FishCard is a flash card review program. It works like regular flash cards by showing you the question, and when the user "says" he or she is ready, it shows the answer. It also gives the user the option of putting a copy of the card in a separate file to review later. The original version of FishCard was written in early 1996 with HyperCard on the Macintosh. I had an old program called Flash Card which allowed multiple choice review, but nothing like regular flash cards, which just shows the question, then the answer. The intention of the import and export features was to allow simple conversion between the return-delimited Flash Card format and the FishCard format. I decided that a MS-DOS version would be nice, as well, and would make a good first serious entry into the PC shareware market. And here it is. The DOS version has a different interface than the Macintosh version, but the program does the same thing. The file format is cross-platform, so if you can get files between a Mac and DOS machine (not very difficult anymore), the files will work flawlessly. There are a few minor differences between the Mac and DOS versions. In the DOS version, when you ask for the "answer", the DOS version still displays the question while the Mac version does not. Also, the Mac version automatically selects a filename for the Review file, while the DOS version asks for one. As in the Mac version, although FishCard asks for a "Question" and an "Answer", there is no need to stick to this. For example, I have a FishCard file where the "Question" is really a word or phrase in English, and the "Answer" is the equivalent in Spanish. To create new FishCards, select "Create New FishCards" from the main FishCard menu. You will then be asked if you want to create a new file or add to an existing file. Select the appropriate option. You will then be asked to enter a file name. If you chose to add to an existing file, the file name must be the name of an existing FishCard file, which usually end with the extension ".FCD". You will then see the green double box, which is where you work with FishCards. The upper portion is the "Question" area, and the bottom portion is the "Answer" area. When you are entering FishCards, the words "QUESTION" and "ANSWER" appear above each section as a reminder. You type your question, press return or enter, then your answer, then return or enter again. You will be asked if you would like to enter another FishCard. Pressing "Y" will repeat the process until you answer "N", at which point your FishCards will be saved and you will return to the menu. Once you have saved a FishCards file, you can review it at any time by choosing "Review FishCards" from the FishCard main menu. You will then be requested to enter the name of your FishCards file. Once you select the file, you will be shown the first question. When you choose "show Answer" by pressing "A" you will be shown the answer. At any time, you can choose "Stop" and the computer will stop showing the FishCards. While the answer is displayed there is a choice named "Review". The intention of the Review choice is to allow you to select certain FishCards to be reviewed later. This is especially useful if you have a 200 card list, and you only want to practice the 20 you are having trouble with. The cards you select will be saved in a file with the name you enter the first time you select "Review" while going through cards. The FishCard will be kept in the original file as well. The review file is completely independent and does not need the original file. You can also use the "Review" choice on files that are themselves Review files. If you use the "Stop" button, any FishCards marked for review will still be saved. The "Import" option on the FishCard screen allows you to import a return-delimited text file and save a copy as a FishCard file. I created this feature to import some files from an old (1985) program called Flash Card. The "Delete first pair?" prompt is asking you if you want to delete the first pair. Some programs, like Flash Card, use the first entry in their file as prompts. Since FishCard does not use prompts, it offers to delete them. If you choose not to and the file had prompts like this, they will appear as the first FishCard (which could be useful in reminding you what the "question" and "answer" really are). The "Export" option has the exact opposite effect. It converts a FishCard file to a standard return-delimited text file, and offers to allow you to add prompts. Beyond the ability to add to an existing file, there is currently no built-in way to edit a FishCard file, but there is a way. A FishCard file is really a plain text file readable by most word processors (including Edit, Windows Write). However, it can be difficult to edit because there are embedded codes to separate the question from the answer. This is useful if all you want to do is correct a spelling error, or something similar. The easier way is to Export it to a text file, make your changes with any program that supports text files, then Import it back to FishCard. In addition, I plan on adding the ability to edit FishCards into my Macintosh shareware program HyperWorks' Data Base module in HyperWorks 4.0. If you are a software author and would like to know the codes so that you could implement FishCard translation, contact me and I would be happy to assist you. Also, if you are writing your own flash card program and want to use the FishCard format, please contact me. FishCard is free. However, I would still like it if people registered FishCard so that I can notify users of updates. To register, run the enclosed REGISTER.COM program. It will ask for some information, then print out the registration form. There is no need to write anything on the form unless you need to correct an error. Put the form in an envelope and mail it to me at the address below. If you have any questions, comments, bug reports, suggestions, or anything else, you can contact me via e-mail or postal mail. My e-mail address is: dsmueller@besler.org My World Wide Web site is at: http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/1342/index.html My postal mail address is: David S. Mueller 6915 E Seaside Walk Long Beach CA 90803-4559 USA David S. Mueller 3/15/1997