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.