Remata Help

When Remata starts it tries to show a flashcard. The first time you run it there are no flashcards in memory. Use the menu key and pick "Get cards" to get flashcards into memory. When you pick "Get cards" you see a list of available card files. Pick a file from the list. A dialog asks if you really want to get the file. Push "OK" and the cards are loaded into memory.

Once cards are loaded into memory you see the first card on the screen. On the top you see the "front" of the card. Below the front you see a question mark (?) icon. It stands in the place of the answer which is on the "back of the card. At the bottom left you see something like "Card: 1/37" This means you are on card number 1 and there are 37 cards in memory. At the bottom right you see "Difficulty: 2". Each card is given a difficulty of 2 when it is loaded into memory. When you get it correct the difficulty is decreased by one. When you get it wrong the difficulty is increased by one. When the difficulty reaches zero the card is no longer displayed.

Push the question mark to show the answer on the "back" of the card. Once you view the answer you can move to a new card. You can also mark your answer right or wrong. These are all done with the buttons described below.

Push the left arrow to display the previous card. When you push the left arrow you will see the card number change. For example, "Card: 8/37" will change to "Card: 7/37". If some cards have difficulty zero they will be skipped. In that case you will see the numbers jump. For example, if card 6 and 7 have zero difficulty you will see the display change from "Card: 8/37" to "Card: 5/37". Pushing the left arrow when you are on the first card will show the last card.

Push the right arrow to display the next card. When you push the right arrow you will also see the card number change. For example, "Card: 8/37" will change to "Card: 9/37". If some cards have difficulty zero they will be skipped. In that case you will see the numbers jump. For example, if card 9 has zero difficulty you will see the display change from "Card: 8/37" to "Card: 10/37". Pushing the right arrow when you are on the last card will show the first card.

Push the check button when you get the answer correct. Pushing the check button will decrease the difficulty by one. For example, if a card has difficulty 2 and you push the check, the next time you see the card it will have difficulty 1. Pushing the check button also moves to the next card.

Push the red "x" button when you get the answer wrong. When you push the "x" button it will increase the difficulty by one. For example, if a card has difficulty 2 and you push the "x", the next time you see the card it will have difficulty 3. Pushing the "x" button also moves to the next card.

The menu allows you to do other things. "Get cards" gets new cards into memory. It is described above. "Show card list" shows all the cards in memory in a list. It is good for a quick review or checking what cards are loaded. "Help" shows this help page. "About" gives brief information about Remata.

Card files are stored on your phone's SD card, which is named "/sdcard". When Remata is first loaded it looks for a directory named "Remata" on the sdcard. From there it tries to load card files. Files may be downloaded from your computer to the sdcard/Remata directory.

The simplest way to create a Remata csv card file is with a spreadsheet. Both Excel and OpenOffice Calc can be used. Put one card on each row. Put the card fronts in Column A and the backs in Column B. Save the file as a comma separated (csv) file.

If you don't have or don't like spreadsheets, you can create Remata csv card files with any program that creates and edits text files Notepad, WordPad, MS Word and OpenOffice Writer can make such files. For many programs like Worpad, MS Word or OpenOffice Writer you need to tell the program to save the file as a text file. In all programs, if you use foreign characters (like Koine Greek) you must also make sure that the file is saved as unicode text. These are options on the save panel when you first save the file.

When you create Remata csv files with a text editing program it must follow a specific format. There must be one flashcard on each line. On each line put the data for the front of the card first. Follow the front material by a comma. After the comma put the data for the back of the card. If the card data contains commas, surround the data with double quote (") marks.

Some files, especially for Koine Greek, can be downloaded from the Remata Website. The Remata Website also provides more help in creating your own files.