Question Writer is a quiz authoring tool for Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

. It is used for authoring questions and compiling them into quizzes in the Flash file format

Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...

. The software is published by Central Question.

User interface

The user interface treats each quiz as a separate document. The document interface makes available the questions in a tree-view on the left hand side and a large preview pane on the right hand side. This pane can display a preview of the question, section or entire quiz. The software uses a multiple document interface

Multiple document interface

Graphical computer applications with a multiple document interface are those whose windows reside under a single parent window , as opposed to all windows being separate from each other . Such systems often allow child windows to embed other windows inside them as well, creating complex nested...

 allowing a number of quizzes to be open simultaneously. Drag and drop is used to re-order questions within a quiz and copy questions between quizzes.

Versions

Question Writer is in its third iteration and comes in three editions, 'Basic', 'Standard' and 'Professional'. The Basic version is made freely available for personal use but is restricted to multiple choice questions. The Standard version has a wider range of question types, features and quiz themes. The Professional version adds more advanced features, notably a partial credit question and question pooling.

Features

Question Writer users create quizzes by adding questions and choosing the settings that apply to the quiz. The main settings allow changes to do with question randomization and selection, time limits, the reporting and feedback level, the marking scheme and the passing score.

8 question types can be used, those are

• Multiple Choice
• Multiple Response
• Matching
• Sequencing
• Fill in the Blank
• Essay
• True/False
• Partial Credit

Publishing

Quizzes can be published for the web, in which case a SWF

SWF

SWF is an Adobe Flash file format used for multimedia, vector graphics and ActionScript. Originating with FutureWave Software, then transferred to Macromedia, and then coming under the control of Adobe, SWF files can contain animations or applets of varying degrees of interactivity and function.,...

 is compiled and exported together with a small driver HTML

HTML

HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

 and Javascript

JavaScript

JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....

 file. Quizzes can also be published as SCORM

SCORM

Sharable Content Object Reference Model is a collection of standards and specifications for web-based e-learning. It defines communications between client side content and a host system called the run-time environment, which is commonly supported by a learning management system...

 packages, in which case the files are published inside a SCORM

SCORM

Sharable Content Object Reference Model is a collection of standards and specifications for web-based e-learning. It defines communications between client side content and a host system called the run-time environment, which is commonly supported by a learning management system...

 1.2 compliant zip file. Question Writer is notable in that it compiles all the resources of a quiz into a single standalone SWF

SWF

SWF is an Adobe Flash file format used for multimedia, vector graphics and ActionScript. Originating with FutureWave Software, then transferred to Macromedia, and then coming under the control of Adobe, SWF files can contain animations or applets of varying degrees of interactivity and function.,...

 file.

File formats

Question Writer makes use of various file formats. The main ones are:

Format	File Extension	Extent
Quiz Source	.qwz	.qwz files contain source material for the application. Question Writer can edit QWZ files and compile them into quizzes. All resources required for a quiz are contained in the .qwz file.
Themes	.qws	.qws files contain themes. Question Writer can apply a QWS file to a quiz to give it a new look and feel.
Flash	.swf SWF SWF is an Adobe Flash file format used for multimedia, vector graphics and ActionScript. Originating with FutureWave Software, then transferred to Macromedia, and then coming under the control of Adobe, SWF files can contain animations or applets of varying degrees of interactivity and function.,...	Question Writer compiles quizzes into .swf files that can be played back in the Flash player. Question Writer also imports .swf files for use as supporting material for questions.
Images	.gif GIF The Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability....  / .jpg JPEG In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....	Images in GIF and JPEG formats can be imported to be used as illustrations to support questions.
Text Questions	.txt Text file A text file is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of lines of electronic text. A text file exists within a computer file system...  / .rtf Rich Text Format The Rich Text Format is a proprietary document file format with published specification developed by Microsoft Corporation since 1987 for Microsoft products and for cross-platform document interchange....	Questions stored in a text file in a specified format can be imported.
Moodle XML	.xml XML Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....	Questions that have been exported from the Moodle LMS or prepared for import into the Moodle LMS in XML format can be imported