Worksheet Crafter 2015.2 is available

I am happy to announce that the new Worksheet Crafter 2015.2 is finally available. This new version comes with a set of new features requests by our customers, such as:

• US style writing lines and multiplication/division signs
• Equation editor for fractions, radicals and more
• Automatic syllable bows
• New language exercise for gap exercises
• Story library with plenty of stories ready to be used
• New and updated fonts

All these new features are available both for the Mac and the Windows version.

Important News for Mac-Users

The new Worksheet Crafter 2015.2 requires the Mac OS Version 10.7 or newer. Due to technical reasons we unfortunately can't support Mac OS 10.6 anymore. If you are still using Mac 10.6 then you can't switch to the new Worksheet Crafter version.

US Style Writing Lines

The new Worksheet Crafter does automatically use the US style writing lines for US based customers. Here is an example of how these writing lines look like:

US Style Multiplication and Division Signs

When using Worksheet Crafter in the United States the application will automatically use the US style multiplication and division signs if the chosen font supports them. Here is an example for simple exercises with the new version:

Automatic Syllable bows for any kind of text

Besides the already available option to automatically colorize syllables the new Worksheet Crafter now also supports rendering syllable bows underneath the text. Enabling this is as simple as checking the "Show syllable bows" option for text boxes or writing lines:

Gap Exercises

Creating gap exercises in the new Worksheet Crafter is now a matter of a few seconds. The new "Gap Exercise" supports replacing complete words, the inside of words, beginning of words, end of words, specific letters, letter combinations and even punctuation marks.

The gaps can be distributed randomly or placed by hand. The rendering style of the gaps is customizable and the solution words can optionally be appended to the text.

Story Library

The new story library includes 140 stories and poems in English and German language (18 English, >120 German). All these stories have been written exclusively for Worksheet Crafter and can thus be freely used in your lessons. Combined with the various language exercises available in Worksheet Crafter creating language worksheets is now a matter of a few minutes only.

Worksheet Crafter provides a dedicated user interface for the story library, including support for filtering the stories by language, number of words, topics and contained words. A new story item simplifies placing stories on the worksheet.

The story library is available in the Premium and Unlimited Editions of Worksheet Crafter.

New Features for Pictures and Clip Arts

Pictures can now optionally be surrounded by frames. To do so simply enable the corresponding property on the Picture item.  Additionally pictures can now be pushed into the foreground or background, so that they can be placed before/behind the text. This functionality can also be used to configure the order of overlapping pictures.

Both features can be found in the picture item properties.

Equation Editor for Fractions, Radicals and More

The new Worksheet Crafter now includes an equation editor for displaying fractions, radicals and even complex mathematical equations. A dedicated panel provides an intuitive way to enter the equations. For example, entering a fraction is as easy as typing in "1/4":

The user interface also provides a set of ready to be used templates and samples and supports many more mathematical equations, such as:

You can also use the equations within existing exercise items such as number rays.

New: Block Letters and Outline Fonts

Worksheet Crafter now comes with two block letter fonts which are optimized for being used inside Worksheet Crafter. "WsC Druckschrift" is a classic block letter font based on the "NorthFont" whereas the "WsC Fibelschrift" has been optimized for being used in the handwriting lines. Both fonts are also available as outline fonts.

New: Eraser Font and Secret Font

The new font "WsC Druckschrift Radierer" is based on the block letter font, but with all letters being partially erased. The students thus have to figure out what the original characters were, making it more tricky to read the text:

"WsC Geheimschrift 1" is a special "secret" font. In this font all letters are shown as vertical lines only, where the position and height of the vertical line corresponds to the original letter. As a small guidance the i-dots and t-bars are indicated in the font.

Both fonts are included in the Premium und Unlimited Editions.

And many impovements more...

• The math grid now supports a new visualization called "point grid", which is an ideal template for geometry exercises.
• The Mac version now supports "justified" alignments again
• The quality of saved images has been increased so that saving them multiple times won't result in any quality loss.

How do I get the New Version?

If you already own the Basic or Premium Edition then you will get the new version for free, as part of your annual license. If you own the Unlimited Edition then you may purchase the new version for a reduced price. In any case you should receive an email with more information from us in the next few hours. If you don’t get this email then please contact me.

I hope that you like the new version! I am looking forward to your comments.

Best wishes,

Fabian Roeken