If you want learners to have access to a standalone quiz via the Internet or an intranet, and if you don't need to track their completion or progress, then web publishing is for you.
(If you do need tracking capabilities, publish to an LMS instead. Or, if you need to incorporate your quiz into an Articulate Presenter course, click here.)
In this tutorial, we'll look at how to use Articulate Quizmaker's web publishing option to turn a standalone quiz into web-ready content.
Step 1: Enter Title, Description, and Folder Location
- On the Home tab of the Quizmaker ribbon, click Publish. (Or, from any other tab on the ribbon, click the small triangle under the Preview button and choose Publish.)
- When the Publish window appears, select the Web tab on the left.
- Check the text that appears in the Title field, and customize it if you like. This text defaults to the name of your Quizmaker file. If you change it, it'll change the title text that Quizmaker uses in the following places (but it won't change your actual file name):
- The folder that Quizmaker creates to contain your published output. For example, if the Title field contains the words MSDS Quiz, Quizmaker creates a new folder on your hard drive called MSDS Quiz—Quizmaker output when you publish.
- The browser title bar, when learners view your published quiz in a browser window.
- The top bar of your quiz player, if you've opted to include the title as one of the player features.
- If you publish your content for the Articulate Mobile Player app, the quiz title is also used on the HTML launch page and in the list of content names in the Articulate Mobile Player library.
- In the Description field, enter descriptive text about your quiz. If learners view your quiz with the Articulate Mobile Player, your description text appears below the quiz thumbnail in the Articulate Mobile Player library.
- In the Folder field, indicate where on your computer you want Quizmaker to create your published output. Click the ellipsis button (...) to browse to a specific location. Quizmaker will create a new folder in that spot with all the files needed to play your quiz.
- Important: Always publish to your local hard drive. Publishing to a network drive or a USB drive can create problems with your published output. After you publish your quiz to a local folder, upload the output to a web server to test it.
Step 2: Enter Additional Project Info for the Articulate Mobile Player (Optional)
If learners use the Articulate Mobile Player, you can add more information by clicking the ellipsis button (...) next to the Title field on the Publish window. The following Project Info window appears.
- The Title and Description are the same as what you entered on the Publish window; change the text here if you'd like.
- When learners browse content in their Articulate Mobile Player library, the thumbnail below the Title field will appear for this quiz. By default, Quizmaker uses an image of the first slide in your quiz, but you can choose a different image. Just click the blue slide title text. Then either select a different quiz slide, or click Picture from File and choose an image.
- Author, Email, Website, Duration, Date, and Version appear on the content information cards in the Articulate Mobile Player library.
- Identifier applies only to content published for LMS.
- Keywords aren't currently used. They'll be used in a future version of the Articulate Mobile Player app.
When you're finished customizing the project information, click OK to return to the Publish window.
Step 3: Choose HTML5 and/or Mobile Publishing (Optional)
If learners mobile devices that doesn't support Flash, mark the following options to make your quiz viewable in HTML5, the Articulate Mobile Player, or both.
- Include HTML5 output: This prepares your quiz so that it's viewable as HTML5 content if a learner doesn't have the Flash Player and they view your quiz in an HTML5-compatible browser. Keep in mind that not all browsers handle HTML5 content equally. This article identifies which browsers your learners should use if they need to view your quiz as HTML5 content.
- Use Articulate Mobile Player for iOS or Android: This prepares your quiz so learners have the best viewing experience on iPads and Android devices. Learners view the content in the free Articulate Mobile Player app, which they'll be prompted to install when they launch the quiz if they don't already have it.
- Allow downloading for offline viewing: Mark this box to let learners download your quiz to their Articulate Mobile Player library. Once learners download the quiz, they can view it at any time with or without Internet access, even if you remove the quiz from the web server where you hosted it. Your quiz stays in the learner's Articulate Mobile Player library until they remove it. (For this reason, you might not want to mark this option if you don't want learners to be able to access the quiz indefinitely, or if you plan to update the quiz and are concerned about learners viewing previously downloaded content that becomes obsolete.)
Step 4: Check Player Properties and Quality Settings
The Properties section of the Publish window allows you to make last-minute changes to your quiz player or the compression settings Quizmaker uses when publishing.
- The Player field shows the name of the player that Quizmaker will use when you publish. (The player is the interface that learners see when they view your quiz, and it can include things like player controls, the question list, and other features.) Click the player name if you'd like to make adjustments or switch to a different player. If you need help choosing your player settings, see this tutorial.
- The Quality field lets you control the compression settings Quizmaker uses for audio, video, and pictures you've added to your quiz. The settings here default to whatever you used the last time you published a quiz. To change the quality settings, click the blue text and change any of the fields as noted below, then click OK.
- Choose Standard if you want to use the default settings. If you mark this option, the values on the window revert back to their defaults (video quality of 5, audio bitrate of 48kbps, and image quality of 80%).
- Choose Custom if you want to define your own quality settings. Then click and drag the slider on any of the three values to change the compression. Using higher values gives you higher-quality output but also larger file sizes (which means longer download times). Lower values give you smaller file sizes and faster download times, but the visual and audio quality will be lower as well.
Step 5: Publish
When you're finished making selections, click the Publish button. Quizmaker creates your published output in the location you specified. When publishing is complete, you'll see this Publish Successful dialog.
- View Quiz: This launches the quiz in your web browser. Important note about viewing your published content: Since your files have been prepared for deployment over the web, in some situations you might encounter unexpected behavior if you try to view the quiz from your local hard drive. After publishing for web, it's always best to upload your published output to its final destination and test it there.
- Email: This opens up a new email message with a zipped file of your published output attached. This might be helpful if you need to share your quiz with a subject matter expert (SME) or if you need to send it to your web server administrator to be deployed. If your audience is larger than just a few people, it's better to move your files to a web server, and then send your audience the link to the quiz.html file (which is the file that launches the quiz). This way, you're less likely to burden your email system with attachments, your recipients won't need to fuss with saving and unzipping files, and you won't have to resend revised files every time you update the quiz.
- FTP: This opens a window where you can enter your FTP credentials and transfer your output to your website.
- Zip: This creates a zipped file of your output in the location you specified on the Publish window.
- Open Folder: This opens a file viewer where you can see the files Quizmaker just created. After you move the files to a web server, send your learners a link to the quiz.html file, so they can view your quiz. Depending on the device and browser learners use, they'll automatically get directed to the right format. (See below for details.)
Step 6: Distribute Your Published Quiz
Now that you've published, it's time to move your web-ready quiz to a website or server, give it a test run, and send learners the link to the quiz.html file for viewing.
When learners launch the quiz.html file, they'll see the right type of content based on the device and browser being used.
- Learners will see the Flash version of your quiz if their browsers support it.
- If learners are using iPads or Android devices and you selected the Articulate Mobile Player option when you published, the quiz will launch in the app. (If they don't have the app installed, they'll be prompted to install it.)
- If learners are using iPads and you didn't select the Articulate Mobile Player option when you published, but you did select HTML5, the HTML5 output will launch in mobile Safari.
- If learners are using a browser without Flash and you marked the HTML5 option, they'll see the HTML5 output. (Click here for a list of supported HTML5 browsers.)