IFlash - Great Mac software for making flashcards

[Chinese Learner]

Hi,

I thought I would recommend iFlash as a great Mac program for makin flashcards. What's great about it is that you can have more than two sides to a card and even better you can attach soundfiles to cards.

I have started making Flashcards using 'A Key to Chinese Speech and Writing, Vol. I' by Joel Bellassen to make the flashcards and then I am getting sound files from http://hua.umf.maine.edu/Chinese/welcome.html and then attaching them to the answers. It takes time but it's great.

http://www.loopware.com/iflash/

Just thought I'd share my new toy.

[optical]

The price is apparently 15 dollars to register it otherwise you just get a 15 day trial. Next time put this kind of information in your posts.

[Chinese Learner]

Gee whiz. I'm sorry I mentioned anything at all. I didn't know there were rules about such things.

Wow...talk about rude.

Next time you put in a request like that please say 'please' or don't they have manners where you come from?

[imron]

$15 isn't all that unreasonable if you find the software useful.

If you're looking for a free alternative (as in both beer and speech), consider Anki.

[vr2nr]

I am now utilizing iFlash for the Mac. Building sentences in Chinese. It works great and could well be an integral part of my entire learning approach, including exporting to mobile devices, etc. (I hate working on small screens when "building" the cards). The 15 dollars is nothing compared to the potential value, but I do understand money issues are out there for many. Personally, I would be happy for any one guiding me toward a useful platform, even if the description is lacking in the details. I can do the investigation from there. Seems that is always the case for me anyway.

My focus with iFlash is in getting information in, and then exporting out to Pleco. My ultimate goal is to get iFlash and Pleco on my iPod Touch. I understand both companies are working in that direction.

[Slimm]

Thanks for the tip 'Chinese Learner'.

How did people ever learn this language before the computer?

I have been using 'Mental Case' for the last few months as a flashcard app for my Mac and iPhone/iTouch which it sync's with. Works great for Chinese and includes 'spaced repetition'. I design the cards on the Mac (sure beats doing them on my palm like back in the supermemo days) making heavy use of the 'screen shot' function for attaching images of characters which I type into Word first in a font I like.

I'm studying Chinese full-time in Taipei and have found this app to be invaluable. It's well designed and fun to use. It doesn't have audio support however. Other details you can check there website. And yes, you need to pay for it

[vr2nr]

My current process is

1) development on iFlash on the Mac because it is MUCH easier to develop cards there. all the management of the cards is there. I have more than two sides to the cards. pinyin / hanzi / english definition. I also record each sentence in Native chinese (you need a friend and they could rip through your sentences reallly fast in iflash.

2) export of the cards to Pleco on my palm... GREAT program, handles the multiple sides of the cards. It also allows you to click on words and characters and get definitions, practice writing, stroke order, etc. You cannot do that with current flashcard programs on the iphone. I will not give it up even though I have an iphone.

3) Once #1 is done, I can easlily run the lists to export just the audio using Wiretap pro... i say the english and then I play the audio from the native speaker that was recorded in iFlash. So I have an MP3 file that I can export to my audio player.

[Slimm]

Yeah I'm still packing my Palm just for the Pleco. Can't wait for the iPhone version, my pockets will be so much lighter

[vr2nr]

One other point, on a Mac, it is really easy to export iFlash to Pleco. Basically you just export to text (making sure the card setup is right (by default it is not... you need %1 TAB %2 TAB %3" for the export line. where %1 is hanzi, %2 is pronuciation/pinyin and %3 is definition in English. Also, Card number one hanzi should be "//whateveryouwanttheimportcategorytobe"

There are issues if the hanzi already exists in your cards (I think)...

[jollibee]

Yeah, iFlash is great. Also, there are more three good apps for flashcards on Mac: mental case, startr and gflashcards.

[icebear]

iFlash is alright, but I don't know why someone would pay $15 for the desktop version when Anki is free (and just as capable, if not more so). I say this as someone who finally switched from iFlash to Anki last year (I didn't know about Anki a few years ago).

[fortune_cookie]

I have both Anki and iFlash and I prefer iFlash tenfold. I wish iFlash it were more popular though, seems I'm always the one making the cards. Anyways, it's fun making cards with iFlash because it's so easy. I use Audio Hijack to grab audio from goolge translate or a website. The buttons are easier for iFlash too since you can just use the arrow keys to navigate. I still haven't learned how to navigate Anki with just the keyboard, it's not as intuitive. Anyway, that's my 2 cents.