Creation process of text activities

- Activate the File - New... - Text activity menu.

- Choose a kind of activity from the six possible options.

- Write the text for the activity, being careful to only press Return and the end of the paragraphs.

- If a box needs to be inserted, place the cursor where you want the box to appear and click on the button shown below:
 

 
... and set its dimensions and content. If there is any need to modify the characteristics of a box, you just have to click on it.
The boxes behave as any character within the text: to delete them you can place the cursor in front of one and press the DEL key, or from behind with the Backspace key.
When a lot of changes are made to a box, the text format shown in the edit window may be lost. In this case click on the OK button and edit the activity again with CTRL+E.
The colours and fonts shown in a box are adjusted by using the Fonts button.

- Select the text that will be the first target. To select blocks of text you can use one of the following techniques:

a) Place the cursor at the beginning of the block, press the shift key and, keeping the shift key held down, go forward with the arrow keys until the block is selected. If, apart from the shift key, you also keep the control key pressed down you will advance word by word.

b) Click on the left button of the mouse and, without letting go, drag the pointer to the end.

- Once the block that will be the first target has been selected, click on the button below:
 

 
If it is a fill in blanks activity, a window will appear where you can specify the behaviour and correct answer for the target and also the possibility of showing a help window. In the other types of activity you will notice that the text colour changes, indicating that the block has already been converted into a target.
To check the behaviour of a target in a fill in blanks activity, place the cursor within the target (there is no need to select the entire target) and click on the same button that you used to create it. The target definition window will then reappear.
There are two ways to deselect a block as a target:

a) In fill in blanks activities, delete the block and rewrite it.

b) In the other activity types, place the cursor within the target and click on the button you used to create it.

  The quickest way to delete all the targets in an exercise is to change the type (buttons at the top of the edit window) and accept the warning given by Clic.

- Continue selecting text and creating the necessary targets. If there are various targets in the activity that have some text in common, you can use the automatic creation of targets button:
 

 
This button allows the creation of a set of targets in a single action. For example, hide, in one go, all the words that have a certain letter or the appearances of a certain text expression. Consult the help or the Clic manual for more information on the automatic creation of targets.

- Adjust the fonts and colours through the Fonts button. Here you can make changes to four different areas:

a) There are three combinations of colours for the main: the principal colour, the colour used for targets (user text and user background) and the colour Clic uses to highlight errors when the exercise is corrected.

b) A font and a combination of colours can also be set for the boxes.

c) In fill in blanks activities a specific style can be set for the help windows which can be optionally linked to the targets.

d) As in all Clic activities, there is also a combination for the Message box.

- Check the activity and, if necessary, change the correction options through the button shown below:
 

 
There are four groups of parameters that can be changed in the correction options screen:

a) The tolerance of certain differences between the correct answer and what the user writes: capitals/small caps, accents and special characters, punctuation marks, repeated spaces, etc.

b) When the exercise is corrected: immediately after each answer, on finishing the activity, whether all the targets have to be solved before going on to the next activity, etc.

c) Decide if the programme should analyse the answers letter by letter highlighting possible errors, or just indicate whether each target has been answered correctly or not. In the first case even the parameters used to compare the user's answer with the correct answer can be adjusted.

d) Whether an initial screen should appear before starting to solve the activity and the amount of time this should be visible. The initial screen can show the solution to the exercise (for example, show the complete text before shuffling the paragraphs) or an explicatory document.

- Change, in activity options, the size of the text window (grid A), the background colours or graphics, the buttons and counters to be shown, etc.