Tabs on textivate

We've added 5 tabs to textivate, as shown above.

The idea behind this is to make it simpler, so that users no longer need to type all of their bizarrely formatted text into a single text box, taking care to put everything in the correct order. You can now add your data via the first 4 tabs -- Text, Match, Extras, Sequence -- and textivate automatically combines it into the "Show all" tab.

The "Show all" tab is the equivalent of the old-style textivate textbox. It is also the default open tab when you land on the index page.

Let's run through the 5 tabs in the order in which they appear, left to right:

The "Text" tab

Textivate turns any text that you put into the textivate "text" box into a variety of interactive activities. Simply type or paste in a text and click on "textivate now" to see the activities generated. 

(You can delete the current contents of the textbox by clicking on the "New page" icon.)

All of the resources are generated automatically, with the exception of the Gap-fill 2 (or user defined gap-fill). You can create this by clicking on the icon with the number 2 below the "text" box on the textivate home page. (It's only visible if you have some text in the box.)

(If you come across texts which have strange [#] symbols in them on the textivate home page, these symbols are in fact the markers for the gapped words in the user-defined gap-fill, as defined by the person who created the resource.)

The "Match" tab

To create exercises based on matching items, simply type in your matching items separated by == (one matching pair per line). You can use the Tab or Enter keys to add the == separator and/or the new line when typing matching data into the "Match" box. Click on the "textivate now" button to see the available exercises.

Try it out for yourself. Simply copy the text as formatted below into the "Match" box (copy it, then close this information pane, then delete the contents of the box by clicking on the "New page" icon, then paste in the text).

a house==une maison
a flat==un appartement
a living room==un salon
a dining room==une salle à manger
a kitchen==une cuisine
a bedroom==une chambre
a bathroom==une salle de bains
a garden==un jardin
my bedroom==ma chambre
my parents' bedroom==la chambre de mes parents
on the ground floor==au rez-de-chaussée
on the first floor==au premier étage

(You'll notice that if you click on the "Show all" tab, the ###match### marker is used to identify the beginning of your matching data.)

You can switch the matching items left to right and vice versa, by using the "Switch items" icon (which appears when you have matching items in the "Match" box).

The "Extras" tab

The "Extras" tab opens an editor which allows you to add an additional text, image, video or audio player to your textivate resource. The way it is done differs slightly depending on what type of resource you wish to add.

For those who have been using textivate for a while, the "Extras" tab performs the same function as the old "parallel text" icon:

See this blog post which gives a summary of the main extras that can be added and provides links to further information.

The "Sequence" tab

If you have a Premium or Group subscription you can create activity sequences, which students must complete in the order that you specify. For most activities, you can also specify a target score which the student must achieve in order to pass on to the next activity.

You can have as many activities as you like in a sequence (or just one if you like). When students have completed a sequence, they are invited to log-in using your (Premium or Group) textivate username plus the shared student password for your account. They can then enter their name (which they should preferably do in a format specified by you) and a group (optional) and upload the record of their work.

For those who have been using textivate for a while, the "Sequence" tab performs the same function as the old "sequence" icon:

See this blog post which gives an introduction to textivate sequences and provides links to further information.

The "Show all" tab

The "Show all" tab combines all of the information from the other 4 tabs into one specially formatted text. This is the text that is uploaded to textivate.

(Those who have been using textivate for a while will recognize this as the exact equivalent of the old-style textivate text box.)

Any changes made to the other 4 tabs are reflected in the "Show all" tab, and vice versa. 

You can edit the text in the "Show all" box if you like, but it is probably easier to use the other 4 tabs, which were introduced in an effort to make the whole process of creating textivate resources more straightforward. 

(Hope this works!)

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