Metamorphosis Tools / Utilities
We've created a number of tools and utilities that provide new functionality, overcome a shortcoming and/or assist you in a specific task. After installation a tool should be accessible via the "Tools" Start menu option: typically this is Start / Apixel / Metamorphosis 2 / Tools. They are all freely downloadable from the links below but please note that they:
- are supplied "as is" without support
- generally only work on published projects
(each time you publish a project you'll need to run the utility again) - are subject to change without notice
- may be withdrawn from distribution without notice
- often require that the latest updates to Metamorphosis are installed
Note that some older utilities have been archived and so are not available for download. If you are after one, please send us an email via the 'Contact Us' page.
- Additional features utility
Version 1.31 Release date December 20, 2007.
This tool allows you to do the following:
- Set the default font to one that is installed on your system but is not available within the Metamorphosis font settings.
- Set the font for the text that appears on the banner (top) bar different from the default font.
- Set a time out, or expiry date, for a project.
- Set the default character set for a project (with specific fonts certain characters may display incorrectly without an appropriate charset selected).
- Set a published project to automatically resume at the screen the user left off from.
- Disable the navigation buttons on a specific published screen.
- Auto-progress from the feedback dialog of a question screen to the next screen.
- Set the wmode of all SWF (flash) files.
Version 1.31 addresses an issue with applying wmode multiple times to a SWF and when attempting to set wmode on a non-SWF file.
Note that most of this utility's features are built into Metamorphosis version 2.
Download 'additional features'.
- Create a Custom Theme
To create a custom theme for use with Metamorphosis takes quite a few steps so this tool was created to take some of the 'pain' out of it.
Download 'custom theme'.
- Free form text entry
Text entry questions in Metamorphosis - Fill in the blanks questions - accept single words as a response in a field. For short answer type questions (free form text entry type question), where the user can enter a small number of phrases into a field, this utility was created.
Version 1.51a fixes an intermittent script error.
Version 1.51 addresses an issue with Comet.
Version 1.5 addresses an issue with the 'Print' button not showing.
Version 1.4 some bug fixes.
Version 1.3 adds support for Comet.
Version 1.2 addresses an issue with storing to an LMS.
Download 'free form text entry'.
Note that this feature is built into Metamorphosis version 2.
- Images XML
Metamorphosis' library/database is all well and good but what if you want to add your own image(s) to it.
This utility will add an image or a folder of images to Images.XML, which is the database of image references for the images used by Metamorphosis.
Download 'images xml'.
- LMS opens courses in a new window
Version 1.4 Release date December 19, 2007.
Sometimes a particular SCORM compliant LMS will always open a course in a new browser window which makes the default behaviour of Metamorphosis redundant (where there's a "starter" window that in turn launches the course in another window) and in some cases detrimental.
This utility allows you to update an LMS published project so that the "starter" window is no longer used (because your LMS automatically opens courses in a new window). This utility works with both SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004.
Version 1.4 fixes for minor text case issues in the imsmanifest for SCORM 2004.
Version 1.33 fixes a few more typos in the imsmanifest.
Version 1.32 fixes a typo in the imsmanifest. Though it didn't affect performance its usually prudent to address all errors.
Version 1.3 fixes a bug in the manifest where a nonexistant file is being reference (the file is superfluous and has been removed but the manifest was not updated correctly).
Download 'LMS opens new window'.
Note that this feature is built into Metamorphosis version 2.
- Allow a standalone project to have a signin
Projects published as "standalone" courses cannot store any data but if you have checked "Enable emailing of notifications" in the Settings pane's Management pane then the emails you receive will not indicate who actually did the course (you would probably know who sent the email but this may well be different from the person who did the course.) This utility allows you to add a signin screen, the details from which are included in any emails sent.
Note that this feature is built into Metamorphosis version 2.
Download 'standalone signin'.
- Replace existing questions with custom-built questions
Version 2.1 Release date December 18, 2007.
If you've created some questions in Flash that you want to incorporate into a published project then this tool will allow you to replace a Metamorphsis question with the Flash's SWF. What you'd do is build your course with "dummy" questions that act as placeholders for the SWF that will replace them.
The SWF will need to provide whatever user feedback is required and some function calls to communicate with the Metamorphosis libraries to (where necessary) update scoring and activate the navigation.
Version 2.1 was updated to point to Adobe's web site (rather than Macromedia's) and adds support for Wmode.
Version 2.03 adds support for Flash's External Interface.
Version 2.02 fixes a bug where maximising a SWF size didn't fully maximise it.
Version 2 adds support for Java Applets which means that your end users must have the appropriate version of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) installed. The JVM is freely available from www.sun.com.
Download 'add custom questions'.
- Print a published project
Version 1.22 Release date May 15, 2008.
Some people require a hard copy of their published projects
This tool will display all the screens of a standalone published project, and print each screen as it goes.
Version 1.22 fixes a problem with landscape orientation not being set in the created RTF file, and allows you to nominate how many copies to send to the printer.
Version 1.21 prints to PDF (you need to have an appropriate PDF printer installed), print screens in the correct order, and includes a few bug fixes.
Version 1.1 allows you to print/save the screens to an RTF file which can then be opened/printed with MS Word. Note that the RTF files primarily consist of full page images so the file size will be big. We recommend using a 3rd party tool, such as Adobe Acrobat, to export the file to Adobe PDF format to limit the file size.
Download 'print a project'.
- SCORM Metadata
Version 1. Release date May 26, 2007.
Metamorphsis has only rudimentary handling of metadata for LMS (SCORM) published projects. It populates the metadata it does add from its Settings / General pane. This means that its possible to generate metadata that is invalid.
This tool will allow you to add/update and (in some cases) correct of the more common metadata elements. It works with either SCORM 1.2 and 2004 and the output has been successfully tested against the appropriate ADL SCORM test suite.
Download 'metadata'.
- Standalone Course Password Protection
Version 1. Release date February 11, 2008.
This utility has only been tested with Metamorphosis 2 standalone published courses.
Lets say you have a client who wants to limit access to a standalone course that is being hosted on a web server and doesn't or can't use a database or an LMS. Then this utility will let you create a list of users and their passwords to limit access to the course.
The introductory screen, within the utility, sets out the known limitations of this utility.
Download 'Standalone Course Password Protection'.
- Flash Video (FLV)
Version 1. Release date April 9, 2008.
This utility has only been tested with Metamorphosis 2 published courses.
Flash Video (FLV) is the name of a file format used to deliver video over the Internet.
FLV may be played through the Adobe Flash Player version 8 or higher (version 9 is needed for full functionality). Typically, to play FLV in a web page, a SWF player is embedded that loads and provide navigation controls to the FLV. This utility provides the SWF player that includes navigational controls for the FLV.
Download 'Insert Flash Video'.
- Multiple Choice Question Builder
Version 1. Release date April 18, 2008.
Metamorphosis will automatically create multiple choice question when importing MS Word docs if the questions in the MS Word doc are styled correctly: "stem" for the question stem (the actual question); "option" for each of the question's options; and, "optionyes" for the correct answer(s). Unfortunately if the styles are applied incorrectly in the MS Word doc then the questions will not be created correctly and, in some case, may even cause the importation process to fail.
The purpose of this utility is to help you make an MS Word doc of a collection of multiple choice questions that can be imported into Metamorphosis.
Download 'MC Builder'.