The Edit Dialog

The Edit Dialog allows you to edit individual vocabulary items - you could think of these as 'flashcards', because old-fashioned approaches to learning vocabulary often involved physical cards with the foreign word on one side and the translation on the other. The Edit Dialog gives you access to all the information in each 'card'. It is not the recommended way to manipulate whole vocabulary lists, however. These are best edited in the form of plain text files, known as 'list' files, with one entry per line. A typical list file looks like this:
der Hund : the dog
die Katze : the cat

Almost everything that can be manipulated in the Edit Dialog can also be specified in a list file. The main difference is that list files contain no individual learning data, and are usually intended to be shared with other learners. The Edit Dialog, by contrast, gives you access to your own cards.

The Simple Version of the Edit Dialog


The Edit Dialog comes in two flavours, Simple and Advanced. The left half of the Simple version (shown above) gives you access to four text elements:

  1. The foreign word to be learned (on Side A of the 'card').
  2. The English translation (on Side B). Note that multiple definitions can be separated by semicolons.
  3. An optional prompt that appears on Side A, indicating which English translation is sought, where more than one answer is possible. This is useful for synonyms.
  4. An optional prompt that appears on Side B, indicating which foreign word is sought.

Below these is a navigation tool that lets you find an item by entering its number, the text on Side A, or any of the English definitions on Side B. Enter the text and then press 'GO'. The arrowed buttons (<<, <, >, >>) move back ten items, back one item, forwards one item, or forwards ten items, respectively.

The right half of the Simple Edit Dialog allows you to enter a textual mnemonic, and/or the name of a picture file containing a pictorial mnenmonic. These should usually be local GIF or JPG files, located in the images subfolder, but they can also be online image files referenced by internet addresses, such as 'http://www.arthouse.org/everquest/dragon2007-3-4web.gif'.

The Advanced Version of the Edit Dialog

The Advanced Edit Dialog provides access to five new text elements on the left, related to card headings, category tags, grammar tags and linkages to sentences from a book-chapter, as well as several additional tabs on the right.

Card Headings

Two of the new text fields are as follows:
  1. The Side A 'Heading', an optional tag indicating that Side A does not contain a phrase in the target language, as expected, but something else, like the pronunciation. If left blank, the Side A heading will default to the language name.
  2. The Side B 'Heading', an optional tag indicating that Side B does not contain an English phrase, as expected, but something else. If left blank, the Side B heading will default to 'English'.
Headings are generally for advanced users and most students can leave these alone. Students of Japanese, however, will find this feature useful when learning kanji: the heading can indicate whether the English meaning, the kanji, or a particular 'reading' is sought. Also, when devising grammar lessons in any language, the headings can be used to indicate that word order or some form of declension is being sought, rather than an English translation. (Note that even the simple version of the Edit Dialog allows alternate card headings to be provided. Instead of putting an English translation on side B, for instance, you could enter 'Past Tense: ging' - the side B heading would change from 'English' to 'Past Tense' as soon as you pressed the Enter/Return key.)

The Category Field

Consecutive items in a vocabulary file (consecutive 'cards' in a 'deck') can be marked as belonging to a category and then studied as a group. One type of category is a theme, such as 'Animals', containing words on a particular topic. Another type of category is a set of items belonging to a specific grammar lesson. The group can be accessed under the 'Themes' or 'Grammar' menu, as long as the Theme Topics list or Grammar Topics list has been edited to include the category name. The category text field shows the current category membership of each card. From Version 14.51 onwards, this field is not directly editable, and categories must instead be identified with appropriate Grammar/Footnote tags, as described below.

The Grammar/Footnote Tag

The footnote tag serves a dual purpose: marking categories, and linking items to explanatory text files.

To mark a thematic category (a theme or a grammar lesson), add a footnote tag to the first item in the group and enter 'END' as the footnote of the last item. (This is much quicker than entering the category name for every item, and allows recategorisation of existing items with minimal effort).

The footnote tag is also interpreted as an instruction to load a text file - if possible - when the item is first shown and on selected repeat showings. The loaded file will usually take the form of a lesson, explaining principles that will then be tested in the accompanying items. The Cerebware program preferentially looks for text files ending in '.html', and then for files ending in '.txt', in the folders named XThemes and XGrammar, where 'X' is the name of the language being learned. If the file does not exist, nothing is loaded. So, assuming there is a category named 'Animals', the first item in the group will prompt the program to look for a file named Animals.html or Animals.txt in the relevant Themes and Grammar folders. If this file exists, it will be shown. If not, nothing special will happen.

Occasionally, a teacher will want to separate the category-defining and file-loading actions of the footnote tag. To avoid loading a file, just don't have a file of the same name as the category in either of the two folders searched. On the other hand, if a footnote tag is intended to trigger display of a file, but the lesson-designer does not want the tagged item to mark the start of a new theme, the tag should be prefixed with the 'upload' marker '^', like this:
^Indirect object pronouns
This upload marker basically means: just display a matching file if you can find one, but leave the categories alone. For instance, the first item of a lesson might be taggged with 'Object pronouns', and the twentieth item in the lesson might be tagged with '^Indirect object pronouns'. When the twentieth item is reached during testing, the file 'Indirect object pronouns.html' would be displayed, but it and subsequent items would still belong to the 'Object pronouns' category.

Note that, with the introduction of the '^' marker, the asterix tag of earlier versions is no longer needed or recognised.

From Version 14.56 onwards, footnotes can also link to online content, making it easy to build up a virtual textbook of useful links. Here is what a link to a Spanish article about suffixes might look like: ^http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/spanishdictionary/suffixes.html

Note that the address appears exactly as it would in your browser, complete with an 'html' suffix. This does not mean that the 'html' suffix should be added to regular grammar tags, such as 'Pronouns'.

To avoid seeing the long web address during actual use of the flashcard, enter a synonym such as "Suffixes", in quotation marks, before or after the web address.
^"Suffixes" http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/spanishdictionary/suffixes.html
^http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/spanishdictionary/suffixes.html "Suffixes"

During normal testing, the linked web page does not load automatically (which might be annoying), but it can be reached with a single click of the 'Grammar &' button, which goes purple to indicate that linked content is available. Clicking the button launches your default browser to show the page.

In summary, the grammar tag can contain any of the following:

The Sentence Tag

Cerebware users are strongly advised to learn vocabulary in context, and one way is to extract words from a book chapter and then link each word to the sentence it came from. Multiple words can be linked to the same sentence, which can appear in both textual and audio forms. This is a highly advanced but powerful technique, and users contemplating this approach should contact Cerebware for assistance. The file 'Harry.voc' is provided as an example of how it can be done for students learning German.

The Advanced Tabs

The advanced Edit Dialog contains several tabs which, in most cases, can be left alone. Below is a brief description of each. For more information, consult the Help files indicated in blue.

The Sentence and 'der Satz' Tab

If the current vocab item is linked to a book chapter, the first two tabs after the mnemonics tab will show the foreign sentence the item was derived from, and the corresponding English sentence, if available. (The name of the non-English tab varies according to the language being learned.). These fields are not editable; they simply show the apppropriately numbered sentence from the linked book chapter. The sentence tag can be modified to link to a different sentence, however, and the entire chapter can be browsed and linked to each item via the navigation buttons under this tab. The book chapter is itself editable; it should be a text file of the form X.chp, where X is an abbreviation of the chapter title and '.chp' is a suffix used by Cerebware. For more details, read 'Linking to a book chapter'.

The Image Tab

The image tab allows users to add images to their vocabulary. This is especially useful for teachers wanting to make the learning experience more vivid. The image should reside in the 'images' subfolder (with Cerebware.exe in the enclosing folder); the text field on the image tab should be filled in with the name of the image file, as shown in the picture above. Online images are also supported, and can be referred to with their full internet address.

If the checkbox 'Suitable for text-free testing' is selected, then Cerebware will sometimes show the image instead of the English translation, and the student will be required to type the name of the object or action in the language being learned. This has some theoretical advantages: by skipping the English-translation phase, there is less scope for first-language interference. Clearly, this approach is only suitable for nouns and unambiguous verbs. We recommend presenting nouns with the definite article and verbs in their infinitive form.

The Audio Tab

The audio tab provides facilities for linking each vocab item to two optional audifiles. These should be in the standard java sound format, with a '.au' suffix. One of the audio files can be a straight-forward pronunciation of the vocabulary item. This pronunciation audiofile can be played with the item when testing in the foreign-to-English direction, but not in the English-to-foreign direction - because it provides the answer. The other, contextual audiofile should generally contain an entire sentence featuring the word, come from an audiobook and match the sentence label for the item. This audiofile is simply a clue: the word being tested does not need to be declined in exactly the same way as in the sample sentence. Because the student has to pick out the word from context, and decline it to match the corresponding English word, this audiofile does nto simply provide the answer and it is occasionally appropriate for this audiofile to be played even when testing in the English-to-foreign direction. See 'Setting up audio'.

The Dictionary Tab

The dictionary tab allows users to look up words in an attached dictionary-database. Currently, this is only available for German.

The Dependencies Tab

In general, learning dependencies should only be set by teachers or advanced users preparing vocabulary content for others. Each vocabulary item can have up to ten 'dependencies' associated with it; these are learning requirements that should be met before this item is presented for the first time. For instance, subjunctive or irregular forms of verbs could be added to a vocabulary list, but held back until the user had learned the standard forms. Plural forms of nouns could be held back until the user had learned the singular form. Complex, multi-kanji Japanese words could be held back until each individual symbol was known. One advantage of this approach is that, as soon as one node of knowledge is established, the program will automatically extend the user's knowledge past that node, revising the base material and linking it to new material. This reinforces the older material and lessens the work involved in assimilating the new material.

To enter dependencies, simply list the words that must be learned prior to showing the item in question. Each word or phrase should appear on its own line within the dependencies text pane. Prior to showing the item, the program will check that at lest one other item is known that uses the word or phrase indicated. Note that, if the Cerebware program is running out of words, the suggestion to hold an item back will be ignored.

The Statistics Pane

The bottom-right corner of the Edit Dialog displays some learning statistics for the current item. In most cases, these are self-explanatory. Next to 'History', however, a five-letter code appears that will be unfamiliar to most users. This code indicates the user's last five exposures to the current item, as follows:
  1. C: The item was answered correctly in the English-to-foreign direction.
  2. c: The item was answered correctly in the foreign-to-English direction.
  3. X: The item was answered incorrectly, with the wrong article provided
  4. G: The foreign phrase was provided incorrectly
  5. g: The foreign phrase was provided partially incorrectly, or correct with a hint
  6. E: The English phrase was provided incorrectly
  7. e: The English phrase was provided partially incorrectly, or correct with a hint
  8. L: The item was looked up
  9. D: The item featured as part of a duplicate pair

More Information

If you have more questions about the Edit Dialog, please contact Cerebware.