AutoMark Docs

Overview

AutoMark is a desktop OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) application that lets you grade bubble sheets quickly and accurately. It runs entirely on your computer — no internet connection, cloud accounts, or subscriptions required to use the core features.

The typical workflow is: design a bubble sheet in any tool (Word, PDF, etc.) → import it into AutoMark and mark zones → scan student papers and run correction → export grades as CSV, Excel, or PDF.

📺 Watch the full step-by-step tutorial on YouTube — from template creation to final grade export.

System Requirements

Installation

1. Download the AutoMark installer:
   https://automark.redwheeliq.com/download
2. Run the .exe installer and follow the setup wizard.
3. Launch AutoMark from the desktop shortcut or Start menu.
4. Enter your license key when prompted (trial keys are provided via email).

Creating a Template

A template in AutoMark defines the layout of your bubble sheet — where the questions are, how many choices each has, and where barcodes or ID fields appear.

1. Click New Template on the home screen.
2. Give your template a name (e.g., "Math Midterm 2026").
3. Import your bubble sheet image or PDF.
4. Define answer zones, barcode regions, and OCR regions (see sections below).
5. Save the template — it can be reused across multiple projects.

Importing a Sheet

AutoMark accepts bubble sheets in the following formats:

• Images: PNG, JPG, JPEG, BMP, TIFF
• Documents: PDF (first page is used)

Click Import Sheet in the template editor to open a file dialog and select your bubble sheet. AutoMark will display the sheet at full resolution so you can define zones precisely.

Marking Zones

Zones tell AutoMark where to look for filled bubbles.

• Question Zone: A rectangular area containing the bubbles for one or more questions. You specify the number of questions, choices per question (A–E, A–D, etc.).

To mark a zone, click OMR, then draw a rectangle over the area on the sheet. Use the handles to fine-tune position and size. The zone editor lets you adjust rows, columns, and bubble detection sensitivity.

Barcode Zones

If your bubble sheets include printed barcodes for student identification, you can define a barcode zone to let AutoMark read them automatically.

1. Click Barcode in the template editor.
2. Draw a rectangle around the barcode area.
3. AutoMark will decode the barcode on each scanned sheet automatically.

You can link barcodes to an Excel database to look up student information. Import an Excel file containing student IDs and their details (name, class, group, etc.), and AutoMark will match each decoded barcode to the corresponding row — automatically filling in student data for every sheet.

What is OCR?

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) allows AutoMark to read printed or handwritten text from scanned sheets — such as student names, ID numbers, or written answers — in addition to standard bubble detection.

OCR is optional. AutoMark works perfectly for bubble sheet grading without it. However, if your workflow requires reading text fields from answer sheets, you can enable OCR by installing Tesseract on your machine.

Installing Tesseract

AutoMark uses Tesseract OCR, a free and open-source text recognition engine. To enable OCR features, you need to install it separately:

1. Download the Tesseract installer from the official SourceForge page:
   https://sourceforge.net/projects/tesseract-ocr-alt/files/
2. Run the installer and follow the setup wizard. Use the default installation path if possible.
3. During installation, select the language packs you need (English is included by default).
4. After installation, restart AutoMark. It will automatically detect Tesseract on your system.

Using OCR in AutoMark

Once Tesseract is installed, OCR features become available in the template editor:

• Text Zone: Draw a zone over a printed or handwritten text area (e.g., student name field). AutoMark will use OCR to extract the text during correction.
• ID Recognition: If students write their ID numbers by hand instead of using barcodes, define an OCR zone over the ID field to read it automatically.

OCR results appear alongside bubble scores in the results table. You can review and correct any misread text before exporting.

Start Correction

After creating and saving your template anywhere on your computer, you are ready to start grading. Click the Start Correction button to begin the correction workflow.

AutoMark will load your saved template and prepare the correction environment where you can add student sheets and run grading.

Adding Answer Sheets

Once in the correction screen, add your scanned student sheets:

1. Click the Add Files button.
2. Select one or more image files (PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP) or a PDF from the file dialog.
3. AutoMark will process the files and detect student information and bubble choices automatically.

Reviewing Detected Data

After adding files, AutoMark displays a table with each student's detected information and their bubble choices. You can:

• Verify that barcodes, OCR text, and bubble selections were read correctly.
• Edit any misdetected values directly in the table before grading.
• Remove sheets that were scanned incorrectly or are unreadable.

Quick Correction

Quick Correction is the fastest way to grade. It treats the first sheet in the list as the answer key and grades all remaining sheets against it.

1. Make sure the first sheet in the list is the model answer sheet (filled with the correct answers).
2. Click Quick Correction.
3. AutoMark compares every student's choices to the first sheet and calculates scores instantly.

Advanced Correction

Advanced Correction lets you manually define the correct answer for each question.

1. Click Advanced Correction.
2. A window opens showing all questions. Select the correct answer (A, B, C, D, etc.) for each one.
3. Confirm your answer key and AutoMark will grade all sheets accordingly.

Score Reports

AutoMark generates detailed score reports including:

• Per-student score (raw points, percentage, grade letter).
• Class average, median, highest, and lowest scores.
• Pass/fail breakdown based on your configured threshold.
• Score distribution histogram.

Analytics & Charts

The analytics dashboard provides question-level insights:

• Difficulty index: What percentage of students answered each question correctly.
• Discrimination index: How well each question distinguishes high-performing from low-performing students.
• Choice distribution: Bar chart showing how many students picked each option (A, B, C, D, E).

These metrics help you identify poorly-worded questions and improve future exams.

Export CSV / Excel

Export your results at any time:

• Export → CSV — Comma-separated file compatible with any spreadsheet app.
• Export → Excel — Native .xlsx file with formatted columns and headers.
• Export → PDF Report — A printable summary with scores, charts, and question analysis.

General Questions

Troubleshooting