{rw_text}Giveaway of the day for September 10, 2009 is:

Quiz Creator 3.0

Version reviewed:

v3.0.0.25

System Requirements:

Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista with Microsoft DirectX 9 or later version

Software description as per GOTD:

Wondershare QuizCreator is a robust Flash quiz maker that enables users to easily create Flash-based quizzes with multimedia and offers a free quiz management system for flexible results tracking and score reporting.QuizCreator 3.0 has many new features, such as Office 2007 ribbon-style interface, theme-based player templates and support for inserting images and equations to both questions and options, etc.

Key new features and improvements of QuizCreator 3.0 include the following:

• Innovatory Office 2007-style interface;
• Theme-based quiz player templates;
• Insert multiple equations both in the question and in the choices;
• Support assigning points for each choice;
• Quiz management and customized certificates on QMS;
• Powerful report analysis;
• Support Unicode.

{/rw_text} –>

{rw_good}

• Flowing and eye pleasing interface.
• Very easy to use.
• Creates stunning Flash quizzes.
• Allows you to create 9 different types of quiz questions.
• Comes with a handful templates for you to use/customize.
• Gives you many quiz customization options/settings, such as adding pics, sounds, notes, shuffle questions, etc.
• You can preview your quiz before publishing.
• Multiple different ways of publishing your quiz, including one that uses Wondershare’s free result tracking system.
• Not a hog of computer resources.

{/rw_good} –>

{rw_bad}

• When publishing quiz for web use, JavaScript is used to embed quiz instead of HTML.
• Can only create Flash based quizzes for website publishing.
• All the templates have the same basic design.
• Program window is always opened fully maximized.
• Equation editor can get kind of funky.
• You cannot insert PNG or GIF images into your quizzes.

{/rw_bad} –>

{rw_score}
{for=”Ease of Use” value=”9″}Program window is always fully maximized when you open the program and the equation editor can get a little funky, but otherwise very easy to use.
{/for}
{for=”Performance” value=”10″}Beautiful quizzes created quickly, easily, and without hogging up computer resources.
{/for}
{for=”Usefulness” value=”9″}While many people may not need to create quizzes for productivity purposes, Quiz Creator can also double as one of those “create quizzes for fun” tools effectively being useful for many people.
{/for}
{for=”Arbitrary Equalizer” value=”9″}This category reflects an arbitrary number that does not specifically stand for anything. Rather this number is used to reflect my overall rating/verdict of the program in which I considered all the features and free alternatives.
{/for}
{/rw_score} –>

{rw_verdict}[tupr] [tupf]
{/rw_verdict} –>

Whenever I see the name “Wondershare” attached to a software I automatically think “quality”. With a few exceptions, in my experience Wondershare creates quality software. Quiz Creator is the epitome of Wondershare creativity and excellence. I dare to say it is one of Wondershare’s best creations. I am so impressed with this software, I don’t even care that it sounds like I am being paid to praise Wondershare (don’t worry… I am not being paid).

Quiz Creator is a beautiful software that allows you easily create fully customizable Flash based quizzes:

The interface itself is fairly aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. Although I am usually never too pleased with Microsoft Office ripoff interfaces, I feel the interface fits Quiz Creator just fine.

Instead of my usual run down of features and usage, today I have a 5 minute video (by the developer) which will show you all the amazing features of Quiz Creator and how to use them (a picture is worth a thousand words). You will be a Quiz Creator expert by the end of this video =):

To view the video click above. If you have JavaScript disabled you will not be able to view the video by clicking above so instead click here.

As a supplement to the video, I want to point out a few details which I feel the video does not emphasis enough:

• For each quiz you create, you can mix and match the types of questions. You have the ability to pick from 9 types:

True/False

Multiple Choice

Multiple Response

Fill in the Blank

Matching

Sequence

Word Bank

“Click Map”

Short Answer/Essay

• You can enter math equations in your questions/answers:

• Quiz Creator comes with a handful of templates you can use for your quizzes. However you are also given the ability to customize those templates. The video forgets to highlight the fact that you can customize the buttons/text:

• Wondershare provides you with a free, but optional, “Quiz Management System”. With this QMS not only can publish your quizzes on the web (you don’t need to have your own website to be able to publish quizzes on the web) and share them with friends and family – when you publish a quiz to QMS you are given a unique URL to share with your friends/family from which they can access the quiz) –  but you can also track quiz statistics and results. The only bad thing about publishing to QMS is anyone that takes the quiz must sign up for a QMS account (which is free).

To get a feel for this QMS, visit this page and try the demo:

Now that you are an expert Quiz Creator user, time to show you live examples (by the developer) of what Quiz Creator can do so you can be wow-ed like me:

To take the quiz click above. If you have JavaScript disabled you will not be able to take the quiz by clicking above so instead click here.

To take the quiz click above. If you have JavaScript disabled you will not be able to take the quiz by clicking above so instead click here.

To take the quiz click above. If you have JavaScript disabled you will not be able to take the quiz by clicking above so instead click here.

Come on, admit it: you agree with me now – Quiz Creator is amazing. Not only is it easy to use, but it has a lot of features, and creates stunning end products.

However, to be fair, I must also point out the cons with Quiz Creator. There are not many, but they do exist. There are two major cons…

• When you publish the quiz for web use “quiz.html” and “quiz.swf” are created. “quiz.swf” is your actual Flash quiz you created while “quiz.html” is the HTML file that has the Flash quiz embedded in it making it really easy for people who do not know how to embed a .SWF on their website to publish the quiz on your website (just upload both “quiz.html” and “quiz.swf”). The only problem is “quiz.html” uses JavaScript to embed “quiz.swf” instead of HTML:

I say this is a problem is because some people have JavaScript disabled in their web browser. Therefore using JavaScript to embed the quiz which you will post on your website is a bad idea because the people with JavaScript disabled will not be able to view your quiz. Instead Wondershare should have made it use HTML to embed the quiz:

For those that plan on posting the quiz on their websites and prefer to use HTML instead of JavaScript like me, simply replace the JavaScript code in “quiz.html”…

<script language=”javascript”>
<!–
function writeSwf(movie, width, height) {
document.write(‘<object classid=”clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000″ codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0″ width=”‘ + width + ‘” height=”‘ + height + ‘” ID=”sf” VIEWASTEXT>’);
document.write(‘  <param name=”movie” value=”‘ + movie + ‘” />’);
document.write(‘  <param name=”quality” value=”high” />’);
document.write(‘  <param name=”wmode” value=”window” />’);
document.write(‘  <param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always” />’);
document.write(‘  <param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true” />’);
document.write(‘  <embed src=”‘ + movie + ‘” quality=”high” name=”sf” allowScriptAccess=”always” allowFullScreen=”true” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”‘ + width + ‘” height=”‘ + height + ‘” />’);
document.write(‘</object>’);
}
writeSwf(“quiz.swf”, 720, 540);
</script>

…with the following HTML code:

<object width=”720″ height=”540″>
<param name=”movie” value=”quiz.swf”></param>
<param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param>
<param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param>
<embed src=”quiz.swf” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”720″ height=”540″></embed>
</object>

People with more advanced HTML skills will be able to customize it a bit more but that will work for most everyone.

• As you noticed in the video above, you can insert images into your quizzes. The problem is you cannot insert PNG images and only sometimes insert GIF images:

Quiz Properties -> Quiz Information -> Quiz Image

When creating a question: Properties -> Question Image

When creating a question: Format -> Image

Notice none of them have “PNG” listed so you won’t even be able to select a PNG image, and only under the third one is GIF listed. However to find GIF images you have to physically click on that .GIF entry and I noticed even after you select a GIF to add it does not show up properly.

However one thing to partially make up for the lack of PNG/GIF support: when creating a question, both the image options let you take a screenshot and use that so if you have a PNG/GIF image you want you can possibly take a screenshot of it. Otherwise, just use FormatFactory to convert the PNG/GIF to JPG/BMP.

…and four minor cons:

• You can only create Flash based quizzes for publishing on the internet. I would like to see an option for creating HTML quizzes also.
• While all the templates are fully customizable, they are all based off the same basic design. I would like to see some fundamentally different designs.
• Program window is always fully maximized when you run the program.
• The equation editor can get a little funky:

It looks like the equation buttons are gone but if you move your mouse over them they will appear.

This review was conducted on a laptop running Windows 7 Professional 32-bit. The specs of the laptop are as follows: 3GB of RAM, a Radeon HD 2600 512MB graphics card, and an Intel T8300 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor.

{rw_verdict2}Brilliant, stunning, amazing, glorious – I can’t praise Quiz Creator enough. I love this program. Creating smashing quizzes, boasting many features, allowing full customization of quizzes, being easy to use, and coming with a free publishing/tracking platform, Quiz Creator is a great quiz creating tool. Two thumbs up and highly recommended.
{/rw_verdict2} –>