Resource Editor

The Resource Editor is where resources are created, imported, organized, and maintained.

Resources represent textbooks, websites, journal articles, and other reference material that questions may refer to.

A question may be associated with zero or more resources.

Importing Resources

Resources may be entered manually or imported from a text file.

Importing is useful when you already have a list of textbooks, websites, or other reference material.

To import resources:

1. Open the Resource Editor window.
2. Select the Import tab.
3. Click Open File.
4. Browse to the text file containing the list of resources.
5. Click Open.

Specifying the Import Format

PrimeExam can extract information from many different resource formats.

For example, suppose your resource list contains entries such as:

Biology: Concepts & Connections (Martha R. Taylor et al.)

You can specify the parsing format as:

[TITLE] ([AUTHOR])

PrimeExam uses the specified format to determine which portions of each line become the Title, Author, Edition, ISBN, or other resource fields.

After specifying the format:

1. Click Parse.
2. Review the parsing results.
3. If the results are correct, click Accept to import the resources.

Browsing Resources

Imported resources are displayed in the main resource list.

Resources can be filtered by:

• Entering text into the search box.
• Using the Topic Tree.

Topic Filtering

Enable the Topic Filter checkbox above the resource list to filter resources by topic.

When enabled, only resources associated with topics belonging to the currently selected branch of the Topic Tree are displayed.

This is especially useful when working with large collections of resources.

Associating Resources with Topics

Assigning topics to resources is strongly recommended.

Topics make it much easier to locate resources later when assigning them to questions.

To assign topics:

1. Select one or more resources.
2. Open the Topics tab.
3. Move one or more topics from the Available list to the Assigned list.

Whenever possible, assign every topic that accurately describes the resource.

For information about assigning resources to questions, see the Question Editor.

Assigning Topics to Multiple Resources

Topics may be assigned to several resources at the same time.

To do this:

1. Select two or more resources.
2. Open the Topics tab.
3. Select one or more topics from the Available list.
4. Assign the selected topics.

The selected topics are added to every selected resource.

Common Assigned Topics

When multiple resources are selected, the Assigned Topics list displays only those topics that are already assigned to all selected resources.

For example:

• If every selected resource has the topic Biology, it appears in the Assigned Topics list.
• If only some of the selected resources have the topic Plants, it does not appear until every selected resource has been assigned that topic.

This behavior makes it easy to identify the topics shared by all selected resources.

Filtering Available Topics

The Available Topics list can be filtered in two ways:

• Enter text into the topic search box.
• Enable Topic Filter to display only topics belonging to the currently selected branch of the Topic Tree.

These filters may be used together to quickly locate the desired topics.

Editing Resource Information

Each resource contains descriptive information that can be edited.

Depending on the type of resource, you may enter:

• Title
• Author
• Edition
• ISBN
• URL (optional link to a website, online article, or textbook)

Providing complete information makes resources easier to identify, search, and reuse.

Searching the Web

The Resource Editor includes an integrated web browser for locating textbooks and online resources.

To search:

1. Click Search Web.
2. Enter one or more search terms.
3. Optionally enable Use Topic Tree to include the currently selected topic in the search.
4. Review the search results.
5. Copy any desired information into the resource fields.
6. Click Save when finished.

You may also:

• Click Add New to create a resource manually.
• Click Delete to delete the selected resource.

Deleting Resources

Resources can be deleted from the Resource Editor.

Deleted resources are not immediately removed from the database. Instead, they are moved to the Deleted tab, where they may be restored if necessary.

This helps prevent accidental loss of data.

Before a resource can be permanently deleted, PrimeExam checks whether it is still referenced by one or more questions.

If the resource is still being used, it must first be removed from those questions before it can be permanently deleted.

Best Practices

To get the most benefit from the Resource Editor:

• Assign descriptive titles.
• Include the author whenever known.
• Record the edition and ISBN for textbooks whenever available.
• Record the URL for online resources.
• Associate each resource with all applicable topics.
• Use the Topic Tree to organize large resource collections.
• Reuse existing resources whenever possible instead of creating duplicate entries.