Help File For Kanatran
Copyright Michael P. Calligaro
http://www.mystikeep.com

Kanatran is a flashcard program for studying Japanese.  It has been compiled for
three systems, Windows NT/95, Windows CE on Mips Processors and Windows CE on
SH3 processors.


Installation:
To use it you will need the appropriate program, as well as the Power Japanese
Kana fonts, and at least one data (.kan) file.  Installation is simple. Download
the files and unzip them (I assume you know how to do that).  Put the program in
the directory of your choice and put the .kan file(s) in any directory you'd
like (though it will be easiest if they're in the same directory as kanatran).

You also need to install the two PJ Kana fonts.  On Windows NT and Win95 this is
a simple matter of going to the control panel and dragging them into the "Fonts"
folder.  For Windows CE, you need to connect to your Handheld PC with HPC
Explorer, navigate down to the fonts folder (My Handheld PC->Windows->Fonts),
and drag them into that.  If it asks you which sizes to use, make sure you
select 16, 18, and 20 point.  You can select others as well, but Kanatran needs
those sizes.


Running Kanatran:
To start Kanatran you just need to doubleclick the kanatran
icon.  This will start it without loading a data (.kan) file.  From there you
can pull down File->Open and select a data file.  A better method, however, is
to set up shortcut icons that load the appropriate files.  For instance, if you
have put kanatran in c:\japanese and want an icon that starts kanatran and loads
the jpp.kan file, create a shortcut for kanatran and in the "Target" field make
it say "c:\japanese\kanatran /f c:\japanese\jpp.kan" without the quotes.


Using the program:
There are two main views when in the program.  In the first, you can see a list
of the words in the file.  Pull down show and put checkmarks next to the kinds
of text you want shown.  For instance, I have english and kana on, but no
romaji.  Note that you can not view Kanji in this list mode.

The other view is "Quiz mode."  Pull down Quiz and put a checkmark next to "Do
Quiz" to go into Quiz Mode.  Here you will see one word at a time and can see
Kanji.  There are four buttons on the screen in Quiz mode, and the arrow keys
also mimic the buttons.  Next goes to the next word.  Prev goes to the previous
one.  Answer scrolls through the list of answers (ie, from Kanji to Kana to
English) and mark "Marks" the word (more on that later).  Hitting "Home" on the
keyboard scrolls to the first word on the list and "End" jumps to the end.

You can select which language to show first with the options under the Quiz
menu.  For instance, if you have "English to Japanese" checked and do not have
"Kanji First" checked, it will show you the word in English.  When you hit
answer it will show the word in kana.  Hit answer again and it will show the
word in Kanji (if there is one).  Hit it again and it will go back to English.
 
If you do not have "English to Japanese" checked, then it will first show kana
then English then Kanji.  Selecting "Kanji First" will make the kanji (if there
is any for that word) go first.  Selecting "random first" will make it randomly
choose between kana and English.

Now, every time you load a .kan file, it will put the words in the order of the
file.  Pull down "file->randomize" and it will scramble the order of the words.
Do it again and it will randomize them again.  The only way to put the words
back in their original order is to close the program and start it again.


Marking:
The idea behind "mark" is that any word you miss during the quiz you can
"mark."  Then you can pull down Show->Only Show Marked and the quiz will skip
passed any non-marked words.  A common thing for me to do is randomize a list of
words, go through them marking any I miss, then say "only show marked,"
randomize again, and go through just the ones I've missed.  Hitting mark a
second time clears the mark.

Note that on a slow drawing screen (especially on an HPC) if it has to skip
passed a large number of words it can take a bit of time.


Finding: 
As I added more and more vocabulary words to the files, I started
wanting to use the program as a dictionary of the words I knew.  So I added a
find feature.  It should be self-explanatory.


The .kan files:
I've separated them into four groups for my own purposes.  Jpp.kan is all the
words we've currently been quized/tested on in my class (Japanese Program for
Professionals).  I generally don't try to study from it as it has gotten to big.
Instead I use it as a dictionary.  In some cases words that have kanji
equivalents (in the kanji I've learned) also have their kanji in Jpp.kan.
However, I added the kanji feature recently and didn't go back and totally fix
the jpp.kan file.  Kanji.kan is all the kanji we've learned so far.  I use it
specifically for studying kanji in quiz mode.  Verbs.kan is all the verbs I've
learned so far conjugated in plain, masu, plain negative, plain past, and plain
past negative (jpp.kan just has plain and masu forms for the verbs).  Week.kan
is a short list of the words for this week's vocabulary test.  (Obviously, I
update these files weekly.) Just before a midterm, it'll be the new words for
that midterm.  All these words are also in jpp.kan, but it's easier to study
from a small file.

I MAKE NO GUARANTEES THAT I TRANSCRIBED THE WORDS CORRECTLY!  If you find any
errors, please let me know (mikecal@mystikeep.com) though.  That probably means
I'm studying them wrongly too.  (-:


The format of the .kan files: 
If you'd like to enter your own words into the kan
files, you can edit them with any text editor.  However, there are limitations
to what you can do.  The format is as follows.

You can not mix hiragana and katakana on the same line.  For a hiragana word,
the format is
english@romaji
For a katakana word, the format is
English#romaji

Romaji must be typed just as it is shown in hiragana/katakana.  For instance,
thank you is "doumo arigato" not that bastardized "doomo arigato."  To make a
little tsu, double the next consonant (kitto for ki little tsu to).  To make a
little ya, yu, or yo, do what you'd expect.  Ie, kyo, shu, cha, nya, hyo, myu,
etc.  In katakana, you get a doubling vowel bar by doubling the vowel. "Koohii"
becomes ko-hi-.  I haven't implemented most of the little a, i, o that you
sometimes see in katakana, with the exceptions of the fa, fu, fe, and fo.  In
general, I haven't found much need to study katakana.

Kanji is more limited.  You are allowed at most four kanji on a line, and they
must be at the START of the word.  You can not do hiragana kanji hiragana in a
line, nor can you do kanji hiragana kanji.  You CAN do kanji hiragana though.

Worse, the method for distinguishing the kanji is with their unicode numbers. I
suggest you look at the kanji.kan file (as all implemented kanji are in there)
to see how it's done.  Basically, you put down the 4 digit unicode numbers and
then romaji.  Put a ` mark (the grave accent) after the last romaji syllable
that is used by the kanji.  For instance to do Taberu (where the ta has a kanji
equivalent) the line looks like this "to eat@98DFta`beru"
98DF is the unicode number for the ta in taberu, and the ` tells kanatran not to
show everything before it when showing the kanji.

Look at the examples and you should get the hang of it.