Thank you for all your comments concerning technical issues, that is very helpful!
Besides of that, we are also interested in your general opinion about the new version.
What do you like in the new version?
What did you like better in the old version?
Are there things you don't understand?
Are there new things in this version that helped you to understand the general Stackz concept?
Feedback of this type is highly appreciated as it will help us to structure the manual.
I like having the Stackz I am editing, the Kanji Information, Kanji selection and the Dictionary all on one screen. Especially since I am creating cards for my class, it makes it very easy. I found the program very intuitive to use. I have yet to look at the help file from the 06 version. Since I am primarily a Palm user, and take the Palm with me, I like the color coding, I have my own system, but it works. I wish I had this when I was learning Russian.
I would like to see an easy way to delete a wordlist from the Palm. It would be nice to be able to search for a word on the Palm that is in the stored wordlists. Of course, a dictionary on the Palm would be nice. I have one now, but it's not very effective. All in all, I like the program. In the short time I have had the program, I have used it alot.
Changes, in 07 Standard Edition, that I like:
The sliders on the color bars.
The option to deselect the toolbars, for an extremely simple appearance.
The option to choose the simplest GUI theme.
The persistence of all settings, window positions, etc.
Changes I don't like:
The folding menus.
About the manual or help files:
1. Until I started using Stackz, I didn't fully understand the excellence of the way your test dialogue works with regard to the configurability of the ordering and sequencing of the fields. Partly because I was new also to *Chinese study*, I did not realize how much this mattered. I saw the screenshot, and tried the demo, but did not fully appreciate it.
2. Before I selected Stackz, I was unnecessarily bothered by the five box limit to a lesson. I think its important that you explain how easy it is to coordinate more than one open file (...Window...Tile), perhaps showing a screenshot too. I am *completely* happy now with Stackz's flexibility in this regard, but this was one factor I had previously thought was a negative. I like having instant and complete control over the cards in the highest ranking box, or any box, and I don't want them to go farther than I permit. Stackz feels very much like having physical cards in front of me, while other programs are unnecessarily autonomous and mysterious.
As a long-time user of Stackz (since the earliest released versions), I must say that I love what you've done with the '07 version so far.
The new look really adds a pleasant new aesthetic to working with Stackz.
By far the best new feature is the example sentence integration. I'm really impressed with how you've handled and developed this. It has turned out even better than I originally anticipated or envisioned. This feature alone adds to the usefullness of Stackz tenfold in my opinion. I've been testing beta-1 and now beta-4, and I have noticed that you no longer have to manually highlight the word from the test dialogue if you do not want to. Rather, you can just hit F11, F6, etc. with each new card. This is another welcome alteration, and it also gave me an idea. Since I generally find myself cycling through the cards in the test dialogue using the arrow keys with my right hand, and hitting F11 with my left every time to view any accompanying example sentences for the word, I thought, why not have a checkable/uncheckable option for the program to automatically scan the sentence database with each card, and eliminate having to press F11 every time for those who use Stackz this way? I thought I'd throw this idea out there for you to consider anyway.
I generally am not that concerned about these sort of things, but I also have to add that the unexpected addition of then GUI themes, is also an appreciated new feature. As a person who uses Stackz for several hours at a time every session, I found I really liked being able to change the contrasting colour scheme from time to time. Thanks for adding this.
Although there are some Stackz functions that I really don't use much, so I don't have any particular opinion on them, the only mild complaint I have about the current version is that two of the bugs I brought up in the Alpha test thread (the floating window text offset & the Japanese name file issue) are still present in beta-4. I described these in fair detail in that thread already.
Great job! Truthfully, Stackz is one of only a handful of programs out there that keep me using Windows regularly. Otherwise I'd be using OSX 95% of my time.
I also have used Stackz for a long time now and I was pretty excited to test out the new beta. My first experience is with version 5a.
I have to admit I was highly skeptical when I first used the beta. Especially the sluggish performance was the first thing I noticed. I have to say my PC is rather old (Athlon XP 1700+ = 1.47Ghz, with 1GB of RAM, running Windows XP), but I can run more "bigger" programs like MS Office, Photoshop without the slow feel. So why a more simple program like Stackz have to feel so slow, I don't know. I soon found out that it had to do with the new GUI that made it feel sluggish. So I am glad to see that I could change it back to the native Windows XP theme. This made the sluggish feel less.
I did notice that when the native XP theme is chosen, that the dock assist icons no longer appear when you drag a window around. I liked this option with the other GUI themes, since it allowed me to precisely dock the windows. Now with the XP theme it is harder to see where your dock ends up. But I guess this is the price I have to pay for a faster feel of the user interface. Not a big problem.
And perhaps you may consider adding a smaller icon theme? The icons on the toolbar seems so big, even on a 1280x1024 resolution. The new dockable dictionary and kanji info is a great addition to the beta, so I have them constantly docked on the sides of the screen. But combined with the big icons in the toolbars, it all gets a bit crowded. So now I've just disabled all toolbars and just use the menu's. Also not a big problem, but having an option to choose small icons for the toolbar is preferable.
I also noticed a graphics glitch (with any GUI) in the Test dialog. The buttons on the bottom (the buttons to declare a card known/unknown or to put it back on the stack) do not show the background properly. I can provide a screenshot of this if needed.
But despite all my criticism, I am glad to see Stackz is still being developed and the dockable dictionary and the example sentences make a very good addition to an already great program. Thanks!
Hi,
Just installed beta 5a, after 07-4, no problem installing. Runs great.
I like the muliple card copy feature. I used to copy 1 card at a time.
I'm amazed at the import capability. With the paste HTML option it's able to suck up study material off the internet like a vacuum cleaner.
It still doesn't remember "Maximum Local Stack Elements" though.
In the future I'll be looking for integrated audio and slide show capabilities since stackz is still a work in progress. [please]
For integrated audio I'm using B4YKI (before you know it) and for slide show I use V-TRAIN. Did I just say 2 bad words?
I recomend that STACKZ be installed on all of those "OLPC" computers[one laptop per child] to help the kids learn. http://laptopfoundation.org/en/index.shtml
Am I asking for too much?
gigapops