News - 08/04/2009

• Beta 6.0.2.18 of Java Hot Potatoes released. Finally fixed problem with colliding checboxes in Other tab of configuration window, and fixed a rare problem causing the question type in JQuiz to be wrongly changed.
• Version 6.2.5.5 for Windows has been released. Get it from Downloads. This release has a couple of small bugfixes, explained on the Bugs page.

Hot Potatoes version 6

• The current version of Hot Potatoes for Windows is version 6.2. Check out the FAQ for a list of new features added since version 5, and download it from here.
• Java Hot Potatoes is targetted for Mac OS X, but will run on any computer running the Java Virtual Machine 1.4 or newer (including Linux and Windows). To download, go to the betas page.

What is Hot Potatoes?

The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is not freeware, but it is free of charge for those working for publicly-funded non-profit-making educational institutions, who make their pages available on the web. Other users must pay for a licence. Check out the Hot Potatoes licensing terms and pricing on the Half-Baked Software Website.

Downloads

Download Hot Potatoes for Windows from here:

• Hot Potatoes 6.2 installer (Hot Potatoes for Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000/XP/Vista, version 6.2).
• Hot Potatoes for Linux users running Wine (version 6.2). This is a zip file containing the folder structure of the Windows version of Hot Potatoes. You can extract this to create the HotPot program folder without running the setup program if you prefer.

Download Java Hot Potatoes:

• Java Hot Potatoes 6.0.2.18 on the Hot Potatoes Betas page (for Mac OS X, Windows, Linux or any computer running a Java Virtual Machine)

The copy of Hot Potatoes you download is limited. To remove the limitations, your copy must be registered.

• If you are upgrading an existing copy of Hot Potatoes on your computer: your new copy will automatically use your existing registration information when you install your new version.
• If you have never installed Hot Potatoes on your computer before: you must obtain a registration key and user name from us and enter it into your copy.
  • To obtain a commercial licence key from us, go to http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/hot_pot_licence_application.php.
  • If you work for a publicly funded educational institution and make the exercises you create freely available on the web, you may apply for a free registration key at http://hotpot.uvic.ca/reg/register.htm.
  • To enter your user name and registration key into your copy of Hot Potatoes: start Hot Potatoes, choose Register in the Help menu, enter your information.

Future plans for Hot Potatoes

These are some issues we're thinking about:

• A new application to supercede Hot Potatoes, which would be based on IMS and SCORM 2004 specifications, and do all output operations through XSLT.
• Working fewer than 70 hours a week (ha! It'll never happen)

Other software from the same authors

• Try our Language Teaching Clipart Library in your HotPot exercises.
• Quandary is an authoring tool for creating Web-based action mazes. The demonstration version (limited number of nodes and links) of Quandary is available for free download, and you can try out example exercises.
• Markin, TexToys and Multi-Replace are other Windows programs written by Martin Holmes.