Dictionaries & Language

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/hIntroduction to Memory Builder /mMAIN Memory Builder is a program which can help you to memorize any type of information which can be expressed as a question and answer. Some examples of suitable topics are foreign language vocabulary, geography facts, and math formulas. Memory Builder is essentially computerized Flash Cards. Memory Builder allows you to makes up a Learn file, which is a Windows-compatible file containing questions and answers separated by the '*'. Thanks to Memory Builder's built-in editor, these Learn files can be created with an ease and speed not found in any other memorization program available. Memory Builder has many advantages over ordinary flash cards: 1) Learn files can be made up and learned quickly. 2) Learn files can be stored for any length of time. You will no longer have to make up new flash cards when the finals come around. 3) Learn files can be made into icons which can be started from the Program Manager. 4) Input errors are easy to find because you can look at and correct many questions and answers on the screen at the same time. 5) Memory Builder has a consistent foreign accent interface, so that once you become familiar with the procedure, you can easily enter any type of accent. /hUsing &Help /mALL You will often find the Help Window easier to use when it is put next to Memory Builder on the screen. This can be accomplished by moving the window to an area of screen that Memory Builder is not using. You can leave the Help Window there as long as you like, and several Help Windows can be used at the same time. The font and point size can also be changed. To do so pull down Font, and then click on the font that you prefer. To select the point size, pull down Size and select the point size you prefer. /hUsing Foreign Accents /mALL Accents can be used in all areas of Memory Builder except when entering file names. To type an accented character, you press CTRL and a number from 1-6, release the keys and press the key of the character to be accented. example: You press CTRL+1, release the keys and press e to get Θ. To accent a capital letter simply press SHIFT and the letter as you normally would. example: You press CTRL+1, release the keys and press SHIFT+e to get ╔. The following chart shows which keys to press for the different accents: \l \l CTRL+1 character \l = forward accent [ Θ ] \l CTRL+2 character \l = backward accent [ α ] \l CTRL+3 character \l = hat accent [ ε ] \l CTRL+4 character \l = two dots [ ÷ ] \l CTRL+5+character = [π,⌡] \l CTRL+6+character = [σ,°] \l \lother characters: \l CTRL+1+ c = [ τ ] \l CTRL+1+ n = [ ± ] \l CTRL+1+ s = [ ▀ ] \l CTRL+2+ s = [ º ] \l CTRL+2+ c = [ ⌐ ] \l CTRL+1+ r = [ « ] \l CTRL+1+ p = [ ╢ ] \l CTRL+7+ a = [ µ ] \l CTRL+7+ o = [ ≡ ] \l CTRL+2+ y = [ ■ ] \lspecial punctuation: \l CTRL+1+ ! = [ í ] \l CTRL+1+ ? = [ ┐ ] \l CTRL+1+ " = [ ½ ] \l CTRL+2+ " = [ ╗ ] To accent a capital letter simply press SHIFT and the letter as you normally would. example: You press CTRL+1, release the keys and press SHIFT+e to get ╔. /hUsing The Edit Window /mALL The Edit Window functions like any other Windows Editor except that it allows you to use Foreign accents [see Using Foreign Accents], and make a Persist Icon from an Edit Window [see Persist Icons]. From the Program Menu that is available from an edit window, you can open another edit window [Edit], go to a learn window using the contents of the edit window you have open [Learn], change to Spanish or French [Setup], look at prior drill scores [Scores], massage your mind with colored boxes [Boxes], save your present position in the edit window [Make Persist Icon], close the window [Close], and close Memory Builder [Exit]. From the File Menu that is available from an edit window, you can clear the window [New File], save the contents of the window to disk [Save], save the contents to disk with a new name [Save As], and print the contents on the line printer [Print]. When you attempt to close a window, close Memory Builder, or clear the window, Memory Builder will warn you if you have not saved the contents of the current edit window. When you use Save As and another file exists with the same name, Memory Builder will warn you of this fact. When you click on the Edit menu, you will see familiar Windows functions such as Copy, Cut, Paste, Clear, Search, and Replace. Copy and Cut will remove text to the Windows clipboard. Paste will retrieve text from the clipboard. With these functions, text can be copied, cut and pasted from edit window to edit window. The search and replace windows can be dragged with the mouse to any part of the screen, even outside the Memory Builder frame windows. The Windows window contains standard Windows functions to manipulate windows. Tile means place open windows like tiles on a floor. Cascade means place windows on top of one another so that only the titles of covered windows are visible. Close All means close all Memory Builder windows and leave only the frame window visible. Arrange Icons would apply if you had minimized various Memory Builder windows and had dragged these icons around the screen. Arrange Icons will arrange the icons along the bottom of the Memory Builder frame screen. The Windows window shows all open Memory Builder windows. You can bring other open windows to the top by clicking on the appropriate item. The Help window provides help for topics specific to the Edit window as well as some general topics. The arrows will move the caret within the window. Control End will move to the end of the text. Control Home will move to the beginning. /h Loading a File /mEDIT To load a file pull down the File menu and select Open File. If the editor already has a file, you will be asked if you want to save it. /h Saving a file /mEDIT To save a file pull down the File menu and select Save File. /h Saving a File under another Name /mEDIT To save a file under a different name, pull down File and select Save As. A box will appear in which you can type in the new name. Note: The old file will not be deleted. /h Organizing Learn Files /mEDIT,LEARN To organize learn files for a subject you are taking, you should take advantage of the file management capabilities of Widows and MSDOS. Under Windows and MSDOS, file names can contain up to eight characters followed by a period with an extension of up to three characters (12345678.123). Directories are files which contain other files. For organizing the material you want to memorize, we would suggest that you first make up subdirectories for each subject. For example you might have the subdirectories: D:\mb\SPANISH, D:\mb\GEOGRAP, D:\mb\ENGLISH, etc. This assumes that you have installed Memory Builder on Drive D in the directory "mb". You do not have to put data files in the memory builder directory. You could make up subdirectories such as D:\SPANISH, D:\GEOGRAP, or D:\ENGLISH. Windows and MSDOS do not distinguish between upper case and lower case file names. We give file names upper case letters as a matter of style. Directory names can have extensions, although as a matter of style, we do not give directories extensions. Give your Learn files sortable names. When most Windows programs list files, they will list 9 after 10 since they see the 1 in the 10 before the 0. So, instead of naming two files SPAN9 and SPAN10 it would be better to have SPAN09 and SPAN10 since these files will appear in the proper order when viewed in a file open window. The rule to follow is this: give files which refer to 1 through 9 names which have the numbers 01, 02, and so forth. Another point is that learn files which contain more than fifteen to twenty items are difficult to review when you don't know the material. The rule you should follow would be to put approximately fifteen items in each file, and then start a new file. Learn files should have the extension ".LRN". Example. Your Spanish Book has 30 chapters, and there will be about 30 words in each chapter you will want to memorize. Step 1. With the file manager, make up a Directory called "SPANISH". Step 2. With the editor, make up a new file, and enter 15 or 20 words you want to memorize, separating the question from the answer with a *. Step 3. Save this file with the name "CH01A.LRN" (Chapter 1, file A). Step 4. Make an other new file, and add 15 or 20 more words. Step 5. Save this file with the name "CH01B.LRN". Continue in this way day by day with your lessons. Eventually, you will have a directory of files which might look like this: \l CH01A.LRN \l CH01B.LRN \l CHO2A.LRN \l ... \l CH09B.LRN \l CH10A.LRN \l CH10B.LRN \l CH11A.LRN If you use the "01", "02", for the name of files for chapters less than 10, the file names for chapters 10 and above will sort correctly. And, of course, if you fine some more words for chapter one, you can make up a file CH01C.LRN, and this file will appear in the correct place in the directory. The ".LRN" extension is necessary for Memory Builder to correctly use the Make Icon feature. However, Memory Builder will load any file that is entirely text into the editor, and will try to run any text file through the learn module if you ask it to. /hUsing the Learn Window /mEDIT To start the Learn Window pull down the programs menu and select Learn. If you select Learn from within an edit window, learn will use the contents of that window. Otherwise you will be asked to select a learn file. Learn assumes that questions are separated from answers with the star *, for example, question*answer. A window will appear containing two edit fields. The first, labeled "question" will display the first question in the Learn file, and the second, labeled "answer" is where you must type in the answer. The questions that you answer incorrectly will be marked so that they can be asked again on the second pass. This cycle will continue until there are no questions marked wrong. When Learn decides whether an answer is correct or not, it ignores leading and trailing spaces and more than one space between words. Learn also treats upper case letters as if they were lower case, and vice versa. However, learn does take account of accents. Thus Θ and ╔ are considered the same letter, but e,Θ,Φ,Ω,and δ are all different letters. /hUsing the Learn Window /mMAIN To start the Learn Window, pull down the programs menu and select Learn. If you are not in an edit window, a box will appear with a file listing from which you may select the file you wish to learn. A window will appear containing two edit fields. The first, labeled "question" will display the first question in the Learn file, and the second, labeled "answer" is where you must type in the answer. The questions that you answer incorrectly will be marked so that they can be asked again on the second pass. This cycle will continue until there are no questions marked wrong. /h Using The Edit Button /mLEARN The edit button allows you to edit the current question. Then the Edit button is pressed, the border of the box marked Question will thicken and anther box marked Correct Answer will appear. To edit either the question or answer simply click on the Question or Correct Answer box, and edit the text within. When finished, press ENTER then click on the Edit Button once more. The question will be asked again. Just press ENTER and continue on to the next question. note: An edited question is always marked wrong, and will be asked again on the next round. /h Using the Next and Last Buttons /mLEARN The Next and Last buttons are provided for the purpose of moving back to a question you pressed ENTER on by mistake, or for just moving through the file. Note: Pressing Last after entering your response to a question is not the same as ENTER. The question will be marked wrong. Also, if you are on a round other than the first, pressing Last will take you to the next question in the file, not the next one you got wrong. Exercise caution when using these buttons since you may lose your place in the file through they're use. /h Using Hard or Easy review /mEDIT,LEARN, SETUP In the easy review mode, the learn window eliminates questions after you provide a correct answer, but continues to ask the questions you have missed until you answer every one correctly. In the hard review mode, the learn window eliminates only questions that you answer correctly on the first pass, but thereafter asks the entire list of questions that were missed on the first pass until you answer all of these questions correctly on one single pass. The hard review mode is designed to ascertain that you have mastered material you already know. The hard or easy review mode can be selected in the setup window. The default is easy. /h Using the Error File /mEDIT,LEARN, SETUP Memory Builder adds questions missed on the first pass to a review file. The name of this file can be chosen in the setup window. The error file is never erased, if you need a new blank file, you can either change the Error file's name in Setup, or you can delete the current Error file which is by default "MISSED.LRN". /h Creating Learn Files /mEDIT The Learn file is one of the most important elements of Memory Builder. Each Learn file contains the questions and answers that you will be asked when you Learn a file. Learn files are made up of a question and answer separated by a *. Example: You have a quiz on the verb Avoir in the present tense tomorrow. You would probably make up a file that looks something like this: \l I have*j'ai you(singular)have*tu as he has*il a we have*nous avons you(plural) have*vous avez they have*ils ont \l /h Reviewing a Large Amount of Data /mEDIT,LEARN To review a significant amount of data that you already know to some extent, for example a 1,000 word vocabulary list before you final exam, you might proceed as follows: 1. Review each file in the easy mode, changing the name of the error file when it exceeds twenty words. 2. Review the error file in the easy mode. 3. Review each file in the hard mode. 4. Review the error file in the hard mode. For 1,000 words, the above procedure might take two or three nights two hours per night. At that point, you will have a very high level of mastery of those words. /hUsing the Score Window /mALL When you drill a learn file all the way to completion, Memory Builder writes your score into a score file. You can change the name of the score file in the Setup window. You can look your scores in the Score window. The score window has the following features. If you select an item in the score box by single clicking on the line, you can then load the file into the learn window by clicking on learn, or into the edit window by clicking on edit. If you double click on an item, you can immediately load the file into learn. The columns in Score have the following meanings. "file" The full name of the learn file that you drilled. "user" The name of the user enter in the field "Your Name" in the setup window. "1ok" The number of correct answers on the first pass. "tot" The number of questions in the file. "date" The date you drilled the file. (The last drilled learn file appears first in the Score window. "sec/?" The average number of seconds needed to answer one question. "%ok1" Percent correct on the first pass. /hUsing Memory Builder In French Or Spanish /mALL To change the language that Memory Builder uses do the following: Pull down the Programs menu and select Setup Window. Now click on the button of the language you want Memory Builder to use. /hThe Deep Freeze Icon /mALL The Deep Freeze Icon will "awaken" Memory Builder's previous session. This is useful if you suddenly have to turn the computer off or exit Windows while you're right in the middle of learning or entering your Spanish vocabulary for the next day. To use the Deep Freeze icon, while editing or learning a file, exit Memory Builder by either closing the main window or by pulling down programs and clicking on Exit. When you want to "awaken" Memory Builder, click on the Deep Freeze icon instead of the Memory Builder icon. Memory Builder will start up the editor or learn window just as you left it. /hMaking a Persist Icon /mMAIN,EDIT,LEARN A Persist Icon is an icon that will start Memory Builder with a specified file on a specific question in the editor or in Learn. To make a Persist Icon, pull down the programs menu and select Make Persist Icon while editing or learning the file you wish to make into an Icon. A window will appear containing an edit field and four radio buttons. The edit field is where the Icon's title is entered, and the radio buttons decide whether the Icon will begin in Edit or Lean, and whether it will begin with the current question or the first. /hColored Boxes /mALL The Colored Boxes program was developed by Hans Freidman, a german psychologist as part of a relaxation program to reduce stress in people operating in high stress environments. The program uses a proven technique to lengthen the gama and alpha brain waves, which are believed to affect blood pressure and pulse rate. To use the Colored Boxes program pull down the programs menu and click on Colored Boxes. A window will appear and boxes of varying color and size will begin to enlarge towards the screen. Slow your breathing down to the point where you are letting out and taking in about eight breaths a minute, all the while staring at the boxes. Continue this until your mind goes completely blank. At this point you have completed a lantyographic cycle. The colored boxes program is done, however you may continue with the program as long as you like. /hCautionary notes /mMAIN Memory Builder uses files prepared in a Windows editor. Files prepared in an MSDOS editor will work for ordinary letters but will have the accents wrong. Files prepared on editors that have formats that include embedded control characters (such as Word Perfect) will not run on Memory Builder. The technical name of the file format for Memory Builder is MS Windows ANSI text. The files that come with Memory Builder that have extensions ".HLP", ".REG",and ".DIA" are all text files, and can edited with the editor. However, we would not recommend editing these files, since even slight changes can cause operating problems up to and including a system crash. You should install Memory Builder only with the SETUP.EXE program which comes with Memory Builder. Installing Memory Builder by other means, and using registration numbers from other machines, will cause serious problems. /hHow to get more help /mALL You can write to: \l Ben Smith, Inc, 59 Bartlett Avenue, Arlington, MA 02174 \l or call us at (617) 641 4234. If we are unable to answer the phone, leave a message and we will call you back.