Keyboard & Bulk Entry
A class of 30 pupils with four columns is 120 cells. You do not need to click each one. MarkBook has keyboard entry, copy and paste, and bulk fill. All three go through the same save path as a typed mark, so every change is recorded in the cell history.
Turn on keyboard entry
Keyboard entry is a setting of the markbook template. To change it:
- Open Configuration → Assessment → Markbook Templates and open the template.
- Go to Template Settings.
- Find Keyboard entry in the marks grid.
It is on by default. You need the permission Markbook templates to change it. Turn it off for a template whose columns are written observations, because there typing a letter would start a comment you did not mean to write.
Keys in the grid
Click a cell once to focus it. Then:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys | Move to the next cell up, down, left or right. |
| Tab / Shift+Tab | Move right / left. |
| A letter or number | Start editing and type that character. |
| Enter | Save the cell and move down to the next pupil. |
| Escape | Cancel the edit, or close the value picker. |
| Up / Down while editing | Save the cell and move. Left and Right stay in the text. |
MarkBook skips cells that cannot take focus, such as calculated cells or locked columns, so the arrows never stop on a dead cell.
TIP
For a grade column, focus the cell and type the grade letter. The picker opens with your letter ready. For a number column, type the number and press Enter. You can mark a whole class without lifting your hand from the keyboard.
Copy and paste
You can copy marks between cells, and paste from Excel.
- Ctrl+C (Cmd+C on Mac) copies the focused cell. If you made a bulk selection, it copies the whole selection as a column.
- Ctrl+V (Cmd+V) pastes into the grid, starting at the focused cell and going down and right.
A paste never writes past the edge of the grid, and never into a row that your filter hides. Each pasted value is checked like a typed one. If some cells are refused, MarkBook writes the others and tells you why:
| Message | Meaning |
|---|---|
| "“X” is not a value on the Effort scale, which takes Good, Satisfactory…" | You pasted a value the scale does not have. |
| "Report Grade takes a number from 0 to 100, and “120” is outside it." | A number outside the range. |
| "Report Grade cannot be edited." | The column is calculated, locked or under review. |
Example: your colleague sends an Excel column of seven grades for 9B. Select the first grade cell in Excel, copy the seven cells, focus Alex's Report Grade cell in MarkBook and paste. If two grades are typos such as "B+" on a scale with no B+, those two cells are refused and the other five are written. A message lists the two.
Undo a paste
Press Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z) after a paste or a fill. MarkBook puts the previous values back. It remembers one step only: the last paste or fill. For older changes, use Cell History & Restore.
Bulk select and fill
Bulk fill puts the same value into many empty cells at once. You need the permission Fill in bulk.
- Turn on Bulk select (the switch in the page header).
- Select cells. Use the small control in a column header to select every empty cell in that column. Use the control at the start of a row to select every empty cell in that row.
- A bar appears: "N empty cells selected". Choose a value, or type a number.
- Press Apply.
The bar also tells you what it did not touch:
- "N existing values skipped". Bulk fill never overwrites a mark. It only fills empty cells.
- "N beyond the limit not selected". There is a limit on how many cells you can fill in one action.
- "Bulk entry isn't available for this column type." Comment columns, for example, cannot be filled in bulk.
Press Cancel selection to leave the mode with no change. The switch is off each time you reload the page, so you never fill cells by accident.
Fill down
With a bulk selection and one focused cell, press Ctrl+D (Cmd+D). The focused cell's value is copied into every selected cell. Each target is checked first, and one Ctrl+Z undoes the whole fill.
Example: nine pupils were away for the Term 1A effort check, so their Effort cells are empty. The teacher turns on Bulk select, uses the column header control to select the nine empty cells, picks Satisfactory in the bar and presses Apply. The 21 pupils who already have an effort level are untouched.
Bulk entry on the Learning outcomes grid
The outcomes grid has the same bar. There the axes are turned around: the pupils are columns and the outcomes are rows. See Marking Outcomes.
When bulk fill or paste does nothing
Look for the same causes as in Entering Marks: a locked period, a column under review, a calculated column, or a role without edit rights.