When I wake up in the morning, I open my wardrobe and decide which hat to put on.
Yes, I know that not many people wear hats these days, but I’m a busy guy and it helps me remember what I’m supposed to be focusing on at any particular moment of the day!
Often it’s my ‘customer service’ hat!
And once I have that one on, I fire up my computer to try to help with the bewildering variety of problems that people have written to me about during the night.
For much of what is night here in Italy, it was still day on the west coast of the USA, or is already morning in New Zealand and Australia.
Twenty-four hours a day, OnlineItalianClub.com members are hard at work learning Italian somewhere around the globe.
Bravi!
This morning I had an update to a long series of emails I’ve exchanged with Linda, who can’t make some of our exercises work.
The problem she has is that, however carefully she types in her answers to the ‘gap fill’ format exercises on our site, the wretched computer always marks them wrong!
That must certainly be annoying.
Personally, I tend to avoid gap fills for precisely that reason, though in my case it’s poor grammar and spelling that tends to be at fault, rather than the code that powers the webpage…
Anyway, here’s an extract from her original email:
These are a couple of examples which I have just tried.
https://onlineitalianclub.com/free_italian_exercises/uso_condizionale_b1.html
https://onlineitalianclub.com/free_italian_exercises/condizionale_composto_b1.html
All nine were marked wrong but all were correct.
I have absolutely no problem with the pull down options, it is just when I need to type in an answer.
Spero che tu possa aiutarmi.
Obviously I immediately tested the links she sent me, using various browsers, but they worked fine for me.
I suggested the obvious things: don’t leave any spaces, make sure CAPS LOCK is off, and so on.
But nothing I’ve suggested seems to have done the trick. This morning she writes back:
I am definitely not using CAPS LOCK.
I am using an Apple iMac computer (Late 2012) OS Sierra Version 10.12.3.
I have checked that specific exercise and it doesn’t work for me!
I really can’t understand the problem!
Poor Linda!
Alas (not really), I don’t have a Mac, so I can’t try to replicate her experience.
So I’m now at a loss as to what to suggest.
Hence I thought, why not chuck it out there, to see if anyone else is having the same issue?
Any help would be gratefully received!
You can see a complete list of our exercises, organised alphabetically, on our Grammar page.
Or, if you prefer, find only the ones relevant to your level on our Level Test page.
Do take a look.
I’ll be at the computer most of the day, so if you can replicate Linda’s issue, do write and tell me.
(The email is at the bottom of each page on the club website.)
Oh, and remember, it’s only the ‘type in your answer’ type of exercise that she’s having issues with. The ‘drop-down menu’ type of exercise is working fine for her, she says.
P.S.
Following a software update, there DOES now seem to be an issue with our online shops this week.
Notification emails don’t seem to be getting through as they should.
Which means back to the wardrobe for a change of hats and ME becoming the frustrated supplicant at the help desk!
There’s no resolution to that one as yet, but I’m checking orders for ebooks and online lessons manually every few hours and so hope not to miss anything.
That said, if you order something and don’t get the hoped for response, drop me a line and I’ll sort it out for you!
Hopefully they’ll get it fixed before our Easter Sale starts on Monday.
Lastly, here’s your final reminder regarding this week’s half-price ‘Book of the Week’ offer: Mistero al Circo Garotti
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Click the links below for the FREE sample chapter or to buy the full version (for about the price of a pint…)
A lunedì!
I tried those two exercises on my iMac and they work without a problem in the Safari browser. I’d done all the exercises on the B1 and B2 levels and never had a problem.