Feature Update – exponentials and updates to *video and *back

Here’s what’s new:

Exponentials and square roots

Wow your users with your fancy-pants math skills. Calculate the power of a number using the ^ symbol (shift + 6 on your keyboard). Take the square root of a number by using ^1/2 or ^.5. The following shows some of the calculations you can do:

Assuming that x is equal to 4 and y is equal to 3, the above GuidedTrack code would produce the following values:

16

2

2

0.25

64

Share your program with custom-loaded variables

Imagine this scenario. You have a GuidedTrack program that you want to share with the world, but you want to give slightly different versions of it to different groups of people. No problem. You don’t need to create multiple GuidedTrack programs in order to accomplish this goal, you just need to tweak the share URL a little bit.

Adding a single text variable

Let’s say your teenage daughter wants to start dating. You’re sort of okay with that, but you want each date to first take an extensive survey that includes criminal history questions and compatibility scales to ensure they’re a good fit for your little poodlesticks. You want to personalize it a little by adding a variable that uses their name every now and then, so they don’t think you’re weird. Rather than include their name as a variable in the program (which you’d then have to change for the next person who wants to date your daughter), you can add it to the URL like this:

https://www.guidedtrack.com/programs/uniqueprogramID/run?name=Danny

The wording in bold font is what you would add to the end of your share URL in order to ensure that the variable “name” is defined as “Danny.” Then, you just need to make sure your program uses this variable, with plenty of references like “Howdy, {name}!”

Adding a single numerical variable

The process for adding a numerical variable to your program is pretty similar. Here’s an example:

https://www.guidedtrack.com/programs/uniqueprogramID/run?x=4

You can define x as any number that you want, including decimal and negative numbers. Just don’t use any commas.
<h4″>Adding a single collection

Suppose you wanted to do the equivalent of the following command, but through the URL:

>> beatles = [“John”, “Paul”, “George”, “Ringo”]
You just have to ensure you add brackets after the name of your variable, like this: beatles[]. You also separate each item in the collection using an ampersand.

https://www.guidedtrack.com/programs/uniqueprogramID/run?beatles[]=John&beatles[]=Paul&beatles[]=George&beatles[]=Ringo

Adding multiple variables

Suppose you wanted to do the equivalent of this in the URL:

>> x = 3
>> y = 4
>> z = 5
To do this through the URL, you’d separate each of the 3 variables with an ampersand:

 

Previous answers saved when using back buttons

When users press the back button, they’ll now be able to see the original answers they gave to past questions and they can edit those answers. This will make editing paragraph responses a breeze for users. This feature works whether the question type is text, paragraph, multiple choice, or checkbox.

In the above multiple choice example, this user can see their original answer was “Going out” and can change it or keep it by pressing either option.

The *video keyword is easier

Before, you had to use a fairly particular link in order to display videos in GuidedTrack. Now, it’s easier than ever to add a YouTube video to GuidedTrack. Simply copy the video link from the address bar, or grab it from the share section. You can also customize the video so it starts at a certain time point or hides the video controls.

Users alerted when their internet is down

When the internet goes down, a small popup appears in the corner letting users know about the issue. They can still continue in your program, but all the answers they’ve given will only be saved to the server once their internet comes back on.

Tips on editing your program in GuidedTrack

Few people know that the GuidedTrack text editor is actually very powerful stuff. There are a number of special shortcuts you can use to become an editing ninja. For example, you can use Ctrl+f (Command+f on a Mac) to bring up a box that will help you find text and Ctrl+h (Command+Option+f on a Mac) to replace text. Pressing Ctrl + , (Command+, on a Mac) will bring up the text editor settings. Click here to learn more ways to be an editing aficionado.