Shuffle Questions Slides & Answer Order Randomly in PPT Quiz Game

In this Interactive PowerPoint Quiz Game Module, we will be shuffling the order of the questions such that all the questions are shown to the students with no repetition. We achieve this by generating random orders and moving slides to a random position within a given range. 

To generate the order of those multiple choice answer boxes, we rename those four boxes as “a1, a2, a3, a4”. And then, we make an array and shuffle that to get all the 16 combinations of “1,2,3,4”. Based on the order of the sequence, the answer boxes: “a1, a2, a3, a4” are arranged in slide-show mode.a

Shuffle Answers, Multiple Attempts
Customisable PPT Quiz Template

Download this PowerPoint Quiz Game Template shuffles the answer order randomly and allows for multiple attempts.

The student can keep answering the question until their answer is correct. 

You can also change the colours to match your theme. Duplicate the slides and just type your own question!

Download Premium Interactive PowerPoint Quiz Game TEMPLATE

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Randomise Answer Order in PowerPoint Question Slides

Sub RandomiseAnswerOrder()
Dim AnswerOrder() As Integer
ReDim AnswerOrder(3) '0 1 2 3 -> 4 compartments'

For i = 0 To 3
AnswerOrder(i) = i + 1
Next i

For i = 3 To 8

Randomize
For N = 0 To 3
J = Int(4 * Rnd) 'random number from 0 to 3

temp = AnswerOrder(N)
AnswerOrder(N) = AnswerOrder(J)
AnswerOrder(J) = temp

Next N

For j = 0 To 3

If AnswerOrder(j) = 1 Then
ActivePresentation.Slides(i).Shapes("a" & j+1).Top = 218
ActivePresentation.Slides(i).Shapes("a" & j+1).Left = 303
ElseIf AnswerOrder(j) = 2 Then
ActivePresentation.Slides(i).Shapes("a" & j+1).Top = 288
ActivePresentation.Slides(i).Shapes("a" & j+1).Left = 303
ElseIf AnswerOrder(j) = 3 Then
ActivePresentation.Slides(i).Shapes("a" & j+1).Top = 363
ActivePresentation.Slides(i).Shapes("a" & j+1).Left = 303
ElseIf AnswerOrder(j) = 4 Then
ActivePresentation.Slides(i).Shapes("a" & j+1).Top = 432
ActivePresentation.Slides(i).Shapes("a" & j+1).Left = 303
End If

Next j
Next i

End Sub 

I put the codes used to randomize the array inside the For i = 3 To 8  Loop: Or else, the answer boxes were shuffled in the same manner across all the slides.

If the order of the answers were: a3, a2, a1 and a4 in your first slide, it would been the same order for all the other questions slides too.

However, by randomizing the array every time for a new slide, we are able to shuffle the answer order in a new different order.

Randomise Question Slides in PowerPoint Quiz Game

Sub ShuffleSlides()
FirstSlide = 3
LastSlide = 8

Randomize
'generate random number between 2 to 7'
RSN = Int((LastSlide - FirstSlide + 1) * Rnd + FirstSlide)

For i = FirstSlide To LastSlide
ActivePresentation.Slides(i).MoveTo (RSN)
Next i
End Sub 

Change Name of Shapes Automatically in PowerPoint

We can change the name of the shape in Microsoft PowerPoint by using the following VBA Macro:

Sub ChangeNameOfShape()
For i = 3 To 8
ActivePresentation.Slides(i).Shapes("Rect 5").Name = "a1"
Next i
End Sub 

Find Position of Answer Shapes in PowerPoint Quiz Game

We can find the position of the answer shape by printing the co-ordinates of the shape in our Immediate Window. Toggle that by pressing Ctrl + G in your Visual Basic Applications Window

Sub FindPositionOFAnswers()
Debug.Print ActivePresentation.Slides(3).Shapes("a1").Top 
Debug.Print ActivePresentation.Slides(3).Shapes("a2").Top 
Debug.Print ActivePresentation.Slides(3).Shapes("a3").Top 
Debug.Print ActivePresentation.Slides(3).Shapes("a4").Top 
End Sub 

Shuffling sequence of 1,2,3,4 by shuffling an Array in an Random Order

Arrays can store multiple values in different compartments. The following is an example of the array which we used to randomise the answer order by shuffling the sequence of “1,2,3,4”.

Annotation 2020 05 08 172834 - SHUFFLE QUESTIONS SLIDES & ANSWER ORDER RANDOMLY IN PPT QUIZ GAME​

We generate a random compartment number from 0 to 3 and take the value of that compartment and place it in compartment 0. We generate another random compartment number and take its value and place it in compartment 1. Similarly, we do these via a For-Loop:

For N = 0 To 3 

We transfer the values from one compartment to another by storing the value in a temporary variable called temp

temp = AnswerOrder(N)
AnswerOrder(N) = AnswerOrder(J)
AnswerOrder(J) = temp 

Adding For-Loops to assign new position for the answer shapes

In my above code where I assign the position, i = 3 To 8 refers to slides that contain questions. A loop is made for every value of i, which is: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 

j = 0 To 3 refers to the compartment numbers (the correct terminology is indexing) of the array. The compartment 0 corresponds to the shape a1, compartment 1 corresponds to the shape a2… and so on!

Thus, we refer to the shape as “a” & j + 1 since a very visible relation is possible:
If j = 0, shape = “a” & j + 1 = “a” & 0 + 1 = “a1” and so on…

Thus, our PowerPoint VBA Macro Code to shuffle the answer orders becomes much more neat. You can also use the similar trick of shuffling an array to randomly shuffle the question slides without literally causing the slides to change their position.