User Manual

Overview

A quick start guide is available online: View the Quick Start Guide

An overview of Easy Hanzi's features is available on the website: What is Easy Hanzi

The practice screen

Starting a session

To start a new session, click on 'New session' in the 'Practice' screen. From there, you can setup your flashcard session:

• Selecting session's decks

Select the decks to be included in the session by clicking on them. You can include more than one by pressing CTRL while selecting the decks.

• Choose the session type

Easy Hanzi offers three types of session to choose from. In all these sessions, you will be shown a card with a missing component (e.g. it will show the pinyin and definition but the simplified characters will be hidden). The game is then to guess the missing part. The three types of session are as follow:

1. Multiple-choice questions: As the name say, you are shown a card and you need to choose the right answer among the proposed options.
2. Type-in questions: For this session type, you are shown a card with a missing component (e.g. pinyin or definition) and you need to type-in the answer.
3. Self-assessment: This is the "non-automated" session. You are shown a card with a missing component and need to guess the missing part. You then click "Correct" or "Wrong" depending on your guess.

• Choose the session type

This is only relevant for MCQ and type-in sessions. Here you choose the element you want to be quizzed on. For example, if you want to practice remembering Chinese characters, you can choose "Simplified" or "Traditional".

• Choose what you want to practice

Show or hide the items that you want to practice by checking / unchecking them. For example, if you want to practice remembering the definition, uncheck the 'Definition' checkbox. If you want to practice remember the characters, uncheck the 'Character' box, etc.

• Spaced repetition learning technique

Spaced repetition is a learning technique that helps you practice more efficiently. When spaced repetition is enabled, Easy Hanzi will show you the cards you remember with difficulty more often, and those that you remember well less often. In most cases, you want SR to be enabled but, if not, you can disable it here. Once the session is setup, click on 'Start' to launch the session.

Running a session

The session will be different depending on the session type you have selected. In all cases, you will be shown a number of cards and will have to guess either the Chinese characters, pinyin or definition. If you get some cards wrong, they will be shown again at the end of the session, and again until you get them right. You can stop a session at any time - the results are recorded automatically (no need to save).

The manage screen

On this screen you can manage your decks and cards - you can create, modify or delete them.

• Managing decks

To delete or modify a deck, right-click on it and select 'Delete' or 'Properties'. You may also change the order of the decks using drag and drop.

You can also create deck folders to group related decks together. Deck folders can only contain other decks, they cannot contain cards.

• Managing cards

To delete or modify a card, right-click on it and select 'Delete' or 'Properties'. You may also change the order of the cards using drag and drop.

Card properties

This dialog box allows you to create new cards or to modify existing ones.

Each card can contain a character, a word or a sentence.

If the option to automatically fill the form is on, Easy Hanzi will try to lookup the definition and, if it finds one, fill the fields automatically. Note that it might not always be possible to find the definition - in that case, you may input it manually.

Dictionary

Basic usage

The dictionary allows you to look up words by typing Chinese, pinyin or English.

In the cases where a word could both be pinyin or English (for example "he" or "song" can both be English or pinyin words), the dictionary will first show the results using the pinyin word, then you can switch to English by clicking on the "Search instead for..." link.

Advanced features

• Audio playback

You can check how a word should be pronounced by moving the mouse over Chinese characters or pinyin. In the popup that opens, select "Play audio"

• View example sentences

From the same popup, select "View example sentences" to check how the Chinese word or character should be used in a sentence.

• Radical lookup

The dictionary lets you search for characters by radical. To do so, type "radical:" in the search box, then type the radical. For example, "radical:?" will show all the characters that include the "?" radical.

• Character lookup

If you search for one Chinese character only, a box with detailed information about this character will be displayed.

Options

Main options

• Export cards

Easy Hanzi lets you import and export cards. To export a deck, right-click on it and select "Export". You can also export all your cards from the Option menu.

• Import cards

To import cards, select this option. You can either import the cards only, or the cards and the card scores (i.e. this is the score generated by the spaced repetition algorithm while you are learning).

• Print cards

To print a deck of cards, you can either use this option or right-click on a deck and select "Print...". The printed cards are in a format that you can easily cut.

Option dialog

• Language

Choose your language here.

• Character mode

Here you can choose whether you want to display simplified or traditional character, or both, throughout the application.

• Chinese font

Choose which font you would like to use to display the Chinese text in the application.

Keyboard shortcuts

Easy Hanzi defines a number of keyboard shortcuts:

Practice screen

• F: Flip the current card.
• C: Correct.
• W: Wrong.
• L: Listen to Chinese word or sentence.
• D: Search for this word or sentence in the dictionary.
• S: Stroke order.
• P: View or edit card properties.

Manage screen

• Ctrl+N: Create a new card or deck.