N.B. The content of this blog post is out of date. Please see this post instead:

http://textivate.posthaven.com/fine-tuning-your-activity-urls-now-made-much-simpler-dot-dot-dot

Most textivate users will be aware that you can share links to textivate (shareable & public) resources in a number of ways, as explained on this post:
textivate.posthaven.com/sharing-and-embedding-textivate-activities

To recap, you can share a link to...:

1. the home page (i.e. the edit screen containing the text). e.g. www.textivate.com/aocjn1
2. the menu page (with the thumbnails for all the activities). e.g. www.textivate.com/menu-aocjn1
3. an activity page. e.g. www.textivate.com/3x4-aocjn1

You'll notice that all of these end in a 6-character resource identifier -- in this case "aocjn1".

This blog post looks at how you can fine tune the urls for individual activities (case 3 above) to configure the exercise screen when the student lands on it. This fine tuning involves adding extra info to the resource identifier.

IMPORTANT: The modification can work in 2 ways:

1. use "e" to enforce the configuration (i.e. the configuration can't be changed on the screen)
   
2. use "s" to specify the start configuration (i.e. the configuration can be changed)

Read on for a guide on which activity urls can be fine-tuned and how to go about it...

A) ON THE TEXT SIDE

Tile and Horizontal activities.

• Default: "+ tile" and "- tile" buttons on every screen.
• Fine-tune:
  (a) add "e" to the identifier to remove the +- buttons and remove the autocheck option; or add "s" to specify the start configuration (which in this case only applies to autocheck).
  (b) then add 0 for autocheck=off or 1 for autocheck=on.
  
• Example 1: www.textivate.com/3x4-aocjn1e0 (autocheck=off, can't make changes)
• Example 2: www.textivate.com/3x4-aocjn1s1 (autocheck=on, can change configuration)

Horizontal (auto) and Paragraphs.

• Default: "+ tile" and "- tile" buttons on every screen; starts with 8 rows.
• Fine-tune:
  (a) add "e" to remove + and - buttons or "s" to specify the "start" configuration;
  (b) then add a 2 digit number between 04 and 12 to specify the number of rows;
  (c) then add 0 for autocheck=off or 1 for autocheck=on.
• Example 1: www.textivate.com/horizwords-aocjn1s061 (starts with 6 rows, autocheck=on, but can be changed)
• Example 2: www.textivate.com/horizwords-aocjn1e100 (starts with 10 rows; autocheck=off; cannot be changed)

Next Word.

• Default: "+ word" and "- word" buttons; starts with 1-word chunks.
• Fine-tune:
  (a) add "e" to remove + and - buttons or "s" to specify the "start" configuration;
  (b) then add 1, 2 or 3 to specify the number of words per chunk.
• Example: www.textivate.com/nextword-aocjn1s3 (starts with 3-word chunks, but can be changed)

Gap-fill (random).

• Default: "+ gap" and "- gap" buttons; no. of gaps depends on no. of words in text.
• Fine-tune:
  (a) add "e" or "s" (see above);
  (b) then add either 1 (=show word list) or 0 (=hide word list);
  (c) then add a 2 digit number between 06 and 26 to specify the number of gaps;
  (d) then add 0 for autocheck=off or 1 for autocheck=on.
• Example 1: www.textivate.com/gapfill-aocjn1e0151 (no word list, 15 gaps, autocheck=on; can't be changed)
• Example 2: www.textivate.com/gapfill-aocjn1s1120 (word list, 12 gaps, autocheck=off; can be changed)
  

Gap-fill (user-defined).

• Default: no. of gaps specified by resource creator (max 26);
  
• Fine-tune: (word list and auto-check)
  (a) add "e" to enforce or "s" for start configuration.
  (b) then add either 1 (=show word list) or 0 (=hide word list);
  (c) then add 0 for autocheck=off or 1 for autocheck=on.
• Example: www.textivate.com/udgapfill-aocjn1e11 (show word list, autocheck=on; can't be changed)
  

50:50 / Initials / No letters / Anagrams.

• Default: "+ gap" and "- gap" buttons; every word affected.
• Fine-tune:
  (a) add "e" to remove the +- buttons and enforce configuration; or "s" for start configuration.
  (b) then add a digit from 1 to 5 to specify the number of words to be affected. 1=every word; 3=every 3rd word; 5=every 5th word, etc.
• Example 1: www.textivate.com/initials-aocjn1s3 (starts with every 3rd word affected; can be changed)
  
• Example 2: www.textivate.com/anagrams-aocjn1e2 (every 2nd word affected; can't be changed)

B) ON THE MATCHING SIDE

Shuffle Match.

• Default: starts with 8 pairs; "+ match" and "- match" button on screen.
• Fine-tune:
  (a) add "e" to remove the +- buttons and enforce configuration; or "s" for start configuration.
  (b) then add a 2 digit number between 03 and 10 to specify the number of pairs;
  (c) then add 0 for autocheck=off or 1 for autocheck=on.
• Example: www.textivate.com/m_shuffle-aocjn1e090 (9 pairs; autocheck=off; can't be changed)
  

Switch Match.

• Default: starts with 8 pairs; "+ match" and "- match" button on screen.
• Fine-tune:
  (a) add "e" to remove the +- buttons and enforce configuration; or "s" for start configuration.
  (b) then add a 2 digit number between 03 and 10 to specify the number of pairs;
  
• Example: www.textivate.com/m_switch-aocjn1s10 (starts with 10 pairs; can be changed)
  

Multi-Match (m_1in3, m_1in4, m_1in5, m_1in10)
and the Fill in the letters activities + Anagrams on the matching side

• Default: appears with option to show questions in random order or in the original order. If this has not been changed previously, the default is random order.
• Fine-tune:
  (a) add "e" to remove the random / original options and enforce configuration; or "s" for start configuration.
  (b) then add 0 for random order or 1 for original order
  
• Example 1: www.textivate.com/m_1in4-aocjn1s1 (starts with items in original order, can be changed)
• Example 2: www.textivate.com/m_1in10-aocjn1e0 (random order, cannot be changed)
• Example 3: www.textivate.com/m_initials-aocjn1e1 (initials exercise, original order, cannot be changed)

Click Match / Memory Match.

• Default:  "+ tile" and "- tile" buttons on every screen.
• Fine-tune:
  (a) add "e" to remove the +- buttons and enforce configuration;
  
• Example: www.textivate.com/m_click10-aocjn1e (can't be changed to an exercise with fewer or more matches)
  

EMBEDDING

Yes, you can fine-tune the urls in your embedded activities too:

Hope all of this is useful. It makes it easier to set the level of the work that you want your students to complete.