worksheet Crafter is still running on 32 bit. We let you know before the change.

 

 

In January 2020 Microsoft will stop support for Windows 7. For Apple support for macOS 10.10 seems to wane. It is possible that in future versions of Worksheet Crafter we will no longer be able to support those OS. Of course on Windows 8 and 10 as well as macOS versions greater than 10.11 everything will be fine.

 

 

From now on you only need to install the Worksheet Crafter and then may directly install content from within the application.

If you do not have asset packages installed from a previous Worksheet Crafter version, the application will notify you in the content search panel. With a few click you can choose individually what types of content you want to install from the asset library. We created some neat collections for you.

 

 

If there were asset packages installed already, you may open the selection dialog via the menu "Marketplace" > "Select asset package collections...".

 

The previously separate Premium Content from the second (now obsolete) installer is now available as asset packages in our asset library.

Please note, that this content stems mostly from the beginnings of Worksheet Crafter and is partly outdated or does not match our usual content quality.

Therefore these packages will be revised step by step. Worksheet Crafter will notify you when those revised packages are published.

In the meantime you still find the "old" packages marked as "in revision" in the asset package manager. You will find it in the menu "Marketplace" > "Manage Assets...".

 

 

 

Now there is a feedback channel for Worksheet Go! that allows you to get informed whenever your children solve a worksheet.

 

It works like this:
 
To get feedback from a child, you first create a "Student-ID" in form of a QR code. With this QR code the child may login to Worksheet Go!. When logged in, on soving an interactive worksheet the results will be sent to our server. We forward them to you via email.

 

Note: Worksheet Go! may still be used without login, but then you will not receive feedback.

 

Creating a Student-ID:

 
To allow for a feedback channel, Worksheet Go! has to know which child uses the tablet. The App needs something like a virtual mail box where it may send the childs results to. That is what the Student-ID is for.

 

You may create a new student id by opening the following link in your web browser:

 

 https://wsgo-id.worksheetcrafter.com/

 

There simply click on "Neue Schüler-ID erstellen". Enter a nickname for the child and your own email address. The blue button below creates a QR code for you to give to the child.

 

How you students log in:

 
In the upper right corner of Worksheet Go! the students now find a new icon resembling a person. They may log in by clicking on that icon and then scanning their personal QR code. If this is successful, the students will see their name and an orange login icon:

 

 

You distribute your worksheets as usual. Everything else is handled by the app as long as the child is logged in.

 

Getting your childrens results:

 
Our server collects the results and sends them to you per email twice a day at most. The email contains a PDF with all new results listed.

 

Additionally you may request the results via „Vorhandene Ergebnisse zuschicken lassen“ on the website. Enter your email and we will send the results to you:

 

 

 

We optimized the loading time for your worksheets. It is now about 5-10 times faster. Especially for large workbooks you may rejoice.

 

 

 

Splitting text into multiple fields is especially useful for long text that you want to distribute across the page or even multiple pages.

 

Splitting may be activated by selecting the text item and then clicking the split text button in the items properties.

 

 

Now you may click at the position in the text where you want to split it. The lower part is moved to a new text item. If necessary the Worksheet Crafter moves this new item to the next page.

 

You may continue splitting the text until you right click or hit the Escape button.

 

Hint: If the text does not fit into the item, Worksheet Crafter will show a warning and a split button below the text.

 

 

 

On inserting text from the content browser into your worksheet Worksheet Crafter will now add title and author for some texts depending on the text type. E.g. for non-fictional texts there will no title and author be added.

 

 

Of course you may edit this part of the text in your text item as well.

 

 

 

Worksheet Crafter replaces a typed in asterisk with a multiplication sign automatically. This is very helpful for the most part, so we want to keep this behaviour.

 

But now in text items you may simply enter a second asterisk to switch back the multiplication sign to the asterisk (that you wanted to insert in this case in the first place).

 

Also the asterisk was added to the symbols in the text formatting toolbar.

 

Please note that this behaviour is currently only supported in text items and as of now does not work for other items like the solution item.

 

 

 

We fixed a number of smaller problems with our fonts:

 

•WsC Grundschrift (and variants): "SZ" no longer gets auto-replaced with "ß".

•WsC Schreibschrift LA: character spacing for "swe" was corrected.

•WsC Schreibschrift SAS: The font now better fits lineatures. The character conjunctions for "Fest" and words beginning with "ä" were fixed. A smudge on the "i" was removed.

•WsC Schreibschrift VA: Now uses the correct "z" character in all variants. Bow length for "A", "H" and "F" were corrected.

 

 

 

A new button in the table toolbar lets you distribute columns evenly.

 

 

 

On uploading worksheets to the marketplace you now set the usage rights. You may allow us to use the worksheet in social media. We only do that for some selected worksheets.

Of course you may also choose to only publish the worksheet in the marketplace to make sure that it will not be used in social media in any case.

 

 

 

In the help menu we added a direct link to open the customer portal in your web browser. There you find everything regarding your order: Worksheet Crafter installer, license data, bills, subscription settings and more.

 

 

 

Some of you used our experimental Eulennest version of Worksheet Crafter. We were able to integrate the following features to the current release::

 

•Highlighting for interactive items: When working on interactive worksheets, interactively usable fields in the item toolbar are marked with an overlay.

•Marketplace for interactive worksheets: We opened the marketplace for interactive worksheets. In the upper right corner of the marketplace dialog you may choose between paper and tablet worksheets. And of course you may now also upload interactive worksheets.

•French language added to the Text-To-Speech-Item: Worksheet Go! can now read text with French pronunciation. Simply select French as language in the item properties.

 

No own Sounds for now

 

The support for using own sounds did not make it into Worksheet Crafter version 2020.3. We plan to integrate this feature a future version.

If you already created worksheets with own sounds, you may still use them and your recordings are still functional. But for now you may not add new Sounds to the content browser.

 

 

 

Additionally to the above we made the following improvements and fixes:

 

•New command Duplicate selected items in the Edit-menu (CTRL-D).

•New settings in ADMIN.INI: Administrators now may disable update notifications and other startup dialogs.

•New symbol in the text formatting toolbar: right angle with dot.

•Gap exercise: "original order" now actually sorts solutions in the original text order and not the order of your selection.

•Number operations now warn in the properties when the refinement settings cannot be fulfilled (e.g. when they contradic each other)

•Improved zooming: Scrolling with the mouse wheel keeps the focus instead of jumping to the currently selected page.

•Text exercises: When applying uppercase to the text "ß" will be changed correctly.

•"Color variant" now is called "Drawing style": In the edit menu and in the properties for illustrations you had the option to change the color variant. This was renamed to drawing style to clarify what it is all about.

•... and more than 40 additional fixes and improvements!

 

Keep your eyes peeled for updates in asset packages. We constantly improve our content. You will be notified about updates. On installing a package you always get the newest version.

 

New Capabilities in Version 2020.1

 

Version 2020.1 of Worksheet Crafter was published in Februar 2020.  This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

In Worksheet Crafter 2020.1 we proudly introduce a new content type. Additionally to texts, fonts and illustrations, asset packages now may contain sounds, voices or other sound effects.

 

In Worksheet Go! pupils now can play sounds by clicking the respective area in the worksheet. This gives you many new options for creating interactive teaching materials.

 

Together with Worksheet Crafter 2020.1 we released our first sound asset package. In "Alltagsgeräusche" you find more than 80 sounds and voices of everyday life.

 

Important: Sounds are only supported on interactive worksheets. In the page setup you may switch to tablet format. This enables you to insert sound fields on the worksheet.

 

And this is how an interactive worksheet might look:

 

 

How does it work?

 

In the Content Browser next to the views for illustrations and texts you now see the new view for sounds. Switch to the sounds tab to see the waveform for all sounds matching your search:

 

 

 

Listening

 

When you select a sound in the list the playbar above is enabled:

 

 

By double-clicking a sound you may listen to it. Or you select the sound and start playback via the start button in the play bar.

 

 

In the play bar you may also pause or stop playback. By toggling the repeat button you can set loop playback. Clicking the progress bar lets you jump directly to a position in the playback.

 

 

Waveform

 

The waveform shows you length and trend of the sound. The bars show you the sound intensity at the respective moments – bigger equals louder. This allows you to compare different sounds in the list.

 

 

 

For long sound durations the waveform is faded out at the end. If you want to see more of the waveform, increase the size of the entire right side bar by dragging its left frame.

 

 

Toggling the view mode lets you hide the waveforms so way more sounds in the list are visible without scrolling.

 

 

 

Inserting Sounds Into The Worksheet

 

Set your document to the Tablet Format to enable adding sounds to the worksheet. You do this by opening the menu "File" > "Page setup" and then selecting "Interactive Tablet". Now you may simply drag and drop the sound on the worksheet or add it by right-clicking the sound and selecting "Add to worksheet" in the context menu.

 

 

Please keep in mind that the sound field – like the text to speech field – is invisible on the final worksheet. In Worksheet Crafter it is displayed with a yellow frame, so you may still select it.

 

You may place the sound field above a suitable image or other to let your pubils know where to click for playing the sound.

 

In Worksheet Crafter it is also possible to listen to sound fields in the worksheet. Selecting the sound field by clicking the yellow frame will show a play bar that works exactly like the one in the content browser.

 

 

And now? WorksheetGo!

 

Export your completed worksheet for WorksheetGo!.

 

Load the worksheet in WorksheetGo!.

 

Now you may play sounds in the interactive worksheet in WorksheetGo!:

 

 

 

A huge novelty in the new Worksheet Crafter is our new file format. Yes, you heard correctly! We changed the file format.

 

The new format has many many advantages. Especially for big workbooks it plays out its virtues. We made the transition as easy as possible, so you do not have to mind anything special. But now for the details:

 

From now on Worksheet Crafter uses a new file format for saving your worksheets. You recognize it in Windows Explorer or Finder on Mac by the colored owl:

 

 

What about you and your worksheets?

 

•You are still able to open your old worksheets (with the file suffix .abd) in Worksheet Crafter.

•After installing the new Worksheet Crafter, they are shown with a gray icon in the file browser.

•The colored icon now stands for the new worksheets with the file ending .wscdoc.

•New worksheets will be saved in the new file format (with the file suffix .wscdoc).

•Old worksheets will be automatically converted to the new file format on saving (example.abd gets converted to example.wscdoc).

 

And what's the use?

 

With the new format we aimed to reduce working memory usage and disk space while at the same time reducing the time for loading and saving the document. For larger documents the difference becomes more obvious. For smaller worksheets there is less of a difference.

 

Now for the details:

 

1.Saving worksheets is now much quicker. You will notice this especially for large workbooks. In our tests i.e. it took only 1 second instead of 14 – for a large workbook the difference was even 1 second instead of 40!

2.Loading worksheets has also speeded up, especially for workbooks with more than 20 pages.

3.The file size for large documents is much smaller (e.g. only 11 MB instead of 140 MB for a class calendar). This makes exchanging large documents so much more comfortable. We have to admit that for small documents the files may in some cases be a bit bigger than before.

4.Worksheet Crafter uses significantly less working memory for large workbooks (e.g. 650 MB instead of 3 GB). Consequently you will have less problems while working with large workbooks.

 

Here you may compare the difference between the old format (orange) and the new (blue) in detail, based on average values for some exemplary documents:

 

 

With the new file format we are now splendidly prepared for the future. Even when you more and more exhaust the possibilities of Worksheet Crafter and create more and more complex documents, Worksheet Crafter will not reach its limits by a long shot. And working with it will continue to be lively and comfortable.

 

 

With the new Worksheet Crafter you can now create your own QR-Codes.

 

In example you can link to Wikipedia pages, music from the internet or interactive worksheets and your owl mail documents. Your pupils only require a smart phone or tablet to scan the code and open the link. This is a great thing especially for homework:

 

 

You can find the new item in the item bar at the left of your Worksheet Crafter:

 

 

In the item properties you may instert a link or hidden text as content:

 

 

Thus you may i.e. directly link to an interactive worksheet that may be opened by scanning it in WorksheetGo! on tablet:

 

 

 

From now on you can change the color variant for all images in your Worksheet Crafter document. I.e. you might have a colored document but might want to hand out the illustrations as contour, you can now get there with a few clicks.

 

The new functionality can be found in the "edit" menu:

 

 

In the appearing dialog you may now switch between color variants:

 

 

You may always cancel the changes to return to the previous state of your worksheet. Only when you decide to apply the changes, the are set in the worksheet. Of course you may undo them like any other change.

 

 

Changing the color variant is possible for nearly all images provided by the Worksheet Crafter or the asset packages. You will be informed in the dialog when not all images in the current worksheet support all color variants. Most of the time this concerns your own images or images from online search.

 

By the way you can also switch the color variants for the Letter Cloud, the Multiphant and the Self Control Item with the dialog.

 

 

When opening a worksheet you now will be informed when it contains content from asset packages that are not part of your installation:

 

 

If you choose to simply close the dialog by selecting no, the worksheet will still be displayed correctly and can also be edited.

 

But on editing there will be some limitations. I.e. you may only switch the color variant for images from installed asset packages.

 

For this reason we recommend that you choose to install the missing packages. Clicking yes in the dialog will lead you to the asset package manager::

 

 

You get directly to the view of the asset packages used in the current document. You may open this view any time by opening the asset package manager via menu and selecting "Show asset packages used in the current document" in the dropdown.

 

Now you may install the required packages via the "Install Missing Packages" button.

 

 

Many of you missed the graphics item in the toolbar. And we listen to you. For that reason we put the Graphics Item back in the toolbar. When inserting the item in your worksheet now a file selection dialog will open to let you choose which image to insert:

 

 

 

Many of you use the symbol collection Metacom. We want to make using those symbols in Worksheet Crafter easier for you.

 

To find out how this comes across we implemented a first integration of Metacom 8 in Worksheet Crafter. If you have the Metacom-Collection version 8 installed, you will now find the symbols in our content browser:

 

 

Metacom-Integration at the moment is a simple thing. I.e. at the moment we do not support the Metacom tags.

When the demand is high it is likely that we will improve on this.

 

 

In the Worksheet Crafter installation dialog there are now extended options for school computers. On your own computer just choose the option Private Computer and continue the installation as usual.

 

 

For installations on school computers there are now three options:

 

1.Old school license: If your school still uses an old school license, choose this option and continue as usual. An old school license is a school license where all teachers use the same license data of the school.

2.Personal Login: Are you sharing your computer with other teachers and have your own, personal login each for logging into Windows or macOS? Then this is the way to go. Everything else remains unaltered.

3.Shared Login: For multiple teachers with a collectively used login for Windows or macOS you may use the option Shared Windows-Login for all persons.

 

 

On first starting the new Worksheet Crafter you insert your license data as usual. The login window now looks a bit different, but does about the same:

 

 

Distinction for shared Windows-Login

 

With a new school license that gives you a personal license code each, there might appear a new logout button in the top right of your Worksheet Crafter. If you see this button, the Worksheet Crafter in your school is installed in a way that requires a login on starting the Worksheet Crafter. If you want to end your Worksheet Crafter session, you should use the new logout button next to your license email address to quit. This way you make sure, that nobody else uses your license data.

 

 

Next time you can use the simplified quick login where you only select your name and insert the last three characters of your license code.

 

 

If it is your first time on this computer, click the link at the bottom of the dialog to insert your complete license data this once.

 

 

Additionally to the novelties mentioned above we implemented many more improvements and fixes:

 

•Asset Package Manager: From now on the available update section includes a description of the changes for each update. This gives you an impression of what improves with the update.

•Texts: We added the poem "Wie sich Weihnachten anfühlt" and reworked the story "Der Wald".

•Workbook Wizard: You will now be warned when your workbook for print contains more than 60 pages, because the page binding for the workbook limits the maximum page count to 60.

•Number space in exercise generator: Now it is possible to type in a number space without having the cursor jumping to the end all the time.

•Improved stability: We fixed some errors, that might lead to freezes, crashes or unexpected behavior.

•... and many more fixes and improvements (e.g. in the content browser or on saving documents)

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2019.3

 

Version 2019.3 of Worksheet Crafter was published in October 2019.  This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

The new Worksheet Crafter has a new exercise item that many of you requested: the decomposition exercise item:

 

 

The Decompostion Exercise Item allows you to create addition and subtraction exercises with overrun that will be solved by the kids in two steps. This way the children learn how the calculation has to be decomposed. You can find the new Worksheet Crafter item in the toolbar on the left:

 

 

In a newly created decomposition exercise item the exercise generator is active by default. Here you can chose the arithmetic operation and freely set the number space. You may configure the visibility of the items fields as well:

 

 

If you want further customization, activate exercise refining. Here you find a powerful tool for configuring your exercise, similar to the advanced options for number operations. If this still does not fit your needs, you may use the manual mode to insert the numbers on your own. Even then Worksheet Crafter can automatically calculate the solution values for you.

 

 

With the new Letter Cloud Item you can create puzzles, where a word or short sentence is split into its individual letters or groups of letters that will be distributed randomly. It is your pupils task to find the original word in the letter cloud:

 

 

As usual the new item can be found in the toolbar on the left of your Worksheet Crafter:

 

 

You can decide how the word will be separated. For example single letters or whole syllables could stick together in the distribution. This is done by separating letters or groups of letters in your letter cloud properties:

 

 

We created a variety of background images for your letter cloud. Optionally the letter cloud can be displayed without background, when the image might be too much of a distraction. Here is a display of the different shapes:

 

 

 

Until now the number line in Worksheet Crafter had no crossing lines. The step lines were only displayed above the number line. From this version on you can check the crossing lines property for the number line to activate this new look:

 

 

 

When using a lot of images in Worksheet Crafter editing the document may get you into tricky situations where it is hard to tell for overlapping items what is actually selected.

 

The new Worksheet Crafter now shows the name of the selected image in the property editor so you always know which image is actually selected for editing:

 

 

 

The picture item was removed from the toolbar. Of course you still may add own images to Worksheet Crafter. For this the edit menu has now the entry "add image to current page". But in most cases you will drag the illustration directly from the content search window anyway.

 

Additionaly you have the following options: Did you know that you can add own images and categories to your content search? Those images will be permanently available in your Worksheet Crafter. For more check out the respective section in "Using Cliparts". Also you may simply drag and drop an image from your file browser onto the worksheet.

 

We also changed the item toolbar order to insert the new items at appropriate positions. So don't panic when an item cannot be found at first look - you will certainly find it soon at its new position.

 

 

Additionaly to the above we implemented many more improvements and fixes:

 

•Numbering Item: Here the maximum font size increased and when creating multiple numbering items the font size will be adapted from the previous item.

•Arrow Operations and Operator Items: For those items you may now choose the number space 10.000 directly from the property editor selection list.

•Lineature Items: On manyfold request handwriting houses in lineature items now have a distinct separation line between ground floor and roof.

•... and many more (e.g. in content search or to improve scaling on high resolution displays)

 

New Capabilities in Version 2019.2

 

Version 2019.2 of Worksheet Crafter was published in June 2019. This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

 

Since the image search gets more and more important, we reworked the user interface to match this. The new Worksheet Crafter comes with an update content browser which combines the search and category selection in one single user interface element. This way you don't need to explicitly switch to the search field anymore when a search is required:

 

 

The content browser now provides a new button for configuring the preview size. You can thus know decide on your own whether you want to see small or large previews of the images:

 

We also optimized the drag & drop process so that you immediately see an accurate preview of the image when dragging it onto your worksheet.

 

 

We have added a clever new functionality to the content browser. The context menu offers you a new function for searching for related content. This specialized search will show you all images which relate to the currently selected one:

 

 

 

The text item now allows you to automatically show line numbers for your complete text. You will find this new functionality in the properties of text items. Once enabled, you can configure the start index, the interval, the font properties and much more:

 

 

 

Our shapes now support a custom line style, allowing you to place dashed and dotted lines on your worksheet. You will find this new option in the properties of the shape items:

 

 

 

The image item now support dynamic colorization. When enabling this new feature you can choose a color from a color spectrum. Worksheet Crafter will then colorize your image accordingly, preserving the image contour as is:

 

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2019.1

 

Version 2019.1 of Worksheet Crafter was published in February 2019. This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

Worksheet Crafter 2019.1 now comes with better support for high resolution displays. This covers both modern notebooks and external 4K displays. In both cases the upper toolbar is now larger and thus easier to access. Further more various dialogs and icons have been adjusted to work better on these displays.

 

 

The background of the speech bubble can now optionally be filled with white background. This allows you to place the bubble on colored background without causing the text to be less readable. Here is an example where the bubble is placed on top of an image:

 

 

 

 

We extended the symbol drop down list in the upper text formatting toolbar with a set of additional useful symbols. You fill now find symbols for "more or equal", "less or equal", a degree sign and various checked and unchecked boxes in there:

 

 

 

The new Worksheet Crafter now gives you a hint if you try to select an outdated font where a better, newer font family is available. This way you avoid running into unnecessary font problems. On Mac we additionally improved the font selection drop down to hide internal operation system fonts.

 

 

We applied multiple improvements to text tables to simplify their usage:

 

•Applying formatting to empty table cells is now supported and does correctly work together with Undo/Redo

•When undoing or redoing font size changes, the text table could previously enlarge columns unnecessarily. This has been fixed in the new version.

•Numberings and lists are now properly supported inside text tables

•When deleting the last row or column in a table, any custom outer border applied to the table is now preserved and still visible after the deletion operation

•Worksheet Crafter now makes sure that you can't accidentally paste tables inside tables.

 

 

The new version also includes improvements related to loading and saving worksheets and templates:

 

•The new Worksheet Crafter now properly detects if a template file is corrupted and warns you about this.

•When loading worksheets with a zero file size, the new version now correctly detects this and shows you a warning.

•Exporting PDF file can not override existing worksheet files anymore, even if you accidentally chose a worksheet file as target for the PDF export. Worksheet Crafter now assume that you accidentally chose the worksheet file as target and saves the PDF file separately.

 

 

The print preview now provides a closer match the final print. Both the spellchecker warning lines and invisible layout lines are now hidden in the print preview.

 

 

We improved the usability of the equation editor by adding a finer undo/redo support to the editor. Additionally, when selecting a formula from a drop down menu it will now not replace the existing formula anymore, but extend it. This way you can't accidentally override your formula.

 

 

 

•Handwriting Fonts: When using handwriting in combination with justified text alignment, the letters can't get truncated at the right border of the text item anymore.

•Worksheet Marketplace: The worksheet marketplace will now work better with unstable internet connection where establishing the connection takes very long

•... and many more

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2018.3

 

Version 2018.3 of Worksheet Crafter was published in November 2018. This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

 

Worksheet Crafter 2018.3 requires at least Windows 7 or macOS 10.10. The old operating systems Windows XP, Windows Vista, macOS 10.7, macOS 10.8 and macOS 10.9 are not supported anymore. If you still use one of these older operating systems then either upgrade to a new operating system or do not install this new version of Worksheet Crafter.

 

 

 

With the new variant printing feature you can now print multiple variants of your worksheet in one step. Worksheet Crafter will make sure that each variant has unique values. The configuration can be done at the bottom of the printing sidebar:

 

 

 

You can convert multiple items to a single group and then easily move this group on your worksheet. To group items simply select them, open the right-click context menu and click on the Group command. You will find the command for release the group in the same context menu.

 

 

The new solution item can be used for various kinds of worksheets. Simply drag this item into the view and enter an arbitrary text. The text will then be treated as solution and will thus only be visible on the answer key.

 

 

The solution can be rendered in syllable colors and surrounded with a frame. It is ideal for interactive worksheets that your students solve with Worksheet Go!

 

 

 

The new audio playback item allows you to place custom speech areas on your interactive worksheet. Text and language are configurable. If your students tap this area on the iPad, your custom text will be played back. This item is very useful for instructions or language exercises:

 

 

Note that this item is only available when your worksheet is configured to iPad mode.

 

 

Worksheet Go! now supports QR Codes. When you send your worksheet to the iPad, Worksheet Crafter will now offer both the traditional download code and a QR code for loading the worksheet inside Worksheet Go!. Make sure to update Worksheet Go! to the latest version, to get support for QR Codes:

 

 

 

Colorizing hundred frame items in manual mode is now significantly easier than before. We added a new option to the toolbar, allowing you to configure how many points will be colorized with one click. This way you can e.g. colorize 5 points per click instead of needing to click on all points separately:

 

 

When configuring a frame for text items you can now also choose a custom thickness for the frame lines.

 

 

•When searching for cliparts you can now enter multiple search words, for a better filtering of your search results

•The row and column spacing within number operations items can now be configured via the line spacing dropdown in the text formatting toolbar

•The line spacing option now allows large scalings, i.e. x4 and x5

•Resizing items to the page borders is now easier since the items automatically to the borders when moving close to them

•The rectangle selection has been improved to make it easier to select items which partially exceed the page borders

•The table item now supports up to 32 rows

•Picture items can now partially exceed the page border, to be more flexible when placing them close to the borders

•Opening the market place is now about two times faster than in previous versions

•... and many small improvements more

 

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2018.2

 

Version 2018.2 of Worksheet Crafter was published in June 2018. This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

 

You can now easily insert rows and columns into existing tables, or remove rows and columns from it. Use the new buttons in the table toolbar to access this functionality:

 

 

 

All text exercises except for gap exercises can now be applied to tables as well, including syllable colorization:

 

 

We added plenty of new Premium Cliparts based on your suggestions:

 

 

 

The worksheet marketplace user interface has been improved, making it easier for you to find suitable worksheets:

 

•The dialog now supports a global search, allowing you to search for worksheets across categories

•The sorting options have been improved and extended

•You can now report a worksheet if you think it has illegal or non proper content. A report link is shown next to each worksheet preview images.

 

 

We applied a few improvements to the worksheet upload process, to make it easier for you.

 

When selecting a category, Worksheet Crafter now opens a dialog in which you can choose the category from a category tree. The worksheet names of each category are immediately visible, so that you can directly spot whether your worksheet would fit in there.

 

Additionally, if you try uploading a worksheet with an unknown image then worksheet now warns use. It will show you which images are potentially problematic, so that you can fix it.

 

 

On Mac you will now see previews images of your worksheet directly in the Finder application:

 

 

 

 

In the math grid item you can now add periods and colons to the characters as well:

 

 

 

The clock item now allows you to colorize the two watch hands. You can choose the colors on your own:

 

 

 

 

When enabling main row highlighting for a handwriting line you can now specify the color it shall use for the highlighting:

 

 

 

If the standard blue-red or grayscale colors are not suitable for you, then these items now allow you to set custom colors for the dots:

 

 

 

You can now choose to print specific pages only then printing your document. Previously you could only choose between all pages and the current (single )page.

 

 

The Content Browser now shows a button in its upper right corner. Pressing this button maximizes it to the full sidebar height, minimizing the other sidebar elements. That way you can temporarily get significantly more space for the clipart preview.

 

 

 

 

We optimized the file format of our worksheet files. Documents with many images will now take up significantly less space on disk.

 

 

We applied more than 60 further improvements and bug fixes to Worksheet Crafter, to make it even more easier for you to use.

 

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2018.1

 

Version 2018.1 of Worksheet Crafter was published in January 2018. This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

The new Worksheet Crafter now supports word search puzzles as new exercise format. These word puzzles can be used for many purposes such as training concentration or the reading abilities. Create an own word search puzzle is really easy. Drag the exercise from the left sidebar and enter your words in the property editor on the right side:

 

 

... and ready is your puzzle:

 

 

 

 

You can now add custom notes to your worksheet pages. These notes will only be visible inside Worksheet Crafter and do not get printed:

 

 

Use these notes to provide additional information to your pages. This can e.g. be a reminder for yourself or explanations colleagues you'll send the worksheet to.

 

To add a teacher note simply click on the yellow note icon on the top toolbar:

 

 

 

•The About dialog inside Worksheet Crafter now shows you whether and which version of the Premium Content you have installed.

•We replaced the splash and welcome screens inside the application

•If a worksheet document is damaged then Worksheet Crafter tries to fix it on loading

•The Multiphant exerice images now have a transparent border so that you can place them on top of colored backgrounds

•On Mac the installation now guides you through the necessary steps, to simplify the installation process

 

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2017.3

 

Version 2017.3 of Worksheet Crafter was published in October 2017. This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

 

Worksheet Crafter 2017.3 comes with an exciting new feature called Workbook Wizard. With this service we can print your document as beautifully printed workbook. Your workbooks will be fully colored and get sent to you within a couple of days. This way you can finally create individual printed workbooks for your students!

 

Important: At the moment we can deliver workbooks to Germany and Austria only.

 

 

Read more about our new Workbook Wizard in this chapter here.

 

 

With the new Worksheet Crafter you can finally crop images directly within the application. To do so, click on the Cropping button in the property of the image item. You can then easily adjust the crop region with your mouse:

 

 

 

 

With the new hundred frame item we added a new math exercise to Worksheet Crafter. The new item is used in the same way as the already existing ten and twenty frame item. You can either use the integrated exercise generator or disable the generator to get full contorl of the item content:

 

 

 

The ten frame item can now optionally be configured to split its points into two rows:

 

 

 

With our new place value color functionality you can now easily colorize all math exercises in your worksheet according to place values:

 

 

You can enable this option in the Page Setup dialog which is accessible via File menu.

 

 

 

The solution color is now fully customizable inside Worksheet Crafter. While solutions were always shown  in green color before, you can now choose any color for your solutions. This way you can for example print your solutions in standard black color if you want to use the worksheet as sample for your students.

 

 

The handwriting lines now offer the possibility to specify a custom row color so that the row is not transparent anymore. You can for example use this feature to create more contrast in your handwriting lines, or to place them on top of decorative background patterns:

 

 

With this release we have refined all images in our Premium clip art collection. All images have been extended with dedicated transparency information so that they look better on colored background. In addition exporting the images to PDF files now won't result in visual artifacts anymore.

 

Important Note: As part of these improvements we had to remove the image categories "Tree", "Life on a Castle" and "Knights and Armors". If you still need these images then please contact our support team.

 

 

 

This version 2017.3 of Worksheet Crafter still supports Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac OS 10.7. However, in upcoming versions of Worksheet Crafter these operating systems will not be officially supported anymore. The minimum requirements will then be Windows 7 and Mac OS 10.8.

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2017.2

 

Version 2017.2 of Worksheet Crafter was published in Mai 2017. This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

The new Worksheet Crafter comes with extensive support for worksheet templates. This includes many useful templates for circle puzzles, clip cards, dominoes, folded books and more. You can access the templates via the Templates sub menu in the File menu:

 

 

Adding own Templates

 

Besides using our predefined templates you can also create and save your own templates in the new Worksheet Crafter. This allows you to easily reuse common worksheet layouts. Saving own templates is also done via the Templates sub menu in the File menu:

 

 

Using a Template as Default Template

 

As an optional feature you can mark a template as Default Template. This will instruct Worksheet Crafter to apply this template whenever you create a new worksheet.

 

 

The image search in Worksheet Crafter now comes with another useful feature. You can now search for images on OpenClipart and Pixabay directly within Worksheet Crafter. This gives you access to more than more than one million additional images which you can use without causing any legal problems.

 

The search is tightly integrated into Worksheet Crafter. Simply choose your search source here:

 

 

The results are as usual shown directly within the Content Browser.

 

 

Use the Load more button to search for more images.

 

Automatic Grayscale Version of Images

 

Worksheet Crafter automatically provides OpenClipart and Pixabay images both in the original colored version and as grayscale image.

 

 

Lines now automatically snap to 45° angles when moving one of their end points. This makes it much easier to create straight and diagonal lines. For curves this new snapping applies to 90° angles. Additionally the end points of lines and curves now snap to end points of other lines and curves, which simplifies the creation of multiple connected lines.

 

Last but not least we also declared the cell points in the math grid as such snapping points, so that placing lines in the math grid is now really easy:

 

 

 

As requested by many customers Worksheet Crafter now supports the DIN A3 paper size. You can configure this in the Page Settings in the File menu:

 

 

 

The text formatting toolbar now provide a drop down table with commonly used special characters which can easily be inserted into text boxes and exercise items:

 

Our handwriting line font is now also available with arrows. You can find this new font called WsC Lineaturschrift Pfeile in the font dropdown list:

 

 

 

The math grid items now offers buttons for adding thick frame lines to the cells. This can be used to underline cells or to place a thick frame around one or multiple cells:

Additionally the math grid item now also accepts special characters such as the superscript two or the almost equal  to sign.

 

 

Worksheet Crafter already supported pressing the Alt-key for performing a pixel-precise movement when moving or scaling items. The new version now shows a helpful hint when an item is being moved, so that everybody knows about this useful feature.

 

 

•When moving multiple items the items now keep their relative position to each other

•If multiple items overlap you can now use the TAB-Key to switch between the overlapping items

•The Content Browser now shows the base name of own images as clipart name. Previously own images did not show any name.

•On Mac pressing Cmd+? now opens the context sensitive help for the currently selected item

•When sending worksheets via owl mail the link in the clipboard can now properly be inserted into Mac applications

•If a worksheet has been corrupted then Worksheet now automatically tries to restore the content when loading that worksheet

•A french dictionary for the integrated spell checker is now available

•When using Worksheet Crafter behind a Internet proxy it should now automatically gather the proxy configuration and thus be able to connect to the Internet

•... and 40+ further improvements

 

New Capabilities in Version 2017.1

 

Version 2017.1 of Worksheet Crafter was published in January 2017. This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

The text item, table item and handwriting lines now support spell checking capabilities. Spell checking dictionaries for UK and US can be installed via the View menu. Once spell checking is enabled, misspellings will be highlighted in the application and can be corrected or ignored via the context menu:

 

The new spell checker makes it easier to track down misspellings and thus simplifies the creation of worksheets even more. It detect simple misspelled words. A grammar checking, e.g. regarding case sensitivity, is not included.

 

 

In the new Worksheet Crafter we greatly improved the exercise generator for number operations. The generator is now significantly more flexible and provides many options for creating differentiated exercises. The following new options are available:

 

Specifying the digit count and pinning digit values

 

For each exercise the value the number of digits and the allowed digit values can now be limited. Each digit can either have an arbitrary value (represented as an X) or a fixed (represented via the digit value). With this flexible system you can now easily create exercises such as Add hundreds to tens only or Complete to the value of 100.

 

The following configuration e.g. limits the generator to exercises such as 20+35 or 40+15:

 

 

Extensive possibilities for defining ten-, hundred- and thousand-overruns

 

In the new generator we greatly improved the possibilities for specifying the valid overruns (addition) and undercuts (subtraction). You can now specify all three overruns separately and thus combine them as you require. The overrun logic has been refined so that e.g. 12+15 is not treated as ten-overrun anymore. Plus, you can now accurately tell Worksheet Crafter whether your exercise must or must not have an overrun.

 

 

Exercises with or without zero values

 

The new exercises now offers the option to include or exclude zero values in your exercises:

 

 

Arbitrary number space for multiplication and division exercises

 

Previous versions of Worksheet Crafter could only create multiplication and division exercises in certain times table rows. The new version now comes with a new Exercise spectrum option which allows you to choose whether you want to limit your exercise to times table columns or to an arbitrary number space:

 

 

Intuitive user interface

 

We have spent many thoughts on embedding this new complex functionality in a simple and still intuitive user interface. The result is a comprehensive dialog for applying your advanced generator settings, which can be accessed as usual via the property editor at the right side of the application:

 

 

 

With Worksheet Crafter 2017.1 you can now create worksheets for the iPad. Exporting your worksheet to the iPad is done with a few simple clicks. The worksheets can then be solved interactively by your students, using our new Worksheet Go! app for iPads. Worksheet Go! provides extensive possibilities to adjust the experience to the capabilities of each single student. Please note that Worksheet Go! is available in German language only so far. Please contact us if you'd like to see Worksheet Go! in English language as well.

 

 

The current version already supports many math templates on the iPad as long as the exercise generator is enabled. More information about Worksheet Go! can be found here.

 

 

In the new version greatly optimized the tags for Basic and Premium Cliparts. We checked each image, added missing tags and improved the existing ones. Finding suitable images via our tag based search will now provide even better results:

 

 

 

 

Our handwriting font now also comes with a dotted version. You will find it in the font selection under the name WsC Lineaturschrift Dots:

 

 

 

•The numbering item now supports ongoing numberings across multiple pages and remembers the previously used size.

•Worksheet Crafter now remembers the hand-drawn style option and automatically applies your last configuration to new worksheets

•The list of previously used worksheets in the File menu now provides a toolbar, showing the full path to the respective files

•The story library dialog now accepts chosen stories via double click

•New premium cliparts: We have added images for glue and individual work (girl)

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2016.3

 

Version 2016.3 of Worksheet Crafter was published in October 2016. This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2016.2

 

Version 2016.2 of Worksheet Crafter was published in July 2016. This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2016.1

 

Version 2016.1 of Worksheet Crafter was published in February 2016. This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2015.3

 

Version 2015.3 of Worksheet Crafter was published in October 2015. With this version we require the latest Service Pack 3 for Windows XP users. This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2015.2

 

Version 2015.2 of Worksheet Crafter was published in June 2015. With this version we stop supporting Mac OS X 10.6. When using Worksheet Crafter on Mac you will need Mac OS X 10.7 or newer. This version includes the following improvements:

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2015.1

 

Version 2015.1 of Worksheet Crafter was published in February 2015 and includes the following improvements:

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2014.3

 

Version 2014.3 of Worksheet Crafter was published in October 2014 and includes the following improvements:

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2014.2

 

Version 2014.2 of Worksheet Crafter was published in June 2014 and includes the following improvements:

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2014.1

 

Version 2014.1 of Worksheet Crafter was published in February 2014 and includes the following improvements:

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2013.5

 

Version 2013.5 of Worksheet Crafter was published in September 2013 and includes the following improvements:

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2013.3

 

Version 2013.3 of Worksheet Crafter was published in April 2013 and includes the following improvements:

 

 

New Capabilities in Version 2013.2

 

Version 2013.2 of Worksheet Crafter was published in March 2013 and includes the following improvements: