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- The Vocabulator (c) is a program which helps you overcome one of
- the biggest problems in learning a new language -- the fact that
- you have difficulty in learning pronunciation and structure
- because you do not know enough VOCABULARY.
-
- The Vocabulator (c) helps you overcome this problem by giving
- you a "flip card" display of common words and phrases.
-
- The Vocabulator (c) uses Industry Standard Menu Selection
- and Navigation standards.
- The Cursor (arrow) keys will move you around the screens
- to edit and view data.
- <F1> will invoke relevant help screens.
- <Esc> will abort the current operation, and return you to the
- previous higher level of the program.
-
- The various Vocabulator (c) options are selected by a "Menu"
- of options. You select the option by moving the highlight to
- the option you wish to execute, and then press <Enter>.
- A quick method of making this selection is also provided -
- simply press the first letter of the menu option you wish to
- execute, and the option will execute directly.
-
- The various Vocabulator (c) options are described in more
- detail below.
-
- THE PROMPTING ROUTINES:
-
- The Vocabulator can prompt with YOUR LANGUAGE WORD, where you
- want to translate into the foreign language, or with the
- FOREIGN LANGUAGE WORD when you want to translate back into
- your own language.
-
- You can speed up, or slow down the prompt speed as your
- proficiency in the language improves. You do this by pressing
- the up and down arrow keys while in the prompting routines.
-
- As you begin to learn more words, you will find that some well
- known words continue to prompt, which tends to waste time,
- and make you feel frustrated. Press <Enter> when such a word
- is displayed in the prompting routines, and the word will be
- removed until you decide to restore it.
-
- This "hiding" routine is also useful when you have just
- started with the language - you may well find that there are
- so many words that they are not repeated often enough for
- you to learn them quickly. All you then do is press enter
- when the more difficult words are displayed, until you have
- a small enough list of words which you can learn quickly.
- When you have learnt these words well, reinstate the other
- words in order to learn them.
-
- During prompting, you may often find that you are confused,
- and wish to think about, or look at previous or similar words.
- To do this, press <Space> in the prompting routines, which
- will halt the prompting process. You can then look at the
- previous few words which are still displayed on screen, or
- browse through your vocabulary database by pressing <F1>.
-
- ADD/EDIT WORDS ROUTINE
-
- The Vocabulator (c) is supplied with databases of about 500
- words for a number of common languages. This list has been
- recommended to us as THE MOST USEFUL list for a beginner in
- a language. If you develop your knowledge beyond the scope
- of this list, this routine allows you to add, edit, or
- delete words as you wish.
-
- You can even generate your own new language database by
- means of this routine as follows:
-
- Exit to DOS, and log to the Vocabulator Directory
- Type COPY BLANK.MAS <Name of your language>.VOC
- Type COPY BLANK.ORD <Name of your language>.ORD
- Reenter the Vocabulator (c), select your new
- language, and build up a database of the words you
- want to learn.
-
- REINSTATE HIDDEN WORDS
-
- If you have hidden words in the prompt routine, and now
- want them to be returned to the prompting list, execute
- this option to restore them
-
- PRINT WORDS
-
- If you want a hard copy of your Vocabulary database, use
- this routine to print the words out.
-
- You can choose to print out the database alphabetically
- in either your language, or the foreign language.
-
- CORRECT CORRUPTED FILES
-
- In the unlikely event that you find that your data seems
- to be corrupted, and words seem to be missing, or
- duplicated, use this option to attempt to correct these
- problems. NOTE: These problems should normally only
- happen after a power failure while you are editing words.
-
- BACKUP DATA
-
- If you have made modifications to any of your language
- libraries, you will want to make regular backups to floppy
- disks. To do this, make sure you have a formatted disk
- in drive A:, and then execute this option, which will copy
- your selected Language Library to the floppy disk.
-