Cheers, Truant.
Jan 2006
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I have built a database of all the words and phrases from Practical Audio Visual Chinese Book 1 (Also known as the ‘Shi Da’ books)
One of the main reasons was to create printable flashcards. I’d previously thought about hand writing them but there are 936 of them, for book 1 alone!
I have created one set each for A4 and Letter paper sizes, and am hosting them on my domain. Feel free to download and print them (page by page if you need to) I’ve put some cut marks on the corners so you’ll get best results using a guillotine or ruler and box cutter.
To study, you should be able to obscure the bottom half to test yourself. Here’s a screen shot of what a sheet of 9 look like:
Note: the downloads below are over 400kb, so if you want to download just to ‘look’ at them, just look above /\ (and when you do download, right click and select ‘save target as’)
Thanks, Truant. I just started studying again, thanks to you. I can use about 75% in my day to day, but I sure make a lot of mistakes… Better get busy…
drc
I’m just experimenting with an online version of the flashcard database for Book 1
You need to use Internet Explorer as your browser (I think because it is generated in MS Access). It’s not pretty, but it’s an online resource to help learn.
EDIT: I took the link down because it is doesn’t work well enough to share yet
I found that a font called DFBiaoKaiShu-B5 is the font they use in the book.
Maybe I can figure out how to change the font in Adobe Acrobat,
then rebuild the file with the font included in the .pdf.
Earlier versions of Acrobat had trouble with asian fonts, I hope
it is fixed now that they are on version 7.
Any plans for book 2…?
I’ve been using a flashcard program called VTrain, I think I found out
about it on Forumosa, paul-raedle.de/vtrain/home.htm
It seems to support flash card printout, though maybe the first issue
is how to import rather than how to export. Really though, old fashioned
cards like you’ve contributed majorly are probably fine.
I found that a font called DFBiaoKaiShu-B5 is the font they use in the book.
Maybe I can figure out how to change the font in Adobe Acrobat,
then rebuild the file with the font included in the .pdf.
Earlier versions of Acrobat had trouble with Asian fonts, I hope
it is fixed now that they are on version 7.
[/quote]
yeah I agree that the font sucks but actualy finding a better one was beyond me, until now. I like the book font too so I will see what I can do.
Another modification I will make is to bring the cut lines together so just a few cuts does the job.
Thanks for the input, and I am glad lots of people are using them. The number of downloads is well into the hundreds according to my domain stats. :bravo:
[quote=“Truant”]I’m just experimenting with an online version of the flashcard database for Book 1
You need to use Internet Explorer as your browser (I think because it is generated in MS Access). It’s not pretty, but it’s an online resource to help learn.
EDIT: I took the link down because it is doesn’t work well enough to share yet [/quote]
This is probably asking a lot from Access, might be one of those situations where it ends up faster just to type it all in rather than dick around with the software… but I wonder if you can plug it into the internet so people can ADD stuff to the database, and collaboratively build flashcards for Book 2. Or any book really.
[quote=“Toe Tag”][quote=“Truant”]I’m just experimenting with an online version of the flashcard database for Book 1
You need to use Internet Explorer as your browser (I think because it is generated in MS Access). It’s not pretty, but it’s an online resource to help learn.
EDIT: I took the link down because it is doesn’t work well enough to share yet [/quote]
This is probably asking a lot from Access, might be one of those situations where it ends up faster just to type it all in rather than dick around with the software… but I wonder if you can plug it into the internet so people can ADD stuff to the database, and collaboratively build flashcards for Book 2. Or any book really.
We could look for answers or post questions here maybe. utteraccess.com/
or here databases.about.com/od/tutorials … access.htm[/quote]
I did have a quick attempt at putting it online as a DB, but the MS wizard to do that supports only (surprise surpise) IE browsers. A couple of other bugs and I lost interest.
I found some of the data for this DB on the web suprisingly, so I will dig a bit more for book 2 and beyond.
I have built some pretty complex DBs over the years with VB gui bits and all sorts.
This DB is so freaking simple, it’s feels too emabarassing to share. (1 table, 1 form, 1 report). But when I get a moment I have another look at it,
Thanks for that font Toe Tag. Lemme get that done first and you never know book two might pop out sooner than you think.
OK, thanks to Toe Tag sourcing the excellent font for me , I have updated the flashcards so they now use it. It’s the same font as the book, and much easier to read.
I have also tightened up the layout so the cut marks between the cards are the aligned, which = single cuts. :bravo:
Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you solve the “registration” problems so that the database print layout is perfectly centered and symmetric… then it becomes possible to create 2 different “front” and “back” .pdf files, and with luck, flip the paper over, run it through the printer again, and get 2-sided cards. The sort order for the back side of the cards may be tricky though; not entirely sure Access is up to it, unless you add a special field to sort on (calculated using mod 3 and mod 9). I wouldn’t mind seeing 12 on a page, card stock is costly here. OK I’ll stop now. I’m trying to avoid actually using those cards. Its great, I bet you can see from your download count you have made a lot of people happy.
Thanks Truant. As others stated above, no more excuses. Those are great.
They’ve got lots of different paper at Kingstone books. In fact, I’m going over there in a few minutes to pick up 104 sheets myself, so I can print out the cards. I did a trial run just now of one page on standard paper, and cut out the cards, but I agree, heavier paper would be better.
I just wanted to add my thanks to Truant :bravo: for doing an admirable job! (You kicked my a$$ in gear to start studying again!) Flashcards are an indispensible part of learning a language! (Of course that truism may only be true because I can’t learn languages to save my life!)
Here’s to hoping you Flashcard the whole Chinese language!
Some xerox stores here will do the whole job for you. Just hand them a floppy with the file and say “do it”. Print and cut. At 8 cuts per sheet those giant slicer machines are the way to go. You can do this with other files too, just have them make a book for you.
(and when you do download, right click and select ‘save target as’)
