Click here to see Text Match sceenshots.
Click here to see Picture Match screenshots.
Click here to see Sound Match screenshots.
Click here to see Pic-Sound screenshots.
Click here to see Grid Match screenshots.
Click here to see Mix & Gap screenshots.
Click here to see Dialogues screenshots.
Click here to see Multi-Choice screenshots.
Click here to find out how to order TaskMagic.
Click here to view details of our workshops and events.
Click here to find out about prices and licences.
Click here to access the TaskMagic2 Trial Download
Click here to access the free 'Home Use Only' pupil version of TaskMagic Play.
Click here to download ready-made games and exercises.
Click here for some other free stuff.
Click here to read reviews, testimonials and feedback on TaskMagic.
Contact Us
Click here to go to the homepage of mdlsoft, the UK producers of TaskMagic
Click here to update your version of TaskMagic or to read about the latest additions.
 
TaskMagic2 Update to version 2.0.1 - September 2007
September
2007
 Improved screen resizing.
Improved text formatting for worksheets.
Resolution of the following incompatibility issues relating to Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Vista:
• Space character was not visible for some gap-filling exercises.
• Problems with sound playback.
• Problems recording the length of sound files.
• Problems opening files directly by double-clicking or by hyperlink.
• Problems opening files with pictures and sounds attached over an internet connection.
If you have TaskMagic2 version 2.0.0 (version info appears when you run TaskMagic) and you would like to update to the latest version of TaskMagic2 (2.0.1), you can update by downloading the latest versions of the executable files and replacing your existing ones. Please read the instructions below.
TaskMagic2 Update Instructions:
(1) Click on the download link above to begin the download of TM2Update.zip
(2) Once this is downloaded, unzip it. This will create the 2 files: TaskMagicCreate.exe and TaskMagicPlay.exe
(3) Copy these files and paste them into your TaskMagic2 directory, replacing the existing versions. The TaskMagic2 directory should be C:\Program Files\TaskMagic2\
If you would prefer to be sent a new licensed TaskMagic2 CD, we will be happy to provide one at a cost of £30 + VAT. Simply email us your school details, or send a school order requesting a replacement TaskMagic2 CD.
 
Launch of TaskMagic2 - January 2007

January 2007

 

 

 

 

January 2007

 

 

 

 

January 2007

 

 

 

 

January 2007

Launch of TaskMagic2
The additions to TaskMagic2 (ie. the differences between TaskMagic2 and TaskMagic1) are listed below:
6 new screens in Text Match: Flashcards (allows students to look through the matching items and test themselves); Hangman; Doors (a simple 3D maze where students have to answer questions correctly to open doors); Snake (students have to find the matching data in snake form in a grid); Invaders II (students have to zap the blocks as they fall by clicking on the correct letters); Maze II (students have to steer around a maze avoiding monsters, zapping the missing letters).
7 new screens in Picture Match: Flashcards; Hangman; Doors; Snake; Invaders II; Maze II; Pic Reveal (game for 1 or 2 players - students reveal parts of a picture and try to identify it)
6 new screens in Sound Match: Flashcards; Hangman; Doors; Snake; Invaders II; Maze II
5 new screens in Pic-Sound: Maze; Invaders; Asteroids; Flashcards; Doors
5 new screens in Mix & Gap: Click & Fill (students can click at any point in the text and type the missing letters - free letters and 50/50 are available); Word Guess (students guess the words in the text - timer available as reminder); Anagrams (students click on word in text made up of anagrams and put letters into correct order); Snake; Invaders II
4 new screens in Dialogues: Space; Click & Fill; Word Guess; Anagrams
New exercise group called Grid Match: this allows teachers to create games and exercises based on information typed into a grid. This is ideal for verb conjugation work, and produces up to 22 different exercises: Flashcards; Drag & Match; 3 in a Row; Against the Clock; Pelmanism 1 Player; Pelmanism 2 Players; Multi-Match; True or False?; Maze; Invaders; Asteroids; Tower Block; Pool; Type; Football; Snake; Invaders II; Maze II; Doors; 3 in a Row II (game for 2 players / teams based on the whole grid of up to 60 items); 5 Counters (as 3 in a Row II but each team only has 5 counters); OXO (ie. noughts and crosses).
More worksheets
All game screens now automatically fill the screen at any resolution (with a minimum of 800x600), whereas previous versions only displayed 800x600 pixels. This makes TaskMagic2 much more useable with an interactive whiteboard.
More user-friendly tools in the editing screens for the match exercises, meaning that items can now be moved around, deleted, columns switched etc with ease.
Data Import: On the edit screens for match exercises it is now possible to import data, so that, for example, a group of pictures used for a particular pic-match exercise can be imported easily to a pic-sound exercise. Likewise with soundfiles and text items.
Individual game files: As well as saving the main TaskMagic file for a particular exercise, within most exercise groups it is now possible to save individual game files. Teachers / webmasters can then create links to individual games rather than to the exercise front page.
Files open over internet: It is now possible to save htm files for TaskMagic exercises containing images or sounds, so that these can be opened directly over an internet connection. (See the pic-match links here - obviously these require you to have installed and run a version of TaskMagic2 before they will work properly). So you are no longer limited to making text-only files available to download.
TaskMagic1
TaskMagic1 Update History
TaskMagic1 is no longer being updated, but if you have a licence for TaskMagic1 and you do not have the latest version (June 2005), please see the information below about all of the updates to TaskMagic1 prior to June 2005 and scroll down to download the last exe files of TaskMagic1.
Free upgrades are not available from TaskMagic1 to TaskMagic2. However, holders of TaskMagic1 licences can take advantage of our upgrade discounts for a limited period. Click here to find out more.
All of the information below refers to TaskMagic1
 June 2005
(1) New front page screens for each exercise group in both TaskMagic Create and TaskMagic Play, so that the user can click on a screen image to access the exercise, rather than using an “Exercise” menu. These front pages allow the user to view the exercise contents before beginning the activities.
(2) Front pages have a “Worksheets” button in TaskMagic Create and TaskMagic Play.
(3) Instructions buttons on every exercise screen, explaining how to complete the exercise.
(4) If you open an exercise from a hyperlink or by double-clicking on the file, you go straight to that exercise's front page. When you close this front page, TaskMagic closes (so that you don't have to click on Exit in TaskMagic Play each time).
(5) A sound file can be included in Dialogues activities.
(6) All Millionaire games have been replaced by a new game: “Tower Block”.
March 2005
‘Football’ in Text Match, Pic Match, Sound Match & Pic-Sound. 2-player / team game.
‘Next Word’ in Mix & Gap. This new exercise requires students to reconstruct the original text word by word by selecting from the 10 alternatives.
An improved scoring system for Next Letter 1 & 2 in Mix & Gap.
September 2004
‘Millionaire’ in Pic-Sound. (16th June 2005 - Millionaire no longer available - replaced by Tower Block.)
‘Pool’ in Pic Match, Sound Match & Pic-Sound.
‘Type’ - a new exercise in Text Match, Pic Match & Sound Match, requiring students to type in the missing words. Worksheets also available in Text Match & Pic Match.
New ‘Pelmanism’ worksheets available in Text Match & Pic Match.
New centralised worksheet printing facility for Text Match, Pic Match, Dialogues and Mix & Gap.
Text-only exercises downloaded over the Web can now be opened and edited in TaskMagic Create.
16 character word-length limit in Mix & Gap increased to 30 characters following requests from Germanists!
February 2004
TaskMaster changed to TaskMagic to avoid legal issues over trademark and to avoid confusion.
TaskMagic includes one new exercise type in Text Match - “Pool” - a multiple choice type activity based on a pool table. Definitely one for the boys!
Text-only TaskMagic exercises will now open over the internet. So you can make hyperlinks to .mdl / .mdd / .mtx / .mdm files anywhere on the web as long as they have no sounds or pictures attached. See examples of how this works here. Files with sounds and pictures attached can be opened only on a local area network (LAN) or individual machine.
November 2003
TaskMaster Create and TaskMaster Play have both been re-vamped to make them more “whiteboard-friendly”. This includes larger (and auto-sizing) fonts and numbered / lettered text and image boxes.
New addition to Sound Match: Millionaire (16th June 2005 - Millionaire no longer available - replaced by Tower Block.)
TaskMaster files are now executable. This means that double-clicking on any TaskMaster file will open that file in TaskMaster Play. Simply run the new TaskMaster Create or TaskMaster Play to enable this facility. NB:TaskMaster Create and TaskMaster Play should be kept in the same directory for this to operate properly (by default they are installed in the same directory during setup anyway).
The benefit of having executable files is that it is possible to set up links to TaskMaster files from word documents or web pages, provided that the files are located on a LAN and not a web server. You can create topic front pages with links to existing TaskMaster files, Word docs, Web pages, etc.
August 2003
A new addition to the Mix & Gap exercises: “Space” requires the student to click on the text to insert spaces and punctuation.
A new look to many of the other Mix & Gap exercises.

July 2003
Addition to Pic Match: Millionaire
Additions to Mix & Gap: Next Letter 1 (type in the next missing letter), Next Letter 2 (type in the next missing vowel), Millionaire. (16th June 2005 - Millionaire no longer available - replaced by Tower Block.)

June 2003
A version of ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’ available in Text Match. Ideal for individual work on PCs, or for whole-class work using data projector / whiteboard. (16th June 2005 - Millionaire no longer available - replaced by Tower Block.)
April 2003
When creating exercises, users can choose between English and Welsh as the main output language for instructions, prompts, buttons and feedback for their exercises.
March 2003
Difficulty (speed) setting in the Invaders games in Text Match and Pic Match
January 2003
New exercise format called Pic-Sound, similar to Sound Match. It enables you to produce exercises based on matching sounds with pictures.
Updating TM1
Updating to the June 2005 version of TaskMagic1
If you have a version of TaskMagic1 issued before 16th June 2005 and you would like to update to the latest version of TaskMagic1, please read the instructions below.
You can update your pre-June 2005 version of TaskMagic by downloading the latest versions of the executable files and replacing your existing ones. The files are contained in one zip file. The downloaded file is: TMUpdate.zip
The downloaded file is a zipped (compressed) file which, when unpacked, creates 2 files:
TaskMagicCreate.exe
TaskMagicPlay.exe

READ THE UPDATE INFORMATION BELOW:
(1) Click on the download link above to begin the download of TMUpdate.zip
(2) Once this is downloaded, unzip it using winzip, winrar or similar. This will create the 2 files: TaskMagicCreate.exe and TaskMagicPlay.exe
(3) Copy these files and paste them into your TaskMagic (or TaskMaster) directory. This should be C:\Programs\TaskMagicCreate\ (or C:\Programs\TaskMasterCreate\).
(4) If you are updating from TaskMaster, you will need to amend any shortcuts so that they point to TaskMagic rather than TaskMaster. To do this, right-click on the shortcut, click on “properties”, click on the “short-cut” tab, and change the file names in the “Target” box to “TaskMagicCreate.exe” or “TaskMagicPlay.exe” accordingly. You will have to do this for both TaskMagicCreate and TaskMagicPlay shortcuts.
(5) If you would prefer to be sent a new licensed TaskMagic1 CD, we will be happy to provide one at a cost of £30 + VAT. Simply email us your school details, or send a school order requesting a replacement TaskMagic1 CD.
OR... Why not upgrade to TaskMagic2?
See details of our limited period upgrade discounts on our prices and licences page.
Click here to go to the TaskMagic Home Page.