tag:mentalfaculty.tenderapp.com,2010-10-19:/discussions/suggestions/8299-loss-of-cramcom-import-was-great-for-audio-language-studyThe Mental Faculty: Discussion 2018-10-19T02:24:18Ztag:mentalfaculty.tenderapp.com,2010-10-19:Comment/372969922015-07-04T20:24:15Z2015-07-04T20:24:15Zloss of Cram.com import - was great for audio language study<div><p>Or, perhaps the best option for long term reliability would be
to add the ability to import decks from Anki. Since Anki is
open-source, I think it could be done and you wouldn't have to
worry about having the rug pulled out from under you. I mean, how
long before Quizlet does the same thing? Anki has an add on that
lets TTS audio files automatically load audio translations from
what it reads off of an imported spreadsheet on to the flashcards,
similar to what Cram.com does. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks
like now if I want to test how well I recognize vocabulary by sound
only, some configuration of Anki is now my only hope, since
cram.com's app is too limited. But as I said, your interface offers
the best navigation for testing without having to look at the
screen and see the written words. So if you could add Anki deck
importing, or figure out some similar add-on of your own (like
Awesome TTS), that would be great.</p></div>zeppotag:mentalfaculty.tenderapp.com,2010-10-19:Comment/372969922015-07-05T19:27:51Z2015-07-05T19:27:51Zloss of Cram.com import - was great for audio language study<div><p>Well, Quizlet has lousy navigation for info about its features.
But I finally found via a youtube video that I can create cards by
importing spreadsheet contents just like Cram. But even more
important, I finally found on yet another page via google that
Quizlet does automatically generate audio like Cram. However, when
I import the cards with audio, unlike Cram, the audio does not make
it to the Mental Case app. If you can fix it so we can import the
cards from Quizlet with auto-generated audio as well then that
solves everything for now.</p></div>zeppotag:mentalfaculty.tenderapp.com,2010-10-19:Comment/372969922015-07-22T09:26:08Z2015-07-22T09:26:08Zloss of Cram.com import - was great for audio language study<div><p>Sorry, I seem to have missed this post somehow.</p>
<p>Quizlet does not allow us to download the audio. It is just
generated to play on demand. Quizlet also threatened to pull 3rd
party support last year, so who knows how long that has.</p>
<p>We are determined not to be dependent on others going forward.
We are looking at making our own sharing service, and adding
text-to-speech in our apps.</p>
<p>Would that satisfy your needs?</p></div>drewmccormacktag:mentalfaculty.tenderapp.com,2010-10-19:Comment/372969922015-08-01T03:12:13Z2015-08-01T03:12:13Zloss of Cram.com import - was great for audio language study<div><p>The interesting thing about the way it used to be with Cram is
that an audio file was saved when you imported the card. So that if
you later changed the text, the audio file would not change with
it, since it was a separate file. While this might seem to be a
pain on one hand, it actually offered an advantage on the other
hand. That is, I could delete the text on the prompt card, but the
audio file would remain, allowing the card to test audio
recognition of a foreign language without the "spoiler" of the
written word on the screen.</p>
<p>There is another app I purchased that has probably what you may
be thinking of implementing, which is text-to-speech playback of
whatever the text is on the prompt card. This is a problem for me
because to hear the audio, I have to hit a play button on the
screen, and to hit the play button I will end up seeing the text on
the screen unless I am lucky enough to press the right spot on the
screen without looking at it.</p>
<p>Your current design works great in that the audiofile of the
foreign language is played instantly when you open the card, rather
than having to hit a play button to initiate text-to-speech. Then,
the swipe motion to flip to the answer card is easy to do without
looking at the screen as well. But if I don't recognize the word
and need to see the spelling, then I can look at the screen. If you
could have a setting where you can choose to have the text to
speech read automatically rather than having to hit a play button,
that would solve that problem. If you find you have to use a play
button instead of having the option for it to play automatically,
then perhaps an option to choose a really tiny font on the prompt
card, so small that I couldn't read it, would allow me to play the
audio without seeing the spoiler of the text. But avoiding having
to hit a play button at all is best because I can sit back and
advance through cards with swipes without having to look at the
screen at all. Even grading can be done by feel, without looking at
the screen, the way you currently have it set up.</p>
<p>I had planned on testing my audio recognition of words
separately from my reading recognition, since in real life you have
to recognize the audio without the text. The way those audio files
used to load when importing Cram was an awesome time saver, but
unfortunately, they stopped allowing it just before was ready to
load a bunch of decks for audio testing.</p>
<p>By the way, I still wish there was a wifi sync option for those
like me with only one iOS device and an iMac. if that could be
added back as a feature so those of us that want to use the desktop
app for editing can avoid the problems of cloud sync that plagued
it it would be awesome. I don't study the cards on the desktop app,
only edit them. (Or used to before I quit using it because of the
cloud sync issues). So even if the wifi just allowed a sync of the
contents of the files without syncing the grading/scheduling status
of the cards, that works for me.</p></div>zeppotag:mentalfaculty.tenderapp.com,2010-10-19:Comment/372969922015-08-01T06:24:36Z2015-08-01T06:24:36Zloss of Cram.com import - was great for audio language study<div><p>In terms of a play button, you could probably study you describe
just by learning a keyboard shortcut to play the audio. That way
you don't need to look at the screen.</p>
<p>Having to write a custom wifi sync just for those with one Mac
and one iPhone would be a lot of work, and I fear that is probably
only a few percent of our customers.</p>
<p>What we have done instead is add a direct uploading and
downloading sync, rather than the old one that would slowly
transfer data in the background, and we will also allow you to
select which stacks to sync. Hopefully that means you can just
select your active stacks to sync to iPhone, and leave the ones
that you aren't actively working on on the Mac until you need
them.</p>
<p>Kind regards,<br>
Drew</p></div>drewmccormacktag:mentalfaculty.tenderapp.com,2010-10-19:Comment/372969922015-08-04T02:45:18Z2015-08-04T02:47:53Zloss of Cram.com import - was great for audio language study<div><p>I, and from what you say, most of your customers, don't study on
the mac, but use the iOS app instead. So a keyboard shortcut won't
work there. (The other app I use that has the play button is an iOS
app) If the audio will play automatically when the card is flipped
to, then that's fine. I'm hoping you DON'T add an audio play button
on each card when you add Text to Speech-- prefer automatic. The
other thing that might help if you do end up having to use a play
button like your competitor's flashcard app is have an option to
change the font color of the text to the same (or near the same)
color as the background, effectively making it invisible. Then I
could create one set of cards and copy them to a second deck to
test and schedule my audio recognition separately. For the second
deck I could perhaps use a single format command for the whole deck
to change the font color of the prompt, and for the original deck I
could just turn down my volume if it interfered.</p>
<p>Is the direct uploading and downloading sync something you added
in your recent updates, or something that you will be adding in the
future?</p></div>zeppotag:mentalfaculty.tenderapp.com,2010-10-19:Comment/372969922015-08-04T08:09:38Z2015-08-04T08:09:38Zloss of Cram.com import - was great for audio language study<div><p>Direct upload/download will be in our next major release, which
we are finishing up now. It's a major release.</p>
<p>On iOS we currently have the top of the screen to replay audio.
Maybe that could double as the text to speech area. If you tap that
and there is no audio, it would TTS instead.</p>
<p>I think that is better than a button for your use case, because
the top of the screen is a large tap target. You can do it without
looking.</p>
<p>Automatically playing TTS wouldn't really work, because that
would force people to use it all the time. Or we could add a
slideshow setting, perhaps in the custom slideshows, which is off
by default, but can be toggled on.</p>
<p>Kind regards,<br>
Drew</p></div>drewmccormacktag:mentalfaculty.tenderapp.com,2010-10-19:Comment/372969922015-08-04T15:31:47Z2015-08-04T15:31:47Zloss of Cram.com import - was great for audio language study<div><p>The top of the screen area, as you say, sounds like it will be a
good target to tap without looking. I guess automatic TTS would
interfere if people wanted to listen to music while studying. I
didn't think of that.</p>
<p>All these features sound great, so I will give the new release a
shot. I would love it if I can get back to editing and adding new
cards via the desktop.</p></div>zeppo