Title:	    Tagaini Jisho - Quickstart
Subtitle:   Quickstart Guide to Tagaini Jisho
Web:	    tagaini.net
Author:	    Neil Caldwell
	    Alexandre Courbot
Date:	    Mon Dec 21 2009
Email:	    ncaldwell@alumnaie.net
Copyright:  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0.
            http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
CSS:	    
Format:	    complete
Language:   english

Tagaini Jisho Quickstart Guide
==============================

** THIS GUIDE IS OUT OF DATE **

This is a short quide to Tagaini Jisho. This document is here to give you a
brief walkthrough of Tagaini's interface, giving you a small document to help
you through the program so you don't have to read the entire usage manual just
to look up a few words.

This guide was last written for version 0.2.6 of Tagaini Jisho. Unfortunatly
that means that if you have an old version, some of the information found in
here will be incorrect for your version. Though you may find it similar in
many ways to older versions, we still recomend getting the latest version from
the [Download][dlpage] page.

Tagaini does several things:

* Primarily, it is a dictionary Japanese-Language dictionary program. This
  means that Tagaini allows you to search for Japanese terms, or for terms in
  the language of your program (several are offered,) and get translations for
  them.
* Tagaini has vocabulary and kanji training and memoriesing facilities.
  Tagaini will keep a list of vocabulary you wish to study and will display
  flash cards for you to memorise, as well as other methods of learning.
  Tagaini also has other ways for you to orgainse entries, such as with tags.

[dlpage]: http://tagaini.net/download

Main Window Overview
--------------------

The main window revolves around dictionary searching. When opened for the
first time it will contain four main sections: The Search Filters; The Results
View; The Detailed View and the Lists Panel. The Lists Panel can be moved
around the window, or seperated to be come a floating window, as can the
Toolbars. 

The Search Filters
------------------

At the top of the window, by default, is the filters toolbar. It contains all
the search filters, as tabs, which open above the results view on the filter
pane. 

First it allows you to select which dictionary you wish to search, either both
dictionaries with the `All` entry in the drop down box, which is the default,
or through either the `Vocabulary` or `Kanji` dictionaries. 

### Text Search Filter

By default the `Text Search` Filter is open. It allows you to enter terms to
be searched for, in either Japanese or the language of your program. Just ener
the text you wish to look up and click the search button, or press enter.
While tagaini is searching for your terms the icon at the right of the window
animates. Clicking it allows you to cancel the ongoing search in case it takes
too much time.

### The Study Filter

This tab contains filters for the results by their study state. One can choose
to only display results that are studied, or those that are not. In addition,
when studied results are displayed, one can also filter by score, date of
inclusion in the study list, or the date they you last got the entry wrong.

### The Tags Filter

This filter lets you filter the results by tag. Enter a list of tags (or
choose them using the combo box on the right) and only entries that have
these tags will be displayed. 

### The Notes Filter

This filter shows only entries which have a note that contains a given set
of words. When you type a string into the text field then all notes will
be searched for that string. 

### The JLPT Filter

This filter displays only entries belonging to a given JLPT level. Be
aware that the JLPT lists are *not* official, and that words and kanji from
the upper level are often randomly included during the examination. Therefore,
this list does in no way claim to be totally accurate!

### The Vocabulary Filter

Settings in this filter let you control filtering properties that only apply
to vocabulary entries. Kanji entries are therefore filtered out when one of
the settings in this filter is active. You can enter a list of kanji that
the word must contains, or choose to only display words which are entirely
made of kanji you are studying. It is also possible to filter words by their
grammatical function, the local dialect they belong to, and other settings.

### The Kanji Filter

Using this filter, you can precisely search for kanji. The following
parameters are available:

* Stroke count: show only kanjis that have a given stroke count.
* Components: enter some kanjis in this text field, and only kanjis containing
  them will be shown.
* Unicode: lookup by unicode.
* SKIP Code: lookup by skip code.
* Four Corner: lookup with the four corner method.
* School grade: choose the school grade from which a kanji is learnt.

The Results View
----------------

The results view is the window underneigth the search bar. When you make a
search, the results are listed in this window. When you click on a result it
is displayed in the detailed view. 

By default, results are displayed by pages of 50 entries. There is a next and
previous button to navigate between pages, or you can click show all to list
every entry found. 

The list of entries inside the results view is also called a set. They can be
saved so that you can find them again latter. This can be done from the sets
menu, where you will find all saved sets. 

The Detailed View
-----------------

The results view only lists a small amount of information: How it is writen;
The entries reading; A few meanings. As the entry is listed with others so
that you can find the right one, the detailed view is used to show you the
complete entry. To open a word or kanji in the detailed view just click on it
in the list. 

When you do that the third window, under the results view, will show the
seleceted entry with more information that is listed. Extra pieces of
information include the Part of Speach, which is whether or not the word is a
verb, noun or something else. They are the grey abreviations above the
meanings. Holding your mouse over them will display a full discription. 

In addition, you will also get interesting information about related entries. 
For transitive or intransitive verbs Tagaini will automatically try to fetch
and display the counterpart of the verb and homophones, so the entry for
上げる references 上がる. 

The detailed view also has a toolbar with left and right arrow buttons for 
navigateing between entries. Each reference has a magnifing glass to the right
of its defintion. These icons are links that you can use to navigate to that
entry. Any and all kanji in the detailed view are references to the entry for
that kanji. Clicking kanji entries, by default, brings up a popup with a small
amount of information about the kanji and a stroke order animation, if one is
available. A magnifing glass is available from here to link you to the kanji's
entry. 

![Kanji popup](images/tagaini_kanji_popup02.png)

Your Study List
---------------

The study list is a simple way of tracking entries you wish to learn and
memorise. As you come accross entries that you do not know you can chose to
add them to the list. To do that, you can use the blue flag on the detailed
view or right click on the entry in the results view and select `add to study
list`. If you want to add entries that you already know to the study list,
then you can click the green flag, or right click on the entry and chose
`already known` from the context menu.

![The Context Menu](images/tagaini_context_menu.png)

You have probably noticed that the background color of the entry in the
results view has changed as you added it to your study list. Every entry in
your list has a score ranging from 0 to 100 assigned to it, and the background
colour represents it. This score illustrates your level of mastery of the
entry. A score of 0 (the default when you choose "Add to study list" means you
want to remember the entry, but do not yet know it. On the other hand, a score
of 90 or more (the default when you choose "Already known") indicates that you
perfectly remember it. The background of a studied entry is fully red when its
score is zero, but turns to yellow and then green as its score increases.

Entries in your study list appear, by default, before entries that are not
inside the results view. Entries with lower scores are then listed before
entries with higher scores.

Practice
--------

Tagaini offers several ways to help you memorise kanji and vocabulary, hence
the need for the study list. Inspired by [spaced repetition][srwikilink], it 
features a flashcard-like practice that either displays the Japanese version
or the translation of a dictionary entry and challenges you to remember the
other part.

[srwikilink]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition/

Several options can be found in the practice menu. You can either have Tagaini
show you flash cards, from your whole study list or from the current set. The
different options are from Japanese or the translation for vocab and from
meaning or the kanji or kanji entries.

After looking at the flashcard that Tagaini has shown you and deciding if you
remember it or not, you can click answer to get tagaini to show you the rest
of the entry. If you have gotten it correct, then you can press the `correct`
button. This will raise the study score of the entry. If you get it wrong,
then instead click `wrong` which will cause the score to go down. 

![Kanji Flash Cards](images/tagaini_train_kanji.png)

Entries with lower scores will be displayed before entries with higher
scores, which increases the likelyhood of you seeing them. By default entries
can only be studied once per day, so as to avoid influencing the score with
your short term memory. Therefore, if an entry has already been trained today,
it will not appear again before tomorrow no matter whether you replied
correctly or not.

There is also a reading practice mode that shows you a vocabulary entry and
asks you to type the reading, and then tells you if you where correct or not.
The reading must be typed in kana, so either in ひらがな or カタカナ. Romaji
is currently not recognised by Tagaini Jisho. When you get an entry incorrect,
it will show display `ERROR` in big red letters and show you the whole entry.
If you get the entry correct then it will display the word `correct` in
green and moves on to the next entry.


![Reading Practice](images/tagaini_train_reading.png)

Tagging and Notes
-----------------

Tags, an ever more popular method of organising pictures, music and blog
posts, can be used to organise entries in Tagaini Jisho. They allow you to
group entries according to your logic, and not some arbitrarily-decided
similarity. You can use them to to tag your studied entries by similarity of
meaning, pronunciation, idea group, kanji shape, or anything else that makes
sense to you. Tagging an entry is possible through the results view right-click menu and the training window.

Notes, on the other hand, let you complete an entry with your own thoughs. You
might want to make notes about particular usage of the entry or special forms
that are not displayed in the dictionary entry or are not obvious. Like tags,
notes are available from the results view right click menu, the training
window and the detailed view's toolbar. You can have several notes associated
with an entry. To add one, click `new note`, then select the note that has
been created and type in your thoughts in the lower part of the window. Don't
forget to click Apply before closing the window, otherwise your notes won't be
saved.

Saved notes appear as a post-it like frame in the detailed view of an entry.
Entries do not need to be in your study list to be tagged or annotated.

Exporting your entries for external study
-----------------------------------------

### Printed Material

Unfortunately, you cannot bring Tagaini everywhere with you. However, the
printing option gives you a possibility to continue studying even when you do
not have a computer around.

![Booklet pages](images/tagaini_booklet.png)

The booklet from the displayed results in the File menu. It will print a
foldable booklet inspired by the [Pocketmod][pmlink] on a single standard
sheet on paper. To fold it, follow the instructions of the following video:

[pmlink]: http://www.pocketmod.com/

<div align="center">
<object height="344" width="425">
<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IAb31rIeGZo&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1">
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IAb31rIeGZo&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" mce_src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IAb31rIeGZo&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425">
</object>
</div>


A typical usage is to select entries which you mitaken during training using
one of the options in `Search -> Mistaken`, to print a booklet out of them, and
study them while you are commuting.

### Tab-separated file

This option in `Results -> Export` allows you to export the current set into a
format that you can easily import into another software. It was initially
designed for Anki, but will work with any software that supports importing
items in that format. The entries are exported in table of entries, with every
field seperated by tabs. Three fields are exported;

* Field 1 to Expression
* Field 2 to Reading
* Field 3 to Meaning

Finally, click import. You can now train the exported entries from Anki.

それでは。。。
--------------

You should now know everything you need in order to start using Tagaini Jisho
efficiently. Please don't forget that this is still an early version - check
the website regularly to see when updates are available. There is an [rss
feed][rsslink] you can watch to see the progress, as well as a [google
group][mailinglistlink] for discussion. Please feel free to submit your
suggestions there and [report bugs][bugslink] to the Github interface. Have
fun with Tagaini Jisho!

[rsslink]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/TagainiJisho "rss feed"
[mailinglistlink]: http://groups.google.com/group/tagaini-jisho "mailing list"
[bugslink]: https://github.com/Gnurou/tagainijisho/issues "github bug tracker"
