2016/08/02

 

The AcroTeX eDucation Bundle
The Web and Exerquiz Packages are now bundled together under the name The AcroTeX eDucation Bundle, which is read as "The AcroTeX Education Bundle''. The word 'eDucation' is meant to connote 'Electronic Education'. The AcroTeX Bundle consists of six components:

  1. The Web package: A LaTeX package to create screen friendly PDF documents from a LaTeX source.
  2. The Exerquiz package: A LaTeX package to create online exercises and interactive quizzes.
  3. The eForms package: A (stand alone) LaTeX package that provides all PDF forms support for Exerquiz.
  4. The insdljs package: A LaTeX package to insert Document level JavaScript (dljs) code from a LaTeX source file.
  5. The dljslib package: A LaTeX package to act as a library of JavaScript functions. The package enables a user to check out one or more of the functions for use in the document. The package requires the insdljs package.
  6. The eq2db package: A LaTeX package and server-side script. The LaTeX package makes it easy to change a self-contained quiz into one that is submitted to a server-side script.

The AcroTeX Blog
AcroTeX Blog is a site where I publish "white papers", examples, and anything new that I can think of. Check out this sites for the latest features and examples.

The Package files
Place the following files, the components of the Web and Exerquiz packages, in a folder where LaTeX looks for package files:

  • acrotex.zip (2016/08/02): Package files, installation files, AeB Manual, and only the new example files.
  • eq2db.zip: The distribution for eq2db, includes LaTeX package, server-side script, two sample quiz files and a sample database. Documentation can be downloaded below.

The Documentation
The manual of usage for Web and Exerquiz packages and for the eForms and eq2db packages:

  • aeb_man.pdf: The documentation of AeB (The AcroTeX eDucation Bundle)
  • eformman.pdf: The documentation of eForms support
  • eq2dbman.pdf: The documentation of usage for the eq2db Package

Demo Files for AeB
The page titled Example files for AeB is a list of example files with links to their PDFs and source files. The AcroTeX Blog contains the most recent examples.

You can also go to any of the following demo files: There is a short demo file for eForms, see eqforms.pdf.

Foreign Language Localizations
Try

as well. These three files were obtained from webeqtst.tex by latexing with the french, german, norsk, spanish, italian, polish, dutch, finnish and russian option, respectively. Note: It's a little more complicated for the russian option.

You like some more Foreign Language Localizations?
I want to extend my support of other languages (current languages are French, German, Norwegian, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Dutch and Russian).

If you are interested in the Web and Exerquiz packages and want to create a language definition file what will be distributed with The AcroTeX eDucation Bundle, open the exerquiz.ins installation file and uncomment the line referring to the template.def, open this file up in your editor and translate the phrases contained therein.
Please contact me at dpstory@uakron.edu should you encounter any problems, or have suggestions (features) to make.

What's New?

  • AeB Builder utility is now in beta testing. AeB Builder is an application designed to process one or more LaTeX files by converting them to PDF files. Used for converting a whole collection of tutorials, a book with many source files, or a collection of online quizzes or tests, to PDF files. There are special switches for setting AeB package options, and a method of using one source file to create any number of different versions, or renditions.

Additional AeB Packages

  • eqExam: This is a stand alone package for creating exams, quizzes and homework assignments. If you want to use the pdf, links, online or email options, you need the The AcroTeX eDucation Bundle, the latest version. See the eqExam home page.
  • aeb_tilebg:This is a simple application of established packages graphicx, multido and AeB Web. The package takes a rectangular graphic and uses it to tile the background of the pages.
    Download your favorite tiled background swatch from the Internet (or create your own), convert it to an .eps or a .pdf format (depending if you use distiller - should work for users of Ghostscript as well - or pdftex), place that image in the same folder as your source document. Now, anywhere in your document, use the command \setTileBgGraphic to create your tiled background.
    Other features turn tiling on or off. Draft mode (a package option) used during the content development stage. Change the way the tiles are laid out, change from top-to-bottom to bottom-to-top.
    1. Documentation: aebtilebg_man.pdf
    2. Demo file: tilebg_tst.pdf
    3. Distribution: aeb_tilebg.zip
  • graphicxbox:This package introduces two new commands, \graphicxbox and \fgraphicxbox, modeled after \colorbox and \fcolorbox, respectively. These new commands insert a graphical background rather than a flat color background. Requires the graphicx package, and for transparency, the graphicxsp package. Demo files: grfxbox_tst.pdf (produced by pdftex), grfxbox_tst_sp.pdf (produced by distiller) and grfxbox_tst_indians.pdf (produced by distiller).

  • The download for this package, its demo files and its demo graphics files is graphicxbox.zip

Would suggest you update your GraphicxSP and your aeb_tilebg packages if you try to compile the latter two demo files yourself. See the bottom of this page for an updated aeb_tilebg package.

Get the latest version of AeB (acrotex_pack.zip) and if you want to go pro, get AeB Pro to go.

Web/Exerquiz on the Web

Related Links
I gave a talk on The AcroTeX eDucation Bundle at the 15th ICTCM Conference in Disney World, Orlando. My presentation was inspired by some of Han Hagen's presentations. Generally, I used PSTricks and The AcroTeX eDucation Bundle to create some of the special effects you see in the slides. The link for the talk is here. All hypertext links to the examples have been removed. See the last page for a little animation, with sound.


TeX/LaTeX Survey
I've created a TeX/LaTeX Survey using AeB and the eqExam package. If you're so inclined, click the link and fill in and submit the survey. Here are the most recent results, tex_survey_responses.pdf, as of (01/18/10) in the form of a PDF Portfolio, download to your own computer and view in Adobe Reader 9.0 (or later).


The Pdfscreen Package
A screen layout package for pdflatex users that has become quite popular is the pdfscreen package by C. V. Radhakrishnan. The Exerquiz package is somewhat independent of the Web package; in particular, Exerquiz will work with the pdfscreen package.

See the example file eq_pdfs.pdf (which is webeqtst.pdf using pdfscreen). The file, eq_pdfs.zip contains the source of the just cited example of pdfscreen and Exerquiz working together. The package pdfscreen can be downloaded from CTAN (use the search feature to search for the keyword "pdfscreen"), or downloaded directly from the author's web site.

Regards,

dpstory@uakron.edu

Now I simply must get back to my retirement!