Vocab for PalmOS: Manual

Lee Wilmot <vocab.lee@dinglisch.net>
15th November, 2007
Original version December, 2000.

Contents:

It's Not My Fault Statement

This software was written carefully and tested extensively over several months. All bugs that I am aware of have been removed, apart from those non-damaging which have been listed in the bugs section of this document. Having said that, I make no guarantees of any kind that this program will not destroy any valuable data, will not crash at any time etc etc. You use it entirely at your own risk! By using it you agree to this statement.

Introduction

What is it ?

Vocab is a Palm OS program for storing translations between words and phrases in various languages and testing the user on the translations in a flash-card manner. It can be used as a self-build dictionary. Note that you cannot import words into Vocab, they must be entered by yourself, like in your old school vocabulary book.

Features

Does it cost ?

As of April 2003 Vocab is completely free.

What does it work on ?

Vocab should work on all machines running PalmOS 3.5+.

What does this manual cover ?

It tries to cover everything which is not covered by the in-program help. If you can't find information on a topic here, try one of the 'i' info buttons.

Can I customise it to new languages ?

Yes, please read here and here once you've gotten a basic idea of how the program works.

You unfortunately can't have the article after the key as is needed for affixing languages. But you can always change the article to (m) for masculine etc.

Why didn't you call it 'PocketVocab', that's a much better name ?

Some, erm, person had already taken it.

You will need a copy of Vocab running on your palm for the rest of this manual to make any sense.

The Entry Screen

Entering A Translation

Two words are shown at once, we'll call them the top word and the bottom word. To the right is a space where existing words in the present language are shown called the dictionary list, which can be scrolled through.

At the top left is a popup list for the article of the top word. To the right of this is the key field for the top word. The key is the way the entry is identified. Below that is the details field, where usage notes, pronounciation etc can be stored. Below and to the left is the language for the top word. There are equivalents for all of these controls for the bottom word at the... bottom of the screen.

To enter a translation, you enter data (only the key field is compulsory) for the top and bottom words and then press the enter button at the top-middle. Let's enter gerade (language DE) and straight (language EN). Press enter.

Notice that straight has now had it's details cleared. The program is waiting for you to enter another translation for gerade. Let's enter recht (language NL), and press enter. Again, the bottom word has been cleared. Notice that there's an arrow and a number under gerade. The number is called the entry number and tells us that this is main meaning 1 of gerade. The arrow allows us the move around the various translations of this meaning of gerade.

Now, it so happens that gerade could also mean just in English. To tell the program we want to enter another meaning of gerade tap on the number 1. It should change to a 2. Now enter just in the bottom key field and press enter. If you press the number a few times, you'll notice you can cycle through the base meanings of gerade. A + sign after the number means that there is another base meaning to view after the current one.

Miscellaneous

Clear Button

Notice the two dots to the left-middle of the screen ? Just above the top dot is an invisible button that clears the top word. Hold your pen down just above the top dot to see it's outline. The button clears the data of the top word. Between the dots is a button which clears the data of both words. Below the bottom dot is... well, you guessed it.

You can also write an '0' in graffiti to clear both words.

The Dictionary List

On the far right of the screen is a list of the words that you've entered so far. Each language has it's own dictionary list, so you see all the words of one language at a time. If you tap on one of the words in the list, the details of it's first base meaning will be shown, together with it's translation.

The colours of the entries in the dictionary list correspond to the article type of the relevant entry. So, for instance, you can see the gender of a German noun without needing to even look at the entry.

The arrows in the middle of the screen scroll the word list. You can also use the hardware scroll buttons.

Notice that as you write a word in one of the keyfields, the possible words matching ones which have already been stored in the database are displayed. If the keyfield contains a word which already exists in the database, that word is highlighted in the dictionary list.

The Filter Button

At the very top right is a button labelled f, standing for filter. On the entry screen, when the button is enabled words are only shown in the filter list which have the same article as the one entered for the current word. Exception: if the 'blank' (first) article is selected, then all words are shown.

The Number Button

At the very top right is a button labelled n, standing for number entry. When the button is not pressed, writing '0' will clear the screen and '1'-'9' will select (key field) or insert (description field) an article. When the button is pressed, subsequently written numbers will be inserted in the current field instead.

The Word Delays

The two numbers on the left give the test delays of the shown words (see test section for their significance). Tapping on them will set them to 1. You don't need to press the enter button for this change to take effect.

Test Reverse Flag

Between the two test delays is a checkbox which controls whether the top word will be tested in reverse. See the test section to understand it's effect. You don't need to tap the enter button for a tap on this checkbox to have an effect.

Phrase Flags

There is a checkbox to the right of each key field called the phrase flag. See here for the use of these flags, you should read the test section first. You need to press the enter button for a change to the phrase flag to be stored. Usually, if you're going to set the phrase flag you'll do it at the same time as you enter a word for the first time.

Sticky Entry

In general, when you change a control or field on the entry screen it will stay at what you set it until one of the clear buttons is pressed. This is generally advantageous, however, watch for pitfalls like entering data in the details field and then tapping on one of the words in the dictionary list. The details stored in the database will not overwrite the details you entered previously.

The Menu Bar

The non-obvious menu bar features are described in the program itself.

The Test Screen

Running A Test

To start a test, press the test button to the right of the enter button at the top of the screen. If you have 'extended buttons' enabled, you could also use the second hardware application button from left.

The enter button disappears and a number appears at the top of the screen indicating how many tests are remaining.

The top word is shown, but the bottom word is blank (the other way round if the entry's 'reverse test' flag is set. The entry number has a * in front of it. That means that it's indicating how many entries there are with this key and article combination. For instance, a *2 with the fence means that there are 2 possible base meanings of the fence (a barrier and a person who sells stolen goods). If you'd also entered to fence, the number would still be 2.

You must decide whether you know the translation(s) of the shown word, then tap anywhere on the screen. The translation appears, and you then tap on one of the 5 buttons on the right (or the corresponding hardware button if extended buttons are enabled) to signify to the program how right you were. From left to right, they signify very wrong, wrong, right, but unsure, right and very right.

You can also just directly tap on one of the answer buttons without actually revealing the answer first.

How Testing Works

You don't need to read this section unless you are interested.

Each base meaning of a word has associated with it a test delay. The range of delays are divided into increasing sized 'buckets'. A word starts at the end of the bucket (e.g. delay 7) and when it reaches the start of the bucket (delay 4 in this case) it becomes eligible to be tested. The buckets are: delays of 0, 1, 2-3, 4-7, 8-15, 16-31, 32-63, 64-127.

When you press test on the entry screen, the program does two things:

When you hit one of the answer buttons, the delay of the word is changed dependent on the answer you gave. 'very wrong' = -2 buckets. 'wrong' = -1 bucket, 'unsure' = end of current bucket, 'right' = +1 bucket, 'very right' = +2 buckets.

If you have set the test timer on in the settings screen, then an answer of 'right' or 'very right' increases the delay by an extra bucket, if the test was answered within the specified number of seconds.

A newly created word has a delay of zero, meaning it has not yet been tested. All other words have a delay between 0 and 127.

In the case that the number of words waiting to be tested is more than two times the number of tests requested, delays are not reduced by 1 before the test. This is to stop testing of old words getting behind schedule to to an influx of new words.

Miscellaneous Testing Info

Reverse Test

Each word has a checkbox (on the entry screen) indicating whether it should be tested forward or reverse. If it's set to be tested reverse (the box is checked), then everytime it's tested one of it's translations is shown on the test screen instead of the word itself.

The Test Button

Tapping the test button during a test will abort the current test. You will be asked if you wish to end the test. If you click 'no' then the test details will be saved so the test can be resumed later. The test button will remain labelled 'TEST' to indicate that a test is waiting to be finished.

You can also use the menu stroke followed by the return stroke to have the same effect as the enter button.

Hardware Buttons

During a test you can optionally use the hardware buttons to answer. See the settings screen in the program and it's associated help info for details.

Effect of Filter Button

If the filter button is engaged when you press the test button, then only words of the type designated by the article in the top word will be eligible to be tested. You could use this, for instance, to only test verbs.

If the first (blank) article is showing, all word types will be tested. Therefore, if you always press the clear button before a test you can be sure that all word types will be tested even though you have filtering on by default in the entry screen.

Between Test Navigation

Between tapping the screen to reveal the answer to a particular test, and tapping one of the answer buttons, you can navigate at leisure around the given word, it's base meaning and translations etc. Tapping one of the answer buttons will still only affect the originally tested word.

Other Test Types

Under the menu heading 'Test' are 4 other test types, explained in the program.

Testing Phrases

Often a word only makes sense within a set phrase. For phrases like the English 'a different kettle of fish' you should:
  1. enter a keyword like 'fish'
  2. enter in the details field 'a different kettle of fish'
  3. tap the checkbox to the right of the key field
When the word is tested, only the phrase 'a different kettle of fish' will be shown.

Miscellaneous Topics

Other Settings

The program has a lot of different settings to make things more comfortable. Have a look at the Settings menu item under the File header.

Slow Entry

A database structure was chosen for fast lookups but slow entry. So data entry gets increasingly slower as more words are entered in the language database. On a Palm Vx, around 12 seconds are required to enter two completely new words with 6000 words in total in the databases. Newer machines have limited the impact of this.

Changing Languages

You can set the language popup labels to any two letter string you wish. First type a two letter string in the top key field. Then select the language label you wish to change. Finally, select the menu item Top->Set lang name. The label of the current language will be changed to what you selected.

Important: this does not enable you to get over the six-language limit: only the label of the database is changed, no new database is created.

Changing Articles

If you change to a non-listed language, you probably will also need to change the articles. You do this in the same way. Write a new label in the top key field. Select the language and article you wish to change. Finally, select the menu item Top->Set article.

Known Bugs

Well, an inconvenience really...