This file contains all previous issues in reverse chronological order. The next issue will be published in the fall. --------------------------------------------------- Open Window Software News Spring 2008 A Free E-mail Newsletter from Open Window Software Featuring Tips on Using the WinFlash Suite, HandyCards and Flashcard Exchange Contents: 1) WinFlash v11 Suggestion Contest 2) WinFlash Feature Highlight - One Pass 3) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends 4) Study Tip - Managing Peaks In Due Pairs In Leitner Study Files 5) How To - Choose An Intermediate Format For Data Importation 6) Latest In-line Program Updates --------------------------------------------------- 1) WinFlash v11 Suggestion Contest We're actively working on WinFlash v11 and are looking for suggestions from our users. We'll give a free upgrade to v11 to the 5 best suggestions that aren't already in our very large stack of requests. By "best" we mean improvements that will be valuable to a large percentage of users, and that are implementable with a reasonable investment in coding time for the value of the improvement. Please consider these two measures when contemplating a suggestion. We often receive suggestions that are SO specific to a particular, unusual, application of the program that they just don't justify the effort necessary to add them. An example of this type of suggestion is "I'd like to have the next question displayed determined by how I answer the current question" - i.e. programmable branching within the study file. While this might be useful to a few individuals, the vast majority of users would never spend the necessary time to set up the branching logic. --------------------------------------------------- 2) WinFlash Feature Highlight - One Pass Study files can be set for either Continuous or One Pass repetition in the Options|Pair Order and Size panel. The One Pass option can be advantageously used when studying small decks that you want to learn in a hurry - e.g. cramming for Friday's Spanish vocabulary final. For this purpose, also set the Order to Random on the same panel. At the completion of each pass through the study file you'll be told how many answers were correct and incorrect and asked if you wish to run the file again. If you select Yes, you'll be given the option of only showing the pairs that were answered incorrectly on the just-completed pass. By continuing to re-run only the misses from the previous pass, you'll focus on the pairs giving you trouble. Once you answer all the remaining incorrect pairs from the previous pass correctly, the program will reset and the next pass will again ask ALL the pairs. Try cranking through this process a few times the next time you need to master some content in a hurry. You'll be surprised how effective it is! Note: This feature is not available in WinFlash Basic. --------------------------------------------------- 3) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends Quite a few of you have earned free upgrades to v10 by referring your friends to us! Have a friend that could use WinFlash? You can earn a free upgrade to the next release of your version of the program (v10 if you haven't upgraded yet or v11 when it comes along if you're already at v10). Just have your friend mention your name in the Comments section when placing the order. A great way to help out a friend and get the next major release gratis! --------------------------------------------------- 4) Study Tip - Managing Peaks In Due Pairs In Leitner Study Files When using the Leitner System mode with large study files you may encounter a situation when a much larger than usual number of pairs is due on a particular day. This can occur for a number of reasons: 1. You haven't looked at the deck for quite some time and many pairs are overdue - hence all are due today 2. Although you've been doing the pairs every day as they're due, convergence of different intervals for different box numbers results in a large number of pairs from different boxes being due on the same day 3. In an ambitious mood, you did a large number of pairs and promoted them all to the same box on the same day - they're now all due again today Regardless of the reason, you're faced with a daunting number of due pairs given today's available time, ambition level, etc. What to do? Simply do as many pairs as you are prepared to do today - the others will still be waiting tomorrow. By spreading out the bulge of due pairs over a few days you'll decrease the likelihood of future bulges. If you always insist on doing ALL due pairs on the day you encounter them, you'll be prone to a future 'big day' because of reason #3. --------------------------------------------------- 5) How To - Choose An Intermediate Format For Data Importation In our last newsletter we discussed the handling of fonts when importing materials. If this is your key consideration in choosing an intermediate import format, you'll want to review that How To here: http://www.openwindow.com/newsletters/ow20071201.txt If the content you want to import doesn't require specialized font handling - i.e. it is fine if the default Q and A fonts are used - then the following considerations may help you choose between the various intermediate formats. It's always a good idea to use a scrap file as the target to see how the import is going to work out. Make sure your procedure and your data to be imported works correctly before importing data into your valuable working study files! WinFlash Educator can import the following formats - those with an * support importation of Unicode fonts and embedded font effects: - Flashcard Exchange - (.hc extension files) * This is the best format to use when dealing with files downloaded from Flashcard Exchange. You can simply use File|Open to open the .hc file you have downloaded and it will be automatically converted to WinFlash's .flu format. The Educator|Import menu is not needed when using .hc files (though it will still operate correctly). - HandyCards For Palm/PocketPC - (.hc extension text files) If desired, regular HandyCards .hc files can also be imported using File|Open rather than the Educator|Import menu. - JTutor For Palm (.jt extension text files) Specialized format for JTutor files only. - Text File - Excel Export Format (.csv extension text files) If your data is already in Excel, or if it is easy to convert to a text file where the Q and A of each pair are on the same line, separated by a comma, this format is a good choice. Note that any pairs that include commas must be enclosed in double quote marks as in this three-pair example (when exporting from Excel, this is handled automatically): "A question including, for example, two commas",The first answer The second question,"An answer including, for example, two commas" The third question,The third answer - Text File - Two Lines Per Pair (.txt extension text files) The easiest format to construct from scratch - simply put each Q and A on its own line: A question including, for example, two commas The first answer The second question An answer including, for example, two commas The third question The third answer - Text File - User-specified Delimiter (.txt extension text files) If you have more complex data that includes carriage returns within the Q or A you can use this format. In the example we use #$@$ as the delimiter. Note that each pair STARTS with the delimiter and separates the Q and A with the delimiter: #$@$This question has two lines separated by two carriage returns. This is the second line in the question.#$@$This is the answer to Q1. #$@$This question has two lines separated by a single carriage return. This is the second line in the question.#$@$This is the answer to Q2. #$@$This question has a single long line with no carriage returns. This is the second sentence in the question.#$@$This is the answer to Q3. - Windows Clipboard - Tab-separated - One Line Per Pair * If your data is already in a two-column Word table, this format can be used. The program takes more time to import data in this format because of the Unicode and font effects support and large files can take several minutes to import. Be sure to select only two columns of content from the source table and DON'T select the column titles or you'll end up with a Q&A pair whose Q is the title of the first column and whose A is the title of the second column. --------------------------------------------------- 6) In-line Program Updates Since the Last Newsletter If you're running something older than v10.10.05, you're missing out on some nice improvements in the 'look' of the program - "Complete icon facelift throughout the program" The 10.10.06 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected line height issue on opening of Editor's Table View 2. Fixed 'repeated pair' bug when adding or removing pair to/from the Priority List 3. Corrected problem where pressing Help button in the editor closed the editor 4. Added explanatory dialog when program thinks another copy is already running 5. Changed back to DO Show Glossary Buttons as default 6. Added progress bar to Import from Windows Clipboard operation 7. Corrected non-progressing progress bar bug when using default 'Blue Glow' skin The 10.10.05 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Complete icon facelift throughout the program 2. Fixed error caused when returning from editor to a no-longer-existing deck location 3. Repaired location for user-supplied correct and incorrect icons 4. Added line height adjustment when changing font size in Editor's Table View The 10.10.04 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected issue with Find when the search word was a Category name 2. Sped up editor loads and saves for large files 3. Added warning dialog when entering Table View for large files 4. Fixed the Help file which was missing an important 'How To Use Graphics' section in the last release --------------------------------------------------- Need Help? Have A problem? Check out our online listings of the latest releases and the problems that they've solved: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/wfprobs.htm If your issue isn't covered there, please send e-mail to support@openwindow.com and we'll do our best to resolve your problem. --------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE: Send e-mail to service@openwindow.com with SUBSCRIBE as the Subject. UNSUBSCRIBE: Simply send an email to service@openwindow.com with REMOVE as the Subject. This newsletter is a free service of Open Window Software and is Copyright © 2008 Open Window Software. All worldwide rights reserved. --------------------------------------------------- Open Window Software News Winter 2007/8 A Free E-mail Newsletter from Open Window Software Featuring Tips on Using the WinFlash Suite, HandyCards and Flashcard Exchange Contents: 1) WinFlash v10.10.03 Update 2) WinFlash Feature Highlight - All About Fonts 3) 30% Off Holiday Gifts of WinFlash! 4) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends 5) Study Tip - Be Ruthless with Your Leitner Answers 6) How To - Work with Fonts When Importing Material 7) Latest In-line Program Updates --------------------------------------------------- 1) WinFlash v10.10.03 Update Usually we don't highlight a release noted only by a change in the right-most of the six digit version number. However, we think that v10.10.03, released on November 28, has enough fixes and additions to warrant a newsletter mention. Some of the noteworthy changes (these include changes first introduced in v10.10.02, released a week earlier): * Incorrect printing of right-to-left text has been corrected * For those folks frustrated with trying to use the outline format in their Q&A's, the necessary Increase and Decrease Indent buttons have been added to the editor * When you click (rather than tab) into an editor box that contains default text, double-click on any one of the words - the editor will now select the default text in its entirety. A small change, but handy * The annoying warning about directly pasting graphics that was generated on EVERY paste from Microsoft Word has been corrected so that it really only flags pastes containing graphics * For heavy users of the Subject Outline, there's now an option that will only open the tree to the first level down when opening the outline dialog. This allows most outline organizations to fit without scrolling * We've added the overlooked "Insert Symbol" button on the multi-answer FIB panel as well as a new spin-edit to change between Glossary Button groups on the fly * Paste Special (Ctrl-Alt-v), for pasting copied text without its original formatting, has been added to the .rtf editor * Problems with the interaction of the Copy, Move and Insert operations have been corrected * A Cancel button and Previous Tip button have been added to the Tips dialog --------------------------------------------------- 2) WinFlash Feature Highlight - All About Fonts Note: This information is also available in the updated Help file included with v10.10.03. WinFlash supports a complete range of font effects as well as Unicode fonts, with both global and character-level control. Except for the Global Control settings, all other font control options are available only in the standard .flu source file format (introduced in v10.0). The older-style .fls source file format does not support these capabilities. Global Control WinFlash maintains a default font setting for both the question and the answer text. These are initially set to Arial 12-point Black for the questions and Tahoma 12-point Black for the answers. These two settings control which font is used when you enter or edit a pair in the WinFlash Editor. You can change these settings in Options|Colors and Fonts. Important Note: The default fonts for the Q's and A's are intentionally set to two different typefaces initially. This allows them to be modified independently. If they are ever set to the SAME typeface, the distinction between the fonts for the Q's and the A's is lost (for that particular study file) and you cannot then change them independently. If you attempt to set them to the same typeface, WinFlash will show a warning, but will allow you to proceed if you wish. If you are SURE you never wish to have the default font for the Q's be different in any way (including color, size, bolding, etc.) from the default font for the A's it is alright to go ahead and make them the same. Right-To-Left Default Control For study files where either the questions or answers (or both) will be entered in a right-to-left language, set the default text order for the Q's and/or A's to right-to-left by checking the appropriate options in Options|View|Alignment & Q/A Dialog Control. Character-level Control WinFlash allows you to adjust the font settings for sections of text in a number of ways. In all cases you'll need to first select the portion of text for which you wish to adjust the font characteristics. Once you have a section of text selected you can use the editor's vertical row of font effect and alignment buttons to make changes to the text's appearance or, for more exacting control, use the right-click-invoked popup menu. Character-level Control Using Font Effect Buttons The small buttons located in a vertical row in the WinFlash editor can be used to quickly add or remove an effect from the currently-selected text string. They are, in order from top to bottom: Toggle Bold Toggle Italic Toggle Underline Toggle Overline Toggle Strikethrough Shrink One Point Enlarge One Point Change Font Color (select from palette that appears) Change Font Background Color (select from palette that appears) Left Justify Center Right Justify Increase Indent (when using an outline style) Decrease Indent (when using an outline style) Insert Symbol Character-level Control Using Popup Menu Right-clicking with the mouse on a selected text string will bring up a popup menu. Selecting the Font... item will, in turn, bring up the font dialog. This dialog's font tab allows setting many of the most common font attributes. The layout tab will allow more advanced manipulations of the selected text - including adjustment of the vertical offset - used to generate sub and superscript effects. Take a few minutes and experiment with all of the variations that you can achieve using multiple fonts and font effects. Then draw on these possibilities when you're looking for ways to enliven the content of your study files! --------------------------------------------------- 3) 30% Off Holiday Gifts of WinFlash! Here's a gift that can really make a difference for the students on your shopping list! Go here for instructions for obtaining the discount http://www.openwindow.com/pages/xmas.htm --------------------------------------------------- 4) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends Quite a few of you earned free upgrades to v10 by referring your friends to us! Have a friend that could use WinFlash? You can earn a free upgrade to the next release of your version of the program (v10 if you haven't upgraded yet or v11 when it comes along if you're already at v10). Just have your friend mention your name in the Comments section when placing the order. A great way to help out a friend and get the next major release gratis! --------------------------------------------------- 5) Study Tip - Be Ruthless with Your Leitner Answers It's nice to see your pairs climbing into ever-higher bins when you check your Leitner study file's stats. When using standard pair format or when the Allow Manual Override of Demotion option is set, it's sometimes tempting to tell yourself "Awww - I really knew that - I was just wrong about this or that little detail..." Just "say no" to this temptation and mark it incorrect! If you're running through all the due pairs in the deck, this will give you a chance before you finish to review the pair again, reenforcing the missing piece of info you forgot on the first pass. Assuming you get it on this 'second chance' the pair will hop up into bin two and be on its way back up the ladder - with its content doubly refreshed in your memory. --------------------------------------------------- 6) How To - Work with Fonts When Importing Material It can be a bit confusing to understand the variables affecting how fonts are handled when importing content from other formats. The most important fact to remember is that when content is imported from ANSI text format files the Q's will use the Question Default Font and the A's will use the Answer Default Font. These are set in Options|Colors and Fonts. This covers all cases of importing content except for importing .hc files downloaded from Flashcard Exchange and importing content from the Windows clipboard. When importing .hc file from Flashcard Exchange, the font used will be the Question default font - for both the questions and the answers. Importing from the Windows Clipboard poses the most complex considerations. Since the incoming Q's and A's will maintain the font and font effects settings that they have in the table from which they are copied, this is the best method for importing formatted content. In order to be able to control the fonts in the imported Q's and A's with the WinFlash option settings for the Q and A Default Fonts, you must be certain to set the font face (e.g. Arial) of the column of Q's in the source table to be DIFFERENT from the font face for the column of A's in the source table (e.g. Tahoma). Arial and Tahoma are the initial settings for the default fonts used by WinFlash - see the discussion in 2) above. If you also wish to be able to globally change the color of either the Q or the A fonts, you'll need to be sure the settings for the source font colors are NOT "Automatic" but rather black or some other color. After importing the content, you must 'synchronize' the settings for WinFlash's Q and A default fonts with those of the imported content. Let's say the content has Arial, 12 pt, bold, red for most of the text in the Q's and Times New Roman, 10 pt, black for most of the text in the A's. You'll first need to set the default fonts in Options|Colors & Fonts to these settings and OK the dialog. This will 'synchronize' the content fonts with the WinFlash default fonts. You can then use the settings to make global changes to the Q and A fonts in the material that you have imported. A caution - if you import content by appending to an existing deck and the new content has different 'default' fonts from the ones in the other pairs already in the deck, there's no way to get them in synch with each other short of manually changing all the pairs in the imported section of the deck to match those in the preexisting portion or vice versa. The moral of the story? Don't be too fancy with fonts when you're planning to frequently import material. --------------------------------------------------- 7) Latest In-line Program Updates The 10.10.03 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Added Previous Tip button on Tips dialog 2. Fixed incorrect targeting of Browse button pick in Comments editor page 3. Corrected issues regarding Insert operations following a Move operation 4. Added Glossary Button Group selector spin-edit to the multi-answer FIB answer entry panel 5. Cleaned up interaction between the button face fonts and the other fonts on the multi-answer FIB answer entry panel The 10.10.02 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Glossary Buttons are now NOT shown by default in the Editor and the FIB answer panel 2. The false "graphics warning" when pasting text from Word has been corrected 3. The missing Insert Symbol button has been added to the multi-answer FIB answer entry panel 4. The Subject Outline can now be set to only show the first sub-level of the tree on startup 5. Some Educator Menu item inconsistencies that occurred when the menu was password-protected have been corrected 6. Paste Special (Ctrl-Alt-v) capability has been added to the .rtf editor 7. A cancel button has been added to the tips dialog 8. Select entire 'default text' in Q and A edit boxes in the editor when double-clicking on any word with the mouse 9. Added indent and outdent toolbar buttons to editor allowing full outline functionality 10. Corrected misprinting of right-to-left text in all print operations 11. Fixed incongruity of numbering fonts used in Create Compiled Source File dialog 12. Added section on Font Control in the Help file and made several minor corrections and updates --------------------------------------------------- Need Help? Have A problem? Check out our online listings of the latest releases and the problems that they've solved: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/wfprobs.htm If your issue isn't covered there, please send e-mail to support@openwindow.com and we'll do our best to resolve your problem. --------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE: Send e-mail to service@openwindow.com with SUBSCRIBE as the Subject. UNSUBSCRIBE: Simply send an email to service@openwindow.com with REMOVE as the Subject. This newsletter is a free service of Open Window Software and is Copyright © 2007 Open Window Software. All worldwide rights reserved. --------------------------------------------------- Open Window Software News Fall 2007 A Free E-mail Newsletter from Open Window Software Featuring Tips on Using the WinFlash Suite, HandyCards and Flashcard Exchange Contents: 1) WinFlash Feature Highlight - AutoMC and AutoFIB from Standard Pairs 2) 25% Off Back-to-school Upgrades 3) Adding Content to Leitner-mode Files When No Pairs Are Due 4) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends 5) Study Tip - Use Notepad to Practice Long-answer Standard Pairs 6) Expansion of Wildflower Study File 7) Latest In-line Program Updates --------------------------------------------------- 1) WinFlash Feature Highlight - AutoMC and AutoFIB from Standard Pairs This highlight is taken from the How Do I Decide Which Pair Types To Use in the How Do I...? section of the Help file's Contents tab. A good place to check when you have a "How Do I...?" question! WinFlash Educator has a very useful option that can automatically generate fill-in-the-blank or multiple-choice Q&A pairs from standard Q&A pairs. This feature is accessed in Options|Q&A Modes. This raises the question "why should I bother to enter 'real' fill-in-the-blank or multiple-choice Q&A pairs when the program will do this automatically?" Maybe you shouldn't. If you're building informal vocabulary files or other topics for personal study, the questions framed by the program's automatic algorithms may be quite sufficient for your use - especially if you make good use of the Categories field when building your files. The program chooses 'wrong' MC answers from within the same category first, thus improving their believability. Here are some reasons why you may want to take the time to enter 'real' FIB and MC Q&A pairs: FIB - You want to allow more than one answer to be accepted as correct - e.g. in the program's Quick Tour demo file the second Q&A pair asks the FIB question "2 + 2 = ?". The answer is programmed to allow either "4" or "four" to be accepted as a correct answer. An automatically generated FIB can only accept one answer as correct - the one given in the standard Q&A pair's Text for Answer field. Thus, if "4" was entered as the answer when constructing the Q&A pair, "four" would be marked incorrect if entered as the FIB answer in study mode. - You want to require multiple entries for a single FIB Q&A pair - e.g. the program's Spanish Vocabulary demo file Q&A pair that asks you to conjugate the verb 'ser'. This type of FIB cannot be auto-generated. MC - You want to make the choices more difficult. The program constructs the auto-generated MCs by using between three and five of the answers for other Q&A pairs to be the wrong answers for the current Q&A pair. The quality of the wrong answers is improved if you use Categories when constructing your file, since the program tries to pick wrong answers from within the same category as the current Q&A pair. - A teacher may wish to tailor the wrong answers to be harder to discern from the correct answers - especially for use in tests. - You want to use the 'multiple correct answer' feature of the real MC function - e.g. the Quick Tour demo file's question about the Boston Tea Party. Auto-generated MC's have one and only one correct answer. --------------------------------------------------- 2) 25% Off Back-to-school Upgrades Are you or your child heading back to class? Upgrade to the latest version and get a 25% discount from the usual upgrade price. Just enter "Back-to-school Discount" in the comments section of the on-line order form! --------------------------------------------------- 3) Adding Content to Leitner-mode Files When No Pairs Are Due Those of you who have been reading our newsletter for a while will remember that we've encouraged users to trust the Leitner-mode scheduling - "Have time to study but there aren't any pairs due today? Read a book, learn a new subject or go out and get some fresh air!!" This was in the 20070201 issue available on the website if you'd like to read the entire article. Unfortunately, earlier versions of the program had a problem when you wanted to add a pair or otherwise edit the deck and no pairs were due. Opening the deck would bring up the 'Leitner Pair Status' dialog offering to switch on the Allow Pairs To Be Asked Before Due option. To get to the editor you had to click "Yes" to this, open the editor, do your edits and then turn the option off again if you wanted to continue to use the Leitner scheduling. Now you can simply open your study file using File|Open in Editor. Leitner-mode files will open directly into the editor whether or not any pairs are due. After completing work in the editor, the file will be re-opened appropriately. If new pairs have been added they will, of course, be due. If not, or if the pairs have been added outside the currently selected range, the Leitner Pair Status box will appear allowing you to close the file. --------------------------------------------------- 4) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends Quite a few of you earned free upgrades to v10 by referring your friends to us! Have a friend that could use WinFlash? You can earn a free upgrade to the next release of your version of the program (v10 if you haven't upgraded yet or v11 when it comes along if you're already at v10). Just have your friend mention your name in the Comments section when placing their order. A great way to help out a friend and get the next major release gratis! --------------------------------------------------- 5) Study Tip - Use Notepad to Practice Long-answer Standard Pairs One of the uses for the Standard pair type is to ask questions like "Discuss the relative importance of the primary causes for the Civil War." An essay question if I ever saw one :-) If you have files that contain this type of pair this tip is for you! Instead of mumbling to yourself in your head, composing a stream-of-consciousness answer for this weighty assignment, open a copy of Notepad and actually type in your answer. Typing in your answer will let you compose a much better response and also allow you to compare what you've written with the text stored in the answer. You'll be less likely to kid yourself that your mental answer was correct when, in fact, it wasn't really complete or well organized. I strongly believe that typing in an answer (using FIB whenever possible and the above strategy when it's not) is the quickest way to master material. The more senses involved in the study session, the better! --------------------------------------------------- 6) Expansion of Wildflower Study File Over the summer I've been using the library's wildflower study file as a basis for expanding my own study of the local Rocky Mountain wildflowers. The collection is now up to 41 different flowers and I've re-uploaded this file to the library. Many of the flowers are found in other areas of the country as well as Canada, so if you're interested in wildflowers you can use this deck as a starting point for your own collection. Here's the URL for the link to the file on the library page: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/wfusers.htm#Wildflowers --------------------------------------------------- 7) Latest In-line Program Updates The 10.10.01 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected issue where selecting NO in the warning for saving .fls file didn't save as a .flu file as the warning says it will 2. Enhanced QuickDeck so that Shift-Tab moves backwards through the file 3. Corrected hang in Editor when Leitner mode file has Intro and no pairs due 4. Added Warning Dialog when pasting a graphic into the text portion of a file 5. Added code to save Editor's One Line per Pair setting between sessions The 10.10.00 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Disabled ShowMyAnswer button when displaying the answer for Standard Pairs 2. Enhanced the Import from Windows Clipboard mode to handle Unicode and font effects 3. Corrected issue where an overwrite of a file by imported data did not correctly remove some of the support files that had been associated with the overwritten pairs 4. Fixed problem that caused imported text to be difficult to select and edit 5. Fixed similar problem with files created by the Create Composite Source File tool 6. Corrected problems with the server version caused by Vista 7. Fixed problem where a pasted table in Q or A text didn't restore/display properly 8. Fixed crash in Basic and Scholar when creating .fls (old source format) file 9. Fixed problem in filter where the deselected field(s) referenced the wrong attribute 10. Corrected problem in returning from an Open In Editor session in a Leitner-mode file 11. Enabled hyperlinks in regular text for Q and A 12. Fixed the installer so it doesn't remove the uninstall for previous versions of the program 13. Added shortcut keys to toggle Bold, Italic and Underline in editor The 10.00.06 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected problem on some systems where the internal program menu links to Help items and Demo items were non-functional 2. Fixed problem where the Q number did not always match the A number on the first pair displayed after returning from an editing session The 10.00.05 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected problem with saving the audio file associated with the introduction 2. Fixed problem with running study files located on CDROM's 3. Fixed 'Can't locate v10.jpg' error when new file was created immediately after viewing the Unicode demo file 4. Corrected conflict between the Bullets and Numbering dialog and having skins turned on 5. Modified right-click popups in the Editor so that they are consistent, adding the Thesaurus function that was missing from most of them The 10.00.04 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. No longer need to have an 'actual character' in the Q or A - a stand-alone graphic or object will now work correctly 2. Locked out redisplay of Intro when AutoPilot is running 3. Added 'possible delay' warnings when the advance statistics button is pressed and when a print preview is being generated 4. Printer setup can now be called from Produce Printed Test 5. Open to Editor Find and Replace "no more matches" message corrected 6. Modified filtering so priority pairs can be extracted 7. Changed defaults for table/card printing 8. Modified directory usage to run properly on Windows '9x --------------------------------------------------- Need Help? Have A problem? Check out our online listings of the latest releases and the problems that they've solved: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/wfprobs.htm If your issue isn't covered there, please send e-mail to support@openwindow.com and we'll do our best to resolve your problem. --------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE: Send e-mail to service@openwindow.com with SUBSCRIBE as the Subject. UNSUBSCRIBE: Simply send an email to service@openwindow.com with REMOVE as the Subject. This newsletter is a free service of Open Window Software and is Copyright © 2007 Open Window Software. All worldwide rights reserved. Open Window Software News --------------------------------------------------- Summer 2007 A Free E-mail Newsletter from Open Window Software Featuring Tips on Using the WinFlash Suite, HandyCards and Flashcard Exchange We don't usually send out a newsletter over the summer, but are doing so this time because we feel our most recent update to the WinFlash programs is important enough to bring to your attention. If you use or are planning to use graphics in your study files, please be sure to read Recommendations for Using Graphics in WinFlash as well. Contents: 1) WinFlash v10.1 Released 2) WinFlash Feature Highlight - Embedded web links 3) Recommendations for Using Graphics in WinFlash 4) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends 5) Study Tip - Keep Your Study Files 'Live' 6) Latest In-line Program Updates --------------------------------------------------- 1) WinFlash v10.1 Released V10.1 of the WinFlash programs includes several bug fixes and a couple of significant feature additions. The first new feature is that content can now be imported from Microsoft Word two-column table format and will retain any formatting present in the original document. Since MANY sources of information can be pasted into MS Word in table format, this is a big step forward in being able to handle complex formatting from outside sources. Another feature enhancement is the addition of shortcut keys for the most frequently used font effects. In the editor, simply select the text you wish to format and then type Ctrl-B to make it bold, Ctrl-U to underline it or Ctrl-I to make it italic. Note: there's a known issue with this new capability - you must open the right-click popup window in the editor one time after the first time you open the editor in the session to 'load' these shortcuts. We're working with the component developer to remove this inconvenience and, hopefully will be able to fix it soon. Lastly, we've added the ability to embed web links into the regular Q and A text - a handy feature for referencing web-based documentation in your answers. --------------------------------------------------- 2) WinFlash Feature Highlight - Embedded web links This feature allows you to insert one or more links to external targets - e.g. web pages - in your Questions and Answers. Here's how: 1.Position the cursor at the point you wish to insert the link and right click the mouse. 2. In the popup menu, click Hypertext Link... 3. In the Insert Hyperlink dialog's Text edit box, type the text you wish to appear for the link in the text - e.g. "Click Here". 4. In the Target edit box, type the link you want - e.g. http://www.openwindow.com if you wish the link to start your browser and go to the Open Window web site. However, links don't have to be just web pages - the target could be a Microsoft Word document on your computer - e.g. C:\WordDocs\mywordfile.doc. In this case, when the link is clicked, Word will open with mywordfile.doc loaded. Remember when using this type of link that it likely WON'T work if someone else uses the file on another computer - unless the target file is contained in the same directory as the .flu file. 5. OK the dialog and save the file in the editor as usual. This is a good way to include a great deal of optional information in your deck without actually having it as part of the deck. This can keep the deck fast and manageable while still having access to a huge amount of backup information if it's desired. --------------------------------------------------- 3) Recommendations for Using Graphics in WinFlash Graphics can be included in a study file in several ways: 1. Pasted into the regular text area of a Q or A 2. Pasted or inserted into an .rtf support file with optional text added 3. Pasted from the clipboard into an Editor-generated associated file using the editor's Associated Files panel 4. As an existing graphic file linked to a Q or A using the editor's Associated Files panel 5. Specified to be associated with ALL Q's or A's that do not otherwise have their own graphic associated with them The method used in the Bring On The Multimedia tutorial segment is the fourth in the above list and the Add an Intro and .RTF Support File tutorial segment illustrates the use of the second method. While the first alternative may seem attractively simple, we STRONGLY discourage its use except when the file will contain only one or two graphics entered in this way. Using this approach for files containing many graphics causes the .flu source file to become enormous and can slow editing operations to a crawl. If you want to use graphics by pasting them into the program, we suggest using either methods 2. or 3. If you don't have other reasons for using the .rtf support file, method 3. is probably the best one to use: With the editor open to the pair to which you wish to add the graphic, select the Associated Files panel. Place the graphic you wish to add on the clipboard and click the Paste from Clipboard button in the Associated Files for Question or Associated Files for Answer areas. If you're planning to use already-existing graphics files you can use the fourth method. We suggest putting copies of the graphics files you're going to use in the source file's directory and using a separate directory for each source file. This way you can simply copy the directory anytime you wish to move the project to a new machine. To link a graphic to the given Q or A just browse for the file in the appropriate Associated Files for Question or Associated Files for Answer areas. Lastly, if you'd just like to associate a graphic with each Q and/or A that doesn't have a specific graphic of its own, use Options|View's lower area to browse for or type in filenames for the qraphic(s) to associate with these pairs. --------------------------------------------------- 4) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends Quite a few of you earned free upgrades to v10 by referring your friends to us! Have a friend that could use WinFlash? You can earn a free upgrade to the next release of your version of the program (v10 if you haven't upgraded yet or v11 when it comes along if you're already at v10). Just have your friend mention your name in the Comments section when they place their order. A great way to help out a friend and get the next major release gratis! --------------------------------------------------- 5) Study Tip - Keep Your Study Files 'Live' Consider the construction of your study file just the beginning. Even if you have a fixed set of data you're trying to learn, you can enrich the file by adding new interrelationships and associations while you study. You know the feeling - you're looking at the question for a pair for which you know the answer, but you think "Yeah, but what about the case where...". While you have that thought fresh in your mind, just type the shortcut Ctrl-I or right-click on the Question dialog's text and select Insert New Q&A Pair After This One. This will bring up the editor and allow you to add a pair that contains the refinement that you've just conceived. Click Save, then close the editor and continue with your study session. --------------------------------------------------- 6) Latest In-line Program Updates The 10.10.00 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Disabled ShowMyAnswer button when displaying the answer for Standard Pairs 2. Enhanced the Import from Windows Clipboard mode to handle Unicode and font effects 3. Corrected issue where an overwrite of a file by imported data did not correctly remove some of the support files that had been associated with the overwritten pairs 4. Fixed problem that caused imported text to be difficult to select and edit 5. Fixed similar problem with files created by the Create Composite Source File tool 6. Corrected problems with the server version caused by Vista 7. Fixed problem where a pasted table in Q or A text didn't restore/display properly 8. Fixed crash in Basic and Scholar when creating .fls (old source format) file 9. Fixed problem in filter where the deselected field(s) referenced the wrong attribute 10. Corrected problem in returning from an Open In Editor session in a Leitner-mode file 11. Enabled hyperlinks in regular text for Q and A 12. Fixed the installer so it doesn't remove the uninstall for previous versions of the program 13. Added shortcut keys to toggle Bold, Italic and Underline in editor The 10.00.06 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected problem on some systems where the internal program menu links to Help items and Demo items were non-functional 2. Fixed problem where the Q number did not always match the A number on the first pair displayed after returning from an editing session The 10.00.05 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected problem with saving the audio file associated with the introduction 2. Fixed problem with running study files located on CDROM's 3. Fixed 'Can't locate v10.jpg' error when new file was created immediately after viewing the Unicode demo file 4. Corrected conflict between the Bullets and Numbering dialog and having skins turned on 5. Modified right-click popups in the Editor so that they are consistent, adding the Thesaurus function that was missing from most of them The 10.00.04 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. No longer need to have an 'actual character' in the Q or A - a stand-alone graphic or object will now work correctly 2. Locked out redisplay of Intro when AutoPilot is running 3. Added 'possible delay' warnings when the advance statistics button is pressed and when a print preview is being generated 4. Printer setup can now be called from Produce Printed Test 5. Open to Editor Find and Replace "no more matches" message corrected 6. Modified filtering so priority pairs can be extracted 7. Changed defaults for table/card printing 8. Modified directory usage to run properly on Windows '9x --------------------------------------------------- Need Help? Have A problem? Check out our online listings of the latest releases and the problems that they've solved: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/wfprobs.htm If your issue isn't covered there, please send e-mail to support@openwindow.com and we'll do our best to resolve your problem. --------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE: Send e-mail to service@openwindow.com with SUBSCRIBE as the Subject. UNSUBSCRIBE: Simply send an email to service@openwindow.com with REMOVE as the Subject. This newsletter is a free service of Open Window Software and is Copyright © 2007 Open Window Software. All worldwide rights reserved. --------------------------------------------------- Open Window Software News Spring 2007 A Free E-mail Newsletter from Open Window Software Featuring Tips on Using the WinFlash Suite, HandyCards and Flashcard Exchange Contents: 1) WinFlash Feature Highlight - Sub/Superscripting 2) Importing from Flashcard Exchange 3) HandyCards for Windows Mobile v5.0 Now Available!! 4) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends 5) Study Tip - Continue Leitner Review of Languages Over the Summer 6) Latest In-line Program Updates --------------------------------------------------- 1) WinFlash Feature Highlight - Sub/Superscripting One of the little-used font effects supported by WinFlash is the ability to produce sub and superscripted text. This is not needed for most study files, but is a useful tool for subjects like mathematics or chemistry. While entering H2O is understandable, it is better to create your study files with the proper syntax. Since this newsletter is produced in "plain text" it is not possible to show the results of using this effect, but we'll describe how to achieve it: 1. Open a 'junk' study file or create a new one 2. In the editor, enter "H20 is more commonly known as?" as the text for the question 3. Select just the "2" in H20 4. Right-click in the edit area 5. Select Font... from the pop-up menu 6. Click the Layout tab on the font dialog 7. Enter "25" as the Offset % and select the Down radio button 8. Click OK You'll see that the "2" is now properly positioned below the line. Superscripting can be similarly accomplished by selecting the Up radio button in the above example. Take that extra moment to add the sub or superscripting that your question or answer calls for and you'll enjoy seeing the information displayed in its correct format during your studies. --------------------------------------------------- 2) Importing From Flashcard Exchange This feature is for those of you who are members of Flashcard Exchange and want to use study files from their site with WinFlash Educator. There are two main approaches to importing from FE - the best one to use depends upon whether you wish to append to an existing WinFlash study file and/or use the Force Category of All Imported Pairs To option. We'll review each of these techniques below. Each description assumes you have already exported the file to your computer from Flashcard Exchange using the Export To WinFlash Educator button on their export page: http://www.flashcardexchange.com/export Since FE always uses the same default filename in the resulting SaveAs dialog - flashcard_exchange.hc - it's a good idea to change this to something you'll recognize later before continuing with the export. For purposes of the examples below we'll assume the file has been downloaded to your computer as myfefile.hc. A. Open Using Educator's File|Open Menu If you just want a .flu deck with the same contents as myfefile.hc, this is the easiest approach. The file will be automatically converted to the WinFlash .flu format, saved as myfefile.flu and added in the first position of the used file list. After this the program will close (required to clear internal data structures). Re-open Educator and select your newly-created .flu file from the list at the bottom of the File menu. B. Import Using Educator's Educator|Import Content Menu If you want to append myfefile.hc's contents to an already-existing .flu file or if you wish to use the Force Category of All Imported Pairs To option, you'll need to employ this approach. Open the WinFlash file you wish to append to or, if you're creating a new .flu file to use as the import target, complete that operation. With the target .flu file open, select Educator|Import Content... from the Educator menu and select the desired Overwrite/Append setting and, if desired, enter the category name you wish to be used for the imported pairs. C. Importing FE Files Containing Graphics If the FE file that you're importing contains graphics, these must be individually added after completing the regular import using A or B above. Once you've completed the initial import, open the original file on Flashcard Exchange in your browser and select the Export To Word Processor view from the Export menu. This will display the file showing its pictures in a table format. Next open the converted WinFlash .flu file you created in A or B in Edit mode, using the File|Open In Editor menu selection in Educator. Uncheck the Open To Quickdeck checkbox on the right hand side of the editor and select the Associated Files Panel. Arrange the two representations of the file (Flashcard Exchange's table in your browser and Educator's Editor) so that you can switch back and forth between them easily on the screen. Now, for each Q or A that contains a graphic in the FE representation, first go to the corresponding WinFlash pair in the editor. Next, right-click on the graphic for the Q or A in the browser and select Copy from the browser's pop-up menu. Now switch to the Editor window and click the Paste from Clipboard button for the Q or A, depending on which part of the pair the graphic is associated with. While the above sounds a bit complex, it is actually a very simple, repetitive, operation that can be accomplished quite quickly. "It takes more to explain it than to do it." --------------------------------------------------- 3) HandyCards for Windows Mobile v5.0 Now Available!! I know many of you have been eagerly awaiting the availability of HandyCards for Windows Mobile v5.0. Our partner, HandyMed, has recently released HandyCards v5.3 which brings all your favorite HandyCards features to the latest Windows PDA operating system. Owners of the current HandyCards for PocketPC v5.0 can upgrade for free by contacting HandyMed at support@handymed.com. Those Educator owners wanting to add HandyCards to their study toolset can obtain a $5 discount by ordering on our site. Just select HandyCards for PocketPC/Windows Mobile v5.3 from the second drop down list and enter "Current Educator owner" in the comments section. --------------------------------------------------- 4) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends Quite a few of you earned free upgrades to v10.0 by referring your friends to us! Have a friend that could use WinFlash? You can earn a free upgrade to the next release of your version of the program (v10.0 if you haven't upgraded yet or v11.0 when it comes along if you're already at v10.0). Just have your friend mention your name in the Comments section when they place their order. A great way to help out a friend and get the next major release gratis! --------------------------------------------------- 5) Study Tip - Continue Leitner Review of Languages Over the Summer Many of you use WinFlash to learn and maintain fluency in a foreign language. For most language students, this endeavor spans multiple school years. You'll do yourself a huge favor by NOT letting your WinFlash language files gather electronic dust over the summer vacation. With the Leitner system's highly efficient use of study time, you can review your files every week or so for half an hour and continue to maintain and improve your vocabulary. Since you aren't adding new words, the time invested in this maintenance operation is minimal and will pay big dividends when the fall semester starts! --------------------------------------------------- 6) Latest In-line Program Updates The 10.00.06 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected problem on some systems where the internal program menu links to Help items and Demo items were non-functional 2. Fixed problem where the Q number did not always match the A number on the first pair displayed after returning from an editing session The 10.00.05 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected problem with saving the audio file associated with the introduction 2. Fixed problem with running study files located on CDROM's 3. Fixed 'Can't locate v10.jpg' error when new file was created immediately after viewing the Unicode demo file 4. Corrected conflict between the Bullets and Numbering dialog and having skins turned on 5. Modified right-click popups in the Editor so that they are consistent, adding the Thesaurus function that was missing from most of them The 10.00.04 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. No longer need to have an 'actual character' in the Q or A - a stand-alone graphic or object will now work correctly 2. Locked out redisplay of Intro when AutoPilot is running 3. Added 'possible delay' warnings when the advance statistics button is pressed and when a print preview is being generated 4. Printer setup can now be called from Produce Printed Test 5. Open to Editor Find and Replace "no more matches" message corrected 6. Modified filtering so priority pairs can be extracted 7. Changed defaults for table/card printing 8. Modified directory usage to run properly on Windows '9x --------------------------------------------------- Need Help? Have A problem? Check out our online listings of the latest releases and the problems that they've solved: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/wfprobs.htm If your issue isn't covered there, please send e-mail to support@openwindow.com and we'll do our best to resolve your problem. --------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE: Send e-mail to service@openwindow.com with SUBSCRIBE as the Subject. UNSUBSCRIBE: Simply send an email to service@openwindow.com with REMOVE as the Subject. This newsletter is a free service of Open Window Software and is Copyright © 2007 Open Window Software. All worldwide rights reserved. --------------------------------------------------- Open Window Software News Winter 2007 A Free E-mail Newsletter from Open Window Software Featuring Tips on Using the WinFlash Suite, HandyCards and Flashcard Exchange Contents: 1) WinFlash v10.0 - Unicode/Font Effects - Finally!! 2) WinFlash Feature Highlight - Paste vs. Paste Special 3) WinFlash v10.0 - Selecting in the Editor's Table View 4) Thanks for Voting for Us in the 2006 ESC People's Choice Award 5) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends 6) Study Tip - Trust the Leitner Intervals for Long Term Learning 7) New Freeware Color Flashcards 8) Latest In-line Program Updates --------------------------------------------------- 1) WinFlash v10.0 - Unicode/Font Effects - Finally!! This was the headline in our last newsletter - in May of 2006. We decided to go with it again, since this time v10.0 is OUT! It was a long and challenging development cycle and our beta team started working with the code last June. They were a tremendous help in bringing out a complex release with very few bugs! Rather than list all of v10.0's new features in the newsletter, here's a link to the 'What's New' page on our website: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/newin.htm Download a copy the latest version of your program here: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/download-flashcards.htm You don't need to uninstall your current version in order to try out the features of the new one. We think you'll agree that the new range of editing capabilities alone is worth the upgrade. And little touches such as having the editor open directly to QuickDeck when you access the editor from study mode make file maintenance easier than ever. --------------------------------------------------- 2) WinFlash Feature Highlight - Paste vs. Paste Special We plan to include this new section on a regular basis. We'll highlight a not-so-obvious program feature - perhaps one you've overlooked - that we think can enhance your use of WinFlash. One of the advantages of the 'good ol' days' before WinFlash became multi-font-capable was that when you pasted a clip from somewhere else into the WinFlash editor there was no need to worry about what kind of formatting was associated with it. You just pasted it in and the clip politely assumed the font of the Q or A that you were editing. With the arrival of v10 things became more complicated. Let's say you're using the default Arial 12 font and working on a question. You've typed in part of the question in the default font and you're going to add a clip from a Word document that you have open. Let's say that document is in Times New Roman 10 point. When you copy that section from Word and paste it into the WinFlash editor, it'll come in with the Times New Roman 10 point font - probably not what you wanted... Here's where Paste Special comes in. If, instead of using the standard Ctrl-V to paste the clip, you use Ctrl-Alt-V, the clip will be pasted WITHOUT formatting - assuming the font style that is in force at the insertion point. Remember this one - it'll save you a lot of 'fixing up' if you cut-and-paste frequently. --------------------------------------------------- 3) WinFlash v10.0 - Selecting in the Editor's Table View Some of you may have been disappointed to find that your old approach to using the Editor's Table View to find and then select a pair for editing no longer seems to work. Actually, you CAN select in v10's Table View - it's just more "subtle" than in previous versions :-). Move the mouse pointer just to the left of the of the pair number - until the cursor turns into a right-pointing arrow - then left-click. This selects the row and, if Open To QuickDeck is checked, takes you to that pair in QuickDeck, ready to edit. --------------------------------------------------- 4) Thanks for Voting for Us in the 2006 ESC People's Choice Award We've been so busy finishing up v10.0 that we haven't had a newsletter out since last May! In that letter we asked you to cast a vote for us in ESC People's Choice Award. Thank you all for your votes - we DID win the award for the second time - and by a wide margin, according to the folks responsible for the tally! --------------------------------------------------- 5) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends Quite a few of you earned free upgrades to v10.0 by referring your friends to us! Have a friend that could use WinFlash? We'll give you a free upgrade to the next release of your version of the program (v10.0 if you haven't upgraded yet or v11.0 when it comes along if you're already at v10.0) if your friend buys the program and mentions your name in the Comments section when they place their order. A great way to help out a friend and get the next major release gratis! --------------------------------------------------- 6) Study Tip - Trust the Leitner Intervals for Long Term Learning If you're using WinFlash to maintain your knowledge of a language or other large volume of material over a long period of time, you can save yourself many hours of study time by allowing the Leitner timing algorithm to determine when the pairs are due for review. From questions we've received, it's clear that many users override the algorithm by checking one or both of the Leitner options Allow Pairs to be Asked Before Due and Allow Pairs to be Promoted Before Due. Rather than putting in 'extra' study time reviewing the pairs before they're due, give the method some time and see how it works using the program's recommended timing. If you seem to be getting too large a percentage incorrect when they come due, try making this adjustment: with the deck open, go to Options|Q&A Modes and click the Mode-specific Settings button. This will bring up Options for Leitner Box System dialog. Move the slider one or two positions towards Hard Questions and click OK on both this dialog and the Options main dialog. This will shorten the review intervals. Conversely, if you hardly ever miss a pair when it's up for review, move the slider one or two positions towards Easy Questions - this will lengthen the review intervals. In this way, you can 'tune' your Leitner intervals to provide the best retention vs. study time setting. Have time to study but there aren't any pairs due today? Read a book, learn a new subject or go out and get some fresh air!! --------------------------------------------------- 7) New Freeware Color Flashcards This small deck contains eight Q&A pairs to help pre-schoolers identify the primary and secondary colors along with the "colors" black and white. The questions are simply a solid block of color with an audio (credit due my lovely parnter and wife) asking "What is this color?". The answer has the color's name in large type against the same block of color (useful after kids learn their colors to get a bit of a head start with spelling) and an audio responding "This color is " In order to make this deck editable so that you can add additional colors, I've included all support files and the source .flu and .fld files in a single .zip file. You can download this file (2.14 Mb) by clicking on the link below: http://www.openwindow.com/ftp/colors.zip Unzip the file into its own directory and open it using the File|Open dialog in WinFlash or by double-clicking on the colors.flu file in Windows Explorer. 8) Latest In-line Program Updates The 10.00.03 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected printing issue where graphics were conflicting with auto-generated question and answer text. The 10.00.02 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Added "paste special" capability - paste WITHOUT font attributes 2. Corrected problem with missing answers when MC pair had no 'intro text' 3. Fixed crash when using Multi-user mode The 10.00.01 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected problem when A first and Auto Fill-In were both selected (only Q's were displayed) 2. Corrected program crash when opening expired Leitner file in Subject Outline using Edit File 3. Fixed several non-critical but annoying behaviors --------------------------------------------------- Need Help? Have A problem? Check out our online listings of the latest releases and the problems that they've solved: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/wfprobs.htm If your issue isn't covered there, please send e-mail to support@openwindow.com and we'll do our best to resolve your problem. --------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE: Send e-mail to service@openwindow.com with SUBSCRIBE as the Subject. UNSUBSCRIBE: Simply send an email to service@openwindow.com with REMOVE as the Subject. This newsletter is a free service of Open Window Software and is Copyright © 2007 Open Window Software. All worldwide rights reserved. --------------------------------------------------- Open Window Software News Spring 2006 A Free E-mail Newsletter From Open Window Software Featuring Tips On Using The WinFlash Suite, HandyCards and Flashcard Exchange Contents: 1) WinFlash v10.0 - Unicode/Font Effects - Finally!! 2) Be A Beta Tester - Get Your v10.0 Upgrade For Free 3) Vote For Us For The 2006 ESC People's Choice Award 4) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends 5) Study Tip - Limiting Initial Number Of Pairs For Large Learning Tasks 6) Latest In-line Program Updates --------------------------------------------------- 1) WinFlash v10.0 - Unicode/Font Effects - Finally!! Many of you will be happy to hear that we've finally taken the big plunge. It's not that we didn't know that lots of our customers wanted to use mixed fonts and Unicode text in the 'regular' parts of the program. It was simply that the task was too daunting! Fortunately a third-party supplier of code 'components' for our development system has come up with a set of tools that have brought this undertaking, while still a huge rewrite, into the realm of feasibility. With v10 you'll be able to use any Windows font, including Unicode Fonts, for the Question and Answer main text as well as for Multiple Choice and Fill-In-The-Blank answers. In the Question and Answer main text you'll also have access to a range of font 'effects' including Bold, Underline, colored text and backgrounds as well as sub and superscript. Storing these new pairs requires the addition of a new binary source file type for WinFlash - the .flu file. The "u" is for Unicode. Existing .fls files can be automatically saved as .flu files and .flu files can be 'saved as' .fls files. HOWEVER, saving a file to the older .fls format will result in losing any of the fancy new effects that have been utilized. Because of the large number of changes required in the program to accommodate these new features, we're planning a more extensive beta test effort than we've used with previous releases. See the item below to see how you can sign up to be on the beta team and get early access to the new features! --------------------------------------------------- 2) Be A Beta Tester - Get Your v10.0 Upgrade For Free We're planning to assemble a small team of people who use WinFlash on a regular basis and are willing to test the new version both for compatibility with their current files and for ease-of-use with the new Unicode and font effect features. If you would like to be on this team, send us a short note telling us how you use WinFlash and to what use you might put the new features. Team members who provide substantive feedback on the beta release(s?) will receive free codes for the final release of v10.0. --------------------------------------------------- 3) Vote For Us For The 2006 ESC People's Choice Award The Educational Shareware Cooperative gives a yearly award based on votes cast by the public on the Cooperative's website. We'd really appreciate it if you'd take a moment and follow this link http://www.edu-soft.org/education-awards.shtml and place a vote for WinFlash Educator! Thanks in advance for helping us towards our goal of winning this award for a second time! --------------------------------------------------- 4) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends Have a friend that could use WinFlash? We'll give you a free upgrade to the next release of your version of the program (v9.1 if you haven't upgraded yet or v10.0 when it comes out if you're already at v9.1) if your friend buys the program and mentions your name in the Comments section when they place their order. A great way to help out a friend and get the next major release gratis! --------------------------------------------------- 5) Study Tip - Limiting Initial Number Of Pairs For Large Learning Tasks If you have a large number of pairs to learn, as in the case of vocabulary words for a foreign language, it is more efficient to limit the initial number of pairs. You should be able to go through all of the 'unlearned' pairs in a single study session when beginning to study a new set of flashcards. You can control the set of pairs that are available for review in the Options|Pair Order/Size panel in the Range subpanel. If you have categories already assigned, as we recommend and discussed in OW20050101.TXT, you can select any subset of your assigned categories as the starting point for review. Alternatively, you can use the From Question __ to __ setting to specify a range of pairs for review. Try starting with 30-50 pairs to begin. Depending upon the difficulty of the material and the length of your average study sessions you can adjust this up or down until you feel you're making progress each session without being overwhelmed by the mass of unfamiliar material. We plan to add a feature that will automatically keep the 'new material' from the deck at some adjustable level in a future release, but it isn't difficult to manage this function manually until this feature appears. --------------------------------------------------- 6) Latest In-line Program Updates The 9.10.03 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected problem with incorrect import of .csv files. 2. Fixed problem in WinFlash Basic that caused the program to crash when opening a .flt-type file when skins were enabled. 3. Corrected another skins issue which screened some hot-key combinations from reaching the main menu items when a file was open for study. 4. Re-coded case where the first character in the Question was a "%" sign so that it would properly associate this character with the question rather than making it the last character of the Category. 5. Added code to correctly handle a direct open of .flz and .flt files from the Internet. The 9.10.02 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Fixed problem caused by interaction of the 'flashing' alert regarding the approach of the end of the evaluation period in the main window title bar and the new skins code causing the main window to continually steal focus away from other program windows. 2. Added software utility to collect data in the event of a crash and offer the user the opportunity to e-mail the report to Open Window Software. This can greatly improve our chances of being able to understand and fix elusive bugs that cannot be duplicated on our own machines. The 9.10.01 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Fixed problem with the Delete function where any attempted deletion of a pair caused a program error. --------------------------------------------------- Need Help? Have A problem? Check out our online listings of the latest releases and the problems that they've solved: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/wfprobs.htm If your issue isn't covered there, please send e-mail to support@openwindow.com and we'll do our best to resolve your problem. --------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE: Send e-mail to service@openwindow.com with SUBSCRIBE as the Subject. UNSUBSCRIBE: Simply send an email to service@openwindow.com with REMOVE as the Subject. This newsletter is a free service of Open Window Software and is Copyright © 2006 Open Window Software. All worldwide rights reserved. --------------------------------------------------- Open Window Software News Winter 2006 A Free E-mail Newsletter From Open Window Software Featuring Tips On Using The WinFlash Suite, HandyCards and Flashcard Exchange Contents: 1) WinFlash v9.1 Released - Skins! 2) Editor Speed In v9.1 3) Importing Decks From Flashcard Exchange 4) A New Way To Earn Free Upgrades 5) Study Tip - Cramming 6) What's New in v9.0/9.1? --------------------------------------------------- 1) WinFlash v9.1 Released - Skins! In response to a number of requests for a more vibrant-looking user interface, we've added a library of 'skins' to the WinFlash programs. What are skins? A 'skin' is a set of colors and control behaviors that changes the appearance of a program without changing its functionality. Skinning allows the user to select from interfaces that mimic the Mac OS, the various XP themes or many other, more fanciful, looks. We hope you like this new capability and find a look for the program that's just right for you! There are 22 skins included with the latest versions of the program and an additional 77 that can be downloaded from the skins page on our website at: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/skins We thought this enough of an enhancement to warrant a full tenth step in the version identifier. IMPORTANT NOTE: The v9.1 update uses a new third party control for display and editing of the Introduction and RTF Support Files. While this new software provides needed capabilities beyond that previously used, it does NOT yet support the embedded object functionality that was present in earlier versions of WinFlash Educator. If you require this support, please stay with v9.00.03 until we announce an in-line release of v9.1 which contains OLE support. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. You can download v9.1 from our downloads page at http://www.openwindow.com/pages/download-flashcards.htm What? STILL haven't upgraded to v9? Perhaps the cool look of the new skins will entice you :-) Check out the other great features added to v9.0 below in 6) What's New in v9.0/9.1? and purchase your upgrade from our secure order page here: https://www.openwindow.com/pages/oworder.htm --------------------------------------------------- 2) Editor Speed In v9.1 When working in the editor, WinFlash does a complete save of your information each time you move from an edited pair to another pair location. When it does this, it ALSO redisplays the program. The computational overhead required by the skins processing when refreshing the editor and main screens increases the time the computer takes for this operation. This is not an issue on fast machines but may cause an objectionable pause on slower ones. If you find this to be the case and you're planning to edit or add several pairs, just turn off the skins in Options|View|Skins and then turn them back on when you're done editing. Or, if you prefer, simply leave them off altogether. --------------------------------------------------- 3) Importing Decks From Flashcard Exchange If you haven't checked out Flashcard Exchange yet, you owe it to yourself to give it a look. They currently have over 3 million flashcards available! They may already have just the deck you need or, at least, a great start on which to build. If you decide you'd like to become a member, we offer a $5 discount for users who already own or are upgrading to WinFlash Educator - only $11.50 for a lifetime membership! As a member of Flashcard Exchange you can download any decks that you wish and use them with WinFlash Educator and/or HandyCards. One caveat - decks using the Unicode font sets such as Chinese or Japanese cannot be imported by Educator or HandyCards at this time. We are working on an upgrade that WILL allow the use of Unicode, but this won't be available for some time. To export flashcards so they will work in WinFlash Educator, access your Flashcard Exchange account using your web browser. 1. Click on the flashcard file you want to export and then click the Export/download link under Activities. 2. From the export formats list click the “Export to WinFlash Educator” button. 3. In the File Download dialog that appears, click the Save button. 4. The standard Save As dialog will appear. Select the location where you want the file to be stored and give it a name ending in .hc – e.g. multiplication.hc. Click the Save button. Your file has now been saved in the directory you selected with the name you entered. 5. Open WinFlash Educator and create a new file into which to import the flashcards you have saved in the step above. Close the editor that opens upon creation of a new file, leaving the newly created file open. 6. From the Educator menu select Import Content… Choose Flashcard Exchange as the Import Format and select the Overwrite Currently-Open file option. Click OK. 7. In the Import From File: dialog window that appears, navigate to the .hc file that you saved in step 4 (multiplication.hc in this example) and click on it – this will enter it in the Filename box of the dialog. Click Open. 8. A message will appear confirming that you have successfully imported your flashcard file. Click OK and your flashcards will be opened in Educator ready for your use. --------------------------------------------------- 4) A New Way To Earn Free Upgrades You've already heard about earning free upgrades by referring your friends or contributing a deck to the WinFlash Users Library. We're now offering a third method for you to get your next upgrade free! If you're an artistic person with a flair for computer graphics, try out our free Skin Builder application available here: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/skins.htm After you've created an original look that you're proud of, send us the .skn file. If we add it to our collection you'll get a free upgrade to the current release. If you're already current we'll flag you for an upgrade to v10.0 when it becomes available. --------------------------------------------------- 5) Study Tip - Cramming Note - We thought that this tip, first run in 2003 was worthy of a repeat for our newer readers. While we don't recommend cramming as a study mode, who hasn't had to occasionally prepare at the last minute? If you're stuck with learning a week's worth of vocabulary words for Friday morning's test and it's now Thursday night, what's the quickest way? What's needed is a time-compressed version of Frequency Based on History, so that you don't waste time on learning words that 'stick' right away. The best way to do this is with the simplest Q&A mode, Ask All Questions Equally Often with a few additional options. Here are the steps and settings needed: 1. Open the study deck and set Options|Q&A Modes to Ask All Questions Equally Often. 2. In Options|Pair Order & Size select Repetition = One Pass 3. Run through the deck and, after the pass is complete, click 'Yes' in Continuation dialog and 'Yes' again in the 'Only Include Missed Pairs? dialog. As you continue to repeat the deck, the 'learned' pairs will drop off while the tough nuts will continue to appear. Once you've gotten all the remaining pairs correct the deck will automatically reset to asking all of the pairs again, letting you review the full set again, working through it until all are answered correctly again. 4. Repeat step 3 until you feel confident you've mastered the deck. You can add variety to the 'cram session' by using the Options|Pair Order & Size|Order = Random setting as well as the features in the Options|Q&A Modes|Settings Common To All Modes grouping. Take an occasional break and don't burn yourself out - and start a little earlier NEXT week :-) Note: WinFlash Basic does not support the 'Run Only Misses From Previous Pass' feature. --------------------------------------------------- 6) What's New in v9.0/v9.1? The following new features are available in all three WinFlash versions: * Skins! Now the most powerful learning system available is also the most beautiful :-) * New editing mode - QuickDeck - allows the fastest possible creation of text-only decks. Simply tab between Q and A and then on to the next pair * Graphics can be pasted directly from the clipboard into a Q or A - making it much easier to include graphics. No need to first convert the desired graphic to a file and then select that file for use in a Q or A * Decks can now be opened directly into the editor from the File|Open menu * Visible down-counter in timed mode * Desktop shortcuts to WinFlash files can now be invoked while the program is open with another file - the open file will be closed and the file targeted by the shortcut will be opened * Clear List function added to Used Files list - remove all the files from the list and start afresh *Hint and Comment buttons now 'flash' to more easily alert the user to the presence of a related hint or comment The following new features are available in WinFlash Scholar and Educator: * Decks can now be opened directly into the editor from the File|Open menu and from the Subject Outline view * Copy Pair now has a shortcut key - Ctrl-d The following new features are available in WinFlash Educator: * Text-to-speech capability - Educator can now read your decks to you - albeit in a somewhat robot-like fashion. One caveat - the text is read in English - thus the feature is NOT useful for language study - i.e. it doesn't know how to pronounce non-English words Note: Text-to-speech relies on Microsoft's SAPI4 system being installed on the computer. If you do not yet have this capability installed you can download an installer for it from the Open Window Software website's downloads page at: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/download-flashcards.htm Export to .wav or .mp3 and use your iPod or other personal audio device to study in on-the-go situations where a PDA or laptop isn't practical. Use that commute time to work on your studies * Direct Import/Export From/To Flashcard Exchange – This great on-line flashcard library is now directly supported in Educator’s import/export menus * Pairs can now be imported into the deck by copying two-column text from common table formats (e.g. Microsoft's Word, Excel and Access programs) to the Windows clipboard and then importing the data directly from the clipboard. The import feature has also been enhanced by adding direct import of .csv files * Improved Advanced Statistics, with more meaningful data displayed depending on the deck's current study mode *Background color of the Introduction can now be set to your choice of color Note: Old .FLS files will work just fine with v9.1 - see above for the exception relating to embedded OLE objects. Simply open them with the new program and the new entries for the .FLD file will be automatically created the first time you open the file in v9.1 --------------------------------------------------- Need Help? Have A problem? Check out our online listings of the latest releases and the problems that they've solved. For WinFlash programs see: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/wfprobs.htm For ProUpdater see: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/puprobs.htm If your issue isn't covered there, please send e-mail to support@openwindow.com and we'll do our best to resolve your problem. --------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE: Send e-mail to service@openwindow.com with SUBSCRIBE as the Subject. UNSUBSCRIBE: Simply send an email to service@openwindow.com with REMOVE as the Subject. This newsletter is a free service of Open Window Software and is Copyright © 2006 Open Window Software. All worldwide rights reserved. --------------------------------------------------- Open Window Software News Fall 2005 A Free E-mail Newsletter From Open Window Software Featuring Tips On Using The WinFlash Suite, HandyCards And ProUpdater Contents: 1) WinFlash v9.0 Released! 2) Using v9.0's New QuickDeck Feature 3) Adding Internet Graphics To Your Decks 4) Free Upgrades For Deck Contributors 5) Study Tip - Expand Your Study Opportunities With .MP3's 6) What's New in v9.0? --------------------------------------------------- 1) WinFlash v9.0 Released! We're happy to announce that all three levels of WinFlash - Basic, Scholar and Educator - have been upgraded to v9.0, with new features and improvements added at every level. While the most noticeable new feature is the Text-To-Speech capability in WinFlash Educator, there are many changes which improve the user experience by making the program easier to use. The new QuickDeck mode in the editor is a good example. It reduces the number of keystrokes used in creating text-only decks to the absolute minimum - simply tab between Q and A and then tab to move to the next pair after entering the Answer text. For a complete rundown of the new features, see 6) What's New in v9.0? We hope you'll take a look at the new release of your level of WinFlash and take advantage of our upgrade pricing. Download a trial copy of v9.0 here: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/download-flashcards.htm and purchase your upgrade from our secure order page here: https://www.openwindow.com/pages/oworder.htm --------------------------------------------------- 2) Using v9.0's New QuickDeck Feature One of our favorite enhancements - to all three of the WinFlash levels - is the new QuickDeck feature. Give it a try using this step-by-step mini-tutorial. 1. Create a new deck using File|New. The deck will open in the editor, to the regular Question tab. 2. Click on the QuickDeck tab or type Alt-u to move to the QuickDeck page in the editor. You'll notice that the text "This is the first dummy..." is already selected for you, ready for you to replace with the text of the first question. 3. Type "Q1" and then the Tab key. You should now see "Q1" as the text for the first question and the cursor now in the Text For Answer edit box with the "First dummy answer" text selected, ready for replacement. 4. Type "A1" and then the Tab key. This will enter "A1" as the text for the first answer and then move you to pair 2 with the dummy text in the Text For Question box selected. 5. Go ahead in this manner, using the Tab key to move from Q to A and then on to the next pair - entering "Q2","A2" and "Q3","A3" for the Q&A text for pairs 2 and 3. 6. At the point where you have entered "A3" for the third pair's answer text, hit Tab again. The editor will automatically add a fourth pair to the deck and position the entry point in the Text For Question box, awaiting your entry. 7. Complete this exercise by entering "Q4" and "A4" for the Q&A text for pair 4, then close the editor by clicking the Close button or typing Alt-e. We hope you'll like this new mode for entering "Quick Decks"! You can also use it as a fast start for entering text for decks to which you DO wish to add graphics, sounds, etc. - just use the regular tabs in the editor to add enhancements to the pairs on a second pass through the deck. --------------------------------------------------- 3) Adding Internet Graphics To Your Decks Sometimes a perfect graphic to go with one of your study pairs pops up while you're surfing the net. Before v9.0, adding it to your deck entailed first copying the graphic and then saving it to a file using Paintbrush or other graphics applet - then searching for the newly-saved file using the WinFlash editor's Associated Files tab to associate the new graphics file with the Q or A of the pair in question. Now it's quick and easy: 1. Right click on the graphic in your Internet browser and choose Copy from the pop-up menu. 2. Open the WinFlash editor to the pair where you want to add the graphic and click the Associated Files tab. 3. Click the Paste From Clipboard button in either the Associated Files For Question or Associated Files For Answer area, depending on the part of the pair to which you wish to add the graphic. That's it - you'll see that the Delete and Display buttons are now enabled for that section and you can use these to view the new graphic while in the editor or to remove the graphic from the pair should you decide against keeping it. You can use this technique for quickly adding any graphic that you can copy to your clipboard to one of your WinFlash decks. --------------------------------------------------- 4) Free Upgrades For Deck Contributors Isn't it time to put the final polish on that study deck of yours and contribute it to the WinFlash Users Group Library? We'll give you a free upgrade to the new v9.0 of your edition of the program if you'll share! Plus you'll get credit on the library page for your contribution (unless you'd rather remain anonymous). To submit your deck, see the detailed instructions at http://www.openwindow.com/pages/contribute.htm We'll immediately acknowledge receipt of your submission and, after review, will send you another e-mail letting you know if we've accepted it for use in our library. If it's accepted, we'll e-mail you a free upgrade code for v9.0. --------------------------------------------------- 5) Study Tip - Expand Your Study Opportunities With .MP3's You've heard us talk about using your PDA to turn unproductive time into study time - when you're waiting in line, riding the bus or engaged in a similar activity. How about those times where you can't use your PDA - riding your bike, driving your car, etc? Turn these additional opportunities into study time by using Educator's new Text-To-Speech export capability. Here's how: 1. Open the deck that you wish to convert to audio using WinFlash Educator. It's best to try a small deck first to check results. Remember, the program has to read the text of the deck in real time, so the export operation can take quite a while for larger decks. 2. Select Export Content... from the Educator menu. 3. Select Sound File - Text To Speech from the Select Output Format drop-down list. 4. Set the Export Pauses values. Try the 5 second defaults in your first experiment and then adjust from there if you wish. 5. Select the audio output format. MP3 produces much smaller files with generally-acceptable audio quality. 6. Click OK and give the output file a name in the dialog that appears. 7. Spot-check the result by playing it with Windows Media Player or other audio software on your PC. 8. Transfer the file to your iPod or other personal music player using your regular software. Note: The above instructions assume that you've installed the SAPI4 Text To Speech support on your computer and have selected the voice you'd like to use in Options|Speech. See the Help file's Text To Speech section for more detail. --------------------------------------------------- 6) What's New in v9.0? The following new features are available in all three WinFlash versions: * New editing mode - QuickDeck - allows the fastest possible creation of text-only decks. Simply tab between Q and A and then on to the next pair * Graphics can be pasted directly from the clipboard into a Q or A - making it much easier to include graphics. No need to first convert the desired graphic to a file and then select that file for use in a Q or A * Decks can now be opened directly into the editor from the File|Open menu * Visible down-counter in timed mode * Desktop shortcuts to WinFlash files can now be invoked while the program is open with another file - the open file will be closed and the file targeted by the shortcut will be opened * Clear List function added to Used Files list - remove all the files from the list and start afresh *Hint and Comment buttons now 'flash' to more easily alert the user to the presence of a related hint or comment The following new features are available in WinFlash Scholar and Educator: * Decks can now be opened directly into the editor from the File|Open menu and from the Subject Outline view * Copy Pair now has a shortcut key - Ctrl-d The following new features are available in WinFlash Educator: * Text-to-speech capability - Educator can now read your decks to you - albeit in a somewhat robot-like fashion. One caveat - the text is read in English - thus the feature is NOT useful for language study - i.e. it doesn't know how to pronounce non-English words Note: Text-to-speech relies on Microsoft's SAPI4 system being installed on the computer. If you do not yet have this capability installed you can download an installer for it from the Open Window Software website's downloads page at: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/download-flashcards.htm Export to .wav or .mp3 and use your iPod or other personal audio device to study in on-the-go situations where a PDA or laptop isn't practical. Use that commute time to work on your studies * Pairs can now be imported into the deck by copying two-column text from common table formats (e.g. Microsoft's Word, Excel and Access programs) to the Windows clipboard and then importing the data directly from the clipboard. The import feature has also been enhanced by adding direct import of .csv files * Improved Advanced Statistics, with more meaningful data displayed depending on the deck's current study mode *Background color of the Introduction can now be set to your choice of color Note: Old .FLS files will work just fine with v9.0. Simply open them with the new program and the new entries for the .FLD file will be automatically created the first time you open the file in v9.0 --------------------------------------------------- Need Help? Have A problem? Check out our online listings of the latest releases and the problems that they've solved. For WinFlash programs see: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/wfprobs.htm For ProUpdater see: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/puprobs.htm If your issue isn't covered there, please send e-mail to support@openwindow.com and we'll do our best to resolve your problem. --------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE: Send e-mail to service@openwindow.com with SUBSCRIBE as the Subject. UNSUBSCRIBE: Simply send an email to service@openwindow.com with REMOVE as the Subject. This newsletter is a free service of Open Window Software and is Copyright © 2005 Open Window Software. All worldwide rights reserved. --------------------------------------------------- Open Window Software News Spring/Summer 2005 A Free E-mail Newsletter From Open Window Software Featuring Tips On Using The WinFlash Suite, HandyCards And ProUpdater Contents: 1) Access 1.8 Million Ready-made Flashcards - At a 30% Discount!! 2) WinFlash v9.0 Under Development 3) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends 4) Study Tip - Use the Subject Outline Tool to Manage Your Decks 5) Version 8.0 Updates - v8.00.09 Available --------------------------------------------------- 1) Access 1.8 Million Ready-made Flashcards - At a 30% Discount!! We are proud to announce a new partnering arrangement with Flashcard Exchange (FE) - the web's largest repository of on-line flashcards. You can now download any of these decks that you wish and have them available for instant access by WinFlash Educator and/or HandyCards! Through our new arrangement with FE we are able to offer Open Window Software's registered users of WinFlash Educator a lifetime full membership in FE (necessary to access the download features) at significant savings! To obtain this discount, go to our order page at https://www.openwindow.com/pages/oworder.htm and select the Flashcard Exchange Membership - listed on the site for $16.50. Then, in the comments section, mention this offer by entering Flashcard Exchange Newsletter Offer We'll enter your new lifetime membership in FE for only $11.50! Here are some of the highlights of what's available in the FE library: 50 Foreign Languages (Including Elvish from the Lord of The Rings) Early Childhood Materials K-12 Subjects Higher Education, GRE Extensive Medical Library Military, Real Estate, Law and much, much more! Check out Flashcard Exchange at http://www.flashcardexchange.com/ and then sign up with us for your discounted lifetime membership! Are you a Basic or Scholar customer? You'll need Educator's Import capability to make use of the FE decks. Just order an upgrade from your current version to Educator and add on the Flashcard Exchange membership for the same additional $11.50. --------------------------------------------------- 2) WinFlash v9.0 Under Development We're already working on the new features for v9.0 - targeted for release in time for the new school year. If you have a feature you'd like to see, now's a great time to e-mail us with your suggestion. While we can't guarantee that all suggestions will be included in the new release, we DO draw most of our enhancements from the suggestions and requests made by our users. --------------------------------------------------- 3) Free Upgrades for Referring Your Friends Have a friend that could use WinFlash? We'll give you a free upgrade to the next release of your version of the program (v8.0 if you haven't upgraded yet or v9.0 when it comes out if you're already at v8.0) if your friend buys the program and mentions your name in the Comments section when they place their order. A great way to help out a friend and get the next major release gratis! --------------------------------------------------- 4) Study Tip - Use the Subject Outline Tool to Manage Your Decks Ever find yourself wondering what the name of that deck was that you created early in the semester? Or which directory it was created in? WinFlash Scholar and Educator both contain a useful tool on the File menu called Subject Outline. Use it to improve the organization and management of your study files. On first use, the Subject Outline contains only a single entry titled Subjects Outline View: - Subjects Outline View Using the buttons you can add subjects, e.g. Biology and French, resulting in: - Subjects Outline View |- Biology |- French Let's say you have three decks already created for Biology and two for French and they're in a few different directories. By first selecting (click on it) Biology, you can add your three decks, one at a time, to the structure by clicking on Add Existing File and then browsing to one of the Biology files. You'll end up with - Subjects Outline View |- Biology | |- C:\Biology\biologydefs.fls - 11/14/2004 | |- C:\My Documents\biotest.fls - 12/18/2004 | |- C:\WinFlash Files\biologydefs2.fls - 01/23/2005 | |- French Following the same procedure for your French files you have - Subjects Outline View |- Biology | |- C:\Biology\biologydefs.fls - 11/14/2004 | |- C:\My Documents\biotest.fls - 12/18/2004 | |- C:\WinFlash Files\biologydefs2.fls - 01/23/2005 | |- French | |- C:\My Documents\French101.fls - 10/18/2004 | |- C:\WinFlash Files\FrenchVerbs.fls - 01/16/2005 You've now entered your existing study files and, even though they're contained in three unrelated directories, they're now nicely organized. By creating new files under the appropriate subject and adding new subjects as necessary you can keep all of your WinFlash decks easily available. To open one for study or editing simply double click on the one you want. You can right click on a file and check its stats without having to open up the deck. For Leitner mode decks the date will indicate when the earliest pair is due for review. For other decks the date reflects the last used date. Give the Subject Outline a try - it may very well become your 'control center' for managing your study sessions using WinFlash! --------------------------------------------------- 5) Version 8.0 Updates - v8.00.09 Available Since Version 8.0 was shipped on October 12, 2003 there have been eight 'slipstream' releases to fix various bugs that have surfaced since the initial release and to introduce new functionality. If you are experiencing any problems with your WinFlash program, first be sure that you are using the latest version (currently v8.00.09, released 1/5/05). Here are the releases to date and a compilation of the changes that were made in each: The 8.00.09 update to WinFlash Basic, Scholar, and Educator addresses the following issue: 1. An issue causing a "'' is not a valid integer" error to display when loading a deck that had been created or edited between 12:00 am and 12:10 am has been corrected. 2. An option has been added to Options|Misc/Audio|Audio/Video/Link Settings that will allow 'live' document and Internet links in Introduction and support .rtf files. The 8.00.08 update to WinFlash Basic, Scholar, and Educator addresses the following issues: 1. A further problem involving the Automatic Multiple Choice feature has been corrected. 2. Code has been added to reset the location of all windows whose position is stored from session to session in the case where the screen size has been changed between sessions and the old position setting(s) would place the window(s) off the edge of the current screen. The 8.00.07 update to WinFlash Basic, Scholar, and Educator addresses the following issue: 1. Under some unusual circumstances the program could hang when using the Automatic Multiple Choice From Standard Pairs feature. Also, in some circumstances, duplicate answers could appear in the choices. Both of these problems have been corrected. The 8.00.06 update to WinFlash Basic, Scholar, and Educator addresses the following issues: 1. Import/export compatibility between WinFlash Educator and HandyCards for PocketPC v5.0 has been greatly enhanced. Bidirectional Leitner mode data is maintained through multiple export/import cycles. 2. The minimum initial Leitner interval has been reduced to 1 day from the previous 4 days. 3. Minor consistency issues continue to be improved - none that caused any operational program problems. The 8.00.05 update to WinFlash Basic, Scholar, and Educator addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected error which caused the pairs in the highest-numbered Leitner Box to be asked EVERY session once the initial waiting period for the pair for that level box had expired. 2. Fixed problem caused by the interaction of auto-generated multiple choice answers with real multiple choice answers of Multiple Choice pairs. 3. Various minor consistency gremlins were fixed - none that caused any operational program problems. The 8.00.04 update to WinFlash Basic, Scholar, and Educator addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected error in Insert/Copy/Delete pair functions that failed to make adjustment for direct-record audio files. This caused the recorded sounds to 'move' to another pair under certain circumstances. 2. Fixed problem with Subject Outline that caused program to hang when files that used Multi-user mode were added to the outline. 3. Added display of direct-record audio files to the Editor|Table View. The 8.00.03 update to WinFlash Scholar and Educator addresses the following issue: 1. Corrected error in Copy Pair function that caused pair statistics data to be incorrectly written to the .FLD file. When running in Leitner Box System Mode this caused a 'Invalid Integer' error when restarting the deck after having closed it. If you have a deck displaying this error, just delete its companion .FLD file and the program will write a 'clean' .FLD file from scratch. The 8.00.02 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issue: 1. Corrected coding error that caused '%' and '<' characters to be incorrectly displayed in Q&A dialogs and the editor. The 8.00.01 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Fixed bug in Leitner Box System Mode that caused deck to hang if it had been created or modified between the hours of midnight and 1 a.m. Not a good feature for students :-). 2. Corrected omission that failed to generate independent unique identifiers for each pair during the import operation. The unique identifiers are not yet used, but may be needed in future releases. --------------------------------------------------- Need Help? Have A problem? Check out our online listings of the latest releases and the problems that they've solved. For WinFlash programs see: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/wfprobs.htm For ProUpdater see: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/puprobs.htm If your issue isn't covered there, please send e-mail to support@openwindow.com and we'll do our best to resolve your problem. --------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE: Send e-mail to service@openwindow.com with SUBSCRIBE as the Subject. UNSUBSCRIBE: Simply send an email to service@openwindow.com with REMOVE as the Subject. This newsletter is a free service of Open Window Software and is Copyright © 2005 Open Window Software. All worldwide rights reserved. --------------------------------------------------- Open Window Software News Winter 2004/5 A Free E-mail Newsletter From Open Window Software Featuring Tips On Using The WinFlash Suite, HandyCards And ProUpdater Contents: 1) New Year's Resolution #1 From PC Magazine 2) New Freeware Canadian Capitals Flashcards 3) Free Upgrades For Deck Contributors 4) Study Tip - Use The Category Feature When Creating Study Decks 5) Version 8.0 Updates - v8.00.08 Just Released --------------------------------------------------- 1) New Year's Resolution #1 From PC Magazine Michael J. Miller, writing in the January issue of PC Magazine, says "Back up. I say this every year, and every year I get e-mails from people who want advice because they lost all their data. I love computers, but I don't completely trust them." Michael's right, of course. It's not a matter of IF your computer will experience a catastrophic drive crash or other data-destroying event - it's only a question of WHEN. With this in mind, we decided to rerun these two articles from earlier newsletters in hopes that our readers will be in a receptive frame of mind at this most "THIS year I'm really going to ....." time of the year :-) To make it even EASIER for you to be protected, we're offering 30% off ProUpdater purchases for all orders placed in January that mention this offer in the comments section of the order form. So don't hesitate - make it a priority to put your backup system in place today! Automatically Backing Up Your Home Network Backing up our data is one of those dirty little chores that we tend to prioritize off of our todo lists until it's too late... Our hard disk crashes and all of our data, including that todo list, suddenly takes a giant step back into the past - to the state of our last restorable backup. Your last one was when? If you're like me, the only way you can get around this aversion is to totally automate the backup process. The good news is that if you have a network with at least two computers on it you can delegate this chore to the Windows Task Scheduler. You'll also need backup software that will run unattended (we suggest our own ProUpdater, of course :-)). http://www.openwindow.com/pages/winupd8r.htm We've long ago decided that backing up EVERYTHING on our computer is an unnecessary waste of storage space. The really irreplaceable stuff is the data you create with your applications. Everything else can be restored by reinstallation - albeit a somewhat time-consuming exercise. It's a GREAT help if you can organize your data files a bit. At Open Window we use a simple structure like the example below: C:\ | |- LarrysData | - Word Files | - Excel Files etc.. You can, of course, create further sub-directories such a Business, Personal, Volunteer, etc. under each application directory. Another approach is to reverse the hierarchy above like this: C:\ | |- LarrysData | - Business | - Personal | - Volunteer etc.. with the applications listed below each category. Either way, this approach places the vast majority of your data in a hierarchical directory structure below a single top directory - LarrysData in the above example. Let's say you have a two-computer network, one belongs to Larry and the other is used by Mary and the kids, Joe and Lucy. To back up both machines we can simply copy the directory LarrysData to the family machine and the directories MarysData, JoesData and LucysData to Larry's machine. Assuming we're running the backups from Larry's machine and that the family machine's hard drive is mapped as drive F:\ on Larry's machine we could do this with four simple entries using ProUpdater's Batch File Mode: DirPair1=c:\LarrysData!f:\LarrysData DirPair2=f:\MarysData!c:\MarysData DirPair3=f:\JoesData!c:\JoesData DirPair4=f:\LucysData!c:\LucysData Now, making sure that we leave both machines on overnight, we can use Windows' Schedule Task function (for Windows 9x use Programs|Accessories|System Tools|Schedule Tasks; for Windows XP use Settings|Control Panel|Scheduled Tasks) to run the backup at, say, 1:00 am every morning. For more detailed instructions on setting up this type of regimen, see ProUpdater's help file. There! You're now protected against data loss from a disk crash on either machine. Note: Leaving your machines on 24x7 uses very little power (assuming you turn off your monitors when you're not using them) and most experts agree that the disks last longer when spinning continuously than when they're being turned on and off every day. Continuous operation allows you to use the Task Scheduler to perform OTHER tasks during the night as well. Virus checking, defragging and checking the disk for errors are three other maintenance tasks that tie up the machine and can be scheduled to automatically run at night. In the paragraphs above we talked about how to set up an automatic backup system for your home network. That system guards against a large majority of the data loss scenarios that you might encounter. What about that tiny minority of cases, though, when your ENTIRE home computing environment is destroyed - either by natural disaster or through vandalism or theft? The only way to recover from this type of event is to have a copy of your data stored in a secure location off-site. While some web-based companies offer services of this type, to use such services you'd need a very high-speed connection to backup any serious amount of data. At Open Window we use a system where we maintain three sets of writeable CD's: the newest at our bank, the next oldest in a fireproof storage box in our home and the oldest in our office desk. While we generally destroy the oldest set when a new set is created, we keep the last set from each year as a permanent record. Depending on the extent of your data and the capacity of your removable media, you may want to backup less data than you do on a daily basis. For instance, on our daily backups we copy our in-progress programs' .exe files, all the previous versions, .zip files we host on our site, etc., since these go to an 80Gb drive that has plenty of spare space. When we do our monthly offsite backups we use a different set of settings for ProUpdater, stored in a separate option (.opt) file, that excludes all data that we can regenerate with simple compilations of our source code archives. We also periodically write a CDR of archival data that will never change and LEAVE this in the safe deposit box. This data is then excluded from the monthly backups. Whatever removable media you decide upon, the key is to set up a routine where you periodically back up your data and move the media to a safe, off-site location. If you don't have a bank safe deposit box, you can arrange to swap backups with a friend - thereby providing the off-site safety net for each other. Since the likelihood of a system-wide disaster is much lower than the risk of a simple disk crash, unintentional format, or other every-day data wipeout, we've settled on once a month for offsite backups. You may be comfortable with a longer interval. Just ask yourself "How many weeks (months) of data would I be comfortable losing permanently?" Some of my friends who only use their computer for e-mail and web surfing are comfortable with starting over totally from scratch if they were to lose their data. Many others, however, have either financial data, digital photos of the family, collections of carefully assembled music files or other fruits of significant effort that they'd be loath to part with. If you're in this latter group, think about setting up that off-site backup routine! --------------------------------------------------- 2) New Freeware Canadian Capitals Flashcards We had a study deck on the US state capitals in our library before we even had a website. It seemed high time that we created a similar deck covering our northern neighbor! This proved to be a quicker task than the US version, since Canada was less aggressive with its geographic knife - only cutting their country into 13 provinces and territories. Our thanks to wikipedia's compilation of Canadian facts at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_provinces for the source materials for this deck! If you haven't yet browsed this phenomenal 'free encyclopedia', give it a look! Because of the included graphics, I've created this file as a 'compiled .flz file' - hence, not editable. If you'd like a copy of this deck that CAN be edited, just drop a note to support@openwindow.com and we'll send you a .zip containing the source files. You can download the file (~1.0 Mb) by clicking on the link below: http://www.openwindow.com/ftp/canada.flz Remember to choose 'Save' rather than 'Open' in the dialog which appears - otherwise your browser will just save a temporary copy to your computer that won't be accessible for future use. --------------------------------------------------- 3) Free Upgrades For Deck Contributors Isn't it time to put the final polish on that study deck of yours and make it a solid contribution to the WinFlash Users Group Library? We'll give you a free upgrade to v8.0 of your edition of the program if you'll share! Plus you'll get credit on the library page for your contribution (unless you'd rather remain anonymous). To submit your deck, see the detailed instructions at http://www.openwindow.com/pages/contribute.htm We'll immediately acknowledge receipt of your submission and, after review, will send you another e-mail letting you know if we've accepted it for use in our library. If it's accepted, we'll e-mail you a free upgrade code for v8.0. Already have v8.0? - no worries, we'll flag your entry in our database for a free upgrade to v9.0 when IT'S released this fall. --------------------------------------------------- 4) Study Tip - Use The Category Feature When Creating Study Decks One of the under-utilized features of WinFlash is its support of category information within study decks. A single deck can support up to 100 categories and each category name can be up to 20 characters in length. When beginning a new study deck, take a few minutes to decide on a useful organization for the deck's categories. For instance, if the deck is a growing list of spelling words, you might decide to use the beginning letter of each word as its category. Thus the categories would be the letters A through Z. Since this only requires 26 categories, you could go further and categorize by common parts of speech - Verb, Noun and Other (this would result in 26x3 or 78 categories). In this case a category example would be "Noun-A". When we created the flashcard deck of Canadian provincial and territorial capitals, we used the category to indicate whether the subject of the question was a province or territory. Once you make the extra effort to add category information to your decks you'll be able to take advantage of the filtering available in the Options|Pair Order & Size panel. Using this feature you can study subsets of your deck that include some combination of categories but not the rest. In the first example above you might choose to study just the words beginning with 'Q' if these were difficult for you; in the second you might choose all the nouns. Categories can be used to segment your decks in a number of ways: the book chapter the information is from, the alphabetic organization of the information, the week the information was added, etc. Just keep in mind the limitations of 20 characters for the category name and 100 categories per deck when designing your category system. You'll also find categories useful when creating "Composite Source Files" - i.e. output decks comprised of subsets of one or two different input decks. For instance, if you had French vocabulary in two decks, one from each of two previous years, and they were categorized by parts of speech, you could create a third deck using the nouns from both of the original decks. Experiment with using the category feature when you create your decks and you'll find it useful in a number of ways! --------------------------------------------------- 5) Version 8.0 Updates - v8.00.08 Just Released Since Version 8.0 was shipped on October 12, 2003 there have been eight 'slipstream' releases to fix various bugs that have surfaced since the initial release and to introduce new functionality. If you are experiencing any problems with your WinFlash program, first be sure that you are using the latest version (currently v8.00.08, released 12/16/04). Here are the releases to date and a compilation of the changes that were made in each: The 8.00.08 update to WinFlash Basic, Scholar, and Educator addresses the following issues: 1. A further problem involving the Automatic Multiple Choice feature has been corrected. 2. Code has been added to reset the location of all windows whose position is stored from session to session in the case where the screen size has been changed between sessions and the old position setting(s) would place the window(s) off the edge of the current screen. The 8.00.07 update to WinFlash Basic, Scholar, and Educator addresses the following issue: 1. Under some unusual circumstances the program could hang when using the Automatic Multiple Choice From Standard Pairs feature. Also, in some circumstances, duplicate answers could appear in the choices. Both of these problems have been corrected. The 8.00.06 update to WinFlash Basic, Scholar, and Educator addresses the following issues: 1. Import/export compatibility between WinFlash Educator and HandyCards for PocketPC v5.0 has been greatly enhanced. Bidirectional Leitner mode data is maintained through multiple export/import cycles. 2. The minimum initial Leitner interval has been reduced to 1 day from the previous 4 days. 3. Minor consistency issues continue to be improved - none that caused any operational program problems. The 8.00.05 update to WinFlash Basic, Scholar, and Educator addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected error which caused the pairs in the highest-numbered Leitner Box to be asked EVERY session once the initial waiting period for the pair for that level box had expired. 2. Fixed problem caused by the interaction of auto-generated multiple choice answers with real multiple choice answers of Multiple Choice pairs. 3. Various minor consistency gremlins were fixed - none that caused any operational program problems. The 8.00.04 update to WinFlash Basic, Scholar, and Educator addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected error in Insert/Copy/Delete pair functions that failed to make adjustment for direct-record audio files. This caused the recorded sounds to 'move' to another pair under certain circumstances. 2. Fixed problem with Subject Outline that caused program to hang when files that used Multi-user mode were added to the outline. 3. Added display of direct-record audio files to the Editor|Table View. The 8.00.03 update to WinFlash Scholar and Educator addresses the following issue: 1. Corrected error in Copy Pair function that caused pair statistics data to be incorrectly written to the .FLD file. When running in Leitner Box System Mode this caused a 'Invalid Integer' error when restarting the deck after having closed it. If you have a deck displaying this error, just delete its companion .FLD file and the program will write a 'clean' .FLD file from scratch. The 8.00.02 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issue: 1. Corrected coding error that caused '%' and '<' characters to be incorrectly displayed in Q&A dialogs and the editor. The 8.00.01 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Fixed bug in Leitner Box System Mode that caused deck to hang if it had been created or modified between the hours of midnight and 1 a.m. Not a good feature for students :-). 2. Corrected omission that failed to generate independent unique identifiers for each pair during the import operation. The unique identifiers are not yet used, but may be needed in future releases. --------------------------------------------------- Need Help? Have A problem? Check out our online listings of the latest releases and the problems that they've solved. For WinFlash programs see: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/wfprobs.htm For ProUpdater see: http://www.openwindow.com/pages/puprobs.htm If your issue isn't covered there, please send e-mail to support@openwindow.com and we'll do our best to resolve your problem. --------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE: Send e-mail to service@openwindow.com with SUBSCRIBE as the Subject. UNSUBSCRIBE: Simply send an email to service@openwindow.com with REMOVE as the Subject. This newsletter is a free service of Open Window Software and is Copyright © 2005 Open Window Software. All worldwide rights reserved. --------------------------------------------------- Open Window Software News Fall 2004 A Free E-mail Newsletter From Open Window Software Featuring Tips On Using The WinFlash Suite, HandyCards And ProUpdater Contents: 1) Version 8.0 Updates - v8.00.06 Just Released 2) New Freeware Wildflower Flashcards 3) HandyCards For PocketPC v5.0 Available Now! 4) Sharing Your Study Decks With Others 5) Free Upgrades For Referring Your Friends 6) Study Tip - Leave WinFlash Open When Using Your Computer --------------------------------------------------- 1) Version 8.0 Updates - v8.00.06 Just Released Since Version 8.0 was shipped on October 12, 2003 there have been six 'slipstream' releases to fix various bugs that have surfaced since the initial release and to introduce new functionality. If you are experiencing any problems with your WinFlash program, first be sure that you are using the latest version (currently v8.00.06, released 10/15/04). Here are the releases to date and a compilation of the bugs that were fixed in each: The 8.00.06 update to WinFlash Basic, Scholar, and Educator addresses the following issues: 1. Import/export compatibility between WinFlash Educator and HandyCards for PocketPC v5.0 has been greatly enhanced. Bidirectional Leitner mode data is maintained through multiple export/import cycles. 2. The minimum initial Leitner interval has been reduced to 1 day from the previous 4 days. 3. Minor consistency issues continue to be improved - none that caused any operational program problems. The 8.00.05 update to WinFlash Basic, Scholar, and Educator addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected error which caused the pairs in the highest-numbered Leitner Box to be asked EVERY session once the initial waiting period for the pair for that level box had expired. 2. Fixed problem caused by the interaction of auto-generated multiple choice answers with real multiple choice answers of Multiple Choice pairs. 3. Various minor consistency gremlins were fixed - none that caused any operational program problems. The 8.00.04 update to WinFlash Basic, Scholar, and Educator addresses the following issues: 1. Corrected error in Insert/Copy/Delete pair functions that failed to make adjustment for direct-record audio files. This caused the recorded sounds to 'move' to another pair under certain circumstances. 2. Fixed problem with Subject Outline that caused program to hang when files that used Multi-user mode were added to the outline. 3. Added display of direct-record audio files to the Editor|Table View. The 8.00.03 update to WinFlash Scholar and Educator addresses the following issue: 1. Corrected error in Copy Pair function that caused pair statistics data to be incorrectly written to the .FLD file. When running in Leitner Box System Mode this caused a 'Invalid Integer' error when restarting the deck after having closed it. If you have a deck displaying this error, just delete its companion .FLD file and the program will write a 'clean' .FLD file from scratch. The 8.00.02 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issue: 1. Corrected coding error that caused '%' and '<' characters to be incorrectly displayed in Q&A dialogs and the editor. The 8.00.01 update to all WinFlash versions addresses the following issues: 1. Fixed bug in Leitner Box System Mode that caused deck to hang if it had been created or modified between the hours of midnight and 1 a.m. Not a good feature for students :-). 2. Corrected omission that failed to generate independent unique identifiers for each pair during the import operation. The unique identifiers are not yet used, but may be needed in future releases. --------------------------------------------------- 2) New Freeware Wildflower Flashcards This small deck contains 10 Q&A pairs to help outdoor enthusiasts identify various common wildflowers. The pictures were taken on various hikes in Colorado during this past summer. In order to make this deck editable so that you can add wildflowers from your OWN area, I've included all support files and the source .fls file in a single .zip file. Consider this the beginning of a project rather than a completed one. If you have some pictures of flowers from your area (and their identifications), I'd love to build on this deck with contributions from the readers. You can download this file (~1.3 Mb) by clicking on the link below: http://www.openwindow.com/ftp/wflowers.zip Unzip the file into its own directory and open it using the File|Open dialog in WinFlash or by double-clicking on the wflowers.fls file in Windows Explorer. --------------------------------------------------- 3) HandyCards For PocketPC v5.0 Available Now! HandyMed has released its latest 5.0 version of its PocketPC edition of HandyCards. Current users of HandyCards can order the upgrade on our site for $14.95. If you also need the upgrade to WFEducator v8.0, simply add $14.95 to the cost of the Educator upgrade and note in the Comments section that you want the latest PocketPC version of HandyCards as well. Unfortunately it has not been possible to add these new features to the PalmOs version of HandyCards - it will remain at its current revision level of 1.8. WFEducator v8.00.06's export to HandyCards now supports all of the new features of HandyCards listed below: All-New Testing Methods Leitner Testing -- advanced learning methodology based on time-delayed exposure to questions, with increased focus on those areas which need more attention Subset Testing -- force the program to grab cards in user-defined groupings and then advance to the next group on demand