Open Window Software News Holiday Issue 2002 A Free E-mail Newsletter From Open Window Software Featuring Tips On Using The WinFlash Suite, HandyCards And ProUpdater Contents: 1) Special Holiday Gift Offer 2) New Freeware State Capitals Flashcards 3) Version 7.00.06 Update Available 4) Add A PDA To Your Holiday Wish List 5) Back Up Your Study Decks 6) Free Updates For Deck Contributors 7) Study Tip --------------------------------------------------- 1) Special Holiday Gift Offer Give the gift of learning! Purchase any WinFlash program as a gift for a friend or relative and we'll give you 30% off the list price. You must already have purchased a regular-priced copy of the program for yourself to qualify for this offer. This is REALLY the 'gift that keeps on giving' in terms of long term academic success!! Place the order on our site using your own name, contact info and credit card information. In the comments section mention this offer and enter the name, mailing address and e-mail address of the recipient. Also enter the date that you'd like us to send them an e-mail notification of your gift and any personalized message you'd like us to include. We'll also send them their gift program on a CD (and add appropriate S&H at the regular rate) if you do not ask for an 'e-mail only order'. --------------------------------------------------- 2) New Freeware State Capital Flashcards Continuing in the geography vein, we've focused on the 50 states of the US. Each pair is a six-part fill-in-the-blank-type question asking the subject state's capital, nickname, bird, flower, tree, and song. For more manageable memorization the states have been categorized into five regions - Pacific States, Mountain States, Midwestern States, Southern States and Northeastern States. Each pair also has a simple outline map of the state highlighting the location of the capital. By using the Options|Pair Order And Size|Use Named Range setting, you can choose any one (or more) of the five categories to concentrate on. You can download this file (~490Kb) by clicking on the link below: http://www.openwindow.com/ftp/statecap.flz --------------------------------------------------- 3) Version 7.00.06 Available We've released an update which affects all three versions of the program - Basic, Scholar and Educator. It contains fixes for the following problems: 1. Occasionally, when opening a SECOND flashcard deck in the editor during a WinFlash session (without closing WinFlash) the very first edit made to this second deck would be lost. 2. The timer controlling the automatic display of the answer when using the Display Answer After ___ Seconds did not automatically start up when using a .flz-type study file (problem evident in the Multiplication Table Example in the Demo menu). 3. The Auto Play Audio option has been added to Options|View|Hints,Comments,Tips & Associated Files. It is normally selected, indicating that an audio file associated with the Q or A will play automatically upon the display of the Q or A dialog with which it is associated. If the option is deselected, the audio will play only if the Play button on the VCR control in the dialog is clicked. If you would like to upgrade your installation, download the new version from our website and install it into the same directory as your current version. This will not change any of your decks or settings, but will simply replace the .exe file with the newer version. --------------------------------------------------- 4) Add A PDA To Your Holiday Wish List If you've been using WinFlash to successfully improve your study efficiency but haven't yet expanded your scope to the PDA, now's the time! Put a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) on your Holiday shopping list. If you can't convince someone to get it for you, buy it for yourself! You've probably already heard the standard reasons for owning a PDA, including on-the-go reference for your address book, appointment schedule and phone book. Some of the more advanced PDA's also let you take along your music collection as well! But the reason you really should acquire one of these great little tools is to capitalize on those odd moments spent waiting in line, riding the bus, stopped in commute traffic or the hundred other little time slices that we let get away from us. Using your PDA and your already-existing WinFlash decks you can get in a quick 5 or 10 minutes of review time for your latest study deck during these otherwise-frustrating time wasters. Imagine what this would add up to over a week's time! Take the plunge - get yourself a PDA (we like the WinCE-type, but HandyCards supports both the Palm and PocketPC platforms) and upgrade your WinFlash product to the WinFlash Educator/HandyCards Bundle. You'll save $5 over the price of these products separately and will be thanking yourself for that present on every upcoming exam! --------------------------------------------------- 5) Back Up Your Study Decks After putting hours into creating and studying your decks, the last thing you need is for them to suddenly disappear the day before that critical final. This can happen, though, unless you take steps to safeguard your data. If you've never had a catastrophic disk crash, you're fortunate - best not to trust in luck to continue to protect you, however. If your study files are text-only, you can fit a lot of .fls files on a single floppy disk. Just copy your .fls and .fld files over to a spare floppy from time to time. If you have more complex decks, perhaps including audio, graphic and .rtf support files, you'll probably need more space for your backups. Today's inexpensive CD burners are an ideal answer. Just burn your entire set of study files onto a CDR once a week or so. For a more system-wide approach to data backup, check out ProUpdater at http://www.openwindow.com/pages/winupd8r.htm --------------------------------------------------- 6) Free Upgrades For Deck Contributors Have a deck that you think might be useful to others? We'll give you a free upgrade to the next release of your version 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 flag your database entry for a free upgrade to v8.0 when it's released. --------------------------------------------------- 7) Study Tip Learn to use the Frequency Based On History mode (Options|Q&A Modes) and its associated frequency customizations. This mode asks questions that you haven't mastered more often than ones that you've learned, making your study much more efficient. One of the biggest wastes of study time is excessive review of already-mastered material. Experiment with the frequency settings so that you find those that minimize forgetting short and long term learned pairs while maximizing the percentage of time you are studying unlearned pairs. You'll find that you master more material in less time! --------------------------------------------------- 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 © 2002 Open Window Software. All worldwide rights reserved.