Coming from iFlash, some things I like from them
Hi,
I am not sure that these things are taken care of, but here are a list of things that I think could be improved upon to make the program more functional for studying. (My background is that I am only trying this program because iFlash does not have their act together on the stability of their software. It is incredibly functional and I have used it for months. But lately it crashes all the time now.)
1. The default font on mental case is very small....very, very small to the point of being annoying. Is there a way to set this to be larger for all the cards at once, rather than changing them individually? This is slowing me down greatly.
2. Is there a way to set my own grading scheme, and change it to adjust to my learning style? I have not figured this out. It was much easier to do this and figure it out on iFlash (if you are able to do this at all on mental case). If you don't have a way to have a set gain of points when you learn a card, and set the number of points you subtract when you do not know the card, this should be added to your program. I can't tell you how much this has helped me with studying.
3. Can I have total control over how many cards are shown during a given study session? You have the minimum at 10 right now. It would be splendid to have total control of the number of cards that I can study at a time.
3. Space is not used very effectively in my opinion. I get that you are making the cards look pretty and all, but it is a huge headache to try to read pictures some of the pics when I add them in-especially detailed skeletal drawings for anatomy and such. During studying the pics are oh so tiny. It would be awesome to have the biggest size version that fits the screen, while alway having room to see the cards. If you did this in split screen it would work great. I understand that I can double click on the card to make it bigger, but this is another step to do and it's kind of annoying.
4. Is there a way to add the same picture to multiple cards at once? I find myself on many occasions having to click and drag the same pic over and over again. This in turn slows everything down.
5. When you go backward in the cards to check out previous cards, it doesn't default to showing the "question card". It would be nice if, when you went to the left, the first card of a pair was shown. Then I can go learn even if I am going backwards. In fact it would be great if (like in iFlash) the answer is only shown if I prompt it. Right now it appears as though there is no option but to scroll through the answer card to proceed forward. Again, this is about given us the option to see the answer. Some times I want to flash forward a bunch of cards without seeing the answers to all the cards in between.
Again, thanks for listening. If there are immediate remedies to these problems I am having please let me know.
Best,
Daniel
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Support Staff 1 Posted by drewmccormack on 07 Oct, 2013 06:51 AM
Hi Daniel,
1. You can't change the font size system-wide, but you can create your own templates with larger fonts, and use those for your notes. To do this, setup a note just how you like it. Flip each facet over using the settings (cog icon) button. Set a larger font for each one. Then save the template using the stamp button at the bottom. Double click each of your stacks, and set this new template. Apply the template to existing notes.
2. Mental Case takes a different approach to iFlash for grading systems. We only use scientifically-proven schemes. The intervals we use are from scientific studies, and the algorithm also adjusts dynamically to how you are performing, shortening intervals if you are struggling. This approach is not only easier for a customer, because they just choose their goal, it also results in more efficient study. We have a few different schedules based on different types of goals, and you choose these by double clicking a stack.
3. Choosing the 'Custom...' option for a new slideshow, you can set a maximum size for a slideshow. (See screenshot).
4. You can make your slides almost as big as the screen. Just go to full screen mode using the button top-right in the window, and then drag the bottom-right corner of the visible slide to make it bigger.
5. You can't add the same picture to multiple cards. You could add it to one card, select the card, and choose Edit > Duplicate to make several of them, and then you could fill in other info on each one.
6. You can control how you move through a slideshow using the 5 buttons center-bottom of the slideshow screen. Some are for going forward-backwards one facet, and some are for going forward-backward a full note. Using these you should be able to achieve your goals (eg going back to the first facet of the previous note). You can also hold down shift with the arrow keys to jump a full note back or forward. Finally, note that you can jump many cards at once using the navigation list top-left in the slideshow.
Kind regards,
Drew
2 Posted by Ricardo on 09 Oct, 2013 04:47 AM
For question 3, with regard to the picture being small. I had the same issue. To resolve it I saved the image at double the resolution and then copied and pasted it and my images were much clearer. I think Mental Case imports it to a fixed for the card space, so you can make the card bigger and the pic, but still it wont maximize the image.
Support Staff 3 Posted by drewmccormack on 09 Oct, 2013 06:24 AM
I think what is happening is that MC is respecting the dots-per-inch setting of the original image. Some drawing/photo apps will set this.
If you want, you could send us one of the problem images for testing.
Kind regards,
Drew
drewmccormack closed this discussion on 13 Aug, 2017 07:03 PM.