User Guide

🚀 Launching the App

1. Open ExamPad+ from the desktop shortcut or Start menu.
2. The app will open in full screen. You'll see the mode indicator in the toolbar — it should show Classroom Mode.
3. Students can begin typing immediately. No login is required to use the application itself.
4. To open an existing document, go to File → Open or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + O.

✏️ Available Features in Classroom Mode

In Classroom Mode, all of the following are available by default (exact availability depends on your school's configuration):

• Full text formatting — bold, italic, underline, font, size, colour, highlighting
• Spell check — underlines misspelled words in red as you type
• Grammar check — highlights grammatical issues
• Autocorrect — automatically fixes common typing errors
• Thesaurus — right-click any word to find synonyms
• Find & Replace — Ctrl + H to find and replace text
• Word count — live word count shown in the status bar
• Text-to-speech — hear selected text read aloud
• Dyslexia-friendly fonts — including OpenDyslexic and others
• Colour overlays — apply a tinted overlay to reduce visual stress
• High contrast mode — for students with visual impairments
• Font size adjustment — increase or decrease text size easily
• Line spacing — adjust line spacing for readability
• Tables and lists — insert bullet/numbered lists and simple tables
• Autosave — work is saved automatically every 2 minutes

🔒 Starting an Exam Session

1. Open ExamPad+ In Exam Mode, the app will launch in full screen and display Exam Mode in the toolbar and splash screen.
2. The candidate or invigilator should enter the candidate's name and candidate number when prompted, or confirm these are pre-filled correctly if the device has been configured in advance.
3. Instruct the student to fill in the remaining fields like Paper Reference, Subject etc.
4. The student can now begin typing their exam response. The application will remain on top of all other windows and cannot be accidentally minimised.
5. At the end of the exam, the candidate/invigilator should print the script (see Section 7) and/or save it to the agreed location before closing.

🚫 What's Restricted in Exam Mode

The following are turned off by default in Exam Mode to meet JCQ requirements. Your IT team can enable specific items for individual students via the settings.ini file as part of their documented access arrangement.

♿ Access Arrangements in Exam Mode

If a student has a documented access arrangement that permits use of a specific tool (e.g. spell check for a student with a specific learning difficulty), this can be enabled on a per-device basis by your IT team in the settings.ini file under the [exam_overrides] section.

Ask your IT team or Network Manager to update the relevant settings.ini settings before the examination. See Section 4 for the specific settings to change.

📄 The settings.ini File

ExamPad+ reads its configuration from a file located at:

This file is shared across all user accounts on the machine. Changes made here affect all students who use that device. To change from Classroom Mode to Exam Mode (or vice versa), the mode line in this file needs to be updated.

The three available mode values are:

• classroom — Full-featured mode for everyday lesson use
• exam — Locked-down mode for live examinations
• exam_officer — A hybrid mode for exam officers to configure and review

⚙️ Key Settings to Know

The sections below are the most commonly adjusted parts of the settings file. Share these with your IT team when requesting changes.

[mode]
mode = classroom    ; Change to: exam | classroom | exam_officer

[candidate]
default_candidate_name = Joe Bloggs
default_candidate_number = 1234

[exam_overrides]
; Set to true to enable for this candidate's device
exam_spellcheck    = false   ; Set true if student has spell check AA
exam_grammar       = false   ; Set true if student has grammar check AA
exam_autocorrect   = false   ; Set true if applicable
exam_thesaurus     = false   ; Set true if student has thesaurus AA
exam_tts           = false   ; Set true if student has reader/TTS AA
exam_overlays      = false   ; Set true if student uses colour overlays
exam_find_replace  = false   ; Set true if applicable

[defaults]
default_font         = Arial
default_font_size    = 14
default_line_spacing = 1.5

✏️ Text Formatting

🛠️ Writing Tools

♿ Accessibility Features

💾 Saving a Document

1. Press Ctrl + S or go to File → Save to save the current document.
2. The first time you save a new document, a Save dialogue will appear. Choose a location and filename. It is good practice to include the student's name and the subject in the filename (e.g. JoeBloggs_English_June2026.rtf).
3. Use File → Save As to save a copy under a different name or location.

⏱️ Autosave

ExamPad+ automatically saves your work in the background so that progress is not lost if the application crashes or the device loses power.

If the application closes unexpectedly, reopen ExamPad+ and it will prompt you to recover the unsaved document. Autosave files are temporary — always save the final version of a document manually using Ctrl + S at the end of a session.

🖨️ Printing an Exam Script

1. Go to File → Print or press Ctrl + P.
2. Select the printer. For exam use, print to a local or network printer that the invigilator has access to — not a virtual PDF printer.
3. Click Print.

📋 Print Settings

The following print behaviours can be configured via settings.ini or through the in-app admin panel — see the note at the bottom of this section.

• Print header — automatically included on every page in Exam Mode (candidate name, number, centre, page)
• Portrait only — landscape printing is disabled in Exam Mode by default to keep scripts consistent
• All pages — the entire document is printed; there is no option to print a selection in Exam Mode
• Printing can be disabled for students — setting print_enabled = false removes the print option entirely for students. This is useful where printing is handled centrally by the invigilator or exam officer rather than the student themselves.

⚙️ Changing Settings — Admin Panel vs settings.ini

All print and application settings can be changed in two ways — you do not need to edit the settings.ini file directly if you prefer not to:

• In-app admin panel — Open ExamPad+ and enter the admin password to access the settings panel. Changes take effect immediately on that device. This is the easiest option for a quick change on a single machine.
• settings.ini file — Edit C:\ProgramData\ExamPadPlus\settings.ini directly, or deploy a pre-configured file via PDQ or Intune. Better suited for bulk deployments or where settings need to be locked so they cannot be changed within the app.

The admin panel is protected by the admin password (default: ExamPad+). Your IT team may have changed this — check with them if the default doesn't work.

The app is in the wrong mode

The mode is set in the settings.ini file at C:\ProgramData\ExamPadPlus\settings.ini. Ask your IT team to change the mode = line to classroom or exam as required, then restart the application for the change to take effect.

Spell check isn't working in Classroom Mode

Check that spell check is enabled in Tools → Spell Check. If it is greyed out, it may have been disabled in the settings.ini file under [compliance] — ask your IT team to set spellcheck_default = true.

An access arrangement tool isn't available in Exam Mode

Access arrangement tools in Exam Mode are disabled by default and must be explicitly enabled per device. Ask your IT team to set the relevant value to true in the [exam_overrides] section of settings.ini on the specific student's exam device. See Section 4 for the exact settings.

The application won't minimise or close

In Exam Mode, ExamPad+ is intentionally set to remain always-on-top and cannot be minimised by students. This is a JCQ compliance requirement. To close the application, an invigilator must enter the admin password (default: ExamPad+) via File → Exit or the close button. Your school's IT team may have changed this password — check with them if the default doesn't work.

Autosave recovery prompt appears on launch

If the application was closed unexpectedly (e.g. due to a crash or power cut), ExamPad+ will offer to recover the unsaved work on next launch. Click Recover to restore the document, then save it manually immediately using Ctrl + S.

The printer isn't printing the exam header

Exam headers are only added automatically when the application is running in Exam Mode. If the header is missing, check that mode = exam is set in settings.ini and that force_print_header = true is also set under [print]. Restart the application after making changes.

The word count doesn't match what the student expects

ExamPad+ counts words in the same way as most standard word processors — each space-separated sequence of characters is counted as a word. Hyphenated words (e.g. "well-known") are counted as one word. Numbers count as words. If there is a discrepancy, the live count in the status bar is the definitive figure for ExamPad+.