Placeholders are useful for inserting the text of parts and answer boxes at specific points in the question. There are two types of placeholders:
Part's placeholder (discussed below)
Answer box placeholder (discussed on the next page)
The Part's placeholder allows inserting the text of a Part at a particular point in the Main question. The placeholder name is a string starting with # and followed by a string of alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z and 0-9) such as #1, #a, #a1, #1a, #SubQuestion01, etc. Note that although the designation of the Part's placeholders is quite flexible, a simple designation such as #1, #2, #3, etc. is often sufficient.
At the point of insertion into the main Question text, the placeholder name must be enclosed by curly braces { }. In the Parts, the placeholder name is specified in the field called Placeholder name.
Use Part's placeholders in the main question to insert the text of three parts.
Settings
GeneralQuestion name!A Formulas question with three Part's placeholdersMain questionQuestion text!With Part's placeholdersTwo Parts on addition:{#1a}{#1b}One Part on subtraction:{#2}Part 1Part's mark*1Answer typeNumberAnswer*7Grading criteria*Absolute error == 0Placeholder name#1aPart's textWhat is 3 + 4?Part 2Part's mark*1Answer typeNumberAnswer*9Grading criteria*Absolute error == 0Placeholder name#1bPart's textWhat is 4 + 5?Part 3Part's mark*1Answer typeNumberAnswer*3Grading criteria*Absolute error == 0Placeholder name#2Part's textWhat is 9 − 6?
The Formulas question should look like this:
Example
The same question as in the previous example can be obtained with the following parameters:
Settings
GeneralQuestion name!A Formulas question with three Parts, but no Part's placeholdersMain questionQuestion text!Without Part's placeholdersNote: In general, it may be better to use placeholders.Part 1Part's mark*1Answer typeNumberAnswer*7Grading criteria*Absolute error == 0Part's textTwo subquestions on addition:What is 3 + 4?{_0}Part 2Part's mark*1Answer typeNumberAnswer*9Grading criteria*Absolute error == 0Part's textWhat is 4 + 5?{_0} Part 3
Part's mark*1Answer typeNumberAnswer*3Grading criteria*Absolute error == 0Part's textOne subquestion on subtraction:What is 9 − 6?{_0}
However, it may be best to use placeholders as in the previous example.
Parts in the same paragraph
If you want to display the input boxes of multiple parts in the same paragraph, follow these steps:
In the text of the Main question, enclose the placeholder of each Part with <div style="display:inline-block;"></div>.
In each text of each Part, make sure the HTML code is just {_0} without tags, e.g. without <p></p>.
A question with two parts. The input boxes are displayed in the same paragraph.
The Formulas question should look like this:
Placing each parts of the paragraph on a new line makes the HTML clearer and automatically adds a space between parts, which is usually required. You can enclose the paragraph with <div></div>, for example to set margins, but do not use <p></p>.
Main questionQuestion text!⁞
A force of
<div style="display:inline-block;">{#1}</div>
at
<div style="display:inline-block;">{#2}</div>
Adding parts
Under the last Part, click Blanks for 2 more parts. This will add two more Parts to the existing ones. Repeat for adding more Parts.
Inserting parts
Add new Parts as described above and give each one a Placeholder name. Add these placeholder names, enclosed by curly braces { }, in the main Question text. The Parts will be reordered, upon saving the question, according to the order in which the placeholder names appear in the main Question text.
Reordering parts
Change the order of the placeholder names in the main Question text, or change the Placeholder names of the Parts. The Parts will be reordered, upon saving the question, according to the order in which the placeholder names appear in the main Question text.
Deleting parts
In order to delete a Part, delete the Part's mark, Answer, Unit, Placeholder name, Part's text and any part feedback. Set the Answer type to Number and the Grading criterion to Absolute error == 0. Then save the Formulas question.