Settings dialog
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Settings dialog

Open this dialog with Settings->Configure KVocTrain.... The settings in this dialog are global and affect all vocabularies equally.

General


General Settings Dialog
Save vocabularies automatically on close and quit

If you check this option, KVocTrain will automatically save the document if it was modified when you use the close button or when you quit KVocTrain.

As a side effect it also does not ask for confirmation to save when quitting with modified data but saves the vocabulary without asking.

Create a backup every 15 minutes

KVocTrain will automatically save the document if it was modified after the period you enter here when the option is checked.

As a side effect it also does not ask for confirmation to save when quitting with modified data but saves the vocabulary without asking.

An interval of 0 also stops this behavior.

Smart appending

If this feature is activated, you will repeatedly be prompted with the entry dialog. After entering the first original you have to enter the corresponding translations. Afterwards you proceed with the next original and its translations until you stop by pressing the Esc key.

When you are in this mode and modify the lesson in the dialog it has the same meaning as selecting the lesson in the toolbar. This way it is preselected when the next entry dialog appears.

The required lessons will have to be created in advance in the document settings.

Apply changes without asking

When checked, all options are save upon termination of KVocTrain. Otherwise you have to select the appropriate menu item.

Column Resizing

When you resize your main window it is convenient, if the columns resize automatically, too.

This is possible in two manners:

Automatic

KVocTrain makes each columns the same width except the leftmost with the lesson names which has half the size of the others. The second column which contains the picture that describes the state of the row has a fixed width.

Percentage

The widths of the columns are altered with the same factor the main window grew or shrunk.

If the last button labeled Fixed is set, no resizing of the columns is done.

Languages


Language Settings dialog
Language code

Each column can be assigned a language. This is internally done with the usual international language codes for example, en, de, it. These codes are also stored with the document.

You should always use the correct codes to be able to share vocabularies with others. Merging vocabularies also relies on the correct language codes.

Alternative code

Sometimes it may be useful to have a second language code because some languages have the usual short code and one or two longer codes. For German for example it is common to use de but either deu or ger is also possible according to ISO639-2.

Language name

Here you can give the language code a descriptive name in your own language which is shown in the header buttons in the main view.

Picture

Additionally you can add a nice icon to your language which is shown in the table header button.

KDE 2 stores those pixmaps under $TDEDIR/share/locale/l10n/language -code.

Keybord Layout

To be written.

Delete

Clicking an this button deletes the currently selected language code in the list.

Add

After entering a new language code in the field to its left, you use this button to append it to your list. After that you need to fill in the fields for the long name and the picture for the header button.

Add Language Data From KDE Database

Clicking on this drop down box opens a list that contains all the countries that are known in your KDE installation. Ordered by country you can add your desired language properties to your personal list.

Maybe you want to change the language name or the according picture but I strongly recommend you keep at least the 2-byte language code and its 3-byte alternative if you do not have a special reason. This is to achieve compatible document files that can be shared among all users.

Add Language Data From ISO639-1

Clicking on this drop down box opens a list that contains all the language codes that are covered by “ISO639-1”.

Basically the previous two drop down boxes provide the same data. The former contains the language codes known in KDE sorted by country whereas the second contains allISO639-1” codes sorted alphabetically.

View


View Settings dialog
Table font

Lets you choose a font to display the vocabulary in the main view.

IPA font

Lets you choose a font to display the characters from the international phonetic alphabet. This is used to show the pronunciation of the expression on the bottom in the statusbar.

Probably you do not have an IPA enabled font since those characters are seldom used. You may download a free font from http://bibliofile.mc.duke.edu/gww/fonts/Unicode.html or http://www.hclrss.demon.co.uk/unicode/fonts.html . Install these fonts for example with tdefontinst.

If you have StarOffice installed you probably have the font “Lucida Sans Unicode” which also contains most of the needed characters (but be sure to select the font which ends with “Unicode”).

I also found a Reference and Introduction to Phonetic Symbols that explains a bit about the background. There is also The International Phonetic Association where you can find even more information.

Grade Colors

Every grade can be assigned an individual color. For example I prefer green for best grade and red for worst.

If you do not want any colors but just black on white, uncheck the Use Colors check box.

Copy & Paste


Copy & Paste Settings dialog
Separator

This is a sequence of one ore more characters which divide the parts of an expression when transferring data from or to an other application over the clipboard.

The most common item is TAB which uses the tabulator character. Another possibility is to use the semicolon, if you want to export data to a database file in CSV format.This character is also used to read such files correctly.

Order

When pasting via the clipboard KVocTrain does not know which languages the different fields belong to and just would insert them from left to right.

To facilitate correct behavior, if you arranged your vocabulary in an other way, you can determine your desired order with this area.

The buttons right to the list box move the current language up or down. Skip will insert a hole which means that the later calculated field from the clipboard is skipped.

Use current document

When checked, the items in the clipboard are assumed to be in the same language order as the current document.

Query


Query Settings dialog
Time Per Query

Here you can influence the behavior of KVocTrain when you do not know the answer in time.

  • You may set a time limit KVocTrain grants you to remember the correct answer.

  • Additionally you can tell KVocTrain what to do when this limit is reached. Besides of waiting unlimited time you may select to be shown the solution or to continue immediately with the next question.

  • Furthermore you can activate a little progress bar to show the remaining time for the current answer.

If you exceed the time limit several times in series in continuous mode KVocTrain will assume that there is currently no person in front of the screen and stop the query.

Swap direction randomly

Usually a query is only in one direction, depending on the column you used to start the query. With this check box you can determine, that the directions are altered randomly.

Use alternative learning method

The normal learning style is to learn a single lesson at a time, and when you answer correctly the first time it is removed from the current learning list.

The alternative method was developed by Sebastian Leitner in his book "So lernt man lernen, Angewandte Lernpsychologie - ein Weg zum Erfolg" (Freiburg: Heider, 1972) (English: Learn how to learn, applied learning psychology - A way to success).

The idea of Leitner's method is to try learn those questions you have a hard time to learn, and do not bother you with those that you do know. This is accomplished by requiring you to answer correctly to each question four times in a row.

In real life it works by creating four rows of cards. Each row, above the bottom one, can only hold a certain number of cards. The top row can hold seven cards, the others can hold two cards. (In the original game, the bottom row can only hold three card, thus limiting the number of cards in the game to 20. This "limitation" is not present in KVocTrain.)

In the bottom row are the questions that have yet to be asked and the questions that have previously been answered incorrectly. When a question is answered correctly, it is removed from the row it was in and moved to the back of row above. If answered incorrectly, the card is moved to the back of the bottom row. If the row a card is placed in exceed the maximum number of cards for that row, the next question is taken from the front of that row, else the question is taken from the front of the bottom row. A card is removed from the game when it would otherwise be moved to the fifth row, that is, it has been answering correctly while located in the top row.

Thresholds


Thresholds Settings dialog

With this dialog you determine which entries are included in the next selection for random query.

Important

If you have activated the blocking mechanism on the next dialog page, the thresholds from Grade, Query count, Bad count and Last query are disabled and not taken into account.

Lesson

Designate which lessons to include or leave out. An arbitrary number of lessons can be selected for the calculation.

For convenience there are two additional buttons to selected all entries or none.

Starting with version 0.7.0 this part is stored with the document instead of storing globally.

Word type

Select the word type. KVocTrain does not pay any attention to subtypes.

Grade

The same for the grade.

Query count

Choose how often the selection must be queried.

Bad count

The same for the amount of times the entry was not known.

Last query

Include queries before or within the given time span.

Entries which have not been queried yet are always included if you choose before.

Entries are only included if all conditions are fulfilled. If you want a property to be ignored, choose Do not care for it.

Blocking


Blocking Settings dialog

On this page you select the time, an known entry is excluded from queries resp. when it must be queried at the latest.

There are two conditions which must be fulfilled, otherwise you will be shown an according warning:

  • The time must increase from level to level

  • The time for blocking must be less than for expiring in the same level.

If at least one of blocking or expiring is active, the thresholds from Grade, Query count, Bad count and Last query on the previous dialog page are not taken into account.

Profiles

A Profile is a set of settings (settings related to queries) which you can save/load in order to use again later. This Profiles... button at the bottom of the Configure KVocTrain dialog allows you to see existing profiles, to load a new profile and to save your current settings in a new profile.

Clicking on the Profiles... button will display the following dialog.


Profiles dialog
Save

Saves the current query settings under the current name.

Load

Load the settings from the profile in the listbox.

New

Creates a new profile with the current settings.

Delete

Removes the current profile.

Close

Closes the Profiles dialog.

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