# &app; Manual

## Introduction

The &app; application is a memorization aid following the Leitner flashcard system. You can use &app; for both long-term and short-term learning.

### What is a Flashcard?

A physical flashcard is a small card with a word or question written on one side and the translation or answer written on the other. Repeatedly picking up flashcards and trying to remember what's written on the reverse side is a good way to memorize things.

### What is the Leitner Flashcard System?

The Leitner flashcard system, invented by Sebastian Leitner, is an efficient way to manage time spent learning with flashcards.

In this system, you have a series of boxes numbered from one up to, let's say, eight. You begin by placing all of your flashcards in box number one. Test yourself with box one's cards daily. If you can't remember what's written on the reverse of a card, return it to box number one. If you can remember what's written on the reverse, drop the card into box number two. The cards in box two are tested every three days. Any of those that you remember can be moved to box number three, which you'll only look at every seven days. And so on, up to box eight, with increasing time intervals per box. Whenever you can't remember what's written on the back of a card, that card returns to box number one, regardless of which box it was last in.

As a result, your time is spent with the cards that need it the most.

Electronic flashcard programs such as &app; automate this system.

## Getting Started

You can start &app; in the following ways:

Applications menu

- Choose Accessories Flashcard Trainer.

Command line

- Execute the following command: `ignuit [FILENAME]`

## Using &app;

### For Long Term Memorization

For the long term memorization of your flashcards, you should aim to quiz yourself once a day with the Quiz menu's Expired Cards or New and Expired Cards option selected.

When the quiz window opens, check that its Store Results option is enabled. That way the program will keep track of which cards you know and which cards you have trouble with, and quiz you accordingly over time.

### For Cramming or Drilling

If you'd like to drill yourself, or if you want to memorize information quickly for an upcoming test or exam, use the Quiz menu to select cards for testing. You'll probably be more interested in the All Cards, New Cards, or Selected Cards options than either of the Expired Cards options.

When the quiz window opens, make sure its Store Results option is disabled. Now quiz yourself repeatedly with those settings.

So long as the Store Results option is disabled, the repeated quizzing won't affect the box numbers or expiry dates of the quizzed cards. Only the order of the cards in the card pane will be affected, with the difficult ones rising to the top.

### Tips

After adding a group of new cards to a file, it can be helpful to drill yourself with them a few times before enabling the quiz window's Store Results option.

For cards that are really hard to remember, nothing beats repeatedly writing things down on scrap paper!

## The Main Window

When you start &app;, the following window is displayed:

### &app; Main Window

Shows the &app; main window.

The main window is divided into two panes.

Category Pane

- The category pane displays a list of all categories in the file. Below the category pane are controls for adding and removing categories.

  You can rename a category by double-clicking its title, or by pressing ENTER on a selected category.

  You can search the category pane by selecting it and typing in your query.

Card Pane

- The card pane displays a list of all cards in the selected category. The card pane is also where search results are listed. Below the card pane are controls for editing, adding and removing cards.

  You can search the card pane's "Front" column by selecting it and then typing in your query. More detailed searches can be made by selecting Find... from the Edit menu.

### Main Window Tips

If you accidentally remove a card, you can retrieve it via the Edit menu's Recently Removed Cards option. The removed card can then be dragged to the category of your choice.

## Quiz Menu Options

The Quiz menu lets you choose between various options before opening the quiz window.

### &app; Quiz menu

Shows the &app; Quiz menu.

The quiz menu contains the following items:

Begin Quiz

- This item opens the quiz window and begins a quiz. This is the same as the Quiz button on the main window toolbar.

All Categories

- This option causes cards from all categories to be included in the quiz.

Selected Category

- This option limits the quiz to cards in the currently selected category.

All Cards

- This option causes every card in the file or current category (depending on the previous two options) to be included in the quiz.

New Cards

- This option limits the quiz to cards that have not been quizzed in the past.

Expired Cards

- This option limits the quiz to cards whose expiry dates have been reached or passed. These are the cards &app; thinks you should be quizzed on.

New and Expired Cards

- This option limits the quiz to untested cards and cards whose expiry dates have been reached or passed. This is the default setting.

Selected Cards

- This option limits the quiz to cards currently selected in the main window's card pane.

Reverse Card Faces

- When this toggle is active, &app; quizzes you with the fronts and backs of the cards switched.

## The File Properties Dialog

To add or edit information about a file, or to choose a card style, select Properties from the File menu.

### &app; File Properties dialog

Shows the &app; File Properties dialog.

The available card styles are:

Head Words

- All card text is centre justified and displayed using a large font.

Head Words and Examples

- All text is centre justified. A large font is used for head words and a small font for subsequent lines. This is the default setting for new files.

Head Words and Sentences

- All text is left or right justified, depending on the language. Head words use a large font, subsequent lines use a small font.

Sentences

- All text is left or right justified, depending on the language, and displayed using a small font.

## The Card Editor Window

To add a card to a selected category, either select Add Card from the Edit menu, or press the Add Card button located below the card pane. The Card Editor window will appear.

### &app; Card Editor window

Shows the &app; Card Editor window.

The card editor contains the following elements:

Text entry box

- Like a physical flashcard, each card in &app; has two sides that need filling in. The side currently displayed depends on the state of the Flip Card toggle.

  The first line of text on each side of a card is treated as the "head word". Subsequent lines are treated as descriptive or example text. There's no visible difference in the card editor window, but in the quiz window head words and example text are usually displayed using different fonts.

Add Card button

- This button adds a new card to the current category.

Remove Card button

- This button moves the current card to the trash. The trash is emptied when the program closes. Until then, you can retrieve accidentally removed cards via the Recently Removed Cards option in the main window's Edit menu.

Previous Card button

- This button takes you to the previous card. If the editor reaches the start of the list, it wraps to the last card.

Flip Card toggle

- This toggle button switches the text entry box between front and back views of the current card.

Next Card button

- This button takes you to the next card. If the editor reaches the end of the list, it wraps to the first card.

### Card Editor Tips

If you'd like the Flip Card toggle to retain its state when you switch to the next or previous card, activate the Sticky Flips option in the editor window's Card menu.

If you find you've made a card with the faces accidentally reversed, select Switch Sides from the editor window's Card menu.

## The Quiz Window

After selecting Begin Quiz from the main window's toolbar or Quiz menu, the Quiz window opens.

### &app; Quiz window

Shows the &app; Quiz dialog.

The quiz window contains the following elements:

Card text box

- This area displays the front of the card by default. Try to remember what's on the back, then check by using the Flip Card toggle. If you're correct, mark the card as Known. Otherwise, mark it as Unknown.

Store Results toggle

- This option specifies whether or not to change the boxes and expiry dates of tested cards when the quiz window closes. Its default state depends on other quiz options and is usually fine.

Previous Card button

- This button takes you to the previous card. You're free to move through the cards and make changes as you wish.

Next Card button

- This button takes you to the next card. You're free to move through the cards and make changes as you wish.

Mark as Unknown button

- This button tells &app; that you have trouble with the current card.

  If the card is already marked as Unknown, pressing this button again returns the card to its unmarked state. For convenience, marking an unmarked card immediately moves you to the next card.

Flip Card toggle

- Flips the card over so you can check your memory.

  Since the Known and Unknown buttons automatically move you to the next card, use the Flip Card button before marking the card as Known or Unknown.

Mark as Known button

- This button tells &app; that you know what's written on the back of the current card.

  If the card is already marked as Known, pressing this button again returns the card to its unmarked state. For convenience, marking an unmarked card immediately moves you to the next card.

### Quiz Window Tips

After a quiz, but before closing the quiz window, use the Previous Card and Next Card buttons to review your cards and choices. Reviewing quizzes this way really does help things stick.

It's fine to close the quiz window without getting to the end of the quiz. Only the cards that you actually mark are recorded.

## The Preferences Dialog

To configure &app;, choose Preferences from the Edit menu.

The Preferences dialog contains two tabs: the Appearance tab and the Schedules tab.

### The Appearance Tab

#### The Appearance tab in the &app; Preferences dialog

Shows the Appearance tab in the &app; Preferences dialog.

The Appearance tab lets you set the colours and fonts used to display cards in the card editor and quiz windows.

As well as a foreground colour shared by all cards, card background colours can be set for plain (unmarked) cards, cards marked as "known", and cards marked as "unknown". The background colour for special messages (e.g. "End of quiz" or "No cards are available") can also be set.

You can specify two fonts: a Large Font and a Small Font. The large font is used to display the head words on cards, while the small font is used for descriptive or example text.

### The Schedules Tab

#### The Schedules tab in the &app; Preferences dialog

Shows the Schedules tab in the &app; Preferences dialog.

The Schedules tab lets you specify how many days to wait between re-testing the cards belonging to each box. Please see the Introduction section for an explanation. The default values are probably fine.

## Notes on Importing Files

### File format for imported files

Imported files should be uncompressed and in the UTF-8 (or plain ASCII) encoding. The gunzip and file-roller programs can uncompress files, and the iconv program can convert encodings.

### Reversing the faces of imported cards

You can reverse the faces (i.e. switch the fronts and backs) of imported cards by selecting them in the card pane and then choosing Switch Sides from the Edit menu.

### Adding support for XML-based file formats

Additional XML-based file formats can be supported by adding XSLT files to `$prefix/share/ignuit/import`, where the program will automatically find and use them. The export filters work the same way. See the existing XSLT files for examples.

### Comma Separated Value (CSV) files

At the moment &app; only recognizes a simplified kind of Comma Separated Value (CSV) file consisting of two columns (card front text and card back text in that order), separated by a comma.

If the front or back text itself contains commas, those must be replaced by the character sequence "&#44;" (minus the quotes). If the front or back text includes newline characters, those must be replaced by the sequence "&#10;" (minus the quotes).

### Tab Separated Value (TSV) files

Importing a Tab Separated Value (TSV) file, you only have to escape newline characters (as above, with "&#10;").

## Bugs and Plans

If you find a bug, have a suggestion, or would like to help out in some way, please get in touch with Tim Musson trmusson@ihug.co.nz

### Known Bugs and Problems

- The import and export filters haven't been well tested.

- CSV import/export is too basic (see the Wikipedia page on CSV).

- The program ought to occasionally poll all cards for expiry and update the display accordingly.

### Future Plans

- Right-click context menus in category and card panes, etc.

- Undo and Redo in the card editor.

- Basic HTML and/or Wiki-like markup in cards.

- Attachment of files (e.g. images and sounds) to cards.

- A pretty statistics view.

- Nested categories.