SIMnet Project Release Notes March 14 – July 3

#instructors #new-content #release-notes

We’ve been so busy pushing out new Office 2013 content that we’re a bit behind on actually telling you what we’ve been doing. Please check out this mega release note to see the 44 newest Projects, and all the Grading Improvements and Bug Fixes. We’ll be back to bite-sized portions next release!

New Projects

Skills Approach Excel – Ch 8 Skill Review 8.1
Skills Approach Excel – Ch 8 Challenge Yourself 8.4
Skills Approach Excel – Ch 10 Skill Review 10.2
Skills Approach Excel – Ch 10 Challenge Yourself 10.3
Skills Approach Word – Ch 7 Skill Review 7.2
Skills Approach Word – Ch 7 Challenge Yourself 7.3
Skills Approach Word – Ch 8 Skill Review 8.1
Skills Approach Word – Ch 8 Challenge Yourself 8.4
Skills Approach Word – Ch 9 Skill Review 9.1
Skills Approach Word – Ch 9 Challenge Yourself 9.4
In Practice Access – Ch 7 Independent Project 7-3a
In Practice Access – Ch 7 Independent Project 7-3b
In Practice Access – Ch 7 Independent Project 7-4
In Practice Access – Ch 8 Independent Project 8-4a
In Practice Access – Ch 8 Independent Project 8-4b
In Practice Access – Ch 8 Independent Project 8-6
In Practice Excel – Ch 9 Guided Project 9-3
In Practice Excel – Ch 9 Independent Project 9-6
In Practice Word – Ch 10 Independent Project 10-4
In Practice Word – Ch 10 Independent Project 10-6
ProjectLearn Access – Ch 1 Work It Out 1A-E3
ProjectLearn Access – Ch 1 Work It Out 1B-E1
ProjectLearn Access – Ch 2 Work It Out 2A-E2
ProjectLearn Access – Ch 2 Work It Out 2B-E1
ProjectLearn Access – Ch 3 Work It Out 3A-E1
ProjectLearn Access – Ch 3 Work It Out 3A-E2
ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 1 Work It Out 1A-E2
ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 1 Work It Out 1B-E1
ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 2 Work It Out 2A-E2
ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 2 Work It Out 2B-E3
ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 3 Work It Out 3A-E2
ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 3 Work It Out 3B-E1
ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 4 Work It Out 4A-E1
ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 4 Work It Out 4B-E1
ProjectLearn PowerPoint – Ch 1 Work It Out 1A-E2
ProjectLearn PowerPoint – Ch 1 Work It Out 1B-E1
ProjectLearn PowerPoint – Ch 2 Work It Out 2A-E1
ProjectLearn PowerPoint – Ch 2 Work It Out 2B-E1
ProjectLearn PowerPoint – Ch 3 Work It Out 3A-E1
ProjectLearn PowerPoint – Ch 3 Work It Out 3B-E2
ProjectLearn Word – Ch 3 Work It Out 3A-E3
ProjectLearn Word – Ch 3 Work It Out 3B-E2
ProjectLearn Word – Ch 4 Work It Out 4A-E3
ProjectLearn Word – Ch 4 Work It Out 4B-E1

New/Improved Grading Features

Word

Determine if pagination settings have been applied to a paragraph such as widow and orphan control and keeping paragraphs together.
Check for the existence of cross-references.
Determine if the table of contents uses a built-in formatting style.
Check if the chart has specific chart elements such as a title, legend, or data labels.
Check if a quick layout has been applied to a chart.
Determine if picture has been adjusted with a color.
Determine if pictures have been grouped.
Check the alignment of pictures or picture groups.
Check the angle of rotation for a group of elements.
Determine the number of pictures and/or textboxes in a group.
Determine if a picture has the correct horizontal and vertical position.
Added checks for additional styles and color sets.
Revised grading for shape formatting to work regardless of the shape type.
Determine if the repeat header row feature has been applied to a table header.
Revised grading for table features to work when there are multiple tables in a document.
Check the background color of a table cell.
Determine if table border style has been applied.
Search for text within a comment.
Determine if a document has been marked as final.
Determine if Start Enforcement has been selected for editing restrictions.
Revised conditional formatting grading to check both the formatting rules and the formatting styles.
Determine if a fill-in field has the correct prompt and default response to the prompt.

Excel

Revised grading to ignore unnecessary outside parenthesis surrounding formulas.
Determine if subtotal rows have been added for groups of data rows.
Check the conditional formatting criteria for formatting cells based on their values.
Determine if a column has been sorted in ascending or descending order and by the correct type of value.
Determine if data has been filtered by number, by text values, or by Icon.
Check the list range, criteria range, and the range where filtered data should be copied when using advanced filters.
Determine which fields are selected in a slicer.
Revised feedback for calculated fields so that separate messages are displayed whether the calculated field was named incorrectly or whether the correct formula was used.
Improved the method of checking whether the correct pivot table slicer filters were selected.
Determine if a button form control has been added to a worksheet and compare the button text.
Revised grading functions for checking if chart elements such as title, legend, and data labels are present.
Improved checking data label font properties to makes sure all of the data labels have the correct font properties.
Determine if slicer filter is selected for a table slicer.
Determine if a worksheet has a background image.
Improved chart title format grading to handle multiple font properties.
Improved feedback message when grading table column sorting to use column name instead of column letter.

PowerPoint

Updated feedback messages from the text search function to include the name of the placeholder area being searched.
Revised grading of animations to grade duration of animations independently from the order of the animation.
Added grading for animation delay and animation start settings.
Count the number of shapes of a specific type on a slide.
Determine if a shape has the correct height and width.
Compare text within a shape.
Determine if the correct quick style has been applied to a shape.
Determine if a shape has the correct shadow effects such as color, transparency, size and blur.
Determine if the correct style has been applied to a shape shadow such as offset styles, inside styles, and perspective styles.
Improved grading shape properties to check properties such as fill color and outline style regardless of shape type.
Added support for additional shape types: Right Arrow, Rounded Rectangle and Callout shapes.
Determine if a picture has the correct border properties applied.

Bug Fixes

Access Projects Added alternate headings to accommodate exporting from form or layout view.
Word Projects Corrected a problem with grading document properties on the cover page to make sure that the document properties were found on the cover page rather than elsewhere in the document.
In Practice Access – Ch 4 Independent Project 4-4 Correct project instructions concerning name of a button and an instruction numbering problem.
In Practice – Excel Ch 3 Guided Project 3-3 Fixed a problem with detecting cell ranges for charts.
In Practice – Excel Ch 3 Independent Project 3-6 Added feedback to explain that multiple trendlines exist for a data series.
In Practice Excel – Ch 4 Independent Project 4-4 Pivot tables can now be graded using reference table name or pivot table reference data.
In Practice Excel – Ch 6 Independent Project 6-5 Corrected project instructions and revised grading related to nesting Index and Match functions and corresponding values for instructions #6 – 8.
In Practice Excel – Ch 7 Independent Project 7-5 Revised the method for grading whether data validation has been applied to cells. The method now checks that the data validation rule has been applied to each cell within a list of cells rather than checking that the validation was applied to a specific range of cells.
In Practice Excel – Ch 7 Independent Project 7-5 Adjusted grading of data validation to check if the validation was applied to the required list of cells regardless whether the cells were selected in one range or multiple ranges. The grading now ignores if students have applied the data validation for extra cells not in the required list.
In Practice Excel – Ch 8 Independent Project 8-5 Allow for blank spaces in Calculated Field Formulas.
In Practice Excel – Ch 9 Independent Project 9-6Adjusted grading of data validation to check if the validation was applied to the required list of cells regardless whether the cells were selected in one range or multiple ranges. The grading now ignores if students have applied the data validation for extra cells not in the required list.
In Practice PowerPoint – Ch 1 Guided Project 1-2 Added a note to the project instructions for students to click Ignore to skip spelling on slide 1 for the word Email.
In Practice PowerPoint – Ch 1 Independent Project 1-5 Added characters to the list of hidden characters that should be removed before grading text fields.
In Practice PowerPoint – Ch 1 Independent Project 1-5 Added alternate codes for Wingding bullet characters.
In Practice PowerPoint – Ch 2 Guided Project 2-3 Corrected missing text in feedback message when grading WordArt text.
In Practice – PowerPoint Ch 2 Guided Project 2-3 Improved grading of chart element font sizes to check if the font size was set for the entire chart in addition to checking the font size for the individual chart elements.
In Practice PowerPoint – Ch 2 Independent Project 2-5 Improve text search to work regardless of whether text is entered on one line or two.
In Practice PowerPoint – Ch 3 Guided Project 3-1 There is a problem formatting background pictures when using PowerPoint 2013 with Windows 8.1. We added a note to the project instructions notifying users of Windows 8.1 to skip the instruction and we removed grading for this step.
In Practice – PowerPoint Ch 3 Independent Project 3-4 Improved instructions about adding a picture to the background and added a screen shot to the instructions.
In Practice Word – Ch 2 Guided Project 2-2 Correct screenshot on visual display of feedback icons.
In Practice – Word Ch 2 Independent Project 2-6 Updated grading of hyperlinks to provide better feedback for incorrect email address.
In Practice – Word Ch 3 Guided Project 3-1 Added the cover page to the start file and updated project instructions and grading accordingly.
In Practice – Word Ch 6 Independent Project 6-6 Adjusted grading of bullet styles for different list levels.
In Practice – Word Ch 9 Guided Project 9-3 Fixed a problem with checking if a watermark has been removed.
In Practice – Word Ch 9 Independent Project 9-4 Fixed a problem with Skip Record If merge rule.
Skills Approach Excel – Ch 1 Skill Review 1.1 Added alternate acceptable formulas.
Skills Approach Excel – Ch 2 Challenge Yourself 2.3 Fixed a bug when grading conditional formatting.
Skills Approach Excel – Ch 5 Challenge Yourself 5.3 Removed grading for hiding a data value in a chart. Added grading for filtering using a table slicer.
Skills Approach Word – Ch 2 Skill Review 2.1 Improved the visual image of the solution and placement of the feedback icons.
Skills Approach Word –Challenge Yourself 2.3 Improved the visual image of the solution and placement of the feedback icons.
Skills Approach Word – Ch 2 Fix It 2.6 Improved the visual image of the solution and placement of the feedback icons.
Skills Approach – Word Ch 6 Challenge Yourself 6.3 Updated the project instructions to use Verdana for the Heading 2 Style instead of Myriad Pro. Updated the project grading accordingly.
ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 4 Work It Out 4B-E1 Added alternate number formatting patterns.
GA State Excel – Ch 4 Work It Out 4A-E1 Fixed a problem with grading freeze panes.
GA-State Excel – Ch 4 Work It Out 4A-E1 Replaced grading of column filters to use a function specifically for checking column filters instead of grading by cell value.

PreviousNew Content Release Friday, July 11, 2014 NextJuly 1, 2014 – Release Notes

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New Projects

Skills Approach Excel – Ch 8 Skill Review 8.1

Skills Approach Excel – Ch 8 Challenge Yourself 8.4

Skills Approach Excel – Ch 10 Skill Review 10.2

Skills Approach Excel – Ch 10 Challenge Yourself 10.3

Skills Approach Word – Ch 7 Skill Review 7.2

Skills Approach Word – Ch 7 Challenge Yourself 7.3

Skills Approach Word – Ch 8 Skill Review 8.1

Skills Approach Word – Ch 8 Challenge Yourself 8.4

Skills Approach Word – Ch 9 Skill Review 9.1

Skills Approach Word – Ch 9 Challenge Yourself 9.4

In Practice Access – Ch 7 Independent Project 7-3a

In Practice Access – Ch 7 Independent Project 7-3b

In Practice Access – Ch 7 Independent Project 7-4

In Practice Access – Ch 8 Independent Project 8-4a

In Practice Access – Ch 8 Independent Project 8-4b

In Practice Access – Ch 8 Independent Project 8-6

In Practice Excel – Ch 9 Guided Project 9-3

In Practice Excel – Ch 9 Independent Project 9-6

In Practice Word – Ch 10 Independent Project 10-4

In Practice Word – Ch 10 Independent Project 10-6

ProjectLearn Access – Ch 1 Work It Out 1A-E3

ProjectLearn Access – Ch 1 Work It Out 1B-E1

ProjectLearn Access – Ch 2 Work It Out 2A-E2

ProjectLearn Access – Ch 2 Work It Out 2B-E1

ProjectLearn Access – Ch 3 Work It Out 3A-E1

ProjectLearn Access – Ch 3 Work It Out 3A-E2

ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 1 Work It Out 1A-E2

ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 1 Work It Out 1B-E1

ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 2 Work It Out 2A-E2

ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 2 Work It Out 2B-E3

ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 3 Work It Out 3A-E2

ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 3 Work It Out 3B-E1

ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 4 Work It Out 4A-E1

ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 4 Work It Out 4B-E1

ProjectLearn PowerPoint – Ch 1 Work It Out 1A-E2

ProjectLearn PowerPoint – Ch 1 Work It Out 1B-E1

ProjectLearn PowerPoint – Ch 2 Work It Out 2A-E1

ProjectLearn PowerPoint – Ch 2 Work It Out 2B-E1

ProjectLearn PowerPoint – Ch 3 Work It Out 3A-E1

ProjectLearn PowerPoint – Ch 3 Work It Out 3B-E2

ProjectLearn Word – Ch 3 Work It Out 3A-E3

ProjectLearn Word – Ch 3 Work It Out 3B-E2

ProjectLearn Word – Ch 4 Work It Out 4A-E3

ProjectLearn Word – Ch 4 Work It Out 4B-E1

New/Improved Grading Features

Word

Determine if pagination settings have been applied to a paragraph such as widow and orphan control and keeping paragraphs together.

Check for the existence of cross-references.

Determine if the table of contents uses a built-in formatting style.

Check if the chart has specific chart elements such as a title, legend, or data labels.

Check if a quick layout has been applied to a chart.

Determine if picture has been adjusted with a color.

Determine if pictures have been grouped.

Check the alignment of pictures or picture groups.

Check the angle of rotation for a group of elements.

Determine the number of pictures and/or textboxes in a group.

Determine if a picture has the correct horizontal and vertical position.

Added checks for additional styles and color sets.

Revised grading for shape formatting to work regardless of the shape type.

Determine if the repeat header row feature has been applied to a table header.

Revised grading for table features to work when there are multiple tables in a document.

Check the background color of a table cell.

Determine if table border style has been applied.

Search for text within a comment.

Determine if a document has been marked as final.

Determine if Start Enforcement has been selected for editing restrictions.

Revised conditional formatting grading to check both the formatting rules and the formatting styles.

Determine if a fill-in field has the correct prompt and default response to the prompt.

Excel

Revised grading to ignore unnecessary outside parenthesis surrounding formulas.

Determine if subtotal rows have been added for groups of data rows.

Check the conditional formatting criteria for formatting cells based on their values.

Determine if a column has been sorted in ascending or descending order and by the correct type of value.

Determine if data has been filtered by number, by text values, or by Icon.

Check the list range, criteria range, and the range where filtered data should be copied when using advanced filters.

Determine which fields are selected in a slicer.

Revised feedback for calculated fields so that separate messages are displayed whether the calculated field was named incorrectly or whether the correct formula was used.

Improved the method of checking whether the correct pivot table slicer filters were selected.

Determine if a button form control has been added to a worksheet and compare the button text.

Revised grading functions for checking if chart elements such as title, legend, and data labels are present.

Improved checking data label font properties to makes sure all of the data labels have the correct font properties.

Determine if slicer filter is selected for a table slicer.

Determine if a worksheet has a background image.

Improved chart title format grading to handle multiple font properties.

Improved feedback message when grading table column sorting to use column name instead of column letter.

PowerPoint

Updated feedback messages from the text search function to include the name of the placeholder area being searched.

Revised grading of animations to grade duration of animations independently from the order of the animation.

Added grading for animation delay and animation start settings.

Count the number of shapes of a specific type on a slide.

Determine if a shape has the correct height and width.

Compare text within a shape.

Determine if the correct quick style has been applied to a shape.

Determine if a shape has the correct shadow effects such as color, transparency, size and blur.

Determine if the correct style has been applied to a shape shadow such as offset styles, inside styles, and perspective styles.

Improved grading shape properties to check properties such as fill color and outline style regardless of shape type.

Added support for additional shape types: Right Arrow, Rounded Rectangle and Callout shapes.

Determine if a picture has the correct border properties applied.

Bug Fixes

Access Projects Added alternate headings to accommodate exporting from form or layout view.

Word Projects Corrected a problem with grading document properties on the cover page to make sure that the document properties were found on the cover page rather than elsewhere in the document.

In Practice Access – Ch 4 Independent Project 4-4 Correct project instructions concerning name of a button and an instruction numbering problem.

In Practice – Excel Ch 3 Guided Project 3-3 Fixed a problem with detecting cell ranges for charts.

In Practice – Excel Ch 3 Independent Project 3-6 Added feedback to explain that multiple trendlines exist for a data series.

In Practice Excel – Ch 4 Independent Project 4-4 Pivot tables can now be graded using reference table name or pivot table reference data.

In Practice Excel – Ch 6 Independent Project 6-5 Corrected project instructions and revised grading related to nesting Index and Match functions and corresponding values for instructions #6 – 8.

In Practice Excel – Ch 7 Independent Project 7-5 Revised the method for grading whether data validation has been applied to cells. The method now checks that the data validation rule has been applied to each cell within a list of cells rather than checking that the validation was applied to a specific range of cells.

In Practice Excel – Ch 7 Independent Project 7-5 Adjusted grading of data validation to check if the validation was applied to the required list of cells regardless whether the cells were selected in one range or multiple ranges. The grading now ignores if students have applied the data validation for extra cells not in the required list.

In Practice Excel – Ch 8 Independent Project 8-5 Allow for blank spaces in Calculated Field Formulas.

In Practice Excel – Ch 9 Independent Project 9-6Adjusted grading of data validation to check if the validation was applied to the required list of cells regardless whether the cells were selected in one range or multiple ranges. The grading now ignores if students have applied the data validation for extra cells not in the required list.

In Practice PowerPoint – Ch 1 Guided Project 1-2 Added a note to the project instructions for students to click Ignore to skip spelling on slide 1 for the word Email.

In Practice PowerPoint – Ch 1 Independent Project 1-5 Added characters to the list of hidden characters that should be removed before grading text fields.

In Practice PowerPoint – Ch 1 Independent Project 1-5 Added alternate codes for Wingding bullet characters.

In Practice PowerPoint – Ch 2 Guided Project 2-3 Corrected missing text in feedback message when grading WordArt text.

In Practice – PowerPoint Ch 2 Guided Project 2-3 Improved grading of chart element font sizes to check if the font size was set for the entire chart in addition to checking the font size for the individual chart elements.

In Practice PowerPoint – Ch 2 Independent Project 2-5 Improve text search to work regardless of whether text is entered on one line or two.

In Practice PowerPoint – Ch 3 Guided Project 3-1 There is a problem formatting background pictures when using PowerPoint 2013 with Windows 8.1. We added a note to the project instructions notifying users of Windows 8.1 to skip the instruction and we removed grading for this step.

In Practice – PowerPoint Ch 3 Independent Project 3-4 Improved instructions about adding a picture to the background and added a screen shot to the instructions.

In Practice Word – Ch 2 Guided Project 2-2 Correct screenshot on visual display of feedback icons.

In Practice – Word Ch 2 Independent Project 2-6 Updated grading of hyperlinks to provide better feedback for incorrect email address.

In Practice – Word Ch 3 Guided Project 3-1 Added the cover page to the start file and updated project instructions and grading accordingly.

In Practice – Word Ch 6 Independent Project 6-6 Adjusted grading of bullet styles for different list levels.

In Practice – Word Ch 9 Guided Project 9-3 Fixed a problem with checking if a watermark has been removed.

In Practice – Word Ch 9 Independent Project 9-4 Fixed a problem with Skip Record If merge rule.

Skills Approach Excel – Ch 1 Skill Review 1.1 Added alternate acceptable formulas.

Skills Approach Excel – Ch 2 Challenge Yourself 2.3 Fixed a bug when grading conditional formatting.

Skills Approach Excel – Ch 5 Challenge Yourself 5.3 Removed grading for hiding a data value in a chart. Added grading for filtering using a table slicer.

Skills Approach Word – Ch 2 Skill Review 2.1 Improved the visual image of the solution and placement of the feedback icons.

Skills Approach Word –Challenge Yourself 2.3 Improved the visual image of the solution and placement of the feedback icons.

Skills Approach Word – Ch 2 Fix It 2.6 Improved the visual image of the solution and placement of the feedback icons.

Skills Approach – Word Ch 6 Challenge Yourself 6.3 Updated the project instructions to use Verdana for the Heading 2 Style instead of Myriad Pro. Updated the project grading accordingly.

ProjectLearn Excel – Ch 4 Work It Out 4B-E1 Added alternate number formatting patterns.

GA State Excel – Ch 4 Work It Out 4A-E1 Fixed a problem with grading freeze panes.

GA-State Excel – Ch 4 Work It Out 4A-E1 Replaced grading of column filters to use a function specifically for checking column filters instead of grading by cell value.