Welcome to the support page for NoteNames+
The app is fairly self explanatory, but feel free to email me at brianjwis@gmail.com with questions or concerns. The main purpose of this page is to explain the Google Docs integration.
Note: Due to restrictions with most Google Apps schools, it is recommended to use a personal Google Docs account to set up your forms and spreadsheets.
There are three docs for which you will need to make your own copies. They can be found here in the templates folder. There are two "forms" and one spreadsheet.
I can't stress this enough: You must carefully follow each and every step. NoteNames+ will not work unless you follow each step. Go slow. Read each step twice. Take your time.
Let's begin with the Course Preferences form.
1. Make your own copy. I can say this strongly enough. You must make a copy of the file for yourself. Do you ask for editing permission.
2. Give it a title of your own (perhaps the name of your school and "course preferences")
3. There is only one part of the form you should edit, and that is the very first question.
4. When you click on "Course" you will enter edit mode. Replace my course titles with your own (adding as many as you need)
5. Next, look at the top menu of the doc and you will see "View Live Form." Click that button now and immediately bookmark it!
The form is very important to keep handy because it is where you will create your preferences for each of your classes. You are essentially taking a survey for each class, telling NoteNames+ how the game will be structured for each class. The preferences will be stored in a spreadsheet that will reside in your google drive. You will be able to submit new surveys later for the same class(es) and NoteNames+ will always use the newest version. This allows you to make the game more challenging as the weeks/months go by.
NOTE: You must answer each question in the survey, even if you plan to skip the higher levels with your students. I will work on altering that in a future version in order to simplify matters. But for now make sure you answer each question. You will also notice that there are more levels in the survey (14) than are in the game (10). This is to allow for future upgrades.
It is highly recommended that you make use of the last set of check boxes, "Levels to skip" so you can make the game "winnable" for your younger students. If you do not skip any levels, your students will not be able to submit a score unless they complete all ten levels!!! Read that again!!!
6. Go ahead and take the survey now, once for each class. When you are done, you will see a spreadsheet in your google drive with the resulting survey data. It will have the same title as the form but will say (Responses) at the end.
7. Open the resulting spreadsheet now and "star it" for easy locating later. Keep in mind that the game will not work properly if you choose a class for which no preferences have been created!
8. In the upper right there is a share button. Click the share button and change the privacy is set to "Anyone with the link can view." This is what allows NoteNames+ to grab your preferences when students play the game!
Google Docs function around the concept of "keys." Every doc has its own unique key as an identifier. Look up at the address bar for this spreadsheet. Look just to the right of "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/" ...everything from there up until the next slash is your unique key for this spreadsheet.
9. Copy your key and paste the key into a note, a word file, or a google doc for safekeeping. Call this key "NoteNames Prefs Key."
Next let's return to the templates folder. Please make your own copy of the NoteNames Scores Form Template and give it your own title (like your school name and "NoteNames Scoring Form").
IMPORTANT: Do not alter anything within this form. We are only here so we can grab the live survey form.
1. Press the "View Live Form" button, which will take us to the form that NoteNames will be using to submit students' scores.
2. As you did before, find the key up in the address bar. It will be everything to the right of "https://docs.google.com/forms/d/" and up to the next slash.
3. Copy the key and paste it into your safekeeping document. Call it "NoteNames Scores FORM key"
4. While you are here, we are going to fill out a survey with fictitious data, so it will be easy to find the resulting spreadsheet where all your student scores will be housed. Go ahead and fill out the survey and submit it now. Close the survey window/tab.
5. Look in your Google Drive under "Recent" and find the spreadsheet. It will have the same title as the form but will also say "(Responses)" at the end. Open it, confirm that your data is there. While you are there, "star" the file for easy finding later.
Finally, let's return to the templates folder
1. Open and make your own copy of the Teachers and Course template. Give it your own title.
2. Replace my sample names and courses with your own. You can also edit this data at any point in the future should you decide to add additional teachers and/or configure your students into different courses (such as grade level, instrument families, etc.). This gives you flexibility in terms of using filters within your google spreadsheet as more and more data is accumulated.
VITAL: The course names you use here MUST match the course names you entered into the preferences survey form. Capitalization, spacing, everything must match perfectly.
3. As we have done before, press the share button and make sure the privacy is set to "anyone with the link can view"
4. Copy they key. Look just to the right of "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/" in your address bar...everything from there up until the next slash is your key. Paste that into your safekeeping document, calling it "NoteNames Teachers and Courses Key"
For example, let's say this is your url in the address bar: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rPY_Zum9Blow8_si4DT1z829ue0xvFo4VnVKMx52vCs/edit#gid=1350292432
Your key would be: 1rPY_Zum9Blow8_si4DT1z829ue0xvFo4VnVKMx52vCs
OK, you are now ready to create your school code and enter your keys. You are going to take a survey that will be asking you to create a unique school code (school name + zip code works well) and you will need your three keys. Go here to take your survey.
Lastly, open NoteNames+ on your iPad and press the School Mode button. Enter your code. If all is well you should now see your teachers and courses. Go ahead an play. When you get to the Winners Page, submit your score and verify that it appears in your NoteNames scores spreadsheet. REMEMBER: If you didn't skip any levels when you made the preference, you must play all 10 levels in order to get to the winners page and be able to submit the score. Clicking the home button will NOT submit a score, it will completely quit the game.
Problems? Email me! brianjwis at gmail dot com.