Answer Sheet Toolkit - Keyboard-First macOS Answer Sheet App

SwiftUI/macOS/MVVM/Keyboard-first grid/Mock exam timer/XLSX export/Local-first desktop product engineering

Personal project Native macOS (SwiftUI)

Author: Regan Yin  |  Platform: macOS 14+ (Apple Silicon ready)  |  Stack: SwiftUI + MVVM
A clean, keyboard-first macOS app for recording the answers from multiple-choice paper exams — built around a fast answer grid, a configurable mock-exam timer, and clean export to Excel and the clipboard.

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Answer Sheet Toolkit — keyboard-first answer grid and mock exam timer
Answer Sheet Toolkit — create, fill, focus, perform.

Contents

Executive Summary Tech Stack Features Architecture Packaging & Distribution How to Build & Run

Executive Summary

Build Target
Swift 5.9+ / macOS 14+
Input Model
Keyboard-first answer grid
Timer
Count-up / count-down mock exam
Export
.xlsx + clipboard (TSV)
Persistence
JSON in Application Support

Answer Sheet Toolkit makes recording multiple-choice answers fast and frictionless. Type A–D to fill, Tab / Shift+Tab to move, and the grid auto-fits the most "square" layout for any question count. A dependency-free XLSX writer keeps the app lightweight, while runtime localization and theming keep it polished.

Tech Stack

SwiftUI MVVM AppKit (KeyCaptureView) Custom XLSX writer ZIP archiving JSON persistence Localization (EN / 简体中文)

Features

  • Answer sheet management — create, rename, delete, and switch between multiple sheets.
  • Keyboard-first grid — type A–D to fill; Tab / Shift+Tab navigate; Delete clears; Esc exits answering mode.
  • Smart layout — set total questions and the grid auto-fits the most "square" shape (e.g. 85 → 10 × 9), or set rows / questions-per-row directly.
  • Configurable choices — restrict input to a subset such as A–D, snapshotted per sheet.
  • Mock exam mode — count-up or count-down timer with editable duration and optional start delay; freezes on completion.
  • Export — one click to .xlsx or the clipboard (TSV) with in-app success/failure notifications.
  • Persistence — sheets and settings stored as JSON in Application Support.
  • Localization & theming — English and Simplified Chinese; System, Light, Dark, and Light Amber themes.

Architecture

The app follows MVVM with a single coordinating AppStore.

Layer Implementation Purpose
Models AppSettings, AnswerSheet, AnswerEntry, ThemeMode, LanguageMode, MockTimerMode Core domain types and configuration
Logic AnswerValidator, GridNavigator Pure, testable helpers for input and navigation
Services Persistence, XLSXWriter, ZipArchive, clipboard, localization, theming Side-effecting services and dependency-free export
ViewModels AppStore, AnswerSheetEditorViewModel, MockExamTimerViewModel, SettingsViewModel, ExportViewModel State and behavior coordination
Views SwiftUI views + AppKit KeyCaptureView UI plus reliable Tab / Shift+Tab key handling

Packaging & Distribution

  • One-step packaging: ./scripts/package.sh builds a Release .app and packages it as a drag-to-Applications .dmg and a .zip (outputs land in dist/).
  • Testing: comprehensive unit and UI tests cover models, logic, services, view models, and end-to-end keyboard flows.
  • Gatekeeper note: the build is unsigned; for frictionless distribution, sign with a Developer ID certificate and notarize with notarytool.

How to Build & Run

git clone https://github.com/Regan-Yin/AnswerSheetToolkit.git
cd AnswerSheetToolkit
open AnswerSheetToolkit.xcodeproj
# Select the AnswerSheetToolkit scheme and press Run (Cmd+R)

# Or from the command line:
xcodebuild build -scheme AnswerSheetToolkit -destination 'platform=macOS'
xcodebuild test  -scheme AnswerSheetToolkit -destination 'platform=macOS'

Full build, packaging, and architecture notes are documented in the repository README.