WebQuiz

A LaTeX package for writing online quizzes

Andrew Mathas Version 5.2

WebQuiz is a LATEX package for writing online quizzes. It allows the quiz author to
concentrate on the content of quizzes, written in standard LATEX, unencumbered by
the technicalities of HTML and Javascript. Online quizzes written using WebQuiz can
contain any material that can be written using LATEX, including text, mathematics,
graphics and diagrams.

An example WebQuiz web page

1 Introduction 2
1.1 What WebQuiz does and does not do . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 The WebQuiz document class — LATEX commands 5
2.1 Question environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1a Question environments and the \answer macro . . . 6
2.1b Multiple choice questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1c Discussion environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1d Index pages for quizzes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.1e Breadcrumbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2 WebQuiz document class options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3 Including graphics and using pstricks and tikz . . . . . . . . 23
2.4 Configuring commands and environments for TEX4ht . . . . 27
3 System requirements, installation and configuration 28
3.1 System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2 Installing WebQuiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3 Initialising WebQuiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.4 Graphics and dvisvgm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4 The WebQuiz program 31
4.1 Command-line options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.2 WebQuiz settings and the webquizrc file . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.3 Changing the layout of the WebQuiz web pages . . . . . . . 36
4.4 Bugs, issues and feature requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Appendices 38
A Catalogue of web page themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
B The online WebQuiz manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
C Licence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Index 56

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 1

1 Introduction
Online quizzes provide a good way to reinforce learning, especially because they can give “inter-
active” feedback to the students1 based on the answers that they give. Unfortunately, in addition
to writing the actual quiz content there are significant technical hurdles that need to be over-
come when writing an online quiz – and there are additional complications if the quiz involves
mathematics or diagrams.
WebQuiz makes it possible to write online quizzes using LATEX, which is the typesetting lan-
guage used by mathematicians who use LATEX to write their research papers, books and teaching
materials. In principle, a WebQuiz quiz can contain anything that can be typeset using LATEX. In
practise, the LATEX is converted to HTML using TEX4ht (and make4ht), so the quizzes can contain
any LATEXcommands that are understood by TEX4ht, which is almost everything. In particular, it
is possible to use graphics constructed using pstricks and tikz; see Section 2.3.
WebQuiz supports the following three types of questions:
• Multiple choice questions with a unique correct answer
• Multiple choice questions zero or more correct answers
• Questions with an answer that is supplied by the student.
Each time a student answers a question it is possible to give them feedback, reinforcing their
learning when they answer correctly and giving them further hints when they are wrong. This
allows the quiz author to give targeted feedback to the student based on their answer.
The online quizzes constructed using WebQuiz can, in principle, contain anything that can be
typeset by LATEX. In particular, they do not need to contain mathematics. In fact, the quizzes
do not even have to contain “questions” as it is possible for a WebQuiz “quiz” to contain only
discussion environments that can be used to revise material, or to introduce new material, for the
students; see §2.1c.
This introduction outlines how to use WebQuiz, however, the impatient reader may want to skip
ahead directly to the Chapter 2, where the LATEX commands used by WebQuiz are described.
The easiest way to explain how WebQuiz works is by example. The following LATEX file defines
a quiz with a single multiple choice question that has four possible answers, each of which has a
customised feedback. Giving feedback to the students in each question is optional but the capability
of being able to give students feedback on their answer is one of the main pedagogical advantages
of online quizzes.
\documentclass{webquiz}
\title{An easy example}
\begin{document}
\begin{question} % a quiz question
Alice is twice as old as Betty.
Betty is one year older than Claire.
If Alice is $4$ how old is Claire?
\begin{choice}[columns=2] % multiple choice question
\correct $1$ % first choice - correct answer
\feedback If Claire is $1$ then Betty is $2$ and Alice is~$4$!

\incorrect $2$ % second choice - incorrect

\feedback If Claire is $2$ then Betty is $3$ and Alice is~$6$.

\incorrect $3$ % third choice - incorrect

\feedback If Claire is $3$ then Betty is $4$ and Alice is~$8$.

\incorrect $4$ % fourth choice - incorrect

\feedback If Claire is $4$ then Betty is $5$ and Alice is~$10$.
\end{choice}
\end{question}
\end{document}
1 Throughout this manual, “student” means any person taking the online quiz.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Introduction 2

 Since this is a LATEX file it can be processed using pdflatex, or latex, to produce a readable and
printable version of the quiz, which can be useful when proofreading. With the example above,
the PDF version of the quiz looks like this:

Sample PDF output

Of course, the real reason for using WebQuiz is to create a web page for the quiz, which you do
by processing the quiz using the webquiz command )instead of, say pdflatex). If you do this and
open the resulting web page in your favourite browser, after selecting answer (a), you will see a
web page like this:

Sample web page

The actual page that you see may be slightly different to this because the appearance of the web
page depends partly on your choice of browser.
By default, the online version of the quiz displays one question at a time, with the question
buttons serving the dual purpose of navigation between questions and displaying how successful the
student was in answering the question. The decorations on the question buttons indicate whether
the question has been attempted and, if so, whether it was answered correctly or incorrectly on
the first or subsequent attempts. One of the main points of WebQuiz is that (optional) targeted
feedback can be given to the student taking the quiz based on their answer.

1.1 What WebQuiz does and does not do

WebQuiz is a tool that makes it possible to write “interactive” online quizzes using LATEX. To use
WebQuiz you only need basic working knowledge of LATEX. In particular, no familiarity of the
underlying CSS, HTML or Javascript is required.
WebQuiz can be used to ask students a series of “quiz” questions. In addition, your online
quiz web pages can contain course material using the WebQuiz discussion environment; see §2.1c.
You can write WebQuiz quizzes that only contain questions, and no discussion, quizzes that
contain questions and discussion, and (pseudo) quizzes that contains only discussion and no quiz
questions.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 3

 By default, the online quizzes display one question (or discussion environment) at a time. It
is also possible to display all of the quiz questions on a single web page (Section 2.2). One of the
key features of WebQuiz is that you can give feedback to the students based on their answers. In
this way you can give hints to the students to correct their mistakes and you can reinforce the
students’ understanding when they are correct. Each question in a quiz, and each quiz itself, can
be attempted as many times as the student wants. WebQuiz does not limit the number of times
that questions can be attempted.
As described in Section 2.1, WebQuiz supports the following question types:
• Multiple choice questions with a unique correct answer
• Multiple choice questions zero or more correct answers
• Questions that require students to type in an answer. There are several different “comparison”
methods available for comparing the students answer where for example, the entered answers
can be a “string” or a “number”.
Questions can appear in either the same order that they appear in the LATEX file for the quiz or
in a random order that changes each time the quiz page is loaded. For multiple choice questions
the order in which the choices appear is always the order that they appear in the LATEX file for the
quiz, even if the questions appear in random order.
WebQuiz supports several different languages and it provides a number of different colour
schemes (see Section 4.1 and Appendix A).
WebQuiz quizzes are not timed and they do not have time-limits.
Quizzes made using WebQuiz are intended to be used as a revision resource rather than as an
assessment tool. In particular, WebQuiz does not provide a mechanism for recording the marks
obtained by the students taking the quiz (Section 2.2). Technically, it probably would not be
very hard to record marks but this introduces a significant amount of extra overhead in terms of
student authentication and interfacing with a database. In addition, if WebQuiz were used as an
assessment tool then there would be additional “security issues” to ensure that the quiz content is
secure. Currently, even though the solutions to the quiz questions do not appear in the HTML
source code for the quiz pages it is possible to access the answers if you know what you are doing.
The questions in a WebQuiz quiz are static. In particular, WebQuiz quiz questions do not accept
variables.
The WebQuiz program was designed to be run from the command-line. To process the file
quiz.tex using WebQuiz you would type
> webquiz quiz or > webquiz quiz.tex

(Throughout this manual, > is used for the command-line prompt.)

It is possible to use WebQuiz from inside editors like TEXShop, but exactly how this is done
will depend on the program that you use. In the case of TEXShop you need to define a new engine
following, for example the instructions at tex.stackexchange.com/questions/376649.

1.2 Credits
WebQuiz was written and developed in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University
of Sydney. The system is built on LATEX with the conversion from LATEX to HTML being done by
Eitan Gurari’s TEX4ht and make4ht.
To write quizzes using WebQuiz it is only necessary to know LATEX, however, the underlying
WebQuiz system actually has three components:
• A LATEX document class file, webquiz.cls, and a TEX4ht configuration file, webquiz.cfg, that
enables the quiz files to be processed by LATEX and TEX4ht, respectively.
• A python program, webquiz, that translates the LATEX into XML, using TEX4ht, and then
into HTML.
• CSS, HTML and Javascript code controls and style the quiz web pages.
The LATEX component of WebQuiz was written by Andrew Mathas and the python, CSS and
Javascript code was written by Andrew Mathas based on an initial prototype that was written by

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Credits 4

Don Taylor in 2001-2. Since 2004 the program has been maintained and developed by Andrew
Mathas. Although the program has changed substantially since 2004, Don’s idea of using TEX4ht,
and some of his code, is still in use. Prior to releasing WebQuiz on ctan , the program was known
as MathQuiz.
Hendrik Suess contributed code to improve session history and suggested the \qref command.
Thanks are due to Bob Howlett for general help with CSS and to Michal Hoftich for invaluable
technical advice on TEX4ht. Thanks are due to Thomas Cailleteau Michael Palmer and Hendrik
Suess for helpful feedback on the package.

2 The WebQuiz document class — LATEX commands

This chapter describes the commands and environments provided by the WebQuiz document class.
This assumes that you have already installed and configured WebQuiz. If you have not yet ini-
tialised WebQuiz then please follow the instructions in Chapter 3.
All of the code examples given in this and other sections can be found in the examples subdi-
rectory of the WebQuiz web directory.2 Additional examples can be found in the Online manual,
which is included, in PDF form, as Appendix B.
Zoomed out, the structure of a typical WebQuiz quiz file is a LATEX file of the form:
\documentclass{webquiz}
\title{A quiz}% optional, but potentially informative, title
\begin{document}

\begin{question}% text for first question

\end{question}

\begin{question}% text for second question

\end{question}

\begin{question}% text for third question

\end{question}

...

\end{document}

You should write your quizzes using the editor that you normally use to write LATEX documents.
As you write your quiz, say quiz.tex, you should use pdflatex (or latex), in the usual way:
> pdflatex quiz

This is the easiest way to check that your quiz compiles and to proofread the output, just as if you
were writing a normal LATEX document. When you are satisfied with the content of the quiz, then
you can convert the quiz to an online quiz using the command
> webquiz quiz or > webquiz -d quiz # -d = draft mode = faster!

The quiz file, quiz.tex, should be in a directory on your web server because WebQuiz creates a
number of different files and directories when it converts the file into an online quiz and all of these
files are needed to display the quiz on the web.
The reasons for using this workflow are:
• Every file that you give to WebQuiz must be a valid LATEX file!
• The dvi or PDF file produced by LATEX shows all of the information in the quiz in an easy-to-
read format. That is, the PDF file displays the questions, the answers and the feedback that
you are giving to the students. In contrast, by design, the online version of the quiz hides
most of this information and shows it to the student only when they need to see it.
2 After you have initialised WebQuiz, you can find the WebQuiz example directory from the command-line using:

webquiz –settings webquiz-www.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 5

 • Typesetting the quiz file with LATEX is much faster than processing it with WebQuiz. In
fact, WebQuiz uses htlatex to process the quiz file at least three times in order to produce
an XML file and it is only then that the WebQuiz program kicks in to rewrite this data as
an HTML file. (If you use draft mode then htlatex processes the quiz file only once.)
• If LATEX produces errors then WebQuiz will produce more errors. Further, LATEX error mes-
sages are much easier to read and understand than those produced by TEX4ht and WebQuiz.
This said, WebQuiz does check for more errors in the quiz than LATEX is (easily) able to do.
The PDF version of a quiz does not contain information about the unit, department or institution,
which can be used in the breadcrumbs.
The next sections describe the commands and environments provided by WebQuiz for typeset-
ting quizzes as well as the document-class options for the package. If you plan to use pstricks
or tikz then you should read Section 2.3, which describes how to use graphics in a WebQuiz
quiz. Section 2.4 describes a work-around for using (some?) LATEX features that have not been
configured for use with TEX4ht.

2.1 Question environments

The WebQuiz document class defines the following four environments:
question
Each quiz question needs to be inside question environment
choice
Typesets multiple choice questions, with one or more correct answers
discussion
Includes (optional) discussion, or revision, material at the start of the quiz web
page
quizindex
Writes an index file for the quizzes in a “unit of study” and generates drop-drop
menus in each quiz for the unit
This section describes these environments and gives examples of their use.

2.1a Question environments and the \answer macro

Each quiz question must be placed inside a question environment. Typically, a quiz has several
questions, each wrapped in its own question environment. For brevity, most of the examples in
this chapter have only one question. See the Online manual (Appendix B), in the WebQuiz web
directory for a more complete quiz file.
This manual describes the WebQuiz commands, often by example. The following code-block
generates a quiz with one question for which the student has to enter the answer. This answer is
then compared with the correct answer as a string, which it must match exactly.
\documentclass[hidesidemenu]{webquiz}
\title{An answer with comparison=string}
\begin{document}
\begin{question} % a quiz question
What is the capital of Australia?
\answer[string]{Canberra} (Correct answer ‘‘Canberra’’)
\whenRight Yes, Sydney is the capital of NSW and Melbourne is the
capital of Victoria
\whenWrong Remember to correctly capitalise your answer!
\end{question}
\end{document}

The optional macros \whenRight and \whenWrong are used to give the student additional feedback,
when they are right, or further hints etc for approaching the question, when they are wrong. This
feedback is displayed on the quiz page only when the student checks their answer.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Question environments 6

 The web page created by the code above, when an incorrect answer of “canberra”, instead of
“Canberra” is given, looks something like the following:

A question with an answer

This example shows one way of using the \answer macro, which asks for the student to type in an
answer to the question. The general syntax of this macro is:
\answer[comparison type]{correct answer}

where the optional comparison type is one of:

complex integer lowercase number string

with string being the default. In addition, there is a *-variant of the answer macro that does not
print the word “Answer” (or equivalent in other languages) before the input box. The syntax for
the \answer* command is identical to that for the \answer except, of course, that there is a *:
\answer*[comparison type]{correct answer}

As string is the default answer comparison method, if we instead use \answer*{Canberra} in the
last example then the quiz page generated by WebQuiz looks like:

A question with answer*

Notice that the word Answer no longer appears in front of the answer box. Of course, if you use the
unstarred version of the \answer-macro together with the document class option language=xxx to
change the default language (Section 2.2), then the appropriate translation of Answer will appear
on the web page.
We now give a description of the other comparison types for the \answer and \answer* macros
together with code examples and screenshots.

complex comparison The answers are compared as complex numbers: the answer is marked as
correct if it has the same real and imaginary parts.
\documentclass[onepage]{webquiz}
\title{An answer with comparison=complex}
\begin{document}
\begin{question} % a quiz question
If $a=3-i$ and $b=2+i$ then what is $ab$?
\answer[complex]{7+i} (Correct answer $7+i$)

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 7

 \end{question}
\begin{question} % a quiz question
If $a=3-i$ and $b=2+i$ then what is $ab$?
\answer[complex]{7+i} (Correct answer $7+i$)
\end{question}
\end{document}

A question with a complex answer

Observe that the correct answer is given in the quiz file as 7 + 𝑖 and that WebQuiz accepts 𝑖 + 7
as the correct answer.

integer comparison The answers are compared as integers. If the correct answer was 18 and a
student entered 36/2 then their answer would be marked wrong.
\documentclass[hidesidemenu]{webquiz}
\title{An answer with comparison=integer}
\begin{document}
\begin{question} % a quiz question
How long is a piece of string?
\answer[integer]{18} mm (Correct answer $18$)
\whenRight Yes, $18$mm pieces of string are $18$mm long!
\whenWrong Incorrect! Is your ruler working?
\end{question}
\end{document}

A question with a integer answer

lowercase comparison The quiz answer and the students’ answer are both converted to lower
case and then compared as strings.
\documentclass[onepage]{webquiz}
\title{An answer with comparison=lowercase}
\begin{document}
\begin{question} % a quiz question
How long is a piece of string?
\answer[lowercase]{Long} (Correct answer ‘‘Long’’)
\whenRight Correct! Obviously your ruler is working!
\whenWrong Incorrect! Is your ruler working?

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Question environments 8

 \end{question}
\begin{question} % a quiz question
How long is a piece of string?
\answer[lowercase]{lonG} (Correct answer ‘‘Long’’)
\whenRight Correct! Obviously your ruler is working!
\whenWrong Incorrect! Is your ruler working?
\end{question}
\end{document}

A question with a lowercase string answer

number comparison The quiz answer and the students’ answer are compared as numbers.
\documentclass[onepage]{webquiz}
\title{An answer with comparison=number}
\begin{document}
\begin{question} % a quiz question
What is $\frac12+\frac14$?
\answer[number]{3/4} (Correct answer $3/4$)
\whenRight Correct!
\whenWrong Incorrect! Is your ruler working?
\end{question}
\begin{question} % a quiz question
What is $\frac12+\frac14$?
\answer[number]{3/4} (Correct answer $3/4$)
\whenRight Correct!
\whenWrong Incorrect! Is your ruler working?
\end{question}
\end{document}

A question with a numeric answer

Notice that the answer is given in the LATEX file as 3/4 and that the equivalent fraction, 0.75, is
accepted as the correct answer.

string comparison This is the default, so \answer{word} and \answer[string]{word} are equiva-
lent. The student’s answer is marked correct if and only if it agrees exactly with the quiz answer.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 9

2.1b Multiple choice questions

The multiple choice options for a quiz question need to be placed inside a choice environment –
and every choice environment needs to be inside a question environment.
The choice environment accepts two optional arguments, can appear in any order:
• The word single (default, and can be omitted) or multiple, which indicates whether the quiz
has a single correct answer or whether 0 or more of the answers are correct, respectively.
• The number of columns in which to typeset the choices. This is specified as columns=n, where
𝑛 is a non-negative integer. By default, the choices appear in 𝑛 = 1 columns (columns=1).
Use columns=n with care when 𝑛 > 1 as multiple columns do not always display well on mobile
devices.
The key difference between these two types of choice questions is that a single-choice environ-
ment uses radio boxes, so it is only possible to select one correct answer. In a multiple-choice
environment checkboxes are used, so that is possible to select zero or more correct answers.
A choice environment modelled on the standard LATEX list environments (enumerate, itemize,
description, ...), except that instead of using the \item command to separate the items the choice
environment uses \correct \incorrect , which indicate correct and incorrect answers respectively.
In addition, after each \correct or \incorrect you can, optionally, use \feedback to give feedback
to the student taking the quiz. Like \whenRight and \whenWrong this feedback is displayed only
when the student checks their answer.
Here is an example of a single-choice question with a unique answer:
\documentclass{webquiz}
\title{A multiple choice question with a unique answer}
\begin{document}
\begin{question} % a quiz question
What is the cube root of $64$?
\begin{choice}[columns=4]% unique answer rendered in four columns
\incorrect 1 \feedback No, $1^3=1$
\incorrect 2 \feedback No, $2^3=8$
\incorrect 3 \feedback No, $3^3=27$
\correct 4 \feedback Yes, $4^3=64$
\end{choice}
\end{question}
\end{document}

Note that single is the default, so this could also be written as

\begin{choice}[columns=3, single]
...
\end{choice}

It is not necessary to put the \feedback lines on the same line as the \incorrect and \incorrect;
this is done only to make the example more compact. This results in the following web page:

Single answer multiple choice question

Here is an example of a multiple choice question that has two correct answers:
\documentclass[theme=vibrant]{webquiz}

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Question environments 10

 \title{A multiple choice example with zero or more correct answers}
\renewcommand\thechoice{\roman{choice})}
\begin{document}
\begin{question} % a quiz question
Which of the following integers are prime?
% multiple (0 or more) correct answers rendered in three columns
\begin{choice}[multiple, columns=3]
\correct $17$ \feedback Yes, the only divisors of $17$ are $1$
and $17$
\incorrect $12$ \feedback No, $12 = 3\times 4$
\incorrect $27$ \feedback No, $27=3^3$
\incorrect $91$ \feedback No, $91 = 3\times 17$
\incorrect $1$ \feedback One is not a prime number because it
is invertible
\correct $97$ \feedback Yes, the only divisors of $97$ are $1$
and $97$
\end{choice}
\end{question}
\end{document}

Notice that this example uses the document-class option theme=vibrant, which changes the We-
bQuiz colour theme; see Section 2.2.

Multi-answer multiple choice question

When the optional argument multiple to the choice environment is used, as above, then the
question is marked correct if and only if all of the correct choices, and none of the incorrect
choices, are selected. If the student’s selections are not completely correct then are given feedback
that is randomly selected from amongst their wrong choices (that is, the feedback is randomly
selected from the set of \correct choices that were not selected and the \incorrect choices that
were selected).
Finally, observe that the multiple choice items in the screenshot above are labelled by roman
numerals. The items in a choice environment are labelled by a standard LATEX counter, that is also
called choice. Redefining the LATEX macro \thechoice changes how the corresponding question
choices are labelled in the online quiz. For example, to label the items in a choice environment by
A), B), C) . . . add the line:
\renewcommand\thechoice{\Alph{choice})}

to the preamble of the LATEX file for your quiz.

2.1c Discussion environments

In addition to asking questions, it is possible to display revision, or discussion, material on the

quiz web page using the discussion environment. All discussion material is displayed on the quiz
page before the questions in the quiz and the (short) titles for the discussion items appear before
the quiz questions in the menu on the left-hand side of the page — it is not possible to interleave
discussion items and questions in the side menu.
Each quiz can have zero or more discussion environments. These environments can, in principle,
contain arbitrary LATEX code. The syntax for the discussion environment is:

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 11

 \begin{dicussion}[short heading][heading]
...
\end{dicussion}

The short heading is used in the side-menu. Both the heading and short-heading are optional,
both defaulting to Discussion. If only one heading is given then this sets both the short heading
and heading for the discussion item. For example, running the following LATEX file, which uses
theme=muted, through WebQuiz
\documentclass[theme=muted]{webquiz}
\usepackage{lipsum}% for some random text
\title{A discussion environment example}
\begin{document}
\begin{discussion}[First bit]
\lipsum[1]
\end{discussion}
\begin{discussion}[Two][Second bit]
\lipsum[2]
\end{discussion}
\end{document}

produces the quiz page:

Web page: discussion environment

As with the questions, only one discussion environment is displayed on the quiz web page at a time
(unless the document-class option onepage is used). It is possible to have quizzes that contain only
discussion environments, with no questions, and quizzes that contain only question environments,
with no discussion.
If you have a mixture of discussion and question environments then it is useful to be able to
add thinks between them. LATEX provides the \label and \ref commands for cross-referencing, so
WebQuiz builds on this idea and provides the three commands \dref, \qref and \Qref to reference
discussion and question environments. The syntax for these commands is as follows:
\dref[optional text]{LaTeX label} % inserts discussion button
\dref*[optional text]{LaTeX label} % inserts discussion link
\qref[optional text]{LaTeX label} % inserts question button by label
\qref*[optional text]{LaTeX label} % inserts question link by label
\Qref[optional text]{question number} % inserts question button by number
\Qref*[optional text]{question number} % inserts question link by number

In each case the text in the link or button defaults to either the short-title, for discussion envi-
ronments, or the question number for questions. The “optional text” is used instead whenever it
is supplied. These commands can be used anywhere in a quiz, including discussion, question and
choice environments and inside feedback text for the students written using \feedback, \whenRight
and \whenWrong.
The macros \dref and \qref use a standard LATEX label, defined using the \label command, to
insert a button or a link. In contrast, \Qref uses the actual question number, so it is not necessary
to define a \label for a question when using \Qref.
Even though the macros \qref and \Qref are quite similar they serve different functions when
the randomorder document class option is used (see Section 2.2). In this case we do not know
ahead of time the question numbers that will be used in the quiz. So if q:one is the label for the

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Question environments 12

first question in the LATEX file then \qref{q:one} will insert a button to this question but this will
almost certainly not be Question 1. On the other hand, we can create a “Start quiz” button, for
example, that will open Question 1 on any quiz, using \Qref[Start quiz]{1}.
Here is an example that shows how \Qref works:
\documentclass[hidesidemenu]{webquiz}
\title{A Qref example}
\begin{document}
\begin{discussion}[First bit]\label{d:one}
Some interesting discussion related to question \Qref{1} or \Qref*{1}
or \Qref[Start Quiz]{1} or \Qref*[Start Quiz]{1}
\end{discussion}
\begin{question}\label{q:one}
An interesting question relating to discussion \dref{d:one}\answer{1}
\end{question}
\end{document}

which produces the online quiz:

Crossing-referencing using question numbers

Similarly, here is an example showing how \dref and qref are used:
\documentclass[onepage]{webquiz}
\title{A dref and qref example}
\begin{document}
\begin{discussion}[First bit][First discussion item]\label{d:one}
Some cross-references to question 1: \qref{q:one}, \qref*{q:one},
\qref[some text]{q:one}, and \qref*[some text]{q:one}.
\end{discussion}
\begin{question}\label{q:one}
Cross-references to discussion: \answer{1} \dref{d:one}, \dref*{d:one},
\dref[some text]{d:one} and \dref*[some text]{d:one}.
\end{question}
\end{document}

This code produces the online quiz:

Crossing-referencing using labels


When using the randomorder document class option (Section 2.2), “optional text” should always
be given when using \qref. This is because the question number that is displayed by default will
always be the question number in the LATEX file rather than the question number in the online
quiz.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 13

2.1d Index pages for quizzes

Most quizzes occur in sets that cover related material, such as for a particular unit of study. The
quizindex environment creates an index web page for related sets of quizzes. The LATEX files for
all of these quizzes must be in the same directory, or folder, on the web server. The index web
page is a WebQuiz file of the form:
\documentclass[hidesidemenu]{webquiz}
\BreadCrumbs{ Mathematics / | Math101 /math101 | Index of quizzes }
\title{Elementary calculus}
\begin{document}
\begin{quizindex}
\quiz{Numbers and sets}
\quiz{Polar form and roots of complex numbers}
\quiz{Polar exponential form and functions}
\quiz*{Optimizing functions of two variables}
\end{quizindex}
\end{document}

which generates a web page that looks like:

Example index page

As the next section describes, index files are also used to automatically add a drop-down menu
that contains the quiz-index to the breadcrumbs on all of the quiz web pages. This drop-down
menu provides an easy way to navigate between all of the quizzes for a particular unit of study.
As the example above shows, the entries in the quizindex are given using the \quiz or the \quiz*
command. The syntax for these commands is
\quiz[URL for quiz]{Title for quiz}
\quiz*[URL for quiz]{Title for quiz}

The \quiz macro automatically inserts the quiz numbers into the index listing. The \quiz* com-
mand is identical except that it does not add Quiz 1., Quiz 2 etc to the index listing. By default,
the URLs for the quizzes in the index are assumed to be of the form quiz1.html, quiz2.html,
quiz3.html, .... These URLs can be changed using the optional argument of the \quiz and \quiz*
commands. For example,
\quiz[realquiz.html]{This is the real quiz}

would create an item in a quiz index that links to the web page realquiz.html.
Index pages in other languages are produced in exactly the same way. For example,
\documentclass[hidesidemenu,language=czech]{webquiz}
\usepackage[czech]{babel}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\Department{Matematika}\DepartmentURL{/}
\BreadCrumbs{ department | Mat101 /mat101 | breadcrumb }
\BreadCrumb{ Index kvízů }
\title{Elementární počet}
\begin{document}
\begin{quizindex}

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Question environments 14

 \quiz{Čísla a množiny}
\quiz{Polární forma a kořeny složitých čísel}
\quiz{Polar exponenciální forma a funkce}
\quiz*{Optimalizace funkcí dvou proměnných}
\end{quizindex}
\end{document}

produces the web page:

A Czech index

The next section describes the \BreadCrumb and \BreadCrumbs commands.

At most one file in each directory should contain a quizindex environment. This is because
WebQuiz creates the file Javascript file quizindex.js whenever it compiles a quizindex environment.
This file contains Javascript commands for displaying the quiz index.

2.1e Breadcrumbs

WebQuiz provides a straightforward way to place navigation breadcrumbs at the top of the quiz
web page. By default the breadcrumbs are disabled. If you have a \BreadCrumbs command like:
\BreadCrumbs{Mathematics /|Math1001 /u/Math1001|quizindex|title}

in your LATEX file then WebQuiz will add a corresponding strip of breadcrumbs, or navigation links,
to the top of your quiz page:

Example breadcrumbs

The drop-down menu is normally hidden, appearing only after the ≡ “button” on the web page is
clicked.
Usually, most of the breadcrumbs are navigation links to other web pages. In the example above:
• The first “crumb’ inside the \BreadCrumbs command is Mathematics /. This inserts the text
Mathematics together with a (relative) URL to /, the root directory for the web server, which
is often the correct URL for the department (or the institution)
• The Math101 /u/math101 inserts the text Math101 as the second breadcrumb with URL /u/
math101.
• The quizindex inserts the text Quizzes together with the symbol ≡, which opens a drop-down
menu that contains the list of quizzes in the quiz index for the unit. This is described in
more detail below.
• Finally the title in the breadcrumbs inserts, as text, the part of the title before the first
colon in the title, where the title is given by \title{...}.
The breadcrumbs for the quiz web page can be either be configured quiz-by-quiz, using the
\BreadCrumbs macro , as above, or by setting default breadcrumbs in the webquizrc file (Section 4.2)
using the command-line option

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 15

 > webquiz --edit-settings

as described in Section 4.1. Breadcrumbs are disabled by default.

The breadcrumbs inside the \BreadCrumbs{...} command are given as a “|-separated list”. For
example, quite reasonable breadcrumbs are given by:
\BreadCrumbs{ department | unitcode | quizindex | title }

To make this the default set of breadcrumbs use webquiz --edit-settings to set breadcrumbs in
the webquizrc file (Section 4.2) to:
department | unitcode | quizindex | title

More generally, the breadcrumbs can be specified as:

\BreadCrumbs{ crumb1 | crumb2 | crumb3 | crumb4 | ... }

In principle, there can be arbitrarily many crumbs in your breadcrumbs but, in practice, five is
more than enough. The crumbs inside a \BreadCrumbs command have the following meanings:

breadcrumb
The breadcrumb for the current quiz, which is set using the \BreadCrumb macro. This
breadcrumb is purely descriptive, with no hyperlink being added: only the text given by
\BreadCrumb appears.

department
This expands to a link to your department, where the department text is set using the macro
\Department and its URL is set by \DepartmentURL.

institution
This expands to a link to your institution, where the institution text is set using \Institution
and its URL is set by \InstitutionURL. The institution also appears in the side-menu above
the WebQuiz copyright notice.
quizindex
This expands to Quizzes, which is a link to the index page for your unit, as defined by
\QuizzesURL, which is described below. In addition, if the directory contains a BashCode|quizindex.js|
file, which is created by the quizindex environment (see §2.1d), then the symbol ≡ will ap-
pear, giving access to a drop-down menu to the index page, looking something like this:

Drop-down menu giving index of quizzes

Such drop-down menus are automatically added to quiz web pages that have a quizindex
breadcrumb| as soon as an quiz page that contained a WebQuiz quizindex environment has
been compiled in the current directory.
For those interested in how this is done, whenever WebQuiz compiles a quizindex environment
it creates a Javascript file quizindex.js. Every quiz file includes this Javascript file, if it exists,
and this allows it to display a drop-down menu for the quiz index.
Title
This expands to the full title of the quiz page, without a hyperlink, as given by the \title.
title
This expands to the part of title of the quiz page, without a hyperlink, that occurs before
the first colon in the title of the quiz. For example, if the title is given as

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Question environments 16

 \title{Quiz 1: The wonders of life}

then “Quiz 1” will be added to the list of breadcrumbs. If the title does not contain a colon
then the full title is printed.
unitcode
This expands to a link to the unit code, where the unit code text is set using \UnitCode, and
its URL is set by \UnitURL
unitname
This expands to a link to the unit name, where the unit name text is set using \UnitName,
and its URL is set by \UnitURL

In addition, each crumb in a breadcrumb, except for the “magic crumbs” listed above, is allowed
to be arbitrary text — although, non-ascii characters may cause problems. In this case, the last
“word” in the crumb is treated as a URL if it either beings with a forward slash, /, or if it begins
with http. For example, the code:
\documentclass[hidesidemenu]{webquiz}
\BreadCrumbs{ Monty Python http://www.montypython.com/
| Our work http://www.montypython.com/ourwork
| The Meaning of life http://www.montypython.com/film_Monty\%20
Python’s\%20The\%20Meaning\%20of\%20Life\%20(1983)/17
}
\title{I didn’t even eat the mousse...}
\begin{document}
\begin{question}
What is the meaning of life?
\answer{42}
\end{question}
\end{document}

results in the following breadcrumbs:

Guaranteed to offend some one

Notice that it is necessary to correctly escape spaces etc in URLs that are specified this way.
Similarly, all of the characters in the breadcrumbs should be ascii characters as unicode is likely
to cause encoding issues (compare with the Czech index given in §2.1d).
If any part of a “magic” breadcrumb has not been defined then it is printed with a question
mark on the web page. For example, the quiz file
\documentclass[hidesidemenu]{webquiz}
\BreadCrumb{Wholemeal bread}
\BreadCrumbs{unitcode|quizindex|breadcrumb}
\begin{document}\end{document}

does not define the unit code, so it results in the “questionable” first breadcrumb:

Breadcrumbs with no unit code

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 17

 Here is the list of WebQuiz macros that we be used to set the values of the “magic” breadcrumbs
inside a \BreadCrumbs. Note that default values for many of these “crumbs” can be given in the
webquizrc file (Section 4.2).

\BreadCrumb
The \BreadCrumb command sets the breadcrumb variable in the \BreadCrumbs. The primary
use for this is when you have default breadcrumbs in the webquizrc file (Section 4.2) like
breadcrumbs = department | unitcode | breadcrumb

Using \BreadCrumb allows you to set the last crumb to some meaningful text that describes
the quiz.
\Department
The \Department command sets the name of the department. As described earlier in this sec-
tion, by default, the department is the first item in the breadcrumbs that appear at the top
of the web page.
The default department can be set in the webquizrc file (Section 4.2) using webquiz --edit-
settings.
Default value: '' (i.e. the empty string)
\DepartmentURL
The \DepartmentURL command sets URL for the department. As described earlier in this sec-
tion, by default the department URL is the link in the first breadcrumb on each web page.
The default department URL can be set in the webquizrc file (Section 4.2) using webquiz --
edit-settings.
Default value: /
\Institution
The \Institution command sets the institution, or university. The institution appears be-
low the question buttons in the left-hand navigation menu that appears on every quiz web
page (provided that the screen size is not too small). As described earlier in this section, the
institution can be used in the web page breadcrumbs.
The default institution can be set in the webquizrc file (Section 4.2) using webquiz --edit-
settings.
Default value: '' (i.e. the empty string)
\InstitutionURL
The \InstitutionURL command sets the institution URL. This is used as the link for the
institution in the left-hand navigation menu that appears on every quiz page. As described
earlier in this section, the institution URL can be used in the web page breadcrumbs.
The default institution URL can be set in the webquizrc file (Section 4.2) using webquiz --
edit-settings.
Default value: /
\QuizzesURL
The \QuizzesURL command sets the URL for the suite of quizzes attached to this unit of study.
As described earlier in this section, this can be used in the breadcrumb at the top of the quiz
web page.
Default value: UnitURL/Quizzes, where UnitURL is set using \UnitURL
\UnitCode
The \UnitCode command sets the unit of study code for the unit that the quiz is part of.
\UnitName
The \UnitName command sets the name of the unit of study for the unit that the quiz is at-
tached to.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Question environments 18

\UnitURL
The \UnitURL command sets the URL for the unit of study code for the unit that the quiz is
attached to.

It makes sense to set defaults for \BreadCrumbs \Department, \DepartmentURL, \Institution and
\InstitutionURL in the webquizrc file (Section 4.2). After doing this, a typical WebQuiz file might
look like this:
\documentclass{webquiz}
\UnitName{Fundamental stuff}
\UnitCode{Stuff101}
\UnitURL{/courses/stuff101}

\title{Stuffing: the art of taxidermy}

\begin{document}
\begin{question}
first question...
\end{question}
\begin{question}
second question...
\end{question}
\end{document}

If you have many quizzes for many different units then a better approach is to create a LATEX
“package”, say ourunits.sty, to set these variables:
% ourunits.sty - set unit names, codes and URLs
\DeclareOption{stuff101}{
\UnitName{Fundamental stuff}
\UnitCode{Stuff101}
\UnitURL{/courses/stuff101}
}
\DeclareOption{stuff102}{
\UnitName{Fundamental stuff too}
\UnitCode{Stuff102}
\UnitURL{/courses/stuff102}
}
\ProcessOptions
\endinput

Then you can replace the opening lines of the quiz file with \usepackage[stuff101]{ourunits
}. Of course, you could also set the default \Department, \DepartmentURL, \Institution and
\InstitutionURL in such a style file as well.

2.2 WebQuiz document class options

The WebQuiz document class supports the following options:
fixedorder, hidesidemenu, language, onepage, pst2pdf,
separatepages, showsidemenu, theme, tikz

This section describes all of these document-class options except for tikz and pst2pdf, which are
discussed in Section 2.3. Many of the document-class options below occur in pairs and defaults for
many of these can be set in the webquizrc file (Section 4.2) file. The settings given in the LATEX
file for a quiz will always override the default settings in the webquizrc file.

fixedorder, randomorder
By default, the questions in the quiz are displayed in a fixedorder for all students who take
the quiz. This order is the order that the question appear in the LATEX file for the quiz. That
is, the first question in the online quiz is the first question appearing in the LATEXfile, the

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 19

 second question in the quiz is the second question in the LATEX file, and so on. With the
randomorder option the questions in the quiz are displayed in a random order that changes
each time that the quiz is run. With this option, the online quiz questions are generally in a
different order for every student. For example, the code:
\documentclass[randomorder, showsidemenu]{webquiz}
\title{Four randomly ordered questions}
\begin{document}
\begin{question}What is the question number of question one? \answer{1}\end{
question}
\begin{question}What is the question number of question two? \answer{2}\end{
question}
\begin{question}What is the question number of question three?\answer{3}\end{
question}
\begin{question}What is the question number of question four? \answer{4}\end{
question}
\end{document}

produces the quiz with randomly arranged quiz questions, such as:

Randomly ordered questions

(So the first question in the LATEX file is being displayed as the fourth online quiz question.
The next time the page is loaded, such as for the next student, the question order will
change again.) When using the randomorder document-class option only the questions appear
in random order. If the quiz contains multiple choice questions then the choices are not
randomly permuted. That is, the choices always appear in the order that they are written
in the LATEX file.
hidesidemenu, sidemenu
If the hidesidemenu option is set then the side menu on the left-hand side of the quiz web
page will not be displayed when the quiz first loads. By default, the side menu appears unless
the screen size is too small, such as on a mobile phone. Many examples of the hidesidemenu
and showsidemenu class options can be found above.
The display of the side menu can is also toggled by clicking on the $ and v symbols. The
side-menu automatically disappears for devices with narrow screens, such as mobile phones.
language=<lang>
Set the language used by the web pages constructed by WebQuiz. The following languages
are currently supported by WebQuiz:
Czech, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian,
Spanish and Swedish
The languages files are used to print the various buttons and text that is generated on the
web pages constructed by WebQuiz. The language option does not affect the DVI or PDF
versions of the quiz and it does not load language packages like babel or polyglossia.
The language keyword can be in upper or lower case, with the result that either (but not
both!) of the following two lines set the quiz language to German:

WebQuiz – version 5.2 WebQuiz document class options 20

 \documentclass[language=German]{webquiz}
\documentclass[language=german]{webquiz}

Typical usage of the language option is the following:

\documentclass[language=french]{webquiz}
\usepackage[french]{babel}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\title{Quiz Français}
\begin{document}
\begin{question}
Sous forme ’dinéquation, $x\in[1,2]$ ’sécrit aussi
\begin{choice}[columns=2]
\correct $1\le x\le 2$
\incorrect $1\ge x\ge 2$
\feedback ’Lordre croissant est-il respecté?
\incorrect $1<x<2$
\feedback ’Lintervalle est-il ouvert ou fermé?
\incorrect $1<x\le 2$
\feedback Les bornes sont-elles incluses ou exclues?
\end{choice}
\end{question}
\end{document}

This produces a web page like this:

A web page with language=french

As a general rule, LATEX and TEX4ht do not cope well with unicode characters, so if your quiz
contains (a lot of) unicode characters then we recommend using LuaLATEX or XELATEX, which
corresponds to the WebQuiz command-line options webquiz -x or webquiz -l, respectively.
The default TEX engine can be set in the webquizrc file (Section 4.2).
The language files were created largely using google translate so they may well need fine-
tuning3 . You can use kpsewhich to look at the language files, which all have names of the
form webquiz-xxx.lang, where xxx is the name of the language in lower case. For example,
the English language file, which is the default, can be found using the command:
> kpsewhich webquiz-english.lang

The file webquiz-english.lang contains the following:

answer = Answer
check answer = Check answer
choice = Choice {} is
correct = Correct!
false = false
incorrect = Incorrect.
multiple incorrect = For example, choice {} should be
next question = Next question
3 The word “Copyright” in the left-hand side-margin is not translated but perhaps it should be.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 21

 next question = Next unanswered question
one mistake = There is at least one mistake.
previous question = Previous unanswered question
question = Question
questions = Questions
quiz = Quiz
quizzes = Quizzes
side menu cross = wrong
side menu star = right first attempt
side menu tick = right
true = true
try again = Please try again

In these files, the material to the left of the equals signs are effectively variables, and so they
should never be changed, or deleted, whereas anything to the right of the equals signs is the
text that will appear on the WebQuiz web pages. The pairs of braces, {}, in the language
files must be present because in the online quizzes they expand to expressions like (a), (b). . .
To add WebQuiz support for a new language, say language xxx, copy any WebQuiz language
file to a new file webquiz-xxx.lang and then translate all of the words to the right of the
equals signs.4 WebQuiz will be able to find the new language file as long as it appears in
the LATEX search path5 . Once the new language file webquiz-xxx.lang is in the LATEX search
path it can be used by WebQuiz using language=xxx as a document-class option:
\documentclass[language=xxx]{webquiz}
\begin{document}
...quiz code here...
\end{document}

Please submit any new language files, or corrections to existing language files, as a new issue
at: github.com/AndrewAtLarge/WebQuiz/issues.
onepage, separatepages
By default, only one question, or one discussion environment, is displayed by the quiz at any
time. As separatepages is the default, every example so far is of this form. With the
document-class option onepage all questions, and discussion environments, are displayed at
the same time on a single web page. So, for example, the code:
\documentclass[onepage]{webquiz}
\title{A one page quiz}
\begin{document}
\begin{discussion}[One short][The full heading for discussion one]
This is discussion $1$ (one). It is very interesting.
\end{discussion}
\begin{discussion}[Two short][The full heading for discussion two]
This is discussion $2$ (two). It is very interesting.
\end{discussion}
\begin{question} Is this question $1$ (one)? \answer{1}\end{question}
\begin{question} Is a good question?
\begin{choice}\correct Yes \incorrect no\end{choice}
\end{question}
\begin{question} Is this question $3$ (three)? \answer{3}\end{question}
\end{document}

produces the quiz page:

4 WebQuiz assumes that all language names are in lower case so xxx, and not XXX, should be used.
5 Tohelp LATEX/WebQuiz fined your language file you may need to run a program like mktexlsr using an
administrators account

WebQuiz – version 5.2 WebQuiz document class options 22

 A one page quiz

theme
WebQuiz has a small number of different themes for setting the colours on the quiz web pages.
The theme can be set as an option to the document class or in the webquizrc file (Section 4.2).
Most, but not all, of the examples so far have used the default theme. WebQuiz currently
supports the following themes:
blue, darkblue, darkred, default, earthy, fresh, light, lively, muted, sleek, spring
and vibrant
Example screenshots of all WebQuiz themes can be found in Appendix A.

2.3 Including graphics and using pstricks and tikz

It is also possible to include complicated diagrams in WebQuiz quizzes using packages like tikz
and pstricks. As there have been several recent updates to these packages it is advisable to install
the latest version of both of these packages, as well as the packages make4ht, pgf and TEX4ht. In
fact, it is recommended that you update all installed TEX packages.
By far the easiest way to include images when using WebQuiz is by adding the following lines
to your document preamble:
\usepackage[dvipdfmx]{graphicx}
\DeclareGraphicsExtensions{.png}

to your document preamble. You need to use \DeclareGraphicsExtensions to tell WebQuiz the
different types of images you are using, so the code above works for png images. More generally,
you can use a comma separated list of extensions, such as:
\DeclareGraphicsExtensions{.png, .jpg, .gif}

The option dvipdfmx to graphicx is only necessary if you want to be able to rescale images. For
example, the code:
\documentclass{webquiz}
\usepackage[dvipdfmx]{graphicx}
\DeclareGraphicsExtensions{.jpg}
\title{I am not Lion to you}
\begin{document}
\begin{question}
Do you recognise this Lion?
\begin{center}

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 23

 \includegraphics[height=30mm]{ctanLion.jpg}
\end{center}
\begin{choice}
\correct Yes! \feedback This is the \TeX{} lion!
\incorrect No! \feedback You are legally required to admire this lion!
\end{choice}
\end{question}
\end{document}

produces the quiz page:

Including a lion

Note that WebQuiz assumes that all images are SVG images by default so it is necessary to give the
full filename in any \includegraphics command.
Using pstricks is often just as easy, such as the following code that works out of the box:
\documentclass[svgnames]{webquiz}
\usepackage{pst-all}
\newcommand\C{\mathbb{C}}
\title{A pstricks example}
\begin{document}
\begin{question}
The shaded region in the graph
\begin{center}
\begin{pspicture}[unit=0.6cm](-3,-1.5)(3,4)
\pscircle[linewidth=1pt,linestyle=dashed,
fillcolor=SkyBlue,fillstyle=solid](1,1){2}
\psaxes[linecolor=red,linewidth=1pt,labels=none]
{->}(0,0)(-1.5,-1.5)(3.5,3.5)
\rput(3.75,0){$x$} \rput(0,3.85){$iy$}
\rput(3,-0.4){3} \rput(-0.4,3){3$i$}
\psdots(1,1)
\end{pspicture}
\end{center}
is equal to which of the following sets of complex numbers?
\begin{choice}[columns=2]
\incorrect $\{z \in \C : (z-1)^{2}+(z-(i+1))^{2}<2\}$
\incorrect $\{z \in \C : z+(i+1)<2\}$
\correct $\{z \in \C : |z-(i+1)|<2\}$
\incorrect None of the above.
\end{choice}
\end{question}
\end{document}

to produce the web page:

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Including graphics and using pstricks and tikz 24
 Pstricks example

Even though tikz and pstricks can be used in WebQuiz quizzes, both of these packages
sometimes have problems. WebQuiz tries to solve some these problems for you if you use the
pst2pdf or tikz document-class options, which we now describe.

pst2pdf
For the most part, pstricks drawings display correctly. When they do fail they can some-
times be salvaged using pst2pdf. Applying pst2pdf to a WebQuiz quiz is not completely
straightforward, so WebQuiz provides the document-class option pst2pdf to automatically
apply pst2pdf as part of the quiz web page build process. If your pstricks drawings do not
display correctly it is worthwhile to see if pst2pdf fixes the problems.
For example, the following quiz compiles only with the pst2pdf document-class option:
\documentclass[pst2pdf]{webquiz}
\usepackage{pst-all,pst-3dplot}
\title{A pst2pdf example}
\begin{document}
\begin{question} % a quiz question
Which of the equations below could describe the following surface?

\begin{pspicture*}(-4,-4)(4,4)
\psplotThreeD[linecolor=blue, plotstyle=curve, drawStyle=yLines,
yPlotpoints=30, xPlotpoints=30, linewidth=1pt](-4,1)(-4,1){
x dup mul y dup mul add 1.01 exp}
\pstThreeDCoor[linewidth=1pt, xMin=-4,xMax=4,yMin=-4,yMax=4,zMin=-2,zMax
=6]
\end{pspicture*}

\begin{choice}
\incorrect \( z=\log(x^2+y^2) \)
\correct \( z=e^{x^2+y^2} \)
\incorrect \( z=1-e^{x^2+y^2} \)
\incorrect \( z=\dfrac1{x^2+y^2}\)
\end{choice}
\end{question}
\end{document}

to produce the quiz:

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 25

 Example requiring the pst2pdf document class option

The position of the image adjusts with the screen size and it does, in fact, display well on a
mobile device. WebQuiz is not able to display this image without the pst2pdf document-class
option.


Unfortunately, pst2pdf can fail silently without giving any warnings. If you plan to use
the pst2pdf document-class option then you should first check to make that the pst2pdf
package and executable is properly installed. According to the pst2pdf manual:
pst2pdf needs Ghostscript (>=9.14), perl (>=5.18), pdf2svg, pdftoppm and pdftops
(from poppler-utils or xpdf-utils) to process a file using pst2pdf.
If using pst2pdf does not produce an image then, rather than pst2pdf not working, the
problem might be that you have not installed all of the programs that pst2pdf relies upon,
so look in your log files for error messages and check that all of the programs listed above
are correctly installed, with the specified version numbers. See also Section 3.4.

tikz
Giving this class option both loads the tikz package and it fixes several issues with PGF
that prevent it from working with TEX4ht. It is important that you use the WebQuiz tikz
document-class option, and not \usepackage{tikz}, because WebQuiz loads slightly different
configuration files for tikz that are optimised for use with TEX4ht. Please note that for

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Including graphics and using pstricks and tikz 26
 tikz you need to use TEXLive 2018 with all packages updated. Thanks are due to Michal
Hoftich for the enormous amount of effort that he has put into making TEX4ht and tikz
more compatible. As an example, the quiz file
\documentclass[tikz]{webquiz}
\usepackage{tikz}
\title{A tikz example}
\begin{document}
\begin{question} % a quiz question
What number is represented by the dot on the following number line?
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\foreach \x in {-3,...,3} { \draw(\x,0.25) --(\x,0)node[below]{$\x$}; }
\foreach \x in {-2.5,...,2.5} { \draw(\x,0.18) --(\x,0); }
\draw[thick,<->](-3.5,0)--(3.5,0);
\filldraw[blue!50!white](1.5,0) circle (1mm);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\answer[number]{1.5} % inserts an answer box and specifies the answer as 1.5
\whenRight Correct!
\whenWrong Incorrect!
\end{question}
\end{document}

produces the online quiz:

Tikz example

Most people use either pstricks or tikz. A quiz that tries to use both pstricks and tikz will
probably not compile.

2.4 Configuring commands and environments for TEX4ht

The underlying engine used by WebQuiz is TEX4ht so, because TEX4ht is not able process all LATEX
code, there is LATEX code that WebQuiz is not able to cope with. This said, TEX4ht is able to
display most LATEX code and WebQuiz has been used to write literally thousands of quiz questions
so it is likely that you will be able to typeset what you want in your online quizzes. In particular,
as discussed in Section 2.3, it is possible to use tikz and pstricks in WebQuiz quizzes.
WebQuiz uses TEX4ht to convert the quiz content from LATEX to HTML. If TEX4ht has not
been configured to for some of the commands or environments that you are using then they may
not display correctly in your online quizzes. The “correct” way to fix such problems is to write
appropriate TEX4ht configuration commands, however, this can be tricky to do — especially if you
are not familiar with the inner workings of TEX and TEX4ht.
As a workaround, WebQuiz provides the command \DisplayAsImage that, in effect, tells TEX4ht
to treat your command as an image when it creates the web page. This is an easy work-around that
often produces good results – and it is much easier than writing your own TEX4ht configuration
commands.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 27

 For example, the mhchem package is a powerful package that defines a macro \ce for writing
chemical symbols but, unfortunately, the \ce macro has not (yet) been configured to work with
TEX4ht, which means that this command does not work very well when used in WebQuiz quizzes.
For example, the following code:
\documentclass{webquiz}
\usepackage[version=4]{mhchem}
\Department{Chemistry}
\UnitCode{Chem101}\UnitURL{/chem101}
\title{Display as image example}
\begin{document}
\DisplayAsImage[style="vertical-align: middle;"]{ce}
\begin{question}
What is \ce{(NH4)2S}?
\begin{choice}[columns=1]
\correct Ammonium sulfide
\incorrect Ammonium hydrosulfide
\feedback This is \ce{(NH4)HS}
\end{choice}
\end{question}
\end{document}

shows that if you add the line \DisplayAsImage{ce} to your quiz after \begin{document} then it is
possible to use \ce in your quizzes:

Using DisplayAsImage

As the example code shows, \DisplayAsImage accepts an optional argument that can be used to
fine-tune the placement of the image on the quiz web page using CSS. For those interested in the
technical details, the definition of \DisplayAsImage is:
\RequirePackage{etoolbox}
\renewcommand\DisplayAsImage[2][]{%
\csletcs{real:#2}{#2}%
\NewConfigure{#2}{2}
\csdef{#2}##1{\Picture+[#1]{}\csuse{real:#2}{##1}\EndPicture}
\Configure{#2}{\Picture+[#1]{}}{\EndPicture}
}

3 System requirements, installation and configuration

WebQuiz takes a LATEX file and translates it into a functional web page. To use WebQuiz the quiz
author only needs to know how to use LATEX and to have all of the programs used by WebQuiz
installed. Fortunately, most of the system requirements will already be installed on a system with
an up-to-date installation of TEXLive, however, some tweaking may still be necessary.
Behind the scenes, WebQuiz uses TEX4ht, python, Javascript and several other tools to construct
and operate the online quizzes. The WebQuiz program has three main components:
• LATEX files (a class file and TEX4ht configuration files)

WebQuiz – version 5.2 System requirements, installation and configuration 28

 • A Python3 program that uses TEX4ht to convert LATEX files into web pages
• Web files (Javascript, CSS and online documentation)
Of course, to use the online quizzes created by WebQuiz you need a web server. To use WebQuiz
all of these files need to be in appropriate places. Fortunately, ctan takes care of most of this but
the web-related files still need to be put onto your web server.
WebQuiz has been tested extensively on Linux and Mac operating systems. Several people have
used WebQuiz on windows computers, but I have not tested the program on a windows computer
myself.

3.1 System requirements

In order to work WebQuiz needs the following programs to be installed on your system:
• An up-to-date LATEX distribution, such as that provided by TEXLive. In particular, you need
to have TEX4ht and make4ht installed.
Unfortunately, the version of make4ht that was released with TEXLive 2018 had some bugs
and there have been many recent changes to make4ht and pstricks, so it is strongly recom-
mended that you update all packages from ctan before you try and use WebQuiz.
• Python 3. As of writing python 3.7.2 is available.
• Javascript
• If your quizzes use pstricks, or if you want to compile the Online manual (Appendix B),
then you need to ensure that Ghostscript and dvisvgm are installed and properly configured;
see Section 3.4 for more details.
• A web server. As detailed in Section 3.3, you will need to install the web components of
WebQuiz.

3.2 Installing WebQuiz

WebQuiz will be included as a package in TEXLive 2019 and, once a packaging issue is sorted out, it
will be included in MiKTEX. If WebQuiz is available as a package from either of these distributions
then it can be installed in the usual way.
Alternatively, it is possible to download the WebQuiz zipfile from ctan . To install WebQuiz
from the zipfile you should:
1. Download the WebQuiz zipfile from ctan .
2. Unzip the file
3. Change directory of the webquiz/scripts subdirectory from the zipfile
4. From an administrators account, or using sudo on a unix-like system, run he command:
> webquiz --tex-install
On windows, use:
> webquiz.bat --tex-install

This will install the different components of WebQuiz to their “standard” locations in he TEX
search tree. If you are using MiKTEX you may need to open the MiKTEX console, go to the Tasks
menu and then rebuild the TeX filename database.
Once the WebQuiz package is installed you should initialise thew package, following the steps
given in Section 3.3.

3.3 Initialising WebQuiz

WebQuiz is a tool for creating online quizzes and in order for it to work efficiently various files
(javascript and cascading style sheets) need to put onto your web server. WebQuiz has an initiali-
sation routine for installing the web components of the program. In fact, until WebQuiz has been
initialised it will ask you if you to run the initialisation routine every time you use WebQuiz. You
can reinitialise WebQuiz at any time using the command-line option:

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 29

 > webquiz --initialise

WebQuiz will actually work without being initialised, however, any quiz web pages that are created
before initialisation will be emblazoned with a message reminding you to initialise WebQuiz.
The location of the files on the web server depends both on the operating system that is running
on your computer and how your web server has been configured. It is essential that the WebQuiz
files are installed in a directory that is accessible from the web. It does not matter if they are put
into a user web directory or into a system web directory. If in doubt please consult your system
administrator.
Common locations for the web root of the server are:

Operating system Root of web server

Mac OSX /Library/WebServer/Documents
Linux /var/www/html
Windows C:\inetpub\wwwroot

WebQuiz needs to copy several files into a subdirectory of this web root. When you run
> webquiz --initialise

you will be prompted for the following:

• The location of the WebQuiz web directory, which needs to be a directory that is visible to
your web server
• The relative URL for this directory, which tells your web browser where to find these files
For example, on my system the web root for our web server is /usr/local/httpd/ and the WebQuiz
web files are in the directory /usr/local/httpd/UoS/WebQuiz. So, I set:

WebQuiz web directory = /usr/local/httpd/UoS/WebQuiz

WebQuiz relative URL = /UoS/WebQuiz

Once the initialisation step is complete, WebQuiz is ready to use although you, possibly from an
administrators account or using sudo, may also want to run:
> webquiz --edit-settings

This will talk you the process of setting system defaults for the quizzes that, for example, specify
the name and URL for your department and institution as well as the default language and theme
used for the quizzes. If in doubt about any of the option press return to accept the default. See
Section 4.2 for more details.
You can test your WebQuiz installation by compiling the example files from the WebQuiz man-
ual. You can find these files in the directory web_root/doc/examples, where the web_root is the
directory where you just installed the WebQuiz web files. If Ghostscript and dvisvgm are installed
and properly configured (see Section 2.3) then you should also be able to compile the Online manual
(Appendix B) using WebQuiz.


To install the WebQuiz files for general use on your system, or to save system wide settings,
you need to run the initialisation command webquiz --initialise using an administrator account
or using sudo on a UNIX or Mac OSX system.
If you have already saved a user webquizrc file (Section 4.2) file then to change the system
webquizrc file you will use need to use the --rcfile command-line option:
> webquiz --rcfile /path/to/system/rc-file --initialise

Remark To remove all WebQuiz files from your web server use:
> webquiz --uninstall

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Graphics and dvisvgm 30

3.4 Graphics and dvisvgm
WebQuiz, via TEX4ht, uses dvisvgm to convert certain images to Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).
This is done using his is done using dvisvgm. At first sight this is OK because dvisvgm is included in
TEXLive and MiKTEX, however, dvisvgm uses Ghostscript and this needs to be correctly configured
and, as outlined in FAQ, dvisvgm needs to know where to find the Ghostscript libraries. For
example, to get dvisvgm to work on my system I needed to add the line
export LIBGS=/usr/local/lib/libgs.dylib

to my .bashrc file. To see whether you need to do something similar on your system you need to
look at the output from the following two commands:
> dvisvgm -h
> dvisvgm -l

There are three possibilities:

• the -h output does not contain -libgs and the -l output contains ps: ghostscript was linked
at build time, so everything should work
• the -h output contains -libgs and the -l output does not contain ps: gpostscript support
is enabled but ghostscript is not linked. You need to locate the ghostscript library libgs
.so or libgs.dylib on your system and set the LIBGS environment variable, or equivalent,
accordingly
• the -h output does not contain -libgs and the -l output does not contain ps: dvisvgm was
not built with postscript support. In this case, WebQuiz will not be able to process svg
images. You need to reinstall dvisvgm with ghostscript support.

4 The WebQuiz program

The WebQuiz program was designed to be run from the command-line. To produce an online quiz
from a WebQuiz LATEX file quiz.tex type:
> webquiz quiz or > webquiz quiz.tex

One feature of WebQuiz is that you can process more than one quiz file at a time. For example, if
you have quiz files quiz1.tex, ..., quiz9.tex in the current directory then, on a UNIX system, you
can rebuild the web pages for all of these quizzes using the single command:
> webquiz quiz[1-9].tex

This is useful if some generic aspect of all of the quizzes has changed, such as the theme, the
language, thebreadcrumbs or a department URL. In fact, one would probably use
> webquiz -dqq quiz*.tex

because the webquiz --qq command-line option suppresses almost all of the output produced by
LATEX and TEX4ht and -d, which is draft mode, is faster and it is probably sufficient if the quizzes
were compiled recently. The next section discusses the WebQuiz command-line options.

4.1 Command-line options

Typing webquiz -h, or webquiz --help on the command-line gives the following summary of the
WebQuiz command-line options:
usage: webquiz [-h] [-q] [-d] [-s] [--latex | -l | -x] [-r RCFILE]
[-i | -e | --settings [SETTINGS]]
[quiz_file [quiz_file ...]]

A LaTeX package for writing online quizzes

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 31

 positional arguments:
quiz_file latex quiz files

optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-q, --quiet Suppress tex4ht messages (also -qq etc)
-d, --draft Use make4ht draft mode
-s, --shell-escape Shell escape for tex4ht/make4ht
--latex Use latex to compile document with make4ht (default)
-l, --lua Use lualatex to compile the quiz
-x, --xelatex Use xelatex to compile the quiz
-r RCFILE, --rcfile RCFILE
Specify location of the webquiz rc-file
-i, --initialise, --initialize
Install web components of webquiz
-e, --edit-settings Edit default settings for webquiz
--settings [SETTINGS]
List default settings for webquiz

The command-line options are listed on separate lines above to improve readability. In practice,
the different options need to be one the same line, although they can appear in any order.
We describe the different options, grouping them according to functionality.

-h, –help
list the command-line options and exit
-q, -qq, ——quiet
Suppress LATEX and TEX4ht error messages: -q is quiet and -qq is very quiet. If you use
webquiz -qq texfile.tex then almost no output will be printed by WebQuiz when it is pro-
cessing your quiz file. Be warned, however, that both of these options can make it harder to
find and fix errors, so using the -q and -qq options is recommended if your file is known to
compile.

TEX options

-d, ——draft
draft mode. The LATEXfile is processed only once by htlatex, which gives a much faster com-
pilation time but cross references etc may not be completely up to date. This is equivalent
to using: make4ht --mode draft
-s,——shell-escape
Shell escape for LATEX/htLATEX/make4ht
——latex
Use LATEX to compile the quiz (the default)
-l,——lua
Use luaLATEX to compile the quiz
-x, ——xelatex
Use xeLATEX to compile the quiz

Settings and configuration

-r [RCFILE], ——rcfile [RCFILE]

Specify the location of the webquizrc file (Section 4.2) file to use. This setting is only neces-
sary if you want to override the default webquizrc file.
-i, ——initialise
Initialise files and settings for webquiz. See Section 3.3 for more details.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Command-line options 32

——edit-settings
Edit the webquiz settings in the WebQuiz rc-file. See Section 4.2 for more details.
If you do not have permission to write to the system rc-file, which is in the WebQuiz scripts
directory, then you will be given the option of saving the WebQuiz settings to an rc-file in
your home directory or another file of your choice. If you want to save the settings to a
particular rc-file use the --rcfile option. If you want to change the system webquizrc file
(Section 4.2) then use a administrator account or, on a unix-like system, use sudo webquiz
--edit-settings.

——settings [SETTING]
List system settings for webquiz stored in webquizrc file (Section 4.2), the (run-time config-
uration file). Optionally, a single SETTING can be given in which case the value of only that
setting is returned. If SETTING is omitted then the list of current settings are printed. Use
SETTING=verbose for a more verbose listing of the settings and SETTING=help for a summary
of the settings.
The rc-file can be edited by hand, however, it is recommended that you instead use
webquiz --edit-settings

Typical settings returned by this command look like:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
WebQuiz rc-file: /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local/tex/latex/webquiz/webquizrc
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
breadcrumbs =
department =
department-url = /
engine = latex
hide-side-menu = false
institution =
institution-url = /
language = english
one-page = false
random-order = false
theme = default
version = 5.2
webquiz-url = /WebQuiz
webquiz-www = /Library/WebServer/Documents/WebQuiz
make4ht =
mathjax = https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/mathjax/2.7.1/MathJax.js
webquiz-layout = webquiz_layout
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

See Section 4.2 for more details.

Advanced command-line options


Change these settings with care: an incorrect value for these settings can stop WebQuiz from
working.

——make4ht MAKE4HT-OPTIONS
Options to be passed to make4ht when converting the LATEX to XML. This option is equiva-
lent to setting the make4ht in the webquizrc file (Section 4.2); see Section 4.2. At least under
UNIX, multiple arguments should be enclosed in quotes. For example, to give make4ht a
custom mk4 file (note that myquiz.mk4 is included, if it exists), you would use
> webquiz --make4ht "-e file.mk4" myquiz.tex

The make4ht command-line option will be required only in rare instances.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 33

——uninstall
Remove all WebQuiz files from your web server directory. This command only removes files
that WebQuiz may have installed on your web server. It does not remove WebQuiz from
your LATEX distribution.
——webquiz-layout WEBQUIZ-LAYOUT
Name of (local) python code that controls the layout of quiz web page. This option is equiv-
alent to setting the webquiz-layout in the webquizrc file (Section 4.2). See Section 4.3 for
more details.

Other options

The following command-line options are mainly useful mainly for code developers.

——version
Prints the WebQuiz version number and exit (currently 5.2)
——tex-install
Use this command-line option if you are installing the LATEX components of WebQuiz from
the ctan zip-filei (see Section 3.2). It will install the different LATEX components of WebQuiz
into TEXMFMAIN. If you installed WebQuiz as part of a TEX distribution, such as TEXLive,
then you do not need to use this option.
——tex-uninstall
Use this command-line option to remove the LATEX components of WebQuiz from your sys-
tem. Only use this option if you installed WebQuiz using the ctan zip-file.

——debugging
Displays extra debugging information when compiling and prevents WebQuiz from deleting
the many intermediary files that are created when building the quiz web pages.

4.2 WebQuiz settings and the webquizrc file

WebQuiz stores the following default sets in webquizrc file, a run-time configuration file:
breadcrumbs breadcrumbs at the top of quiz page (§2.1e)
department name of department (§2.1e)
department-url url for department (§2.1e)
engine default tex engine used to compile web pages (Section 2.2)
hide-side-menu do not display the side menu at start of quiz (Section 2.2)
institution institution or university (§2.1e)
institution-url url for institution or university (§2.1e)
language default language used on web pages (Section 2.2)
one-page display questions on one page (Section 2.2)
random-order randomly order the quiz questions (Section 2.2)
theme default colour theme used on web pages (Section 2.2)
version webquiz version number for webquizrc settings (Section 4.2)
webquiz-url relative url for webquiz web directory (Section 3.3)
webquiz-www full path to webquiz web directory (Section 3.3)
make4ht build file for make4ht (Section 3.3)
mathjax url for mathjax (Section 3.3)
webquiz-layout name of python module that formats the quizzes (Section 4.3)
The last three options are advanced options that you should change with care.
The default values of all of these settings can be overridden in the LATEX file for the quiz, or
with the command-line options. The default values can be changed at any time using
webquiz --edit-settings

WebQuiz – version 5.2 WebQuiz settings and the webquizrc file 34

When changing the settings WebQuiz tries to explain what it is doing at each step. If you are
unsure what a particular setting does then press return to accept the default value — the default
value is printed inside square brackets as [default]. In particular, when you first start using
WebQuiz it is recommended that you accept the default values for all of the advanced options
because it is very unlikely that you will need to change these initially.
The first line of output from webquiz --settings gives the location of the rc-file being used.
The system rc-file, webquizrc file, is saved in the tex/latex/webquiz subdirectory of the TEXMFLOCAL
directory. A typically location for this file is
/usr/local/texlive/texmf-local/tex/latex/webquiz/webquizrc

By default, the WebQuiz settings are saved here so that you do not need to reinitialise WebQuiz
whenever you update your TEX distribution. If you do not have permission to write to this directory
then you will be asked if you would like to save the rc-file somewhere else. The location of the user
rc-file is:
• ~/.dotfiles/config/webquizrc if the directory ~/.dotfiles/config exists,
• ~/.config/webquizrc if the directory ~/.config exists,
• ~/.webquizrc otherwise.
Each time WebQuiz is run it reads the system and user rc-files, if they exist. When using webquiz
--edit-settings you will be promoted for a different installation location if you do not have
permission to write to the specified rc-file. To use a particular webquizrc file use the --rcfile
command-line option:
> webquiz --rcfile <full path to rc-file> ...

If you save the settings to a non-standard location then you will need to use the command-line
option webquiz --rcfile RCFILE to access these settings.
To describe the WebQuiz defaults settings we consider them by category.

Institution settings

department
Sets the default department name. This can be overridden in the LATEX file using \Department
in §2.1e
department-url
Sets the URL for the department. This can be overridden in the LATEX file using \DepartmentURL
in §2.1e
institution
Sets the default institution name. This can be overridden in the LATEX file using \Institution
in §2.1e
institution-url
Sets the URL for the institution.This can be overridden in the LATEX file using \InstitutionURL
in §2.1e

Formatting options

breadcrumbs
Sets the default breadcrumbs at the top of quiz page. The default breadcrumbs can be over-
written in the quiz file using the \BreadCrumbs command. See §2.1e for more details.
engine
Sets the default TEX engine to be used when compiling the quiz. By default, latex is used,
with the two other possibilities being lua and xelatex, for LuaLATEX and XELATEX respec-
tively. Behind the scenes, the two choices correspond to invoking make4ht with the --lua and
--xelatex options, respectively. The engine setting in the webquizrc file can be overridden
by the webquizrc --latex, --lua and --xelatex.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 35

language
Sets the default language for the WebQuiz web pages. This can be overridden in the quiz
file by using the document class language option: language=xxx See Section 2.2.
theme
Sets the default colour theme for the WebQuiz web pages. This can be overridden in the
quiz file by using the document class theme option: theme=xxx. See Section 2.2.

Advanced options

make4ht
Options for make4ht. Rather than using TEX4ht directly, WebQuiz uses make4ht to convert
the LATEX file to XML. Use this option to customise how make4ht is called. See the make4ht
manual for more information.

mathjax
WebQuiz web pages use mathjax to render the mathematics on the quiz web pages. By de-
fault this is done by loading mathjax from
https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/mathjax/2.7.1/MathJax.js

Fetching mathjax from an external site can cause a delay when the quiz web pages are loaded.
This setting in the rc-file allows you to change where mathjax is loaded from. For example,
if you install mathjax on your web server then you would replace this will the corresponding
relative URL.
webquiz-layout
Sets the python file that writes the HTML file for the quiz. Most people will not need this
option. The next subsection describes how to do this in more detail.

Configuration settings

Use webquiz --initialise to change these settings.

webquiz-url
This is the relative URL for WebQuiz web directory
webquiz-www
This is the full path to the WebQuiz web directory. The Online manual (Appendix B) and
other example code can be found in the docs subdirectory. If you use bash, then the command
> cd $(webquiz --settings webquiz-www)/docs

will take you to the WebQuiz online docs/ directory.

4.3 Changing the layout of the WebQuiz web pages


This is an advanced WebQuiz feature that most people will not need. To change the layout of
the quiz web pages created by WebQuiz requires working knowledge of HTML and python.

The construction of the online quizzes is controlled by the python file webquiz_standard.py. If
you want to change the structure of the web pages for the quizzes then the easiest way to do this is
to make a copy of webquiz_standard.py, say webquiz_myformat.py, and then edit this file directly.
This will require working knowledge of python and HTML. To give you an idea of what needs to
be done, the python file webquiz_standard contains a single function write_web_page that returns
the HTML for the page as a string using the following:

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Changing the layout of the WebQuiz web pages 36
 quiz_page = r'''<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title> {title} </title>
{htmlpreamble}
</head>
<body>
{no_script}{breadcrumbs}
<div class="quiz-page">
{side_menu}
<div class="quiz-questions">
{quiz_header}
{quiz_questions}
</div>
</div>
{webquiz_init}
</body>
</html>
'''

By changing this output you can change the layout of the quizzes produced by WebQuiz. For
example, by adding code to the <head>...</head> section of quiz_page it is easy to include new
CSS code and by modifying <body>....</body> you can change the layout of the page. More
sophisticated versions of webquiz_standard.py, where you change the underlying python code, are
possible. At the University of Sydney we have a custom version of webquiz_standard.py that calls
our content management system and, in this way, embeds the quiz web page inside a web page
that used the official “branding” required by our university.
When experimenting with a new layout can run WebQuiz using the command:
> webquiz --webquiz-layout webquiz_myformat quizfile.tex

Once the new layout is finalised you can make it the default layout by setting webquiz-layout equal
to webquiz_my_format in the webquizrc file (Section 4.2) using webquiz --edit-settings.
If you do make modifications to any of these files then, by the WebQuiz Licensing agreement,
you are required to create a new version of this file that has a different name. Doing this will also
make it easier for you to integrate your changes with any future releases of WebQuiz.

4.4 Bugs, issues and feature requests

Please report any bugs, issues or feature requests using the issue tracker at

github.com/AndrewAtLarge/WebQuiz/issues.

When reporting a bug please provide a minimal working example that clearly demonstrates your
problem. This should be a compilable LATEXfile that looks something like the following:
\documentclass{webquiz}
\begin{document}
** insert problematic code here **
\end{document}

Bug reports that do not have a minimal working example can be hard to reproduce in which case
it is not possible to fix them. Before submitting a bug export please first compile your quiz using
(pdf)latex to check to see if your problem is an issue with LATEXor with WebQuiz. If you can,
please also test to see if your code compiles using TEX4ht directly.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 37

Appendices
A Catalogue of web page themes
WebQuiz comes with different themes for changing the colour scheme of the online quizzes, which
can be set using the theme document-class option or in the webquizrc file (Section 4.2); see Sec-
tion 2.2 for more details. Themes are easy to construct in principle although finding colours that
work well together can be tricky in practice so, as a result, there are some themes that I would not
personally recommend!
New themes, and modifications to existing themes, can be submitted as an issue at:

github.com/AndrewAtLarge/WebQuiz/issues/issues.

Where possible these will be incorporated into a future release of the package, although there is a
potential technical issue here in that the underlying CSS files are written using sass.

Example of the blue theme

Example of the darkblue theme

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Catalogue of web page themes 38

 Example of the darkred theme

Example of the default theme

Example of the earthy theme

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 39

 Example of the fresh theme

Example of the light theme

Example of the lively theme

WebQuiz – version 5.2 Catalogue of web page themes 40

 Example of the muted theme

Example of the sleek theme

Example of the spring theme

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 41

 Example of the vibrant theme

B The online WebQuiz manual

WebQuiz has an Online manual that is a LATEXfile written with the webquiz document class. The
conversion of the manual from LATEX to HTML is done by WebQuiz. The PDF version of this
manual is included here as an easy reference. The source file for the Online manual is included in
the documentation of WebQuiz to allow you to create a local version of the Online manual. Look
for the file webquiz-online-manual.tex in the webquiz-www/docs directory; see Section 4.2.
The online manual can either be compiled as a PDF file (see below), or using WebQuiz to produce
an online version of the manual. The Online manual was written for “internal use” when WebQuiz
was first written in 2004. WebQuiz has evolved quite a lot since then. There is some overlap
between the Online manual and previous sections, however, the Online manual only describes how
to typeset questions and it does not cover some of the more recent features of WebQuiz, such as
the document class options, or how to use the program. If there are any discrepancies between the
Online manual and the earlier sections of this manual then the Online manual should be discounted.
The Online manual has diagrams that are drawn using pstricks and, as a result, to create a
PDF version of the Online manual use latex webquiz-online-manual to create a dvi file. The dvi
file can be converted to PDF using dvipdf. The online manual needs to be compiled using latex
rather than pdflatex, which will generate errors.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The online WebQuiz manual 42

 WebQuiz: Web Quizzes using LaTeX

WebQuiz will process this quiz using pst2pdf.

Introduction (Introduction) WebQuiz is a LATEX package for creating inter-

active web quizzes. The idea is that you write the quiz using LATEX and that
WebQuiz creates the web page from this file. Anything that you can write us-
ing LATEX will be converted to HTML by WebQuiz. This includes, for example,
mathematics and graphics written using pstricks. WebQuiz supports three
different types of quiz questions:

1. Multiple choice questions with a unique correct answer. (See button to to question 1 )

2. Multiple choice questions with several (or no) correct answers. (See button to to question 2 )

3. Questions that require the student to enter an answer, which can then
be compared with the correct answer in several different ways. (See
button to to question 3 )

The use of WebQuiz is described in the next section. Later sections describe
how each of the WebQuiz environments are used.

The discussion environment in WebQuiz can also be used to write Web Pages
like this one (The pages you are reading here were written using WebQuiz.)

Basic Usage (Basic Usage) Once you have a WebQuiz file, you can run it
through LATEX, in the usual way, to produce a readable version of your quiz.
When you are happy with the quiz, use WebQuiz to create the HTML version.
Note that the printable version of the quiz does not look like the web page;
rather, it contains all of the information in an easily readable layout.

If, for example, your quiz file is called quiz1.tex then you can use the following
commands:
> latex quiz1 % latex a quiz file
> pdflatex quiz1 % a PDF versio of the quiz
> xdvi quiz1 % view the quiz using xdvi
> dvips quiz1 % print the quiz
> webquiz quiz1 % converts the quiz to html

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 43

 Unit code? WebQuiz: Web Quizzes using LaTeX Page 2

Converting the quiz to html can take quite a long time, particularly if a large
number of images need to be created.

WebQuiz files (WebQuiz files)

The basic structure of a WebQuiz file is as follows:

\documentclass{webquiz}

\title{Quiz 1: Complex numbers}

\UnitCode{MATH1001}
\UnitName{Differential Calculus}
\UnitURL{/u/UG/JM/MATH1001/}
\QuizzesURL{/u/UG/JM/MATH1001/Quizzes/}

\begin{document}

\begin{discussion}[short heading][optional heading]

. . . % optional discussion
\end{discussion}

\begin{question} % question 1
. . .
\end{question}

\begin{question} % question 2
. . .
\end{question}
.
.
\end{document}

In the preamble of the LATEX file you can specify the unit code, the name of the
unit of study, the location of the homepage for the unit and the index file for
the quizzes for this unit; this is done using the commands \UnitCode, \UnitName,
\UnitURL and \QuizzesURL respectively. If the command \QuizzesURL is omitted
then the URL for the quiz index file is set to \UnitURL/Quizzes.

The title of the quiz can be set in the preamble using the \title command. Note
that the \title command must appear before the \begin{document} command.
As in any LATEX document, the preamble can define macros and load other
LATEX packages the usual way .

By using the discussion environment you can summarise the material for the
students or add introductory material for the quiz. For example, discussion
environments can be used to recall that main concepts being covered by the
quiz or to give references to the lecture notes for the unit. The syntax for the

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The online WebQuiz manual 44

 Unit code? WebQuiz: Web Quizzes using LaTeX Page 3

discussion environment is as follows:

\begin{discussion}[optional short heading][optional heading]
. . .
\end{discussion}

Anything you like (text, mathematics, . . . ) can go inside discussion environ-

ments. The optional heading, which defaults to Discussion”, is used both as the
section heading on the web page and as the heading in the side-menu on left
hand side of the page. If a short heading is also given then it is used in the
side-menu. The quiz can contain zero or more discussion items ( and zero or
more quiz questions).

Questions are set inside a question environment. The text is followed by the
answers.

WebQuiz supports three types of questions:

• Multiple choice questions with precisely one correct answer;

• Multiple choice questions with zero or more correct answers;
• Questions that require the students to enter an answer. Five difference
comparison methods are available.

With each of these types of questions you can (and should) provide feedback to
the students depending on whether their answer is correct or incorrect. Below
we describe how to produce these different types of questions.

Question 1 (Question 1) The syntax for a multiple choice question having

precisely one correct answer is as follows:
\begin{question}
. . .question text
\begin{choice}
\(in)correct . . . text for (in)correct option
\feedback . . . feedback on response

\(in)correct . . . text for (in)correct option

\feedback . . . feedback on response
.
.
.
\end{choice}
\end{question}

The different choices in a multiple choice question must be inside a choice

environment. This environment behaves like a standard LATEX list environment
except that instead of using \item for list item you use:

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 45

 Unit code? WebQuiz: Web Quizzes using LaTeX Page 4

• \correct for a correct choice

• \incorrect for an incorrect choice
• \feedback to give feedback to the student when they select this choice

At most one \feedback response should be given for each \correct and each
\incorrect response. The \feedback commands are optional; however, it is
recommended that you use them because targeted feedback to the students
based on their responses can be beneficial.

For example, the code below, when run through WebQuiz, produces button to to question 1
in the online manual quiz.
\begin{question}
The shaded region in the graph
\begin{center}
\begin{pspicture}(-3,-1.5)(3,4)
\pscircle[linewidth=1pt,linestyle=dashed,%
fillcolor=SkyBlue,fillstyle=solid](1,1){2}
\psaxes[linecolor=red,linewidth=1pt,labels=none]%
{->}(0,0)(-1.5,-1.5)(3.5,3.5)
\rput(3.75,0){$x$}
\rput(0,3.85){$iy$}
\rput(3,-0.4){3}
\rput(-0.4,3){3$i$}
\psdots(1,1)
\end{pspicture}
\end{center}
is equal to which of the following sets of complex numbers?
\begin{choice}
\incorrect $\{z \in \C : (z-1)^{2}+(z-(i+1))^{2}<2\}$
\feedback The equation of a circle in the complex plane with
centre $a+ib$ and radius $r$ is
\begin{displaymath}
\{z\in\C : |z-(a+ib)|<r \}.
\end{displaymath}

\incorrect $\{z \in \C : z+(i+1)<2\}$

\feedback You want the set of points whose \textit{distance}
from $1+i$ is less than $2$.

\correct $\{z \in \C : |z-(i+1)|<2\}$

\feedback The graph shows the set of complex numbers whose
distance from $1+i$ is less than $2$.

\incorrect $\{z \in \C : |z-2|<|i+1-2|\}$

\feedback As $|i+1-2|=\sqrt 2$, this is the set of complex
numbers whose distance from $2$ is less than
$\sqrt 2$.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The online WebQuiz manual 46

 Unit code? WebQuiz: Web Quizzes using LaTeX Page 5

\incorrect None of the above.

\feedback The graph shows the set of complex numbers whose
distance from the centre of the circle is less than $2$.
\end{choice}
\end{question}

Question 2 (Question 2) To allow multiple (or no) correct answer we add

multiple as an optional argument to the choice environment:
\begin{question}
. . .question text. . .
\begin{choice}[multiple]
\(in)correct . . . text for (in)correct option
\feedback . . . feedback on response

\(in)correct . . . text for (in)correct option

\feedback . . . feedback on response
.
.
.
\end{choice}
\end{question}

The only difference to the previous case is that zero or more \correct commands
can appear.

For example, button to to question 2 below was typed into WebQuiz using the
following commands:
\begin{question}
Which of the following numbers are prime?
\begin{choice}[multiple]
\incorrect 1
\feedback By definition, a prime is a number greater than 1
whose only factors are 1 and itself.

\correct 19
\feedback The only factors of 19 are 1 and itself.

\incorrect 6
\feedback 2 is a factor of 6

\correct 23
\feedback The only factors of 23 are 1 and itself.

\correct 191
\feedback The only factors of 191 are 1 and itself.
\end{choice}
\end{question}

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 47

 Unit code? WebQuiz: Web Quizzes using LaTeX Page 6

Question 3 (Question 3)

By default, the choice environments puts the multiple choice options into one
column format. Sometimes the options look better when listed in two or more
columns, however, this should be used sparingly as multiple columns do not
always display well if the quiz is viewed on a mobile device. By using the columns
key word in a choice environment you can specify the number of columns in the
HTML version of the quiz.
\begin{question}
. . .question text. . .
\begin{choice}[multiple, columns=n] . . . n columns
\(in)correct . . . text for (in)correct option
\feedback . . . feedback on response

\(in)correct . . . text for (in)correct option

\feedback . . . feedback on response
.
.
.
\end{choice}
\end{question}

If the optional argument [multiple] is not present, then the question admits
precisely one correct answer.

For example, button to to question 3 below was typed into WebQuiz using the
following commands:
\begin{question}
What are suitable parametric equations for this plane curve?
\begin{center}
\psset{unit=.6cm}
\begin{pspicture}(-2.5,-0.5)(5,5.5)
\psaxes[linecolor=red,linewidth=1pt,labels=none]%
{->}(0,0)(-2.5,-1.5)(5,5)
\psellipse[linecolor=SkyBlue,linewidth=2pt](1,2)(3,2)
\end{pspicture}
\end{center}

\begin{choice}[columns=1]
\incorrect $x=2\cos t + 1$, $y=3\sin t + 2$
\feedback This is an ellipse with centre $(1,2)$ and with axes of
length $4$ in the $x$-direction and $6$ in the $y$-direction.
\begin{center}
\psset{unit=.6cm}
\begin{pspicture}(-2.5,-0.5)(5,5.5)
\psaxes[linecolor=red,linewidth=1pt,labels=none]%
{->}(0,0)(-2.5,-1.5)(5,5)
\parametricplot[linecolor=SkyBlue,linewidth=2pt]{0}{360}%

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The online WebQuiz manual 48

 Unit code? WebQuiz: Web Quizzes using LaTeX Page 7

{t cos 2 mul 1 add t sin 3 mul 2 add}

\end{pspicture}
\end{center}

\correct $x=3\cos t + 1$, $y=2\sin t + 2$

\feedback The curve is an ellipse centre (1,2) with axes length 6
in the $x$ direction and 4 in the $y$ direction.

\incorrect $x=3\cos t - 1$, $y=2\sin t - 2$

\feedback This is an ellipse with centre $(-1,-2)$ and with axes
of length $6$ in the $x$-direction and $4$ in the $y$-direction.
\begin{center}
\psset{unit=.6cm}
\begin{pspicture}(-5,-4)(1,2)
\psaxes[linecolor=red,linewidth=1pt,labels=none]%
{<-}(0,0)(-4.5,-5.5)(1,2)
\parametricplot[linecolor=SkyBlue,linewidth=2pt]{0}{360}%
{t cos 3 mul 1 sub t sin 2 mul 2 sub}
\end{pspicture}
\end{center}

\incorrect $x=2\cos t - 1$, $y=3\sin t - 2$

\feedback This is an ellipse with centre $(-1,-2)$ and with axes
of length $4$ in the $x$-direction and $6$ in the $y$-direction.
\begin{center}
\psset{unit=.6cm}
\begin{pspicture}(-4,-5)(1,2)
\psaxes[linecolor=red,linewidth=1pt,labels=none]%
{<-}(0,0)(-4.5,-5.5)(1,2)
\parametricplot[linecolor=SkyBlue,linewidth=2pt]{0}{360}%
{ t cos 2 mul 1 sub t sin 3 mul 2 sub}
\end{pspicture}
\end{center}
\end{choice}
\end{question}

Question 4 (Question 4) The final type of question that WebQuiz supports is a

question that requires an answer, which can be a number or a string. The answer
is typeset using the \answer macro. The \answer macro takes two arguments: an
optional comparison method, which defaults to string, and the correct answer
for the question:
\answer[comparison method]{correct answer}

Feedback for correct and incorrect answers is given using the macros \whenRight
and \whenWrong, respectively. The structure of questions with \answer’s is as
follows:

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 49

 Unit code? WebQuiz: Web Quizzes using LaTeX Page 8

\begin{question}
. . .question text. . .
\answer[*][complex|integer|lowercase|number|string]{actual answer}
\whenRight . . . feedback when right (optional)
\whenWrong . . . feedback when wrong (optional)
\end{question}

See the WebQuiz manual for details of the different comparison types. For
example, button to to question 4 below was typed into WebQuiz using the
following commands:
\begin{question}
If the vectors $\vect{a}$ (of magnitude 8 units) and $\vect{b}$
(of magnitude 3 units) are perpendicular, what is the value
of
\begin{displaymath}
|\vect{a} -2\vect{b}|~?
\end{displaymath}
(Hint: Draw a diagram!)

\answer[number]{10}
\whenRight The vectors $\vect{a}$, \(-2\vect{b}\), and
$\vect{a} - 2\vect{b}$ form the sides of a right-angled
triangle, with sides of length $8$ and $6$ and
hypotenuse of length $|\vect{a} -2\vect{b}|$. Therefore
by Pythagoras’ Theorem,
\(|\vect{a} -2\vect{b}|=\sqrt{8^2+6^2}=10\).

\whenWrong Draw a diagram and then use Pythagoras’ theorem.

\end{question}

Index Files (Index Files) WebQuiz also provides a mechanism for creating a
web page containing an index of all quizzes for a given Unit of Study. This is
done with a WebQuiz file that contains a quizindex environment. The syntax
for this environment is as follows:
\begin{quizindex}
\quiz[url1]{title for quiz 1}
\quiz[url2]{title for quiz 2}
. . .
\end{quizindex}

If no URL is given as an optional argument to \quiz then WebQuiz sets the

url(s) to quiz1.html, quiz2.html and so on.

Credits (Credits) WebQuiz was written and developed in the School of Mathematics and Statistics
at the University of Sydney. The system is built on LATEX with the conver-

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The online WebQuiz manual 50

 Unit code? WebQuiz: Web Quizzes using LaTeX Page 9

sion from LATEX to HTML using Eitan Gurari’s TeX4ht, and Michal Hoftich’s
make4ht.

To write quizzes using WebQuiz it is only necessary to know LATEX, however,

the WebQuiz system has three components:

• A LATEX document class file, webquiz.cls, and a TEX4ht configuration file,

webquitexz.cfg, that enable the quiz files to be processed by LATEX and
TEX4ht, respectively.
• A python program, webquiz, that translates the XML file that is produced
by TEX4ht into HTML.
• Some Javascript and CSS that controls the quiz web page.

The LATEX component of WebQuiz was written by Andrew Mathas and the
python, CSS and Javascript code was written by Andrew Mathas (and Don
Taylor), based on an initial prototype of Don Taylor’s from 2001. Since 2004
the program has been maintained and developed by Andrew Mathas. Although
the program has changed substantially since 2004, Don’s idea of using TEX4ht,
and some of his code, is still in use.

Thanks are due to Bob Howlett for general help with CSS and, for Version 5,
to Michal Hoftich for technical advice.

Question 1.
The shaded region in the graph

iy

3i

x
3

is equal to which of the following sets of complex numbers?

% Option 1(a): {z ∈ C : (z − 1)2 + (z − (i + 1))2 < 2}

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 51

 Unit code? WebQuiz: Web Quizzes using LaTeX Page 10

Feedback: The equation of a circle in the complex plane with centre a + ib and
radius r is
{z ∈ C : |z − (a + ib)| < r}.

% Option 1(b): {z ∈ C : z + (i + 1) < 2}

Feedback: You want the set of points whose distance from 1 + i is less than 2.

" Option 1(c): {z ∈ C : |z − (i + 1)| < 2}

Feedback: The graph shows the set of complex numbers whose distance from
1 + i is less than 2.

% Option 1(d): {z ∈ C : |z − 2| < |i + 1 − 2|}

√
Feedback: As |i + 1 −
√2| = 2, this is the set of complex numbers whose distance
from 2 is less than 2.

% Option 1(e): None of the above.

Feedback: The graph shows the set of complex numbers whose distance from
the centre of the circle is less than 2.

Question 2.
Which of the following numbers are prime?

% Option 2(a): 1
Feedback: By definition, a prime is a number greater than 1 whose only factors
are 1 and itself.

" Option 2(b): 19

Feedback: The only factors of 19 are 1 and itself.

% Option 2(c): 6
Feedback: 2 is a factor of 6

" Option 2(d): 23

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The online WebQuiz manual 52

 Unit code? WebQuiz: Web Quizzes using LaTeX Page 11

Feedback: The only factors of 23 are 1 and itself.

" Option 2(e): 191

Feedback: The only factors of 191 are 1 and itself.

Question 3.
What are suitable parametric equations for this plane curve?

% Option 3(a): x = 2 cos t + 1, y = 3 sin t + 2

Feedback: This is an ellipse with centre (1, 2) and with axes of length 4 in the
x-direction and 6 in the y-direction.

" Option 3(b): x = 3 cos t + 1, y = 2 sin t + 2

Feedback: The curve is an ellipse centre (1,2) with axes length 6 in the x direction
and 4 in the y direction.

% Option 3(c): x = 3 cos t − 1, y = 2 sin t − 2

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 53

 Unit code? WebQuiz: Web Quizzes using LaTeX Page 12

Feedback: This is an ellipse with centre (−1, −2) and with axes of length 6 in
the x-direction and 4 in the y-direction.

% Option 3(d): x = 2 cos t − 1, y = 3 sin t − 2

Feedback: This is an ellipse with centre (−1, −2) and with axes of length 4 in
the x-direction and 6 in the y-direction.

Question 4.
If the vectors a (of magnitude 8 units) and b (of magnitude 3 units) are per-
pendicular, what is the value of |a − 2b| ? (Hint: Draw a diagram!)

Answer (number comparison): 10 units

Feedback when right: The vectors a, −2b, and a − 2b form the sides of a right-
angled triangle, with sides of length 8 and 6 and√hypotenuse of length |a − 2b|.
Therefore by Pythagoras’ Theorem, |a − 2b| = 82 + 62 = 10.

Feedback when wrong: Draw a diagram and then use Pythagoras’ theorem.

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The online WebQuiz manual 54

C Licence
Version 3, Copyright (C) 2007,
GNU General Public License, Version 3, 29 June 2007
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
GNU General Public License (GPL) as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version
3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WAR-
RANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PAR-
TICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

Authors Andrew Mathas

Description A LaTeX package for writing online quizzes
Maintainer Andrew Mathas
System requirements Python3 and LATEX, including TEX4ht and make4ht
Licence GNU General Public License, Version 3, 29 June 2007
Release date 2019/02/08
Repository github.com/AndrewAtLarge/WebQuiz/issues

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 55

Index
This is an index only for the main WebQuiz manual. It does not index the Online manual (Ap-
pendix B).

> command-line prompt, 4 lua, 32 \whenWrong, 10

make4ht, 33 \feedback, 10
\answer, 6 quiet, 32 fixedorder, 19
complex, 7 quiet mode, 32
integer, 8 rcfile, 32 help, 32
lowercase, 8 settings, 33 hidesidemenu, 20
number, 9 shell-escape, 32
string, 9 xelatex, 32 \incorrect, 10
\whenRight, 6 command-line prompt initialisation, 29, 32
\whenWrong, 6 >, 4 initialise, 29
complex, 7 install, 29
breadcrumb, 16 institution, 16
\correct, 10
\BreadCrumb, 16, 18 \Institution, 16, 18, 35
cross-reference
\BreadCrumb* \InstitutionURL, 16, 18
\dref, 12
Title, 16 \InstitutionURL‘, 35
\label, 12
breadcrumbs, 15, 35 integer, 8
\Qref, 12
\BreadCrumb, 18
\qref, 12
\Department, 18 \label, 12
\DepartmentURL, 18 default settings, 34 language, 20, 36
\Institution, 18 see webquizrc Czech, 20
\InstitutionURL, 18 department, 16 English, 20
quizindex, 16 \Department, 16, 18, 35 French, 20
\QuizzesURL, 18 \DepartmentURL, 16, 18, German, 20
\UnitCode, 18 35 Greek, 20
\UnitName, 18 \DisplayAsImage, 27 Italian, 20
\UnitURL, 19 document class options Japanese, 20
\BreadCrumbs, 15, 35 fixedorder, 19 Mandarin, 20
breadcrumb, 16 hidesidemenu, 20 Russian, 20
department, 16 language, 20 Spanish, 20
institution, 16 onepage, 22 Swedish, 20
quizindex, 16 pst2pdf, 25 latex, 35
title, 17 randomorder, 19 layout, 34, 36
unitcode, 17 separatepages, 22 lowercase, 8
unitname, 17 showsidemenu, 20 lua, 32
bug reports, 37 theme, 23 lualatex, 21, 33, 35
tikz, 26
choice environment make4ht, 28, 33, 36
draft mode, 32
columns, 10 mathjax, 36
\dref, 12, 13
\correct, 10 MikTEX, 29
\feedback, 10 edit-settings, 33, 37 multiple, 10
\incorrect, 10 engine, 35 multiple choice
multiple, 10 environment see choice
single, 10 choice, 10 environment
\thechoice, 11 discussion, 11
command-line option, 31 question, 6 number, 9
draft mode, 32 quizindex, 14
edit-settings, 33 onepage, 22
help, 32 feedback, 10
initialisation, 32 whenRight, 6 pst2pdf, 25
initialise, 29 \whenRight, 10 pstricks, 25, 31
layout, 34 whenWrong, 6 python, 28

56
\Qref, 12, 13 tex4ht, 28 webquiz-layout, 37
\qref, 12, 13 TEXLive, 29 webquiz-url, 36
question environment, 6 TEXShop, 4 webquiz-www, 36
\answer, 6 \thechoice, 11 webquizrc, 15, 16, 18, 19,
choice, 10 theme, 23, 36, 38 21, 23, 30, 32–35,
quiet, 32 blue, 23, 38 37, 38
quiet mode, 32 darkblue, 23, 38 \BreadCrumbs, 35
\quiz, 14 darkred, 23, 39 \Department, 35
quizindex, 16 default, 23, 39 \DepartmentURL, 35
quizindex environment, 14 earthy, 23, 39 engine, 35
\quiz, 14 fresh, 23, 40 \Institution, 35
\QuizzesURL, 16, 18 light, 23, 40
\InstitutionURL‘, 35
lively, 23, 40
randomorder, 19 language, 36
muted, 23, 41
rcfile, 30, 32 latex, 35
sleek, 23, 41
see webquizrc layout, 36
spring, 23, 41
vibrant, 23, 42 lualatex, 35
separatepages, 22
tikz, 26 make4ht, 36
settings, 33
Title, 16 mathjax, 36
shell-escape, 32
showsidemenu, 20 title, 17 theme, 36
single, 10 webquiz-url, 36
string, 9 unicode, 21 webquiz-www, 36
student, 2 unitcode, 17 xelatex, 35
system requirements, 28, \UnitCode, 17, 18 \whenRight, 6, 10
29 unitname, 17 \whenWrong, 6, 10
make4ht, 28 \UnitName, 17, 18
python, 28 \UnitURL, 17, 19
tex4ht, 28 usage, 31 xelatex, 21, 32, 33, 35

WebQuiz – version 5.2 The WebQuiz manual 57