Welcome to Kanji Slideshow!
This gadget has been designed for use as an additional study aid rather than as the primary learning tool. I personally use Stackz by MindDate Software and KingKanji by GakuSoft, but there are many other fully functional Flashcard programmes out there to help you in your studies.
Its purpose is to help utilize all those free moments you have whilst at your computer, such as waiting for programs to load, downloading files, printing documents, etc. Glancing at the cards during these times (i.e. regularly) should help them to sink in.
File Types:
This gadget opens EUC encoded EDICT formatted text files.
If you use KingKanji you can open the .kf files directly from the gadget settings page.
My personal preference is to use exported Stackz files. The main benefit of the Stackz system is it is very easy to find the cards you are struggling with. You can them simply highlight the troublesome Stackz and choose “export to file..” then choose “[EUC] EDICT formatted text”. This file can then be opened from the gadget settings page.
You can also use a Japanese Word Processor to create or edit the files, such as the freely available JWPce. The file needs to be saved with EUC encoding in the format shown below:
kanji_1 [reading_1] /translation_1/
kanji_2 [reading_2] /translation_2/
and so on. There can be multiple words within each section, but it should be noted that to keep in line with the way KingKanji works, additional forward slashes anywhere in the text are shown as colons. It may help to look at the example file example.txt, which by default, is stored at
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\KanjiSlideshow.gadget
Navigation:
This gadget is set to automatically advance to the next card at the time interval set by you.
If you wish the cards to remain static and use manual control of navigation (see below), set the interval to 0.
There are backward and forward buttons provided at the bottom of each card to allow easy navigation through the pack. Pressing on the left arrow will show the previous card. Likewise, pressing on the right arrow will move on to the next card. After pressing either button, the cards will resume automatic advancing at the set time interval.
Hint: You can also use the keyboards left and right arrow keys to navigate once the gadget is active (i.e. after you have clicked somewhere on gadget, changed gadget settings, etc).
Display:
You can set each part of the card to display in any font you have on your system. Each part can use a different font and be displayed at a different size.
The font name should be input as is its displayed in a word processor (not case sensitive). If the font name is left blank, or misspelt, or it isn’t installed properly, then that part will be shown using the default font chosen by your system.
The gadget height can be adjusted and is the same whether it is docked to the sidebar or not. The width settings is only for when you have dragged the gadget off the sidebar. If you drag the gadget back onto the sidebar, it will change back to the width of the sidebar.
To maximise space you can hide the navigation bar. You can still navigate the cards by clicking the gadget then using the arrow keys.
The settings for the gadget are held across reboots and opening and closing the sidebar, but not if you close off the gadget or for additional instances. So if you really do get the gadget in a mess by changing the settings, simply close it off and add another instance to the sidebar – it will then load with all the default values. Alternatively, add another instance and check my default values against your settings.
Hint: If you don’t want this gadget to appear so prominently, like all gadgets, you can right-click on it and choose a lower opacity level. When you put your mouse over it, it should come back to full visibility.
Get out of Jail Copout:
Please note that, myself, and therefore this gadget, are not associated with either of the companies mentioned earlier. I have created this independantly and am just someone studying Japanese who finds both their software very useful - especially the Pocket PC versions.
This gadget only ever READs files that you specify and does not access the internet (although clicking the links in this help section should open them in your web browser).
Despite only reading files, you might run into some problems if you try to open a file that is in use by another program at the same time, so it is best to follow common sense and BACKUP any VITAL DATA.
I cannot foresee you having any problems due to this gadget but due to the nature of the world we seem to live in today, I have to try and cover myself, so unfortunately…
THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THIS PROGRAM, I PROVIDE THE PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. IN NO EVENT AM I LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM.
Thanks and Acknowledgements:
The fudemental function of this gadget owes much, if not all, to a section from the Read File into Dictionary module by Tracy Conley.
My main guide in creating this gadget was the marvellous Practices and Hints for Gadgets By Jan Kucera.
I got general gadget inspiration from the Xenography gadget by Kyle Luther.
General thanks for the many free vbscript examples from W3Schools.
The navigation and help Icons are part of the Silk icon set created by Mark James.
Finally, the EDICT file format was created by Jim Breen. Incidentally, if you are still looking for other learning software, check out the almost bewildering number linked from his pages.
Well that’s all. I better get back to my studies, getting this into a state where it is (hopefully) easily useable by the public has taken a massive chunk of time, but has been a useful learning experience for me
I hope you find this gadget useful and I wish you the best of luck with all your endeavours.
Jake