Worksheet Crafter 2020.1 is available

We are happy to announce that the new Worksheet Crafter 2019.3 is now available. This new version comes with many useful features requested by our customers:

Switching color variant of illustrations
New file format
New QR code item
The graphics item is back
First integration of Metacom 8

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

Changing Color Variants For All Images In The Worksheet

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:

New File Format

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:

The benefits of the new format

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:

Saving worksheets is now much quicker. You will notice this especially for large workbooks.
Loading worksheets has also speeded up, especially for workbooks with more than 20 pages.
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.
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.

What about you and your worksheets?

There is nothing you need to consider:

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

New QR code item

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:

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

The Graphics Item Is Back

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.

Metacom Integration

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:

Important: Keep in mind that the Metacom symbols are owned by Metacom. You may thus not use them in worksheets uploaded to the marketplace. Please refer to the license information of Metacom for details.

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 us.

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