Card in Hand
- Introduction
- The Leitner
CardFile System
- The Card in Hand
Handheld Application
- What is a Deck?
- Installation
- Registering
- Making a New
Deck
- Editing a Deck
- Reviewing the
Deck
- The Card in Hand
Import/Export Desktop Utility
- Overview
- Installation
- Editing Decks
- Adding
Cards
- Editing
Cards
- Deleting
Cards
- Categories
- Adding
Categories
- Modifying
Categories
- Importing
- Importing
CSV & TSV from a Spreadsheet
- Exporting
- Backing up
Decks
- On Macs
- On Windows
- Glossary
- Upgrading from FlashCards
Introduction
The Card in Hand
is a cleanly designed flash card
application. It automates the flash card learning process and
streamlines creation and
editing of flash cards on the handheld with stylus, handheld keyboard,
as well as on the
desktop. To speed the learning process Card in Hand tracks which flash
cards should be studied for you.
Card in Hand is based upon the Leitner Cardfile system. The Leitner
Cardfile
system was concieved by the German psychologist Sebastian Leitner in
the 1970s
as a way to automate an automatic selective learning process. The basis
of the
Leitner Cardfile system is that flash cards you learn are successively
culled
from the deck of flash cards as one studies them. This ensures that the
studier
is selectively learning from their deck of flash cards; they are only
studying
flash cards that they do not remember.
The Leitner CardFile
System
Leitner's basic
setup is fairly simple: categorize flash cards based upon how many
times they've been answered correctly. First, set aside a number of
bins
and labelled from zero on up. Put all of the flash cards into the
bin labelled as the zero bin. Take all of the cards from a bin, and
review them. For each flash card, if it is recognized put it into the
next highest bin and if not, put into the zero level bin. At the end of
a review session
all of the flash cards that are not remembered end up in the level 0
bin, and the rest end up in a higher numbered bin.
This heuristic, of putting familiar cards into the next
highest bin and those forgotten into the lowest level bin, serves to
automatically separate the flash cards by whether they are known or
not. The best known flash cards (recalled correctly several times in a
row) are in the highest
level bin, while the oft forgotten end up in the level 0 bin. By
reviewing flash cards in the lowest
level bin, one studies the flash cards that are the least well known -
the ones that need to be reviewed the most.
If one only studies the flash cards in the lowest bin leads one to
wonder when they should review
flash cards in the higher level decks. This leads us to
additional intricacies: scheduling a review for cards in the higher
level bins.
We facilitate learning via a number of methods, but the key is
repetition. Psychologists have found that within only
a few days of learning a fact we forget it; that we often forget in a
inverse logarithmic manner. By reviewing a fact repeatedly we
can make this 'forgetting curve' less and less steep. The best space of
time between reviewing a particular fact, also known as spaced repetition, is highly
dependent on the sort of facts we are studying, as well as the
student's own
learning characteristics. Wait too long to review a facts and they are
forgotten, a situation which is referred characterized as a high 'recall failure' rate. Don't
wait to re-review facts and then the review will not improve the
'forgetting curve'
appreciably. There is no universal time table for reviewing cards, but
in general as a flash card rises through the numbered bins it needs to
be reviewed less often.
To improve the Leitner Cardfile system each flash card could be
assigned a
time to be reviewed again. The flash card could then be included in
subsequent review sessions, based upon the time it should be reviewed
next. Although this system would help to minimize the
reviewers 'recall failure'
rate, it is quite cumbersome to perform by hand. However, this kind of
book-keeping is very easy and quick for
a computer. The Card in Hand handheld application performs all of this
mundane book-keeping for you.
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At the very beginning all cards
in the lowest # bin.
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After the first review
session...
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If the flash cards in bin 1 are
reviewed all of the cards recalled go into bin 2.
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Card in Hand automatically tracks all of the Leitner Cardfile system's
details for you. It tracks which bin each flash card is in, and
automatically handles any scheduling details for each card. You
benefit in that you selectively learn the flash cards that you do not
know, or need to
re-review - all without having to track the details for each of these
flash cards yourself. Card in Hand
provides you with a summary for each deck of flash cards displaying
your progress
in learning the deck, how many cards need to be reviewed and when more
cards will need to be reviewed.
The Card in Hand
Handheld Application
What is a Deck?
A deck is a
grouping of cards, as you would expect. But, the Card in Hand program
does not force you to use the standard
Question/Answer format for studying flash cards. You can have as many
categories for your flash cards as you want. If you are used to
studying using the Category Method, organizing information into several
categories, you can use Card in Hand to do this as well.
But what is a card? A card is a piece of information which contains
two or more distinct categories of information. For instance, if you
are studying Spanish you could create two categories: an English
category, and a Spanish category. But, you are not limited to just two
categories. If you are studying information about the States of the
United States you may want to know: the states name, its State Flower,
its nickname, or its population. With Card in Hand you can do
this by simply creating categories for each type of information you
want to know, and then select which ones you want to focus your review
sessions on.
Installation
To install, copy all PDB and PRC
files onto your palm
pilot via your HotSync manager.
Note to PalmOS 3 & 4 users: Do NOT install SuperWaba.PRC and
SWNatives.PRC. Instead, install the SuperWaba.PRC and
SWNatives.PRC located in the palmos3and4
folder.
Registering
To register your application tap
on the 'Register' button at the bottom of the screen. A dialog will
appear that accepts the registration key for the application.
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Making a New Deck
- From the Deck List screen,
tap on the button labelled 'New' at the bottom right corner of the
screen.
- Type in a name for the new deck in the dialog that appears.
- The screen will change to the Deck Details screen, where
new cards can be added to the deck.
Editing a Deck
- From the Deck Details
screen, tap on one of the cards listed in the table.
- Tap on the Menu icon and
choose the 'Card' menu, and then the 'Edit' sub-menu. The screen will
change to the Card Details
screen and all of the categories in the table will be prefilled in
with the values of the card.
- To edit values tap on a category listed in the table. The text
field at the top of the screen will be updated to the value of the
category. Change the text appropriately and write an ENTER key, or tap the
button labelled 'Add' to the right of the text field.
- When finished changing the values of the card, tap the button
labelled 'Save' at the bottom of the screen. If you do not wish to save
the changes, tap the button labelled 'Cancel' at the bottom of the
screen.
Reviewing the Deck
There are two ways to review a deck. One may review the deck as a Flash Card Review Session, or as
a Multiple Choice Review
Session.
- From the Deck List screen,
tap on a deck listed in the table: this will bring you to the Deck Details screen.
- Make any changes to the quiz
settings if you need to.
- Tap on the 'Flash' button at the bottom of the screen to review
as a Flash Card Review
Session, or tap on the 'Multi' button to review as a Multiple Choice Review Session.
The Card in Hand
Import/Export Desktop Utility
Overview
The Import/Export Desktop Utility allows you to create/edit your decks,
import decks from third party flash card vendors such as StudyStack and The FlashCard Exchange,
and export your decks. It works on all desktop platforms supported by Java.
Installation
- You must have at least
version 1.3 of Java installed on your computer. If you aren't
sure if you have the latest version you can visit http://www.java.com to find out.
- If you are installing this program from Linux, you may
need manually locate your Java installation files. If your browser asks
you which file to open the link in the next step with, find the
'javaws' program included in the 'bin' folder of your Java
installation. It will be able to open the link provided below.
- Click
on
this link to install the application.
- You will be asked if you want to install shortcuts for the
application, as shown in the screenshot to the right. Click on Yes! This will allow you
to find the application easily on your computer. If you click on 'No'
then you will only be able to access the program through the Java
WebStart application, which is often difficult to find.
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Editing Decks
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Adding Cards
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The top section of the
program window allows you to create new cards. To start, make sure that
the category you want to add text for is hilighted, then type in the
value for the category in the text field at the top of the window. When
you are done typing the answer hit the Enter key, or click on the 'Add'
button to the right of the text field. The next category for the card
is selected once your are done, so that you can type the value for the
next category.
When all of the categories have values the 'Add' button at the bottom
of the screen becomes enabled. Click this button and the card will
appear in the table of cards at the bottom of the screen.
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Adding 'las verduras' to
the 'Question' category...

The next category is selected when you finish!
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Editing Cards
-
To edit a card, select it
from the table in the bottom of the program window, and click on the
'Edit' button at the bottom of the window. |

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Deleting Cards
- Select the card you wish to delete from the table in the bottom
half of the program window and click on the button labelled 'Delete'
underneath the table.
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Categories
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You can modify what
categories the deck has by accessing functions on the menu bar at the
top of the screen. |

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Adding
Categories
-
Click on the 'Add...'
item under the 'Categories' menu at the top of the application window.
Simply type in the name of the new category. The list of categories in
the 'edit'/'add' portion of the window will update to include the new
category you named, and the table of flash cards in the bottom half of
the program window will have a new column with the category name. Note
that all existing cards will not have a value for this new column! You
will have to edit each of them to add values for the new category you
created.
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Adding a new category...
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Modifying Categories
-
To edit/delete a category click on the
'Edit' item under the 'Categories' menu at the top of the program
window. A new dialog box will appear with a list of the categories is
displayed in a table and a text field above the table.
Editing Categories
To edit a category
simply click on the category in the table, and then edit the
description in the text field at the top of the dialog. When you are
done editing the category, click on the 'Done' button to dismiss the
dialog box. The name of the category will change in the main program
window to reflect the new name you gave the category.
Deleting Categories
Simply select the
category you wish to remove, and click on the button labelled 'Delete'.
Note that you must have at
least two categories within a deck at all times. You can only delete a
category if there are more than two for the deck..
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The
window to edit/delete categories.
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Importing
Four types of files can be
opened by the desktop utility.
- CSV & TSV: CSV
(Comma Separated Values) and TSV (Tab
Separated Values) are a simple formatted text file that all modern
spreadsheet applications support. The FlashCardExchange can
export decks in TSV format; however only full members can download
other user's decks. You can download any decks that you create on their
website without
paying the membership fees.
- XFC (StudyStack Data File):
The free website Study Stack
offers a wide variety of flash cards to study cards online through a
web page, which you can also download for free.
- PDB (Palm Database): You can open any
deck created on your handheld.
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You can import files via the
'Open' command...

Pick the type of file to open in the 'Files of type' pulldown in
the open dialog.
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Importing CSV & TSV from a Spreadsheet
Several steps may be involved creating a spreadsheet,
enumerated below:
- Create a new spreadsheet document.
- The first row should contain the names of the categories
that the deck you want to create will have. In the illustration to the
right a deck with two categories is being created: one called English,
and a second one called Spanish. You must
have at least two categories in your deck.
- Each subsequent row in the spreadsheet represents a flash
card. Create as many rows as you want,
- Export the spreadsheet as a CSV or TSV file. There are
several tips that may help you with this process:
- Some spreadsheets will export strings with single or
double quotes around them, which you may not want (all of your flash
cards will be quoted). You can disable this by specifying no quotes
around strings during the export process.
- If any of your flash cards have commas in them, use the
TSV format. If your flash cards contain tabs and commas, consider
replacing the tabs with another character.
- Make sure that when you export your document that it has
the correct letters appended to the file name. If you create a file
with commas separating the values of the commas, the file should end in
'.csv'. If your exported file used tabs to separate values, the file
should end in '.tsv'.
- If you get error messages importing your TSV or CSV file.
- Open the file (it is just a text document, you can do
this with any kind of text editor). Verify that if the file ends in
'.csv' that commas are used to separate the values, or that if it ends
in '.tsv' that tabs separate the values.
- Make sure that all of the cells in your spreadsheet under
the categories you created contain values! If they don't consider using
some place filler, or setting exporting the file with single or double
quotes around strings.
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Creating flash cards in a
spreadsheet...
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Exporting
Once you are done importing and/or editing your deck with the desktop
application, click on the 'File' menu item at the top of the window and
select the 'Save As...' item in the drop down. You can save your deck
as a Palm Database, or export it to CSV or TSV formatted data files.
Warning! Exporting your deck as a CSV or TSV formatted file does not
include the Leitner data for your deck! It only contains the names of
the categories and the values of the categories for each card. This
will not be a problem for you unless you try to reimport the CSV or TSV
file (all of the learning data, if any, will be lost).
Backing up Decks
Whenever you sync your handheld with your computer all of the files on
your handheld are backed up to your computer, including your decks.
Where the decks are backed up is highly dependent on the program you
use to HotSync. If you use Palm's HotSync application, if you are using
a Mac or Windows this is most likely the case, you can expect to find
your files in a standard place.
On Macs
On a Mac you can find the backups of
your handheld files in "Documents/Palm/Users/".
There is a folder within it that is named based upon the account name
you use on your handheld. For example, I have two different accounts I
use on my handhelds, 'Test Account' and 'Dane Summers' and there there
is a folder for each of the accounts in "Documents/Palm/Users/". One is
called 'AccounT', the other 'SummerD'. The folder is named
after the last name of the account, minus the last letter, with the
first initial of the first name of the account appended to it.
You will find the decks within this folder, in the 'Backup'
folder. All of your decks have 'STACK-' prepended to the name of the
deck.
On Windows
On the Windows platform you can find
the backups of your handheld files in "C:\Program
Files\palmOne\". There is a folder within it that is named based
upon the account name you use on your handheld. For example, I have two
different accounts I use on my handhelds, 'Test Account' and 'Dane
Summers' and there there is a folder for each of the accounts in "C:\Program Files\palmOne\". One is
called 'AccounT', the other 'SummerD'. The folder is named
after the last name of the account, minus the last letter, with the
first initial of the first name of the account appended to it.
You will find the CardInHand decks within this folder, in the 'Backup'
folder. All of your decks have 'STACK-' prepended to the name of the
deck.
Upgrading from FlashCards
If you are upgrading from FlashCards to CardInHand for the
first time
you need to manually remove the old FlashCards application yourself,
with care. If you use the standard 'Delete' in the Applications program
on your Palm you could accidentally delete all of your decks too! Use a
file utility like Filez
to delete the program to ensure you only delete the program, not the
data files.