Create Your Own Custom Skins: The EASY Way

For those who like to dabble with digital images, Stu’s Quiz Boxes offers the exciting feature of having a total makeover done by you, the user. And it’s ridiculously simple to do now – just follow this step-by-step guide.

So, what do you need to make a Stu’s Quiz Boxes Skin? Basically, it’s just a folder that contains just three JPEG images named a specific way and formatted to specific sizes. If you can do that, you’ve made yourself a new skin. You can use any photo editing tool to produce the necessary image files – from top-of-the-line Adobe Photoshop to any number of free tools like PhotoFiltre or The GIMP.

Quiz Boxes skins you create should preferably follow some kind of theme. Sure, you can have a whole bunch of random images that make up your Jeopardy game, but what’s the point?  So, let’s go through the images that you’ll need to create to make your own skins –

An Excel Template for Creating Quizzes

I was recently contacted by Craig Lessard, a parent from Panther Run Elementary School in Florida who has not only contributed four new quizzes aimed at the 5th Grade, but in producing those quizzes, he also constructed something I never really thought of.

Microsoft Excel is a great tool that can be used for all kinds of things. Craig realised it could be a great way of compiling Quiz Boxes quizzes. This neat single page printout can either be used as a paper template, or you can type straight into it in Excel.  Then it’s a pretty easy job to Copy/Paste into the Quiz Boxes Question Editor.

And of course, like everything else at this site, it’s free and customizable!  Thanks Craig!

Download the Excel Template for Jeopardy  (requires MS Excel 2000 or later).

Creating Quiz Boxes Quizzes through Critical Thinking

High quality Quiz Boxes quizzes aren’t necessarily easy to produce. If they were, I’m sure I’d have a lot more quizzes available at this site for download. But the activity of creating quizzes is a lesson in critical thinking in itself. Highly educational and promoting teamwork.  And as a classroom activity, creating a Quiz Boxes quiz can be almost as enjoyable as playing Quiz Boxes!

For a start, if you want a full game, you have to come up with 30 questions (and answers) and one Quiz Boxes Breaker question.  Furthermore, the questions need to range in difficulty within each category, from easier to harder as the dollar amounts increase. This is where the challenge for question makers comes in.

But to make it easier, Jenny Cottle (one of the quiz contributors to this site) has shared a “Question-Starter Chart” that she found at Education Oasis – a simple single page that you (and your class) can use to get your Quiz Boxes quizzes going.  And remember, when you’ve made your great Quiz Boxes quiz, Share it with the World!

Stu’s Quiz Boxes: The Video

I decided to put together a short video so that visitors to this site can quickly get an idea of what Stu’s Quiz Boxes is all about.  Then if they are really interested, they can spend some more time going through the many articles here (check the NEWS link at the top for the full list).

Anyway, this brief video is being hosted over at YouTube, so thanks to them for that.

[YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Yb3j7isTM%5D

If YouTube is blocked for you and you’d prefer to see a full-size high definition version in Flash, click here.

Let me know what you think in the Comments section for this article.

Jeopardy v3.1 – Introducing the Quickie!

UP UNTIL today, Stu’s Double Jeopardy has always been a game of 30 questions (five questions in six categories), plus a Final Jeopardy question. A typical game might take up to half an hour to complete with a group of participants. From today, Jeopardy becomes a choice of three different game durations.

Include Images in your Quizzes: Step by Step

The free download of Stu’s Quiz Boxes includes the ability to include images or photos on any or all question panels! Probably the most common request received from Quiz Boxes game makers around the world has been – “Please include photos in your next version” – so that’s exactly what I did.

With Stu’s Quiz Boxes, you can choose to have an image by itself as the question, or have an image with a text question beside it as shown below:

An image/photo without question text

Make an MP3 Quiz Boxes Game!: Step by Step

Have you discovered yet that the free download of Stu’s Quiz Boxes includes a multimedia quiz game that uses an MP3 file for every question? The MP3 Song Lyrics Quiz lets you play a special type of Quiz Boxes game, in this case one that wants you to name the Title and Artist from a displayed lyrics snippet. But if you can’t get the song from the lyrics alone, Quiz Boxes can play that snippet for you!

See the CD Music icon above the question? You click it and it plays the question’s attached MP3 file automatically, bringing a whole new dimension to Stu’s Quiz Boxes  Here’s how you can create your own multimedia quiz:

Share Your New Quiz Boxes Quiz with the World!

Now that you’ve created your own custom Stu’s Quiz Boxes quiz, maybe you’d like to share it with other users from all over the world? As you’ve discovered, a Quiz Boxes quiz file is a text file created in the Quiz Boxes Question Editor and that text file can be easily be sent through and hosted on this website for everybody else to access. Your little gameshow could be played on the other side of the planet, providing enjoyment and education for others.  Here’s how to do it:

Quiz Making: A Whole Class Activity

Why is it that so many teachers think they need to create every resource that their class will use? Now you have Stu’s Quiz Boxes as an educational and fun activity for the class to play to help with reviewing subjects, why not consider getting the class to actually create the quizzes?

• Classes can create quizzes for themselves
• Classes can create quizzes for other classes at the school
• Classes can create quizzes to publish at this site and share with the world!

Create your Own Quizzes: Step-by-Step

Making a Quiz Boxes Quiz file is really simple, but making a  great Quiz Boxes Quiz file is not so simple and requires some planning. Quiz Boxes is a game of Categories. There are six categories. Each category has five questions in it. The questions all have a dollar value, from $200 to $1000. The cheaper questions should be easier and the more expensive ones should be harder. So in total, you’ll need to write a total of thirty (30) questions…and answers.  Then you’ll need one more question for the Quiz Boxes Breaker.

Create your Own Skins: Step-by-Step

PLEASE NOTE: These are the OLD instructions. There is now a MUCH SIMPLER WAY. Don’t waste your time looking here any further. This is ridiculously difficult in comparison!

For those who like to dabble with digital images, Stu’s Double Jeopardy offers the exciting feature of having a total makeover done by you, the user. And it’s not too difficult to do either – just follow this step-by-step guide.

So, what do you need to make a Stu’s Double Jeopardy Skin? Basically, it’s just a folder that contains a bunch of JPEG images named a specific way and formatted to specific sizes. If you can do that, you’ve made yourself a new skin. You can use any photo editing tool to produce the necessary image files – from top-of-the-line Adobe Photoshop to any number of free tools like PhotoFiltre or The GIMP.

Jeopardy skins you create should preferably follow some kind of theme. Sure, you can have a whole bunch of random images that make up your Jeopardy game, but what’s the point?  So, let’s go through all the images that you’ll need to create to make your own skins –