Request/Suggest Flashcard Categories/Cards Selection

[Alexis]

An issue has come up for me while using Pleco to review character's I am learning with Heisig's books. Some of the chapters have an upwards of 100 characters, but I am only learning an average of 5-10 per day. I end up having to add a category to the flashcard test, then skip through a whole bunch of cards that I haven't learned yet while looking for the ones that I have learned. I've partially worked around this by splitting up the large chapters into separate categories. I thought an elegant solution to this would be to to have and option to select categories AND subsets of a category (by allowing card selection). For example, a right arrow (the one that show/hides the categories contents) could appear on the right of each category, and you could select individual cards in that category. The checkmark could appear faded (or use a slightly different symbol) to indicate that only a subset of that category is chosen. If the user just wanted to use categories the way they always have been, they could continue to do so.

 

[tsr]

An issue has come up for me while using Pleco to review character's I am learning with Heisig's books. Some of the chapters have an upwards of 100 characters, but I am only learning an average of 5-10 per day. I end up having to add a category to the flashcard test, then skip through a whole bunch of cards that I haven't learned yet while looking for the ones that I have learned. I've partially worked around this by splitting up the large chapters into separate categories. I thought an elegant solution to this would be to to have and option to select categories AND subsets of a category (by allowing card selection). For example, a right arrow (the one that show/hides the categories contents) could appear on the right of each category, and you could select individual cards in that category. The checkmark could appear faded (or use a slightly different symbol) to indicate that only a subset of that category is chosen. If the user just wanted to use categories the way they always have been, they could continue to do so.

I think the existing solution to your problem is the "Manage Unlearned" option. With that enabled, you only have so many new cards that are shown to you (or none). Also, through card filters, you can review only the cards that you've previously reviewed. The current built-in options allow you to get past the problem you're having right now. These options also make it so you don't have to have so many subcategories to manage the number of cards you review during a session.

 

[Alexis]

I think the existing solution to your problem is the "Manage Unlearned" option. With that enabled, you only have so many new cards that are shown to you (or none). Also, through card filters, you can review only the cards that you've previously reviewed. The current built-in options allow you to get past the problem you're having right now. These options also make it so you don't have to have so many subcategories to manage the number of cards you review during a session.

Thanks for the suggestion tsr.

1) I tried out a session today with "limit unlearned" set to 10. However, I had gotten more than 10 incorrect yesterday, so I did not see any of the cards from the newly added category (I have the Unlearned Card Selection set to "Approx Oldest", since I want to prioritize cards that I have forgotten). However, I still would like to get the newer cards in the loop to start the learning process on them

2) I set Limit Unlearned to "25" to introduce some new cards. This allowed cards from the new category in, but they were randomly selected. This didn't work for me because the Heisig method I am using requires studying the characters sequentially. I am using the flashcards not to learn new characters, but to review characters that I have learned outside of the flashcard system. Thus for me, preserving the order of flashcards as they are ordered in the category would be very useful.

 

[tsr]

1) I tried out a session today with "limit unlearned" set to 10. However, I had gotten more than 10 incorrect yesterday, so I did not see any of the cards from the newly added category (I have the Unlearned Card Selection set to "Approx Oldest", since I want to prioritize cards that I have forgotten). However, I still would like to get the newer cards in the loop to start the learning process on them

2) I set Limit Unlearned to "25" to introduce some new cards. This allowed cards from the new category in, but they were randomly selected. This didn't work for me because the Heisig method I am using requires studying the characters sequentially. I am using the flashcards not to learn new characters, but to review characters that I have learned outside of the flashcard system. Thus for me, preserving the order of flashcards as they are ordered in the category would be very useful.

You'll probably want to set "Prioritize by" to "created". Here is how the manual defines those options:

The Prioritize by option determines how Pleco chooses new cards to introduce when you have fewer than the requested number of unlearned cards - "random" will choose them randomly from all eligible cards, "created" will choose them by the exact order in which they were created, and "approx created" does almost the same thing but will randomly choose between cards created within a day of each other;

I'd like to help you change all of the flashcard settings to make them work the way you want them to. There are a lot of settings, but they allow you to fine-tune your flashcard workflow. How exactly do you want your study sessions in Pleco to work?

 

[Alexis]

You'll probably want to set "Prioritize by" to "created". Here is how the manual defines those options:

I'd like to help you change all of the flashcard settings to make them work the way you want them to. There are a lot of settings, but they allow you to fine-tune your flashcard workflow. How exactly do you want your study sessions in Pleco to work?

Thanks tsr. The "created" option looks quite interesting, but unfortunately I do not have that option (I only have "random", "oldest", "approx oldest", "newest", "approx newest"). I tried using "oldest", but it does not display the cards in creation order (nor do I necessarily want it to test in creation order, because the random sorting guarantees that I am not using the cards order as a memory aid.

Basically here's what I would like. Say I have a new category with 50 cards. Today, I study the first 5 cards in that category from my book, so I want to add those 5 cards (and no others from that category) to the test pool. I would also like to review ALL other flashcards from previous categories. I want ALL the unlearned cards in the previous categories (ie. cards that I got wrong), to show up in the review, as well as the 5 unlearned cards I just added from the new category today.

 

[mikelove]

Thanks tsr. The "created" option looks quite interesting, but unfortunately I do not have that option (I only have "random", "oldest", "approx oldest", "newest", "approx newest"). I tried using "oldest", but it does not display the cards in creation order (nor do I necessarily want it to test in creation order, because the random sorting guarantees that I am not using the cards order as a memory aid.

It changed from "created" on iOS to "oldest" on Android (we added 'newest' and needed to distinguish them), but it doesn't control the order in which new cards are tested, only the order in which not-yet-reviewed cards are introduced. Basically, "limit unlearned" randomly introduces new cards into your "pool" of cards-available-for-testing as you learn older ones - they'll come up randomly sorted in with all of your other cards, they'll just be added to the pool in the order in which they were created.

Basically here's what I would like. Say I have a new category with 50 cards. Today, I study the first 5 cards in that category from my book, so I want to add those 5 cards (and no others from that category) to the test pool. I would also like to review ALL other flashcards from previous categories. I want ALL the unlearned cards in the previous categories (ie. cards that I got wrong), to show up in the review, as well as the 5 unlearned cards I just added from the new category today.

For this level of fine-grained control I'd actually suggest that you manage the review pool manually via a "category filter" in Card Filters. Create a new category for "active cards," add all of the cards from your previous categories to it and the first 5 cards from your new category, then have the category filter "require" that cards be in that "active cards" category. Turn off "limit unlearned" altogether since having both systems working at once will confuse things. With this system, anytime you want to add cards to your active review pool you simply put them in that "active cards" category.

 

[Alexis]

Thanks Mike! The category filter option works very well for my needs. I ended up making an "Ignore" category, setting up my flashcard filter to exclude cards in that category. I then copy over the flashcards from the category that I am currently working on into the 'Ignore', then deleting the flashcards from the ignore category as I learn them.

tsr, thank you too for the info on Limit Unlearned, I will go that route when I start studying the HSK vocabulary.

 

[mikelove]

Thanks Mike! The category filter option works very well for my needs. I ended up making an "Ignore" category, setting up my flashcard filter to exclude cards in that category. I then copy over the flashcards from the category that I am currently working on into the 'Ignore', then deleting the flashcards from the ignore category as I learn them.

Great! The "card filters" screen in general is one of the parts of the system I'm proudest of (and actually one of the most unique things about it) - we try to provide a lot of ways to manage your studies automatically, but those inevitably fail to deliver in some cases and "card filters" is how we make sure you can still get something reasonably close to the behavior that you want.

 

[tsr]

Thanks Mike! The category filter option works very well for my needs. I ended up making an "Ignore" category, setting up my flashcard filter to exclude cards in that category. I then copy over the flashcards from the category that I am currently working on into the 'Ignore', then deleting the flashcards from the ignore category as I learn them.

Great! Glad you figured out something that is working for you.

Here is an alternative approach that doesn't involve manually managing cards (add/move/change categories). Set up two profiles. One profile is for regular study. It is for studying cards that have already been learned (no new cards). Have a card filter set to "include card if #reviewed>0". That way, no new cards pop up. Study that profile whenever you want to study flashcards.
The other profile is for studying new cards. Only study it when you want new words. Set "Max number of cards" to however many you want to learn for that session. Set the category to one that contains new cards you want to learn (or leave it set at all categories, to bring in new cards no matter what category they're in). Set one card filter: Include card if #reviewed = 0. That way, you only get new cards.
This way, there is no need to manually manage card categories to achieve a certain flashcard approach. Click "Introduction" and instantly learn X# of new cards from whichever category you want. Use the regular profile and review all learned cards or focus only on a certain category.
Just another way of doing it.