Modal window, status bar, images, animations, and more!

I’m rolling out some big visual changes today.

• User editor, assignment editor, and typing practice now each open as modal popup graphics. This should prevent unexpected behavior when you try to edit multiple things at once, and reduce visual clutter.
• Items resize and center themselves better. (If assignments still take up too much space, try reloading them for the size updates using the browse button.)
• When you type a letter combination that makes a special sound, in addition to getting the alternate sound (if you have letter sounds turned on), you will see text float up the screen saying what kind of letter combination it was. You may see:
  • r-control for AR, OR, ER, IR, UR, or EAR
  • digraph for SH, TH, CH, etc
  • welded for certain sounds like WOR, or AL where both sounds are present but the combination causes the sounds to shift
  • classical for letter combinations from Greek or Latin, such as CHR or CHL that cause the CH to say /k/.
• There is now a status bar with clouds and a sun so you can see how far through the assignment you are.

I have high hopes of creating some video tutorials this weekend as well.

-Mary