September 12th, 2009· improved scores, new image column, sound recording, better support for alternative answers
August 31st, 2009· The scores in Voca 4 can become negative. They range from -10 to +10 and start at 0. Each correct answer raises the score with one. After a wrong answer the score is reset to zero and then it can go negative. Low scores no longer rise faster than high scores. The new scores give a better idea of how well you know a word, and scores are better spread.
· The selection of questions in an exercise has been improved. The chances for words with different scores are better spread. Words with low scores got better chances. And Voca 4 tries to prevent that a question is asked again immediately.
· In Voca 3 the score of a grammar field was the average of the scores for all grammar categories. If you had to give six verb inflections and you got one wrong, your score would be 83%, probably higher than your mastered score, although you didn’t actually know the complete inflection of the verb. Therefore, in Voca 4, scores of the grammar field are correct or incorrect.
· Some words have more than one correct translation. Voca 3 already had some support for such alternative answers, but this has been extended. In self-check and open question exercises, you will always see all correct answers. If you know some of the alternative answers, the scores for those answers will be updated as well. If your word list contains duplicates, the score of all duplicates will be updated at once.
· There is a new column for images. They can be used just like sounds: in questions, self-check answers and multiple choice answers.
· You can record sounds in Voca. In the Sound column you will see a record button. However batch recording as in Vocatude is not yet possible.
· The exercise settings in the preferences are now stored with the word list, and they appear along with the exercise types, so all settings related to exercises are grouped together. In the Word List menu, you can choose Exercise Settings. It contains two tabs: Exercise types and Other settings (these are the settings that were previously in the preferences).
· The default exercise type has become Self-check: Both directions, instead of open questions. This is because open questions require you to type a lot and without mistakes. For starting users, self-check exercises are more convenient. Of course you can still change it to open questions. In the menu choose Word List | Exercise Settings.
· Sometimes the score panel went missing in an exercise. This happened when the Voca window was minimised and then restored. This has been fixed.
· In Windows Vista, the foreign characters bar didn't work. This has been fixed.
· Many other small fixes.
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