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What’s New on Polypad

November

• Authoring mode toggle to prevent adding and removing vertices of custom polygons.
• New "evaluate" button for equations, that replaces the previous toggle. New UI for how evaluated expressions are displayed, as a full equation. Option to change the output type to decimal, fraction or mixed number.
• New "navigate" action for buttons that zooms/pans to a specific area of the canvas, and new "single use" option for action buttons.
• Support recolouring of individual bars in single-series bar charts.
• Text box UX improvements and other bug fixes.

October

• Function machines that can take many different tiles as input and perform a computation. You can invert linear functions, tabulate the items that pass through them, change the function expression, or hide it entirely.
• New action buttons that can be created in authoring mode and used to trigger actions like rolling dice, playing music or hiding/showing tiles.
• Number cards now support fractions and mixed numbers as a display style.
• New option to play musical scales in reverse.
• The text label of polygon tiles is now used as numeric value on balance scales.

September

• Improved action bar layout and dropdowns. Ability to force pin or unpin the action bar in authoring mode.
• New "arrow" tile.
• Updated instrument samples.

August

• New example and template canvases.
• Customisable text labels for polygon tiles (authoring mode).
• Border radius for rectangle tiles (authoring mode).
• Input fields for rectangle width/height and circle radius (authoring mode).
• Support for SVG image upload.
• New instruments and sound samples.
• Export drop zone values to Computational Layer in Desmos Activity Builder.

July

• Alpha and ellipse masking of images.
• Prefix and suffix options for number line labels.
• A “percussion” version of the Song tile.
• Vertical grid lines for the Song tile.
• Set the starting number for number grids (addition, multiplication, and 100 grid).
• Option to disable rotating of individual tiles in authoring mode.

June

• Degrees label option for fraction circles.
• Fraction simplification options for number line labels.
• Increment buttons for most number input fields in action bar.
• Redesigned instrument picker.

May

• A new "Authoring Mode" that combines the previous "edit hidden tiles" and "select tiles and tools" modes. The UI "presets" have been removed. Instead, all options are shown in authoring mode, and there are new buttons to (de)select all features. Some actions (layer, interactivity, etc.) are now only visible in authoring mode. Drop zones and input fields can only be added and edited in authoring mode, and you can also set the exact x/y position of tiles.
• New Drop Zones that can be used to create drag-n-drop interactives.
• New Einstein Hat monotile.
• Set the horizontal and vertical denominator of Algebra tiles to custom values (e.g. to make x/3).
• Change the "width" property of number lines to non-integer values.
• The "Arpeggiation" music option has been removed for all tiles. Instead, you can now pick from a "Scale" dropdown, including "None" for no arpeggiation.

March

• Tiles now remember the colour of their back side when flipped.
• Customise the width of "notebook" style canvases.
• The default aggregation method when tabulating probability tiles is "cumulative".
• Allow playing/animating grouped tiles.

February

• Split algebra tiles into fractional tiles, horizontally or vertically.
• Option to display fraction bars and fraction circles without unit fraction subdivisions. Resize fraction bars and fraction circles. Increase maximum denominators from 32 to 64.
• Sonification for continuous function plots and for fraction circles. New "angles" and "area" animations for polygons. New instruments and instrument picker.
• Clickable hyperlinks in text boxes.
• The "Evaluate expression" option for the entire canvas has been removed. Instead individual equation tiles now have a toggle to tun on evaluating (which is disabled by default).
• Improved actionbar UI. The actionbar will now always stay within the visible canvas area. The "pin" button has moved into the advanced dropdown.

January

• Group and ungroup tiles, and tabulate the sum of groups of dice or the sequence of groups of coins.
• Flip and rotate number line jumps.
• Arrows, decorations and display types (line/ray/segment) for dynamic geometry lines.
• Custom accessible text for all tiles.
• Scaling for custom rectangles.

December

• Switch between "fixed", "notebook" and "infinite" viewport modes, as well as increased pan and zoom limits.
• Set the canvas background colour, including improved theming in dark mode.

November

• YouTube Summary
• Updated UI to customise Polypad: the previous popup has moved to the "File" sidebar, with user library moved to a different tab. Selecting tiles or tools that are available to students now happens within the corresponding areas of the Polypad UI. Learn more…
• New Keyboard and Song tiles for creating music within Polypad.
• Nested folders and search for organising saved Polypads.
• Significantly updated fraction circles, with ability to resize, rename, split and merge.
• New resizable circle tile.
• Ability to change the colour of individual spinner regions.
• Animation and sound effect for random number generators.
• Customise the accessibility text for tiles on the canvas.
• The "High Contrast Mode" and "Handdrawn Mode" settings are now stored with a canvas, rather than locally in your browser.

October

• New arrow options for number lines and coordinate axes.
• Label option for individual sectors in Prime Factor Circles.
• Hold shift key to resize rectangles as squares.

September

• Sonification! Many types of polygons, number bars and fraction bars now have a play button together with detailed audio configuration and animation tools to represent their value or shape using music. This is useful for accessibility, and students can also create entire songs using Polypad.
• 3D Number cubes for customisable size, which can be used to learn about place value or to create 3D shapes.
• Slider to subdivide number bars into their factors, and the to split them into individual tiles.
• New "Clone when moving" interactivity type for tiles, that creates a copy when moving it.

August

• Canadian Currencies
• Resizing and text wrapping for text boxes.
• Unit labels for rulers, and the ability to hide all labels to get a straightedge.

July

• Ability to to set a scale factor for polygons.
• Combine multiple advanced settings toggles into two dropdowns for "Layer" and "Interactivity".
• Prevent student accounts from moving, copying or deleting question field inputs.
• Increased limits for fraction bar and number grid sizes.

June

• YouTube Summary
• Aggregate tabulate the results from probability tiles using replace, cumulative or time series options.
• Resize algebra tiles for x and y.
• Split, merge and organise options for number cards.
• Consistent colouring for number cards, number tiles and multiplication grids.

May

• Degrees label when rotating tiles.
• New shortcuts for creating charts from tables.
• New shortcut to fill a number frame with counters.
• Pan the canvas while holding the shift key, without having to switch tools.

April

• YouTube Summary
• New currency coin tiles for USD, EUR and GBP.
• New random number generator tile with many different discrete and continuous distributions.
• Support fractional and percentage increments for number lines and coordinate axes, as well as multiples of π.
• Size labels for number tiles (which can be disabled in the advanced tile settings).
• Significantly increased the supported number of connecting cables between tiles.
• New keyboard shortcut to select all tiles.

February

• YouTube Summary
• New "Customise UI" panel to select which Polypad features are enabled. These settings are stored with the canvas and replace the URL query string that was previously used to customise the UI of embedded Polypads.
• New rectangle and regular polygon tiles with handles to customise.
• New geometry tool to construct rectangles and angles.
• Ability to add labels to constructions, including shortcuts for the current value. Use $a, $l, $c, $p, $d or $r for the area, length, circumference, perimeter, degrees or radians values.
• New metronome input and sound or decimal display output for logic gates, which can be used to create custom audio.
• New export options as JPG or SVG.
• New mode to edit hidden and locked tiles on the canvas.
• Set the label style (e.g. fractions, percentages or hidden) for individual tiles, and combine tiles with different labels on the same canvas.
• Improved snapping when moving geometry construction tools, and many other dynamic geometry bug fixes.
• Ten-sided polyhedral dice.
• Improved storage of tile weights with multiple balance scales on the same canvas.
• Increase the maximum denominator of fraction bars to 32.

January

• New floating action bar with many new ways to customise tiles.
• Logic gates, switches, lightbulbs, latches and flip-flops for learning computer science.
• Snap to strokes and intersections drawn using utensils (e.g. ruler and compass).
• New help and support panel accessible from the right settings panel.
• Advanced option to hide the resize or customise handles for specific tiles.
• Improved units and labels for geometry utensils, including inches for the ruler.
• Split larger number tiles first into individual row, then individual tiles.
• Improved RTL styles for the Arabic version of Polypad.

December

• Chessboard and pieces, including move hints.
• Ten frames and two-sided counters.
• Multiple-jump arrows for number line.
• Handle to resize the plates of the balance scales, and better highlight when other tiles intersect with the target areas.
• Link tables to coordinate axes to scatter-plot data. Double-click on function plots or series to change their colour.
• Link the same component (e.g. table or equation) to multiple other tiles (e.g.charts or coordinate systems).
• Improved parsing of equations involving implicit multiplication or mixed numbers.
• Rich text keyboard shortcuts.

November

• YouTube Summary
• New compass and set triangle utensils.
• Sliders for variables that can be used in equation or coordinate system plots. Significantly improved function plotting.
• Option to "evaluate" equations on the canvas. Use equation as weights on the balance scale.
• Action to "transpose" a table.
• Optional sound effects for many actions like rolling dice or shuffling cards.

August

• Support for 3D geometry: add some built-in solids to the canvas, or create custom nets using polygon tiles. Polyhedra can be rotated
• Many different chart tiles (row, column, line, area, pie, donut or box plot): you can data from any table to a chart, modify individual series by double-clicking, and choose from many different display options (e.g. stacked or grouped).
• New Clock components
• Improved graphic precision, and support for implicit multiplication in equation editor.
• High contrast mode for projecting Polypad in the classroom (enable in settings popup).

July

• Significantly updated "File" menu: organise saved Polypads into folders, more granular sharing settings (public, students/teachers, private), examples and assignments appear as a special folder, and we moved the share and changelog panels.
• Re-organised "Tiles" sidebar with improved grouping of tile types.
• Buttons to change the denominator of fraction bars (expand and reduce), including support for denominators up to 1/24.
• New "Number Dot Arrangement" component.
• New number tables (addition, multiplication and integers) and number frame components.
• Remember the weight of balance scale tiles when you save a Polypad. Fix support for algebra tiles on the balance scale: you can now change the value of "x" and even solve quadratic equations.
• New algebra tiles for y, y² and xy, including support on balance scales.
• New advanced options to lock the position of a tile (but allow selecting/copying/etc) and to make a tile invisible.
• Improved change handling with the colour picker (create a single "undo" state when moving a slider or typing in the RGB fields).
• Updated number card colours, and action to "negate" their value.

June

• Polyhedral Dice.
• Stack, shuffle and draw playing cards, standard deck template in sidebar.
• New "join" action to merge multiple polygons. Improved "cut" algorithm for polygons.
• Double-click dice, coins and spinners to randomise, and playing cards to draw a card.
• Tutorial Pages for every tile type.
• Improved numberline resizing and snapping, and flip actions for ruler and protractor.
• Significant performance improvements.
• Improved graph plotting with implicit functions.
• Hide Exploding Dots labels when the "hide number labels" option is selected.
• Pride Month background.

May

• Transparency support in colour picker.
• Drag to select ranges of cells in tables, and copy/delete them.
• New Domino tiles under Probability.
• Irregular pentagons under Geometry.
• Handle to partially highlight fraction bars.
• Function plotting: create a coordinate system and an equation editor component. Next, drag the blue triangle on the right side of the equation editor onto the coordinate system. You can plot any expression with one variable, an equation of the form y = f(x), an implicit function containing x and y, as well as polar functions of the form r = f(θ).
• Buttons to quickly change the axes scales of coordinate systems.
• Decimal and percentage labels for fraction bars and fraction circles. You can switch between the different display modes in the settings panel on the right.
• Direct number inputs for the RGB values in the colour picker.
• New table component in the Tools section of the sidebar.
• Layering and locking for tiles: enable Advanced Options in the settings panel on the right. Then you can use the new options in the toolbar to force tiles to stay in the foreground or background, or lock tiles. To revert locking, click Unlock All Tiles in the settings panel.
• Increased limit of saved Polypad canvases per account from 100 to 250.
• Equation editor improvements.

Help and Support

Discover the world’s best virtual manipulatives and digital tools for learning mathematics! Learn about all the different features using the links below. For more help, you can visit our Community Forum or our FAQs.

In-depth Tutorials

Keyboard Shortcuts and Accessibility

Below are the keyboard shortcuts supported by Polypad. Learn more about our commitment to accessibility at mathigon.org/accessibility.

• SHIFT: Hold while you click on multiple tiles to select all of them at once.
• ALT: Hold before clicking and dragging on a tile to create and move a copy.
• BACKSPACE, DELETE: Delete your current selection.
• SPACEBAR: Temporarily switch to the pan tool, while holding this key.
• C: Duplicate your current selection.
• CTRL/CMD + X/Y: Undo or redo your last change.
• CTRL/CMD + A: Select all tiles.
• ARROW KEYS: Move the current selection up, down, left or right. Hold SHIFT to reduce the shift size, for more precise moving.
• R: Rotate the current selection by 15°. Hold SHIFT to rotate by –15°.
• S, D, F, A: Move the focus to the sidebar on the left, toolbar at the bottom, canvas area or action bar respectively.
• V, P, G, T, Q, E: Switch to the move, pen, geometry, text, equation or eraser tool.
• ESC: Clear the current selection and close any open popups and modals.
• TAB: Cycle through all buttons on the page and tiles on the canvas. Hold SHIFT to reverse direction.
• SHIFT + S: Save the current canvas, if you are signed into a Mathigon account.
• CTRL/CMD + X/C/V: Cut, copy or paste tiles. You can even copy and paste tiles from one canvas onto another!