DOCUMENTATION FOR DABAR 1.0 HEBREW VOCABULARY DRILL SYSTEM Nov. 22, 1986 By Daniel Crider INTRODUCTION Like many students of ancient Hebrew, I was having a hard time with learning Hebrew vocabulary. It seemed that every verb in the language was made up of only three letters, and that these could change wildly in the various tenses and stems. In fact, my professor (Dr. Harry Hunt of Southwestern Baptist Seminary) warned us from the very beginning not to try to learn the words by sound, but by sight. Because if you learn the way the word sounds in Qal Perfect 3rd Masc. Singular, you find that it sounds entirely different in Hithpael Imperfect 3rd Masc. Singular. But if you learn the way the word "looks", you can still usually see the root in any form. To me this meant that I was going to learn Hebrew by using flash cards. But I didn't like the store bought sets because their type was usually printed Hebrew, rather than Hebrew script. And their typeface didn't look too much like the hand written Hebrew that I saw on my tests (for the advanced Hebrew student a change in typeface is no sweat, but for us beginners it tends to turn familiar words who are old friends into aliens from another world). So I began to write my own flash cards. But then I found that I began to learn words not so much by their letters as by things like that coffee stain on "'amar" and the extra ink blot that I made on "'aser". I also started losing cards, so I started punching holes in them and using a little ring to keep them together. Now I began to learn them by the normal order I kept my cards in. (Isn't it amazing how many ways our minds can find to cheat in memory work)! I also tried to keep a written list of all my vocabulary words to help me in my translations and in my studies. Naturally, I alphabetized it (or is that Alep-Bet-ized?) by the Hebrew consonants. Which meant that as I learned new words I had to make a new list from scratch. And flipping through vocab cards just wasn't much fun. I wanted some way to learn the words just as words, and some good way to practice the ones I had trouble with, and some easy way to keep vocabulary lists, and maybe some way to actually enjoy learning Hebrew. I don't claim that this program is the perfect solution to all of these, but it sure has helped me in all of these areas. LEGAL FORMALITIES COPYRIGHT 1986 BY DANIEL R. CRIDER This system is released into the Public Domain on a SHAREWARE basis. Please send $10 to Daniel Crider for the right to use this program. This program is not to be re-sold or re-released with any commercial package. It may be used for educational purposes by schools and religious bodies so long as the institution buys one copy. Such an institution may then make as many copies as they wish for backup and onsite learning lab purposes. Individual students are asked to buy individual copies for home use. The user has the right to make any changes he wishes to his own personal copy, so long as he does not distribute versions of his copy. The only version in circulation should be the author's original. Comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome and earnestly desired. This program is released under the assumption that most of the people who will use it and benefit from it are people of high ethics who are preparing for service in Ministerial, Rabbinical, or Academic careers. Those who pay for their own copies (as all should) will be sent free upgrades and will be personally notified of any other low-cost software designed by the author to aid language students and church ministry. Please mail your payment to: DANIEL CRIDER 6604 CERVANTES AVE FT. WORTH, TEXAS 76133 COMMENTS MAY BE MAILED TO THE SAME ADDRESS OR MESSAGES MAY BE LEFT ON: TERRY CARROLL'S THE POOR MAN'S Z-NODE 817-283-9167 **or** RON LANE'S FORT WORTH KAYPRO USERS GROUP RCPM & MBBS 817-540-4183 ****** DABAR SYSTEM GENERAL INFORMATION SYSTEM FEATURES: 1. Wide system compatibility. 2. Customizing of character set possible. 3. Large potential vocabulary files (over 2500 words). 4. Printed vocabulary listings in either sorted or non-sorted form which will list on any 80 character printer. 5. Easy word entry with lots of chances to correct mistakes. 6. Capability to easily correct any errors in vocabulary file. 7. Three different kinds of drills, all of which keep a running score (to increase your motivation!) and which will periodically re-ask words you have missed. 8. Possible Remote usage under MBYE or other remote operating systems in learning lab applications. PACKAGE CONTENTS Your DABAR Hebrew Vocabulary Drill System should contain the following files: 1. DABAR.BAS............Main Basic Program 2. DRILL.BAS............A "stripped-down" version of the main program which can easily be run remotely in school applications. 3. SORT.BAS.............A "stripped-down" version of the main program which is useful for sorting large vocabulary files. 4. LETTERS.BAS..........An ASCII file which can be loaded and edited by either the MBASIC interpreter or a word-processor which contains the drawing of the Hebrew vowels and consonants. 5. VOCAB................A sample vocabulary file containing over 100 commonly used Hebrew words. 6. DABAR.WS.............This documentation package. SYSTEM COMPATIBILITY In order to achieve maximum system compatibility this software was written in Microsoft Basic (v 5.2). It should run with few or no changes on any CPM, MS-DOS, or TRSDOS system which uses Microsoft Basic. It may be possible to modify it so that it will run on any BASIC which supports an 80-character screen, direct (or random) disk files, and string handling. The system currently requires only about 28k memory, and can be run remotely using MBYE (and probably other communication systems). It was originally written on a Kaypro 2X. There are four video control codes which are needed by this program. These are: clear screen, up-cursor one line, down-cursor one line, and bell (or beep). The user will need to load these codes into the subroutines at lines 4600, 4750, 5150, and 5550. If the user lacks the technical ability to do this he may write the author (or send a message) for assistance. In the meantime he should swap the PRINT statements in these subroutines for a single RETURN statement. This will enable the program to run, but some of the MENUs will be a little off, and the general appearance will not be as neat. The current version is set for the video codes of a Kaypro 2X. But lets say the user needs video codes for a VT100. The current clear screen for KAYPRO 2X is a hex 1A. This is a decimal 26 and is used in the following manner. 4600 REM ************** CLEAR SCREEN CODE 4650 PRINT CHR$(26) 4700 RETURN The VT100 terminal manual lists the clear screen code as ESC [2J. The ESC means that an escape sequence is used, i.e. one which begins with a hex 1B or a decimal 27. The [2J need to have their ASCII values expressed. You can look these up in a character code table, or basic will tell you with the ASC function (PRINT ASC("[")) will print the number 91). The VT100 manual also warns that their clear screen code does not automatically "HOME" the cursor to the top lefthand part of the screen. You not only want to clear your screen, you need to home the cursor. So you will also need the Home cursor code, which is ESC [H. Your clear screen routine will look like this: 4600 REM ************** CLEAR SCREEN CODE 4650 PRINT CHR$(27);CHR$(91);CHR$(50);CHR$(74) 4700 PRINT CHR$(27);CHR$(91);CHR$(72) 4750 RETURN IF you are still hopelessly lost and cannot figure out what to do, then change your routine to: 4600 REM ************** CLEAR SCREEN CODE 4650 RETURN Your program will still work, but won't look as nice in some places. Don't forget to change the routines for BELL, UP-CURSOR, and DOWN-CURSOR as well as CLEAR SCREEN. CUSTOMIZING THE HEBREW CHARACTERS If you wish to change the way the Hebrew characters are drawn DABAR makes it easy for you to do so. All characters are kept in a file called LETTERS.BAS. Crank up your BASIC interpreter (or a text or word processing program) and load the file (load it just like a program from basic). The letters fall into 3 types: consonants, vowels, and long final characters. All letters are 8 positions wide. Consonants are 7 positions tall. Vowels are 3 positions tall. Finals are 10 positions tall. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU MODIFY THE ORDER OF THE LETTERS OR THE SIZE OF THE LETTERS. IT WOULD ALSO BE WISE NOT TO RENUMBER THE FILE. The following is a sample portion of the file: 39600 DATA " " -------ALEP STARTS HERE 39650 DATA " @ @" 39700 DATA " @ @ " 39750 DATA " @@ " 39800 DATA " @@ " 39850 DATA " @ @ " 39900 DATA " @ @" ------ALEP ENDS HERE 39950 DATA " " ------BET STARTS HERE 40000 DATA " @@@@ " 40050 DATA " @ " 40100 DATA " @ " 40150 DATA " @ " 40200 DATA " @ " 40250 DATA " @@@@@@@" ------BET ENDS HERE 40300 DATA " " ------BET + DAGHES STARTS HERE 40350 DATA " @@@@ " 40400 DATA " @ " 40450 DATA " * @ " 40500 DATA " @ " 40550 DATA " @ " 40600 DATA " @@@@@@@" ------BET + DAGHES ENDS HERE 40650 DATA " " -----GIMEL STARTS HERE 40700 DATA " @ " 40750 DATA " @ " 40800 DATA " @ " 40850 DATA " @ " 40900 DATA " @@@@@ " 40950 DATA " @ @ " -----GIMEL ENDS HERE 41000 DATA " " -----GIMEL + DAGHES STARTS HERE 41050 DATA " @ " 41100 DATA " @ " 41150 DATA " * @ " 41200 DATA " @ " 41250 DATA " @@@@@ " 41300 DATA " @ @ " -----GIMEL + DAGHES ENDS HERE These are the letters ALEP, BET, and GIMEL. There is a version of BET and GIMEL which have a DAGHES in the middle. Suppose you don't care for this GIMEL. Maybe you would like one a little more like most printed versions. You could do that by retyping lines 40650-41350. You might like: 40650 DATA " " 40700 DATA " @@@ " 40750 DATA " @@ " 40800 DATA " @ " 40850 DATA " @ " 40900 DATA " @@@ " 40950 DATA " @@@ @ " 41000 DATA " " 41050 DATA " @@@ " 41100 DATA " @@ " 41150 DATA " * @ " 41200 DATA " @ " 41250 DATA " @@@ " 41300 DATA " @@@ @ " It is recommended that you always leave the first line of the letter blank (like 40650 and 41000) and that you always keep the leftmost position (the first thing inside the first quote(")) blank. This will help readability. There is nothing that requires the DAGHES to be in any particular location. Put it wherever you want it. You also don't have to make it a "*", it can be any character. The drawing character also need not be "@". You may change it to anything else. But "@" seems to work well, and that it is a good idea to make the DAGHES a different symbol so that you mind will quickly recognize its presence in a letter. It is also recommended that you do not modify either the vowels or the final consonants. The reason is that the program does some special things to place a vowel directly to the left of a long final. If you do change these, try to keep the vowel more or less centered and pretty small. Then test out your changes on words which use a long final with a vowel, such as the object form of second personal pronouns. When you finish your changes, if you have made them with a BASIC interpreter rather than a word processor, then you will need to save them to disk with the ASCII file option. On most versions of Microsoft Basic this will require the command: SAVE "LETTERS",A ******** VOCABULARY STORAGE In order to save disk space, this software saves your words as numeric codes. Each word, along with its definition, are stored in a Direct Access disk file which requires 124 bytes per record. Each record contains one word and its definition. This means that on an average 400K disk, if 300K is left for vocabulary you should have room for about 2500 words (which is more than most of us may ever learn)! Definitions are limited to 70 character phrases. Multiple definitions are possible. For example lets say you want to define "qabas" as "assemble" or as "gather together" you could enter the definition as: ASSEMBLE **OR** GATHER TOGETHER The drill portion of the program would accept either ASSEMBLE or GATHER or GATHER TOGETHER as being correct. A sample VOCAB file is supplied with this package which contains over 100 frequently used Hebrew words. You may keep it and expand it or delete it and start from scratch. It is also possible to keep VOCAB files at once. Just make sure that the one you currently wish to use is always named "VOCAB". Or, if you would like to keep a separate disk which contains only a VOCAB file, you could keep separate vocabularies on separate disks. To do this you need to change line 3900 to read as follows: 3900 OPEN "R",#1,"B:VOCAB",124 Then put your program disk in drive A and your data disk in drive B. Note: The above information is valid only for those running on the CPM operating system. Those of you using other systems will need to consult your manuals on how to specify disk drives in file names. Many systems will use numbers instead of letters. For example, Tandy Corp's TRSDOS labels its main drive as "0" and other drives as "1" or some other number. If you are using TRSDOS you need line 3900 to be: 3900 OPEN "R",#1,"VOCAB:1",124 ANSWERING SYSTEM PROMPTS Most of the questions that DABAR asks you fall into either a YES/NO category or are requesting some number (such as a menu selection or a letter or word number). All YES/NO type questions should be answered with either "Y" or "N" rather than "YES" or "NO". DABAR looks at all responses and will reask the question if your answer is not something expected or is invalid. You can usually return to the master menu level by answering a question which wants a numeric response with either a 0 or by striking the RETURN key. The word "HALT" will return all drill exercises to the master menu when entered instead of a word definition. OPERATION OF THE DABAR SYSTEM Start the DABAR system by loading the program DABAR.BAS into your BASIC interpreter. If you are using Microsoft Basic then the correct command should be something like: MBASIC DABAR The program begins by loading its alphabet in from the file LETTERS.BAS. You are then asked to enter a Random number seed. If you enter the same number each time you will get the same drills when you practice your vocabulary. After you enter your Random number seed, your screen should clear and you should see the DABAR MAIN MENU. It looks like this: DABAR 1.0 HEBREW VOCABULARY DRILL SYSTEM MASTER MENU 1-- ADD NEW WORDS TO VOCABULARY 2-- REVIEW LAST X WORDS 3-- REVIEW ENTIRE VOCABULARY 4-- REVIEW ENTIRE VOCABULARY-- --CONCENTRATE ON LAST X WORDS 5-- PRINT VOCABULARY 6-- CORRECT VOCABULARY 7-- END PROGRAM At this point you should enter some number between 1 and 7 and strike the RETURN key. VOCABULARY DRILL (MASTER MENU OPTIONS 2, 3, OR 4) The DABAR system offers you three options on your drill: To drill over your entire vocabulary, to drill over your most recent words, or to cover your entire vocabulary while concentrating on your most recent words. If you choose one of the latter two options you will be asked to enter the number of most recent words you would like to concentrate on. All drills can give you a score breakdown (words asked, words gotten right, grade) at any time by entering the word "SCORE" at the definition prompt. Entering the word "HALT" at the prompt will stop the drill and return you to the Main Menu. If you don't know a word you may enter a guess, or you may just hit the ENTER or RETURN key. A Correct response will say "*** CORRECT ***" flash the correct definition as it was loaded into the file for a moment before going to another word. Incorrect responses will cause the terminal to BEEP and print the phase "*** INCORRECT ANSWER ***". The computer will then hold the correct definition on the screen until you strike some key on the keyboard. The computer will then ask you the missed word for three times in a row (with no change on your score for correct answers on this "drill" section). If you can correctly answer the missed word three times, then another word is selected and scoring resumes (with a minor bonus for the three right answers). Each miss (even during the drill for a missed word) will require three more practice tries. Words that are missed by you are remembered by the computer. Periodically it will re-call those words to see if you have learned them. A correct response to a recall will cause the computer to remove the word from the "miss list" and put it back in the normal pool. A second or third miss just keeps it on the list. Words that are correctly answered are not asked again for between 20 and 30 words. ***** ADDING NEW WORDS (MASTER MENU OPTION 1) How do you get HEBREW into a computer that speaks ENGLISH? It is not as hard as you might think. When you first take the menu option to add new words you will be asked two questions. The first is "DO YOU WANT MENUS?". Always answer "Y" until you become comfortable with the program. In fact, you may never want to say "N" to menus. The only reason the option is present is so that if you are running the software remote (such as calling a school computer from your home computer) at a low speed you can write down the menus and not waste the time of letting them come across at 300 baud. The second question is "DO YOU WANT QUICK LOAD?". Again, you will want to answer "N" to this until you can become familiar with the system. QUICKLOAD is explained in detail a little later in this document. CONSONANTS Once you are in the word-addition loop you will first be asked to enter the number of consonants in the word. Your maximum is 9 consonants. Then you will see a menu listing all of the Hebrew consonants, maqqeph, blank, and "correct last consonant". IMPORTANT NOTE: Be CERTAIN that you have the correct number of consonants. If you blow this number the only way to change it is to go to the CORRECT VOCABULARY section and take option 4-- RE-ENTER WORD FROM SCRATCH. (And if your all hyped up to enter a bunch of new vocabulary pulling out of ADD NEW WORDS and going off to CORRECT VOCABULARY is not much fun). Enter each consonant by the number assigned to it. Enter numbers one at a time, and strike the return key after each number. As soon as you enter each number and strike RETURN the screen will clear, the menu will be redisplayed, and the word as you have entered it so far will appear beneath the menu, one letter at a time. While you are entering remember that Hebrew is a language (how could anyone ever forget!) that you read from right to left. So the first consonant (#1) should be the one on the far right side. The second consonant will be the one just to the left of it, and so on. Some Hebrew letters need a DAGHES in them. As you select your letters, the program will ask you "DAGHES NEEDED IN LETTER?" for those which can have a DAGHES. The computer makes no distinction between the DAGHES LENE and the DAGHES FORTE (since they both look alike). You will not be given the chance to enter a DAGHES of any kind on the following: 1. Ayin, He, Het, Alep, Res 2. Final Kap, Nun, Pe, and Sade Nuns, Kaps, Pes, Sades, and Mems which fall in the final position are automatically switched to their final form. The Waw is a unique letter in the DABAR system. This software is designed to place all vowels either above the word or below the word. But the Sureq Waw needs its Sureq in the middle plane. So if you select a Waw you will first be asked if you need a DAGHES in it. If you say "N" then you will be asked if it is a Sureq Waw. Both the Sureq Waw and the Waw with a DAGHES appear exactly alike on the display. As you are entering consonants if you make a mistake and pick the wrong one (or answer the DAGHES question wrong) you may correct the problem on the next consonant request. Simply enter a 26, for "CORRECT LAST CONSONANT". The program will ask you if you want to correct the last consonant, and then show you the consonant it is asking about. If you opt to correct then the last consonant entered is erased and you get to re-enter it. Sometimes you may wish to enter a short phrase or an idiom of some kind. The program has a blank space for this very purpose. The software allows only 1 blank between any two consonants. You may put two or three blanks in an entire phrase (like a three word phrase separated by one blank each). When you enter the number of consonants for the word include any internal blanks or any Maqqephs in your count. A five consonant word with a Maqqeph in the middle is treated by the program as a 6 letter word. A phrase with one word 3 letters long followed by a word with two letters separated by a blank is considered a 6 letter word also. After you have entered all of the consonants the program shows you your word and asks you if all of the consonants are correct. If you answer "Y", you move on to vowels. A "N" response will letter you pick any letter in the word to change. Remember that the letter numbers start with #1 on the right hand side. VOWELS The vowel routine works just like the consonant routine. A menu of vowels is displayed. Pick your vowels by number one at a time, always striking the RETURN key after each vowel. Each time you enter a vowel the is menu is redisplayed and the word in its current form is redisplayed. Holems will wind up on top of the word, all other vowels will be beneath. As with consonants, you have a "blank" vowel and a "fix last vowel" option. But with the vowels, you may specify any number of "blanks" in a row that you wish. Naturally long vowels (HOELM WAW, HIREQ YOD, and SERE YOD, everything except for the SUREQ WAW) should be "built". I.e. their consonant should have been entered in the consonant section while their vowel should be entered here. The long finals (Kap, Nun, Pe, and Sade) will automatically pull their vowel up beside them on the left. Once you have entered all of the vowels the program asks you if they are all correct. If not, you may correct any vowel in the word. You will be asked to enter the number of the consonant which the vowel is either over or under. Remember (I know, I've already said it before but you need to remember) that consonants are numbered from right to left with #1 always appearing on the far right. DEFINITIONS As soon as you get all of your vowels right you will be asked for a definition. Definitions are limited to 70 characters. Multiple definitions separated by **or** are possible. The drill will take your answer and attempt to match it to some part of the definition. If your entire answer can be found anywhere within the definition it will be counted correct. If you wish for your program to be more restrictive and to require exact answers then ADD the following line numbers to your program : 20975 FOR IV=1 TO 68 20976 IF MID$(DF$,IV,1)=" " AND MID$(DF$,IV+1,1)=" " AND MID$(DF$,IV+2,1)=" " THEN 20980 20977 NEXT IV 20980 DC$=MID$(DF$,1,IV-1) 20985 IF AX$=DC$ THEN X=1 And change 21000 to the following: 21000 IF AX$<>DC$ THEN X=0 This will eliminate your multiple definition option, but will force answers to match the stored definition exactly. NEW WORD STORAGE Once the definition is entered you will be asked if you are ready to store the word. If you answer "N" you will be re- prompted for the definition. If you answer "Y" the word will be written to the next disk record. You should be able to get about 2500 words in approximately 300K of disk space. IF THIS SOUNDS HARD... The procedure to enter new words looks on paper to be long and complex. Actually it is pretty easy. The best way to learn is to just to enter a few words. Once you put in two or three you will probably be ready for the QUICKLOAD option. QUICKLOAD The normal method of entering new words is to run through the following little sequence: 1. MENU DISPLAYED 2. WORD DISPLAYED 3. PICK UP NEXT LETTER 1. MENU DISPLAYED 2. WORD DISPLAYED 3. PICK UP NEXT LETTER ETC.,ETC.,ETC. You will soon wish there was some way to enter all of your letters at once without seeing the menu and the word over and over again. Well, this is one wish that is easily granted. Answer "Y" to the QUICKLOAD question when you start the process of adding new words. QUICKLOAD will begin (just like normal) by asking you the number of consonants, clearing the screen, and displaying the consonant menu. But then you may enter your consonants all at once. Use 2-digit codes separated by a comma, a space, a or a period. For example, lets say you want a Bet on your 1st consonant (the one on the far right hand side), a Het on your second letter, and a Res in the third. The menu assigns a code 2 to BET, a code 8 to HET and a code 20 to RES. You enter: 02.08.20 And strike the return key. In this particular case the computer will then ask you if you want a DAGHES in the Bet in the first consonant. If you had other letters which could take the DAGHES you would be prompted about them too. After you enter the consonants, the program will show you the word and give you the chance to fix any consonant. After you tell the program that all the consonants are correct you will be asked to enter the vowels. Again the Vowel menu would appear and the word with the consonants you have picked would be displayed. Lets say you wanted a Quames under the Bet and a Pathah under the Het. The menu assigns code 4 to QUAMES and code 5 to PATHAH. You enter: 04.05.13 The 13 on the end is the code for a blank vowel. Be sure to include your blanks in the proper order. From then on QUICKLOAD is just like the first word adding procedure. You get to check your vowels, enter your definition, and store the word. And once you learn QUICKLOAD you should be able to enter 20 to 40 new vocabulary words within an hour (provided of course that you are not a "HEN-PECK" typist). ***** WORD CORRECTION (MASTER MENU OPTION 6) Even with all of those chances to check your work you will still occasionally get a word loaded into the VOCAB file incorrectly. You can fix anything you have done with the CORRECT VOCABULARY option from the master menu. You will first be asked to enter the word number of the word you wish to correct. These word numbers are the same as record numbers, since one word is stored on each record in the disk file. The printed listing will give you the word numbers for all of your words. Or, if you don't want to bother looking through the list (or you are running remotely and can't look through the list) then you can have the computer search for the word number. To do this, enter "S" instead of a word number. The computer will ask you for a definition to look for. You can enter a single word, or a phrase, or an entire definition, or just a few letters. The program will scan the file and list all of the word numbers which contain the definition you entered. Write these numbers down on a pad or a piece of paper. Then pick one of the numbers and try it. If it is not the word you want, get another word. Keep doing this until you find the word you are looking for. When you know the word number you want to correct and have entered it, the computer will display the Hebrew word, its definition, and a word correction menu. You may change vowels, consonants, definitions, or just scratch the word and re-enter it completely. After each change the program shows you the current form of the word and definition and then redisplayes the correction menu. IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT CORRECTING WORDS 1. SAVE THAT WORD! When you are correcting words and/or definitions what you see on the screen is the word's current form in your computer's memory. It is not the word's form on disk. The word's form on disk REMAINS UNCHANGED until you STORE THE WORD ON DISK (option # 6). So, make your changes, then store the word, then either get another word to correct or return to DABAR's master menu. If you get another word or return to the master menu without storing the corrected word then the word retains its original form and definition. 2. AVOID DELETING WORDS. You can delete a word off the disk, but once it is gone...its gone! And that particular record will never be used by the program again. DABAR automatically skips deleted records and does not include them in its word count. To maintain system simplicity new words are always added at the end of the VOCAB file. If you must get rid of a word, it would be better to take option 4--RE-ENTER WORD FROM SCRATCH. This option will allow you to enter a completely new word in this slot. 3. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE LAST WORD. The system needs its last record to contain a real word. Should you attempt to delete the last word, DABAR will give you an error message and return to the correction menu. If you must get rid of the last word, put some other vocabulary word in there in stead. Or add another word and then delete what was the last word. 4. RE-ENTERING A WORD FROM SCRATCH is the only way to change the number of consonants in a word. It runs just like the section on ADDING NEW WORDS. 5. IF JUST WANT TO LOOK at a word then this is the place to do it. Call the word up like you were going to correct it, but don't make any changes. Instead, just either go get another word or return to the master menu. PRINTING YOUR VOCABULARY (MASTER MENU OPTION 5) DABAR allows you to print either your entire vocabulary or a portion of your vocabulary. You will first be asked: "DO YOU WISH TO PRINT OUT THE ENTIRE VOCABULARY?". If you answer "N" to this prompt you will be given the chance to print out some portion of your vocabulary. On a partial printing you will need to supply the first word number to begin printing with and the last word number to print. DABAR will then print all of the words from your starting word through your ending word in consecutive order. Should you choose to print the entire vocabulary, you may print it in either SORTED order or in consecutive order. A consecutive print just prints the words in the order that they happen to be in your file. It is much faster than a sorted listing. If you choose a SORTED order then DABAR will sort your vocabulary by the HEBREW letters. This takes a while, approximately 10 minutes per 100 words. It is also possible that your vocabulary may be to big to sort from the main program (DABAR.BAS). If this is the case, you will get an "OUT OF STRING SPACE" error from BASIC. You can still probably get a sorted listing though. A much smaller program which does nothing but sort and print your vocabulary is included in your system. If you run out of space return to your operating system level (usually with the command "SYSTEM" on Microsoft Basic). Then use basic to run the program SORT.BAS. The sorted listing is a little more trouble to produce than the non-sorted listing, but it is much more convenient to use. You can quickly use a sorted listing to check your vocabulary, and you may also find it an aid to translations (at least until you have spent enough time with DABAR's vocabulary drills to memorize all of your words). Any of the printing options should print on any kind of printer (i.e. DOT MATRIX or DAISY WHEEL). The printouts are large, since the word is printed on the paper the same way it is on your screen. You should get 3 words per page. The large size, although somewhat cumbersome, gives you the added advantage of cutting your listing up to produce flashcards (for those rare, rare occasions when you don't have your computer with you....just be careful not to spill any coffee on any of the words). CONCLUSION I certainly hope that this software will be as much help to you as it has been to me in learning HEBREW. If you have trouble with your copy, please contact me. I will do everything I can to help you get your version up and running. If for any reason you are not happy with DABAR and would like your money returned, then let me know. If you don't think this software is worth the $10.00 you payed for it then I will be more than happy to refund your money. In the future I will be developing some other programs to aid both language students and those in church work. If you have any ideas you would like for me to try then let me know. Those of you who buy DABAR will be personally notified of any other software which I develop in these areas. And since I am not interrested in buying expensive software, you can be certain the software I sell will be low-cost. DEDICATED TO THE HONOUR AND SERVICE OF JESUS CHRIST NOTES: 1) MICROSOFT BASIC is a trademark of Microsoft, Inc. 2) CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research 3) MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft, Inc. 4) TRSDOS is a trademark of Radio Shack, a division of Tandy Corporation.