New Release – FX Draw For Science!

FX Draw has been the go to drawing package for a generation of mathematics teachers and many of those teachers also used FX Draw to help them draw diagrams for science classes. Now we have made this “official”.

Today, we are officially releasing a new version of FX Draw that includes science tools. These tools are available for anyone who holds an FX Science Tools license. This has two major advantages.

• We can now add tools that are specifically designed for science teachers. This first version includes a “spring” tool, tools to allow you to draw electrical diagrams as well as including the full feature set of FX Chem and FX ChemStruct. We have lots of plans for further tools which will appear over time.
• This allows science teachers to fully access the power of MultiDocs. Using the new versions of FX Draw and FX Equation, you can now create self-modifying science questions for use in tests, worksheets and exams.

What Will Change For Mathematics Teachers?

Nothing

What Will Change For Science Teachers?

The FX Science Tools download now includes FX Draw and this is automatically enabled if you hold a license. FX Draw is an extremely powerful drawing platform, designed specifically for teachers, that has always included tools that are useful to science teachers. Now it also includes tools specifically designed for those teachers.

You will also note that FX Equation now includes a chemical equation context. This allows you to use FX Equation just as you would use FX Chem – but adds the enormous power of MultiDocs to the mix.

I Have An FX Science Tools License. Do I Have To Use The New Tools?

No. You can keep doing exactly what you have always done if you wish.

Will The New FX Draw Look Any Different?

Mathematics teachers will not notice any changes in their version. If they look at FX Draw on a science teacher’s machine, they will notice that there are extra, new tools available and the more “mathsy” tools are missing.

I Am Licensed For Both Maths And Science. What Will I Notice?

If you hold licenses for both FX Math Tools and FX Science Tools, all of FX Draw’s tools will be visible – maths and science. You will have instant access to about 20 new object types.

How Much Extra Is This Going To Cost?

At the moment, nothing extra. Adding science tools to FX Draw will happen over time. We understand that you have purchased FX Science Tools with the traditional set of FX Equation, FX Chem and FX ChemStruct in mind and it will take some time for you to realise the full benefits of FX Draw and MultiDocs. We will consider adjusting relative pricing over time.

New FX Draw Feature – Connectors

Happy New Year! While you have (hopefully) been having a well-earned break, we have been busy adding some new features to FX Draw.

The new features have been created to support an exciting new set of capabilities we are adding to FX Draw soon – but more on that later. First up, we want to introduce you to the idea of connectors.

A connector is just a “bendy line” that can be used to join two things with horizontal and vertical lines. Connectors can have a range of end points added and give you the ability to move the location of the bends.

The most important thing that they add is that they automatically show which line was drawn first, highlighting that they do not intersect.

This aspect of connectors can be so useful, we have added the same ability to normal lines. Just select “blank under”

Keep an eye out for some more new features for FX Draw soon!

Labelled Matrices and MAV

We had a great time at last weeks MAV conference, meeting some long term customers as well as introducing the power of FX Equation, FX Draw and MultiDocs to a new generation of teachers.

One of the best things about conferences is that they give us a chance to listen to the needs of our customers. A couple of teachers noted that they needed to produce labelled matrices like these…

We pride ourselves on listening to the needs of our customers so today, less than a week after the conference, we are announcing two new commands for our equation engine.

labelmatrix(&A&B&C\\A&1&2&3\\B&4&5&6\\C&9&8&7)

rlabelmatrix(A&B&C\\1&2&3&A\\4&5&6&B\\9&8&7&C)

Using these new commands is very similar to our matrix command. You can read more about this new feature here.

Tables, Grids and Matrices

We are pleased to announce the general availability of new table, grids and matrices commands to FX Equation. The features have been in beta testing for nearly 8 months and are now ready for general use.

The format for tables, grids and matrices is identical and based on LaTex

table(1&2&3\\4&5&6)

Grids are the same, without lines and matrices are surrounded by square brackets.

The full range of options is considerable and we recommend that you read the full documentation online.

New MultiDocs Primer (PDF)

MultiDocs is an amazing new technology but there is a lot of new information to take in. Up until now, we have focused on providing that information as short videos – but we know that lots of teachers find it hard to find the time to watch videos.

Today we are releasing a comprehensive MultiDocs Primer document as a PDF which you can view or print. It is structured to allow you to “tap-out” when you have had enough. You can just learn the basics or you can investigate the full power of the parameter system and inline calculator.

You can download the new PDF from the link below!

Download our MultiDocs Primer (PDF)

MacOS Sonoma Security Annoyance

If you upgrade your MacOS to the new Sonoma release, you will be impacted by an “annoyance” that Apple has included.

You can find more information in this article from our Insiders newsletter.

MacOS Sonoma Security Annoyance

MANSW 2023 – Introduction To MultiDocs Session

We just presented a very successful session at the MANSW 2023 conference in Wollongong. Over 150 people attended and the response was excellent with many excited people leaving the room.

For the first time, we recorded one of our live sessions and have made the session available on YouTube.

The video is just over 40 minutes long and gives you a fantastic overview of what MultiDocs are and how they can be used in your school.

This Is One Of Our Most Read Posts – And Worth Looking At Again!

Stopping Word From Compressing Your Images

MANSW, NZAMT, MAWA and MAV

We are heading out on the conference trail to round out the year, making sure that as many people as possible know about our new MultiDocs technology.

Efofex will be presenting sessions at the MANSW, NZAMT, MAWA and MAV conferences in Australia and New Zealand. We will also be exhibiting at MANSW, NZAMT and MAV. If you are attending any of these conferences, make sure that you come along, say hello and take a quick look at MultiDocs!

New Font Styles

Managing fonts in Efofex equations can be a little tricky. This is due to how our products decide what font to use for your equations:

• Most of the time, the font is whatever you currently have selected in the editor (like most editors).
• Our AutoQuate technology allows you to just “type” and have our products automatically work out which bits are normal text and which bits are equations. The equations are then, normally, formatted in the currently selected font.
• Our products understand that you will often want equations to be formatted differently to normal text. You might, for example, use Arial for your normal text but Times New Roman for equations. They also understand that you will not want to manually select each equation and change the formatting!

All this means that our products can automatically do things like this.

Note that all of the text has been entered as Arial 11pt but the equation part of what we have typed has automatically been rendered in Times New Roman.

Most people set up their copy of FX Equation and FX Draw to reflect their preferences but things start getting tricky when you want to change the font settings. Enter Font Styles!

If FX Equation, you can select a font style for the whole equation by going to the Edit menu.

Here you can choose a font style, or apply one of your four, standard font styles. If we select Choose Font Style we will see this.

Here we can (1) select an existing font style, (2) edit one of our standard font styles or (3) create a manual font style for just this equation. If we choose Manual, we can define a font style.

Here we can define a text font which will be applied to all of the text in our equation. We can optionally also set the size of the text font. Note that this new text font is applied to all of the text ONCE – RIGHT NOW. This means that you can optionally go back and select part of the text and change its font.

The second thing we can do is choose to standardize the font for equations (including forcing the size of the equation font). This setting is different because it is defining a standard that will be applied from NOW ON – overriding any text font settings you might have.

Font styles operate in much the same way in FX Draw but are only applied to selected objects.

Font styles allow you to quickly change the fonts in an equation or drawing and are worth experimenting with!