By default, ExamWritePad's Settings file (the JSON you edit with the ConfigEditorGUI) applies to the device ExamWritePad is installed on, meaning any student that uses that device will get the same settings you configured.
You may wish to change this so that ExamWritePad instead applies settings on a per-user basis, meaning that different students/groups of students get their own configuration of settings when they access the software rather than your system-wide setup.
Some examples of reasons why you might consider this may include one or more of the following:
- You use shared devices for exams, wherein a student could access one of many systems and needs their configuration to persist regardless of the one they use.
- You have students/groups of students that have differing requirements for exams and need to be able to support multiple configurations that meet the needs of each (e.g. a configuration that has Spellcheck enabled for students that are allowed it and one that has it disabled for students that aren't).
- You are running ExamWritePad off a shared location (e.g. a network folder) and need to be able to support multiple configurations/differing configurations depending on the student accessing the software.
- You have shared exam accounts that could be used by groups of students at a time across multiple devices and want to configure settings to apply by account.
For any of these or any other reason you might wish to use per-user settings, ExamWritePad supports several different methods that can achieve this:
Method 1: Using the 'EnableUserSettings' Override Option
'EnableUserSettings' is an option in your main Exam Settings (JSON) file; when turned on, ExamWritePad will load your main Exam Settings file for the device as normal but will then override that with any changes made to a separate file that is applied to the logged-in user's Roaming Profile.
Steps for this are below:
1) Change the value of the 'EnableUserSettings' option in the Exam Settings file to '1'.
2) Configure the rest of the Exam Settings file as required so that any options required for all users/generic users are applied.
3) Create an 'ExamWritePad.UserSettings' file (this is also JSON format) and use the formatting described in the Description of the 'EnableUserSettings' option to customise any overrides you need to apply to your exam setup.
4) Deploy this file to the relevant user Roaming Profile(s) (%AppData%\ExamWritePad).
5) Repeat steps 3-4 for as many unique configurations as you require, deploying the files to whichever relevant users need them.
You can also apply these overrides to the Windows Registry for the logged-in user if you would prefer not to use a file.
Note that, whilst most are, not every option configurable in the main Exam Settings file is overridable via this method.
Refer to the description for the full list of available overrides.
This is the best supported and recommended method for enabling per-user settings with ExamWritePad - it offers the best flexibility between simplicity of process and depth of configuration available.
Method 2: Using the 'Override_Option_ADGroup' Option
'Override_Option_ADGroup' is an option in your main Exam Settings (JSON) file; when turned on, ExamWritePad will load your main Exam Settings file for the device as normal but will then check for users in specifically-named AD Groups and override certain settings for those users.
This option requires your users to be managed via Active Directory and can only be used to override a handful of commonly differing settings (namely Spellcheck and access to PDF Viewer).
Please see steps below to utilise this:
1) Configure your Exam Settings file as required for all users, ensuring that Spellcheck and/or PDF Viewer are disabled by default per your requirements.
2) Follow the guidance in the Description of the 'Override_Option_ADGroup' to create AD Groups with specific names for the features you wish to override (i.e. create an AD Group called 'EWP-Spelling' if you wish to have this feature overridden for a selection of users).
3) Add the relevant users that need a feature override to the respective AD Group for that feature (i.e. users added to the 'EWP-Spelling' group will get access to Spellcheck).
When configured this way, ExamWritePad will disable the relevant features for all users that access the software except those that are part of the respective AD Group for that feature.
This method is intended as a streamlined option for Active Directory sites that already manage users via various AD Groups. It should be used only if you can benefit from the smoother setup whilst not being impacted by the limited per-user configuration available.
Method 3: Loading Different Exam Settings Files For Different Users
If you run ExamWritePad via Command Line, the software supports the /CONFIG parameter, which allows you to pass a custom location for the Exam Settings JSON that ExamWritePad will load its configuration from instead of the default installation directory location.
This is primarily used to support managing the JSON file from a central location, however it can also be used to support loading multiple JSONs for different users.
You could do this a few different ways, such as via something like a start-up script or a shortcut; as the steps can differ depending on your choice and network setup, I will outline a general example using shortcuts below -
In this example, lets say you have two groups of users, one that needs Spellcheck and one that doesn't.
You can configure an Exam Settings file that has Spellcheck enabled and store this in a location on your network, then you can copy and configure a separate Exam Settings file that has it disabled and store this under a different name/in a different location.
Then, create two different shortcuts that launch ExamWritePad via command using the parameter above; one using the location of the first file and one using the location of the second.
Finally, deploy these shortcuts to your users as required (the Spellcheck enabled shortcut to the users that need this and the Spellcheck disabled one to users that don't).
When those users launch ExamWritePad via their respective shortcut, they will get their respective full configuration file.
This method requires the most setup but allows for the highest level of configuration. It should only be used if you need to manage settings for different user groups that the override options do not offer or if the prior two methods are not viable for you for any other reason.