New TaskMagic licences no longer available...
I have recently taken the decision to no longer sell TaskMagic. This is because a few long-standing customers have reported problems running it on Windows 11. Since I no longer have access to the program code or installer (TaskMagic hasn't been updated in nearly 10 years...), I am unable to fix any issues, so I feel that it is now unwise to continue selling TaskMagic licences.
If you already have a TaskMagic3 licence, please note that it continues to work in all versions of Windows up to and including Windows 10 (but not Windows Mobile or Windows RT for the AMD-based Surface tablet). I will continue to do my best to help users out if they have an issue, but I am no longer in a position to add fixes or improvements, for the reasons stated above.
Added in TaskMagic3
If you're familiar with TaskMagic1 or TaskMagic2, or you have used them or seen them in use in the past, you might be wondering if TaskMagic3 has anything more to offer... Well, the answer to that question is an emphatic YES !!!
TaskMagic3 has a whole range of additions, improvements and enhancements that make it more flexible, more productive and quicker and easier to use than ever. Have a look through the list below:
- 16 item limit removed for match exercises:
In previous versions of TaskMagic, the user has always been limited to 16 matching items for the match exercises. Sometimes this meant artificially shortening a list of matching items to make it fit within these limits. In TaskMagic3 the limit is removed, and you can now make exercises with up to 10,000 matching items! (Not that we expect many people to get anywhere near this limit...). So you can work on a much longer list of vocabulary within the same file.
See more on this on the TaskMagic blog. - Match exercises with fewer items fill the screen:
With previous versions of TaskMagic, a file with 6 items filled about 1/3 of the screen in many of the match games, and sometimes the teacher felt the need to add extra items to fill up the exercise. In TaskMagic3 texts resize etc so that exercises with only 5 or 6 items look as good on the screen as those with 16 items. This makes TaskMagic much more useable with a younger audience, where fewer items are to be practised at a time. The same applies to Mix and Gap, Dialogues and Multi-Choice files.
See more on this on the TaskMagic blog. - Control over the number of items that appear on the screen:
You can increase / decrease the number of items on the screen for many matching exercises. So for example, if you have a text match file with longer pieces of text, you can reduce the number of items on the screen so that the text size increases. Or if you want to make the exercise eaiser for a younger or less able class, you can reduce the number of items on the screen. Similarly, if you have a file with a lot of matching items, you can reduce the number of items to be used in the exercises.
See more on this on the TaskMagic blog. - Exercises available with fewer matching items:
Exercises which previously only worked with high number of items, now work with far fewer. (e.g. Football, Tower Block, 3 in a Row)
See more on this on the TaskMagic blog. - Teacher control over available games and exercises:
You can now decide which games will be available to students when you create your exercise. So if you want students to avoid a particular game, simply uncheck the check box to make it unavailable. (This is in addition to the facility to create individual game files.)
See more on this on the TaskMagic blog: 1 | 2 - New, more easily transportable file formats:
Files save as binary rather than text files. Images and sounds are embedded in the file rather than being kept in a separate folder. This makes it much easier to use all TaskMagic files over an internet connection, over a VLE etc, whatever the user’s browser. Files can also be transported, emailed etc without zipping, and you don't have to remember to always copy extra 'pics' or 'sounds' folders along with your exercise file. - Multiple line texts in Mix and Gap:
Mix and Gap now accepts texts on multiple lines (e.g. separate paragraphs, lists, poetry, songs. etc). So it’s now easy to type in a poem or song and include a sound file so that students can listen to complete the exercises. Or texts with titles, or letters, postcards, etc.
See more on this on the TaskMagic blog: 1 | 2 - Export as Mix and Gap file:
Lists of Text Match items and Dialogue files can now be exported and saved as Mix and Gap files.
See more on this on the TaskMagic blog. - New quick input function in Text Match:
The quick input function previously made available as the free Multiple TextMatch Maker download has now been incorporated into Text Match. This makes it really easy to import whole vocab lists from word docs / web pages. So you can create a 1000 entry Text Match file in a matter of minutes.
See more on this on the TaskMagic blog. - New game - Jump:
Jump - a multi-layer multiple choice jumping game, available initially in Text Match and Picture Match, and now added to Sound Match and Pic-Sound (new in 3.1.5). Jump is a one in four multiple choice activity with 5 levels.
See a brief video about this. - All screens can be minimized:
Unlike previous versions of TaskMagic, TaskMagic3 allows you to minimize any of the game or editor screens. - All screens can be resized without restarting the game.:
In previous versions of TaskMagic, resizing the screen meant starting the game or activity again from the beginning. In TaskMagic3, you can switch between compact view (800x600) or full screen at any time without affecting the game or exercise you are on. - All screens centre horizontally when in full screen mode:
TaskMagic1 did not have a full screen mode. TaskMagic2 aligned to the left in full screen mode, which did not look good on wide screens, laptop screens etc with anything other than a 4:3 screen ratio. TaskMagic3 aligns to the centre in full screen mode, which just looks a lot nicer...
See more on this on the TaskMagic blog. - Improvements to data input, ease of use etc.:
Data can now be input anywhere on the edit screens. Any blank boxes etc are ignored. This makes it possible to create part exercises, save exercises with incomplete texts / images / sounds etc. This resolves the problem that used to exist in TaskMagic2, where if you started to make a Picture Match file, for example, and wanted to save the file after putting in the text (before inserting images), you could not save the file. - Improved exercise front pages:
When a student opens a file in TaskMagic Play, only the available exercise thumbnails are shown, and these resize to fill the available space. So a file with only a few exercises available looks just as good as one with all exercises available. The teacher can preview this using the Preview button in TaskMagic Create.
See more on this on the TaskMagic blog. - Text preview option on front pages for Dialogues / Mix and Gap:
The user can click a button to see the full text / dialogue etc in a scrolling text box which covers the available exercise thumbnails. Another click reduces the size of the text box and makes the exercise thumbnails visible again. This makes it much easier to share the whole text or dialogue with a class using the interactive whiteboard. - Improved text resizing on exercise screens:
Where possible text now centres vertically within text boxes. Also, where appropriate, longer text items will run onto multiple lines, especially if the number of matching items is reduced. - Improved dragging and dropping:
Most exercises involving dragging and dropping have been improved so that the text box itself moves across the screen, rather than a box outline. In TaskMagic2 there are issues with a delay / time lag moving this outline in Vista (when running aero) and in Windows7 and 8. - Worksheet improvements:
Improvements to worksheet printing, including:- Optional worksheet headers, allowing you to include your own title, or a space for students to write their name / class / the date etc.
- Choice of no. of matching items to print. You can specify how many of the matching items in the file you want to include in your worksheet.
- Match worksheets print over multiple pages (new in 3.1.4).
- Print dialogue box - allows you to select from available printers.
- Choice of no. of dominoes / pelmanism cards per page, so that you can increase / decrease the size of the cards
- Solution printout for snake worksheets.
- Improved resizing of texts and images to fit the available space, so that worksheets with few items still fill the page.
- Numbered gaps for Gap-fill worksheets (new in 3.2.0)
- Improvements to functionality of many screens:
The way many of the games and exercises work has been improved. e.g. Gap Dialogue; Show pairs function on Pelmanism – hold mouse down to see the matching item; Jumbled words shows partially correct answers; Mix & Gap gap-fill reformatted to allow gapped text to scroll; Speed control for True or False. etc. etc.; For some matching exercises a new Hide/Show button allows answers to be hidden for whole class work (new in 3.1.5). - Find it! exercise no longer limited to 16 items:
The 16 item limit in TaskMagic2 was linked to the 16 item limit for Text Match files. This limit has now been removed. - Improvements to visuals, images etc on many screens.
- Compatible with Windows 7, 8 and 10.
- TaskMagic3 file converter:
It's quick and easy to convert TaskMagic1 and 2 files to TaskMagic3 files. When you click on a folder containing TM1 or TM2 files (without TM3 equivalents) in the TaskMagic file viewer, a button appears which allows you to create a copy of all the TM1 and TM2 files in the new TM3 format.
See this video tutorial on the TaskMagic blog. - Multiple-word gaps (new in 3.0.9) and part word gaps (new in 3.1.7) in Mix & Gap: Gap-Fill:
Now you can connect up to 3 gapped words together as one gap. Particularly useful for verb forms etc. where gaps can now be eg. [vais] or [suis allé] or [me suis levé]. (Applies to interactive exercises and worksheets.) Part-word gaps allow for verb endings or adjectival agreements to be made into gaps, for example. - 200 word limit removed for Gap-Fill in Mix & Gap (new in 3.1.5):
Gap-fill interactive exercises and worksheets can be created based on any text of up to 500 words, the same word-limit as for all the other Mix & Gap exercises. - New vocab training and testing activity - Trainer (new in 3.1.6):
Available in Text Match, Picture Match, Sound Match and Grid Match, Trainer focuses on spelling and accuracy and helps the student to produce the target vocabulary without hints or clues, including the spelling. Students can use Trainer as a practice session or a test, and they have the option to print out a record of their scores, time taken etc.
See more on this on the TaskMagic blog. - Worksheets print to default printer size (new in 3.2.0):
Up until now all TaskMagic worksheets have printed with the assumption that the end user had a printer with the default print size set to A4. The latest version adjusts to the printer's default paper size. - 4 new gap-fill exercise formats for Mix & Gap (new in 3.2.0):
Multi Gaps, Write gaps, Prompt Gaps and Long Gaps all offer new ways of creating different types of gap-fill exercise. Including the original gap-fill exercise, there are now 5 gap-fill formats available in Mix & Gap. New worksheets are also available for each of these new formats.
See more on this on the TaskMagic blog. - New multiple choice reading comprehension in Mix & Gap (new in 3.2.0):
The arrival of this new exercise format means that there are now 7 non-automatically generated exercise formats in Mix & Gap. A worksheet is also available for this new format.
See more on this on the TaskMagic blog.