|
What is Swot?
Swot is a simple utility to help you learn
languages. Maybe you are studying a language now. Maybe you
are going on holiday and want a refresher.
One way to help remember lists of words
is by repetition. Every so often, read a word and translate it.
Swot pops up with a word from time to
time which you have to translate. You can learn while you work.
If you get the word wrong, it will show
you the correct one. It also keeps a score of how many you got right. |
Opening a Language file
Select File/Open. Choose a language
directory (eg German) and choose a file (eg colours.txt). The name
of the selected file will appear at the top of the Swot window. |
Choosing Settings
Beep on Question
Plays a beep on the computer to let you
know a question is being asked. Useful for those days when you fall
asleep at the keyboard!.
Interval
This sets how often a question pops up.
Either enter the number of minutes or use the arrows to change the number.
Random Order
If this box is checked, questions are displayed
in a random sequence. If it is unchecked, they are displayed in the
order of the language file.
Reverse
If this is checked, questions are asked
in reverse and you have to translate from your native language back to
the foreign one. I found this quite hard!
Auto Reverse
If auto reverse is checked, you have to
translate one way (foreign -> native) and when all the words have been
translated, you have to translate the other way (native -> foreign).
Do we really need this punishment? |
Do I have to pay anything?
Nope. Swot is free. You may
distribute the installation file to anyone you like. You may not
distribute individual parts of the program to any other party.
Swot is copyright Image Applications Limited 1999.
|
Creating your own language files
The format of the language files is blindingly
simple. The syntax is:
for example:
- schwarz=black
- weiss=white
- blau=blue
To create a new language in Swot, perform
the following steps:
- In Windows Explorer, create a new folder
(eg Italian) under c:\program files\write image\swot. So the new
directory would be c:\program files\write image\swot\Italian.
- From the Windows taskbar, select Start/Programs/Accessories/Notepad.
- Type in a list of words in the same format as below:
| |
rosso=red
nero=black
azzurro=blue
marrone=brown
verde=green
giallo=yellow
grigio=grey
porpora=purple
rosa=pink
bianco=white
|
- Choose File/Save and save the file as Colours.txt in the folder
c:\program files\write image\swot\Italian
- Start Swot and choose File/Open.
Double-click on the Italian directory and choose the file colours.txt
|
|
Choosing The Character Set
If your are using a non-European
language, you can change the character set for the question box to any
one of 19 fonts. The following list are supported:
| Name |
Description |
| ANSI |
ANSI characters. |
|
DEFAULT |
Font is chosen based solely on Name and Size. If the described font is not available on the
system, Windows will substitute another font. |
| SYMBOL |
Standard symbol set.
|
|
MAC |
Macintosh characters. Not
available on NT 3.51. |
|
SHIFTJIS |
Japanese shift-jis
characters. |
|
HANGEUI |
Korean characters
(Wansung). |
|
JOHAB |
Korean characters (Johab).
Not available on NT 3.51 |
|
GB2312 |
Simplified Chinese
characters (mainland china). |
|
CHINESEBIG5 |
Traditional Chinese
characters (taiwanese). |
|
GREEK |
Greek characters.
Not available on NT 3.51. |
|
TURKISH |
Turkish characters.
Not available on NT 3.51 |
|
VIETNAMESE |
Vietnamese characters.
Not available on NT 3.51. |
|
HEBREW |
Hebrew characters.
Not available on NT 3.51 |
|
ARABIC |
Arabic characters.
Not available on NT 3.51 |
|
BALTIC |
Baltic characters.
Not available on NT 3.51. |
|
RUSSIAN |
Cyrillic characters.
Not available on NT 3.51. |
|
THAI |
Thai characters.
Not available on NT 3.51 |
|
EASTEUROPE |
Includes diacritical marks
for eastern european countries. Not available on NT 3.51. |
|
OEM |
Depends on the codepage of
the operating system |
To change the font, simply include a
line as the first line of your language file for example:
CharFont=SHIFTJIS
or
CharFont=TURKISH
Which will set the character font
to Japanese or Turkish, respectively.
Note that you will need the required font installed into Windows in order to display it.
Otherwise the display will just show rubbish.
|
Hiding Swot
You can drop Swot onto the taskbar
by selecting View and Hide
after Go. You may want to do this to stop the application 'getting in the way' of
your normal work. If Hide after Go is checked, the application will dissapear onto the
taskbar when Go is clicked.
To restore Swot, you can double-click on its icon, or right-click on the icon and choose
Restore.
|
| What's
new?
Version 1.08
-
More Czech words,
updated Slovak words and now Chinese words! Thanks again to
Pierre-Olivier Duret
from Québec.
-
Fixed a bug that
caused a 'List Index out of bounds' error.
Version 1.07
-
The timer interval
may now be set to 0 for 'continuous questions'
-
The Go/Stop buttons
are now greyed out if they are inappropriate
Version 1.06
-
Support for French Language. Thanks to
Pierre-Olivier Duret from Québec
-
Support for Macedonian
Language. Thanks to DZvonko Nikolov
-
Support for Czech months. Thanks to
James Naughton
-
If you selected a
character font in the words file, it appeared as a question! (Fixed)
Version 1.05
-
The help file was not always loaded, depending
on the current directory.
Version 1.04
-
When you answer a question, Swot now returns you
back to the previous application you were working on.
-
Included support for 19 international character
sets.
-
Added a few more German words
-
You can now hide Swot out of the way on the
Windows System Tray.
-
Now include some
Slovak words. Thanks to Vladimir Svab !
If you create your own files, please send
them to me and I'll include them in Swot in the next release.
You can create these files with NotePad or any text editor. If you create some files,
please share them. Maybe we could all do with learning something.
Enjoy!
Steve Mayall
|
|
