The Parley Handbook

# The Parley Handbook

Frederik Gladhorn `<frederik.gladhorn@kdemail.net>`

Sabine Eller `<s.eller@voxhumanitatis.org>`

Daniel Laidig `<d.laidig@gmx.de>`

Amarvir Singh `<amarvir.ammu.93@gmail.com>`

Revision KDE Gear 21.08 (2021-11-02)

Copyright © 2010 Frederik Gladhorn

Copyright © 2010 Sabine Eller

Copyright © 2010 Daniel Laidig

Copyright © 2014 Amarvir Singh

Legal Notice

Parley is a vocabulary trainer. It helps you to memorize your vocabulary, for example when you are trying to learn a foreign language. Parley is not limited to language learning but supports a multitude of subjects.

List of Tables

5.1. Personal Pronouns in English

Chapter 1. Introduction
Introduction

# Chapter 1. Introduction

Parley is a vocabulary trainer. It helps you to memorize your vocabulary, for example when you are trying to learn a foreign language. You can create your own vocabulary collections with the words you need or select from a great variety of available Vocabulary Collections. There you can find collections containing language vocabulary and also anatomy, music, geography, chemistry or exam preparation.

Parley is very flexible and uses the flash card learning approach. It automatically keeps track of your learning progress. With Parley you can arrange your vocabulary as you wish, you create your own lessons as needed. But unlike real flash cards you can use different learning methods with Parley.

Flashcards contain expressions on the front side and their translation on the back. You start with a pile of cards. If you know the translation on a card, you can put it into a second pile of cards. If you did not remember it, you keep it in the first one to try again later.

Parley's main focus is not to teach you grammar. However, there are some exercise forms which may help you in this matter.

Parley consists of two big parts: Vocabulary Practice and an Editor for Vocabulary Collections.

In this manual the term Vocabulary Collection refers to a file that contains Units. Each unit can be a lesson or a collection of lessons nested to any depth. In the rest of this manual we will refer to units rather than lessons since they can be used for other purposes too.

Both, the Editor and the Practice can be reached from the Practice Overview.

The Practice consists of three parts: first the Practice Overview where you choose what to practice. From there you start the actual Practice and when you are done, you get a Summary.

### Tip

Like in all applications try to use the right-click if you explore features and functionality in Parley. Make click with the right mouse button displays a “context menu” that shows what you can do with your present situation. Try right-clicking units and words to find some options.

Chapter 2. Dashboard
Dashboard

# Chapter 2. Dashboard

When you first launch Parley the Dashboard welcomes you.

At first the Dashboard is empty, once you opened some vocabulary collections, it shows you the ones you worked with most recently.

Dashboard with multiple collections

A vocabulary collection is a file that contains words and their translations into other languages or other pairs of words and sentences that you want to memorize. The words are organized in units.

To start practicing, click with the right mouse button on the Practice Anyway box on one of the vocabulary collection names in the list. You are taken to the practice overview.

Note that a small Delete icon appears bottom on the left of the collection item. This lets you remove the collection from the list.

If you'd like to start your own collection of vocabulary, press on the Create a New Collection... button.

You can also open a collection if you have it on your computer already but it's not in the list.

The last button on the Dashboard offers you to download vocabulary collections made by others. When you've created a file that you'd like to share with others, you can easily upload it from the editor.

Parley comes with different themes, you can switch to a different graphical style in the settings. For further information, see Configure Parley.

Chapter 3. Open an existing collection
Open an existing collection

# Chapter 3. Open an existing collection

Let's suppose your collection is already on your hard disk.

This is what the screen will look like the first time you start Parley:

Initial screen

Press on the Open an Existing Collection... button.

In the file selection dialog, navigate to the folder containing the data file, and select it by clicking on it. Depending on your system the file either opens immediately, or you have to press the Open button.

File select dialog

Now, the file is loaded, and you move on to the Practice Overview screen: see the following section for further details.

Chapter 4. Vocabulary Practice
Vocabulary Practice

# Chapter 4. Vocabulary Practice

To start practicing you select a document after starting Parley. If you have it opened in the editor already, just press the Start Practice... icon in the toolbar.

## Practice Overview

Before the actual practice starts, you always get to the Practice Overview screen. There are three areas which allow you to choose what to practice:

- The selection of languages

- The selection of the practice mode

- The selection of the units that also shows your current progress

Configuring the practice

On the left you can select the combination of languages you will practice. If you select for example English to French, you will be shown English words and Parley will ask you to enter the French translations.

Below the language selection you choose the Practice Mode section, this determines how the practice will ask you questions.

The Practice Direction drop down list can be used to select the query that will be shown during the practice. The possible choices are the known phrase (Known to Learning), the learning phrase (Learning to Known), or the mix of the phrases (Mixed Directions).

In the big part on the right, you see the units of the vocabulary collection. You can select which units you want to practice with the check box in front of the unit name. The number of words that each unit contains is shown next to its name. On the right of the name you see your current progress for the unit.

The progress for each unit is displayed as the percentage of the unit completed and the multi-shaded progress bars. The percentage is calculated based on the total number of words in that unit and the confidence level of each word. The progress bars depict the number of words in each confidence level, with a darker shade depicting a higher confidence. A legend can also be seen at the top of the unit selections, in the header. The colors in this legend depict the corresponding colors of the progress bars, from the fully learned words to the words not yet practiced.

Practice Configuration
Practice Configuration

## Practice Configuration

The Configure Practice dialog allows you to specify more advanced settings that will affect the practice.

In the Practice Overview screen you reach the Configure Practice dialog with the Configure Practice... icon in the toolbar.

### General Practice Settings

You can find several general configuration options for the practice in the General page.

General settings page

The most important options are:

- Ignore accents: with this option if you enter a word with e instead of é it will still count as right.

- Ignore capitalization: this option allows you to ignore capitalization when you enter words.

- Images and Sound section: if you enable images they will be displayed during the practice, if they are available. Same applies to Sound.

- Allow images instead of words: if you enable this option, it will allow an image to be used as the question during practice, provided a translation is not set for that target language's word.

### Blocking

If you plan to practice your vocabulary regularly, you should make sure that the Blocking feature is enabled. Go to the Blocking page and tick the check box that says Blocking. Now you can even configure the interval in which words that you answered correctly will be repeated.

Blocking means that words will not be asked for some period of time after the last practice. This period of time depends on how well you know the word, so that words you don't know yet will be asked more frequently.

Blocking settings page

### Thresholds

Thresholds are another way of limiting what you want to practice.

Thresholds settings page

You can decide to practice only words that you know better or less well than some confidence level. Or you can select only words that you have practiced a certain number of times.

### Specific Practice Settings

Configuration options for the practice with multiple choices can be changed using the Specific settings page.

Specific settings page

Here you can select if the choices should be of the same type as well as the number of choices.

Practice
Practice

## Practice

### Flash Cards

After having activated the Flash Cards on the Practice Mode section and having pressed on the Start Practice... icon in the toolbar the following screen shows up. The Flash Cards Training Mode works just as if you would do it with “real” flash cards. You imagine the result and should you wish some help, you can press on the Hint button, which will start to give you the result one letter at a time.

You can also decide to skip a word for now. When you press the Answer Later button, the word will show up again at a later time.

New word

Pressing on the Continue button reveals the solution. At this stage you then have to tell if you knew the answer.

If you did not know it, press the I Did not Know it button. If you did remember the answer, press the I Knew it button.

This will take you to the next question.

On the left hand side bottom of the screen you have 7 boxes that show how good you know the vocabulary. These 7 boxes correspond to the blocking levels set under Blocking page in the Configure Practice dialog.

### Tip

Instead of pressing the Continue button, you can also use the Space key.

New word - confirmation

You can stop practicing anytime by pressing on the Stop Practice button.

### Mixed Letters

Mixed Letters is a training method that provides you with an immediate help: all letters that are part of the solution are shown mixed up:

New word - mixed letters

Should you wish some help, you can press on the Hint button, which will give you the solution one letter at a time. Of course you can also decide to Answer Later by pressing on that button.

To give the answer type it in the blank field below the mixed letters and press the Enter key or Continue button.

If your answer was correct Parley will tell you so and you can press Enter again or press on the Continue button to go ahead with the next question.

New word - mixed letters right

Should you enter a wrong answer, you will be told to try again:

New word - wrong answer, try again

If you don't know the answer, just press on the Continue button a second time. Then the following comes up and you are shown the solution. Go ahead with Continue.

New word - wrong answer, show the right answer

You can overrule how your answer is counted. See Practice Overview.

### Multiple Choice

#### Automatic selection of the possible answers

In Multiple Choice mode you are shown a number of potential answers, of which only one is correct. By pressing on the Hint button, Parley excludes one of the wrong answers so that your choice gets more and more restricted with each further press on Hint. The answer is revealed when only one option is left and the question is counted as wrong. Of course you may also choose the Answer Later button.

New word - Multiple Choice mode

Once you made your choice by clicking on what you believe to be correct or type the number in front of the choice, Parley shows up with the screen below if the answer was right. Go ahead with the next question by pressing on the Continue button.

New word - Multiple Choice, right answer

If your answer instead was wrong, the correct answer will be shown in green and the wrong one in red. Also here you go ahead by pressing on the Continue button.

New word - Multiple Choice, wrong answer

You can overrule how your answer is counted. See Practice Overview.

If you wish to stop practice, just press on the Stop Practice button.

#### With yes/no answers

Normally Parley automatically proposes one correct and several wrong answers in Multiple Choice mode. For some exercises instead you will have preset answers like yes/no or similar. And for these you have to configure the practice by selecting the Configure Practice... icon in the toolbar.

Select the Specific page and you will get something very similar to the following screenshot:

Specific page

If you have just two choices like yes/no in the section Multiple Choice set the Number of choices: to `2`.

### Written

When you select the option Written to do your practice you are supposed to type in the solution. You can use the Hint button, which will start to give you the result one letter at a time. Of course you can also decide to Answer Later by pressing on that button.

New word - Written Practice Mode

Once you have entered the solution, press on the Continue button and Parley will show whether your answer was correct. Go ahead by pressing on Continue again.

New word - Written Practice Mode, right answer

Should you give a wrong answer, you may try again several times to find the right answer. If you don't try again, and just press on the Continue button, the solution will be shown.

New word - Written Practice Mode, wrong answer

Go ahead practicing by pressing on Continue or stop by pressing on the button Stop Practice.

You can overrule how your answer is counted. See Practice Overview.

### Reset Practice to Initial State

You can reset all your practice scores (remove the confidence levels) to the initial state. You can reset your confidence levels for individual units from within the Practice Overview icon in the toolbar and by clicking with right mouse button on the unit to reset and choosing Remove confidence levels from this unit or by choosing Remove confidence levels from this unit and all sub-units.

Summary After Practice
Summary After Practice

## Summary After Practice

The summary shows up when you finish a learning session. In the big bar on the top it shows you how well you did.

Below is a table with all the words you practiced, together with the mistakes you made.

The words with the most mistakes are on top so you can easily see what you do not know yet.

Press the Export Results... icon in the toolbar or use the Practice → Export Results... menu item to export practice results as HTML or OpenDocument text file (`.odt`).

Summary After Practice
Grammar Practice Modes
Grammar Practice Modes

## Grammar Practice Modes

With Parley you can also learn specific grammar structures, such as the gender of nouns, the comparison forms of adjectives and the conjugation of verbs. Let's look at some examples.

### Articles and Gender of Nouns

Once the practice mode Gender of Nouns is activated, press on the Start Practice... icon in the toolbar.

In the case below we use German as language to learn and so you have three genders to choose from: masculine, feminine and neuter. By pressing on Hint one of the wrong answers gets excluded. Of course you can also decide to Answer Later by pressing on that button.

You should enter the articles for the language in the Editor to see the articles instead of the grammatical gender terms. Also note that this only works, if the gender of the words has been set up properly. See Word Types for more information how to change the word type to the right gender.

New word - Gender of Nouns Practice Mode

When you give the correct answer the following is shown and you go ahead practicing by pressing on the Continue button.

New word - Gender of Nouns, right answer

Should you give the wrong answer the following is shown and you go ahead practicing by pressing on the Continue button.

New word - Gender of Nouns, wrong answer

You can stop practicing anytime by pressing on the Stop Practice button.

### Comparison Forms of Adjectives and Adverbs

On the Practice Mode section, select Comparison Forms and then press on the Start Practice... icon in the toolbar to go ahead.

This only works when the conjugation forms of the word have been entered in the vocabulary collection. See Entering Comparison Forms.

Comparison Forms Practice Mode

The exercise requires you to enter the comparison forms for the term shown. In this case the translation of the English word old to German. The German language has three forms: absolute, comparative and superlative. To go on with the exercise just press on the Continue button.

New word - comparison right

### Conjugations

To practice conjugations choose the Conjugations mode and the tenses you wish to exercise.

In the document the conjugation forms of the words have to be entered in order to allow this practice mode to work. See Entering Inflection Forms.

Conjugations Practice Mode

Then press on the Start Practice... icon in the toolbar. You are required to enter the correct conjugation forms according to the tense shown. To go ahead press on the Continue button.

Conjugation Practice
Chapter 5. Vocabulary Editing
Vocabulary Editing

# Chapter 5. Vocabulary Editing

Editing the practices

## Setup

Before you start using a vocabulary collection or create your own it is helpful to understand the different elements in Parley and configure them accordingly. The next sections will guide you step by step through this process. There are several locations in Parley for settings:

- File → Properties... This is the place for the General Document Properties, meaning some information about your vocabulary collection and yourself.

- Edit → Languages... Opens the Edit Languages dialog, where you will find the settings around the languages you use.

- Practice → Configure Practice... Here are settings how you practice your vocabulary. Depending on what you want to do during the specific learning session you change them on the fly.

- Settings → Configure Parley... For more general and display settings.

### About the Collection

Entering meta data like a title and your contact info is relevant if you plan to make your collection available for other people. Use the File → Properties... menu item to edit the data.

Editing the properties

### Vocabulary Columns

Depending on what your learning sessions are going to be about it can be relevant to have further Vocabulary Columns show up in your edit section. To choose these columns select the View → Vocabulary Columns... menu item. There you can determine if the columns for Pronunciation, Word Type, Synonym, Antonym, Example, Comment and/or Paraphrase are to be shown.

Setting the columns

### Languages and Grammar

Set up some grammar details to let Parley help you. Use the Edit → Languages... menu item to pull up a grammar.

Articles in English are simply the which is the definite article and a as indefinite article. Most other languages have more articles which can be filled in at the Articles tab.

For conjugations the personal pronouns should be filled out. Most languages do not have different conjugation forms for he/she/it, in that case, you should not check Male/female have different conjugations! Simply enter the pronouns for all three forms.

Table 5.1. Personal Pronouns in English

| Singular | Plural
1st Person | I | we
2nd Person | you | you
3rd Person | he/she/it | they

Tenses tab: Depending on the language, you can enter the right tenses which you later want to learn how to conjugate. Examples are: Simple Present, Simple Past, Future I, etc.

Btw. by pressing on the Add Language button you can add an additional language to your collection.

#### Let's Have a Closer Look at Spanish

On the General tab the basic language settings, like here:

- Language: Spanish

- Name: Spanish

- Keyboard layout: us (for English)

You can leave Keyboard layout: empty if you are not sure about what you are using. Parley will then simply take the standard layout of your computer.

Editing a language

Let's have a look at the Articles tab: Spanish knows only male and female nouns, therefore the field Neutral: remains empty.

Articles tab

Spanish Personal Pronouns tab have multiple forms for 3rd person singular and 1st, 2nd and 3rd person plural. To remain consistent, the possibilities should be entered with a / between the two forms.

Personal Pronouns tab

Under Tenses tab you will find the various tenses that are available for a verb form. You can add to the tenses that are already there by pressing the buttons New..., Modify... or in case something does not actually exist simply Delete the tense after having it selected.

Tenses tab
Units
Units

## Units

On the left you have a list of units. If you started a new collection, this list might be empty except for one unit that was created by default for you.

If you cannot see the list of units, you might have to enable it in the View → Units check box.

The check boxes in front of the unit name show which units are currently included in your practice. The number next to it is the number of words in the unit.

### New Unit

Select where this unit belongs to, for example the collection My Spanish Lessons.

You can select New Unit item using one of the following ways:

- GUI icon: select the New Unit icon in the toolbar.

- Menu item: select Unit → New Unit

- Context menu: click with the right mouse button on the collection and select New Unit item.

Collection: My Spanish Lessons

Please make sure to select the right point in the tree structure of units before selecting New Unit icon in the toolbar. In our case, wanting a Sub-Unit of Collection: My Spanish Lessons it is exactly that one that needs to be selected before going ahead with New Unit.

### Moving, Renaming and Deleting Units

To change the name of a unit, double click it, or click with the right mouse button on the unit and choose Rename Unit. You can also delete it this way (but you'll lose its contents also then).

If you don't like the arrangement of units, you can move a unit with the mouse. You can drag it onto another unit, then it will become a child of that unit.

### Splitting a Unit

If your units grow too big, you can choose to split them up to make learning easier in small units. 20 words for a unit is probably a good size. Click with the right mouse button on a unit, or use the Unit → Split Unit into Smaller Units menu item and the unit will be separated into child units. You can choose to randomize the words that are put into the new units before assigning them, or to keep them in order.

### What is Shown in the Table

Parley shows always the words of the unit that you have currently selected. You can enable to see the words in sub-units contained in this unit also. Use the Unit → Show Entries from Child Units check box to enable this. That way, you can browse all words by selecting the document unit at the very top.

Word Types
Word Types

## Word Types

Parley lets you associate word types with the words. Word types are for example: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs.

In order to work with word types, enable the word type tool with the check box: View → Word Types

You can categorize the word types just like units.

If you want to see all words of a certain type - e.g. all nouns, simply select the noun category, and you will see only nouns in the table.

The easiest way to set the word type, is to drag and drop a word onto its type. You can even do this with multiple words at the same time.

### Adding New Vocabulary

Use the Add New Entry icon in the toolbar to add new words. You can start typing the word in the first language right away. After entering the first word, press Tab key to go to the next language.

### Editing Words

If you want to replace a word, select its entry and start typing. To change the word instead, double click the entry and you can change the contents of the cell without losing the old word.

Press Tab key to go to the next word while staying in editing mode. Enter key leaves this mode. You can use the arrow keys to move around.

Synonyms
Synonyms

## Synonyms

Synonyms are hard to set up and do not always work really well. Here is how you set them up in any case:

- Use the View → Synonyms check box to see the synonyms tool.

- Select first word (A) you want to make synonyms, then click on the second word (B).

- The button in the synonym tool changes it's text to A and B are Synonyms.

The words will now be shown as connected in the synonym tool and can be recognized as synonyms in the practice.

Adding Images
Adding Images

## Adding Images

First show the image tool by selecting the View → Image check box. This will show up the Image section on the right hand side of the Parley screen.

To add an image to a word make sure the word is highlighted. In the Image section on the right hand side press on the Folder icon and choose the picture you wish to associate. On selecting an image for a pair of translations, the bottom right corners of the cells of both the words would be marked with a blue flag. If you want this way, do the same with the other word of the couple. Hovering over this flag with the mouse cursor shows the name and path of the image file.

Adding a image
Adding Sound
Adding Sound

## Adding Sound

First show the sound tool by selecting the View → Sound check box. This will show up the Sound section on the right hand side of the Parley screen.

To add a sound to a word make sure the word is highlighted. In the Sound section on the right hand side press on the Folder icon and choose the sound you wish to associate. On selecting a sound file for a word, the top right corner of the cell of that word would be marked with a red flag. If you want this way, do the same with the other word of the couple. Hovering over this flag with the mouse cursor shows the name and path of the sound file.

Adding a sound
Entering Comparison Forms
Entering Comparison Forms

## Entering Comparison Forms

In order to enter comparison forms, make sure the comparison forms tool is enabled. You open it with the check box: View → Comparison Forms

First select a word that is an adjective or adverb.

Comparison Forms tool

Press the Adjective or Adverb button in the comparison forms tool.

Enter the comparison forms.

Editing the comparison forms

Now you can use the Comparison Forms Practice mode.

Entering Inflection Forms
Entering Inflection Forms

## Entering Inflection Forms

In order to enter inflection forms, make sure the inflection forms tool is enabled. You open it with the check box: View → Inflection (verbs, adjectives, nouns)

First select a word that is a verb.

Editing the inflection forms

Press on the Verb button in the inflections tool.

Editing the inflection forms

After selecting the right tense in the Tense: drop down box, enter the conjugation forms.

The tenses can be configured for each language: Languages and Grammar.

Now you can use the Conjugations Practice mode.

Use the Noun or Adjective button to add declension forms to your vocabulary.

Creating New Files
Creating New Files

## Creating New Files

In this section we will describe how to create new files and this not only with the usual vocabulary learning part, but also for grammar exercises, mathematics, etc.

### New Collection: Vocabulary English-German

In this section we describe how you can create a vocabulary training file including pictures and sound. In a second stage we will also add adjectives and verbs. This is a very complete example and therefore quite long. Eventually you will not need all points for your project.

Since we wish to add sound-files and pictures, we should make sure that these will all be in one folder which for convenience is being called eng-deu. Our data file we create with Parley will be saved in the same folder. This will help a lot when you decide to share your work with others.

So this is what we have in terms of sound files and pictures:

Data folder in Dolphin

Let's start from the Dashboard which is shown once you launch Parley:

Dashboard with multiple collections

Press on the Create a New Collection... button.

The General Document Properties section shows up which is being filled as follows (just adapt to what your file is about):

Properties for ... dialog

Next press on the OK button. The following screen asks you to set up the language details. Here we don't want to change anything and therefore we just press on OK.

As a first step, let's create the vocabulary part. We will think about the addition of the sound files and pictures in a second stage. This is what the unit looks like:

A new empty collection

Before we do anything else, let's save the file to the folder with the pictures and sound-files. Use the File → Save menu item and select the folder using the navigation. In this example we will call the file Trainer eng-deu - once you entered the name just press on the Save button.

Saving a new collection

If you now check your folder where the sound-files and pictures are, you will also find the file `Trainer eng-deu.kvtml` .

Let's have a short look at the words we want to add: apple, bird, cat, cherry, cow, orange, pear, snake, strawberry. We have animals and fruit and therefore we decide to create two units that are called: Animals and Fruits.

We now rename Lesson 1 to Animals and then we add a unit called Fruits. Click with the right mouse button on the Lesson 1 and choose Rename Unit from the items shown. Now Lesson 1 is highlighted and you can simply overwrite it by typing in Animals. When done, press the Enter key. Now click with the right mouse button on the Collection: Vocabulary trainer E..., which is the root of the unit tree and choose New Unit from the items shown. In the new field write Fruits and press the Enter key again.

First, let's insert the animals. Please click on the unit Animals and you will get an empty table you can fill in. Click with the right mouse button in the first field, and insert the source terms. Then, insert the target terms in the second column. Once you've inserted all 4 English animal names with their German translation the screen looks like this:

Editing the vocabulary trainer English-German

In our case we want only 4 entries in the animals unit. There are many empty lines that should be deleted. To do this click on the first empty field, and keep the Shift key pressed while clicking on the last empty field. All lines to be deleted will be highlighted. Then, press the Del key.

Let's add the fruit terminology. Just click on the unit named Fruits. This second unit is completely empty. Since we have five fruit terms we need to add five lines. Therefore, press the Ins key five times, and then, just like before, we add our terminology.

Don't forget to save every now and then ...

A click on the root of our unit tree Collection: Vocabulary trainer E... and Parley will show us all entries that are present in the two units:

All entries present in two units

Time to add sound and images. First of all we need to activate the Image and Sound views. Select the View → Image and View → Sound check boxes. Once these options are activated, two new sections are shown as two new tabs on the bottom right hand side of the Parley editing screen.

Sound and Image sections

Select the English word apple by clicking on it. It is highlighted, so let's add the picture. In the image section on the right hand side press on the Folder icon and choose the picture you wish to associate.

To add the pronunciation for the English apple, do the same in the Sound section, selecting the relevant sound file.

By pressing on the Play button in the sound tool you can listen to the pronunciation.

The screen will then look like this:

Playing the sound

Then click on the German translation Apfel. The field is now highlighted to indicate the selection. You will note the picture with the apple is associated also to the German term. In the sound section select the pronunciation, just like before.

Checking the data bonding

Just go ahead like this for all terms.

Time to add adjectives and verbs as units to our project. So just do as before with the unit Fruits and create two new units: Adjectives and Verbs. Let's assume we will add big, small, old, young, narrow in the adjective unit and to go, to come, to buy, to drink, to eat in the verb unit.

The following shows a screenshot with all inserted terminology. Now, words are mixed and it would be nice to see what is a noun, adjective or verb.

Shows all inserted terminology

As the next step we are going to show the Word Type. Select the View → Vocabulary Columns check box. We activate Word Type for English and German by clicking on the check box in front of Word Type. Then press on the OK button to accept the changes.

Selecting Word Type item

By clicking on the fields in the column Word Type you can select the word type and for those languages where nouns have a gender you can also select the Noun/Gender combination. Alternatively start to type the first characters of a word type to select it. Below the Word Type column with part of the selections already done.

Choosing the Word Types

Once we have specified all the word types, we will first consider Adjectives, adding Comparison forms to them. So let's move to the Adjectives unit only.

Selecting the comparison forms

To show the Comparison Forms on the right hand side of the screen, select the View → Comparison Forms check box.

Shows the comparison forms

Edit the Comparison Forms by adding Comparative and Superlative to the single adjectives. First, click on the adjective for which you wish to add the comparison forms, in our case big, and add bigger and biggest. Then, continue with the next adjective to complete, until all comparison forms have been entered.

Adding the Comparative and Superlative

Finally, let's consider the conjugation form of the Verbs. Select the Verbs unit and then activate the inflection section on the right hand side by selecting the View → Inflection (verbs, adjectives, nouns) check box. As an example we edit the present tense (Präsens) form of gehen. Please first select Präsens from the drop down box and then add the verb forms.

Choosing the conjugation form of the verb

This needs to be done for all verbs, and in all possible tenses.

Once you are done you can start to practice by pressing on the Practice icon in the toolbar.

### New Collection: Single Names and Collective Names

This exercise was created for the 3rd class of an Italian primary school. Pupils are supposed to connect single names with collective names, such as tree → woods

When you start Parley you get the start page, eventually also listing some previously used files (that you cannot see here).

Dashboard

Press on the Create a New Collection... button and the following screen with empty or partly filled fields will show up:

Properties for Untitled dialog

Fill in the title, here nomi singoli e collettivi, your name, email address, in the Comment: text box you can write down a more detailed description, select your Category: and License:. Then there we have something special: instead of indicating the First language: and Second language:, like it normally would happen, we added nome singolo (single name) and nome collettivo (collective name). The Setup grammar details and Download grammar options are not needed here. In the screenshot they are still activated - please deactivate them by just clicking on the check boxes. When you are done, please press on the OK button.

Select the View → Languages... menu item and the Properties for nome singolo section comes up and here you see it already with the necessary changes made:

Properties for nome singolo

On the left hand side you can see where the data you are adding belongs to. nome singolo. Choose the language, here Italian and insert nome singolo in the following editable field. Then press on the OK button.

Now the Properties for nome collettivo section is shown:

Properties for nome collettivo

Like before: choose Italian as language and insert nome collettivo and press on the OK button.

And now you can start to edit:

Creating a new practice collective

Just insert the nome singolo (single name) in the first column and the corresponding nome collettivo (collective name) in the second column.

Adding a new entry

If the number of available fields is not enough, just click with the right mouse button anywhere on the edit section and choose Add New Entry. Don't forget to save your file every now and then. When you have finished adding all entries you will want to see if Practice mode works fine. Well just press on the Practice icon in the toolbar right above the edit section and the page with the practice settings comes up:

Multiple Choice Practice Mode

In this case Multiple Choice is a good option, but also Written will do fine. After choosing the Practice Mode just press on the Start Practice... icon in the toolbar and have fun.

Getting Additional Collections
Getting Additional Collections

## Getting Additional Collections

When you are on the Dashboard you have the possibility to install collections directly from the server, provided you are online. Just press on the Download New Collections... button.

Dashboard with multiple collections

A window with many interesting collections opens. Just select what you find most interesting and press on the Install button. Then open the file to practice or edit.

Getting new collections
Configure Parley
Configure Parley

## Configure Parley

You can configure the appearance of Parley from the Dashboard, Practice, or Editor screens. Select the Settings → Configure Parley... menu item.

### Theme Page

The configuration opens with the Theme page. This is the place where you can choose how Parley should greet you when launching it: an elegant Gray version or the all time busy Bees. Note that it could well be that Fluffy Bunny is not in your version: if you want it, read the following section.

Once you selected your preferred theme, press on the OK button.

Screenshot of the Bees theme:

The Bees theme in action

And if these are not enough: you can press on the Get New Themes... button to find more themes. Over time we hope that more and more themes come along. If you know how to create SVG graphics (for example with Inkscape), you can create your own theme and share it with the world.

Theme settings page

Additional themes can be found on store.kde.org

### General Page

The General page gives you some options regarding the behavior of Parley.

#### Open/Save section

Always load the last opened collection on start will immediately take you back to the vocabulary you were learning. Often you will use this together with the second option Save vocabularies automatically on close and quit because it's just handy not to have always answer the same question if changes (including learning results) should be changed or not. The option Create a backup every ... minutes can be very handy to help you save your work frequently. One less thing to think about.

Sometimes the import and/or export of text (CSV) files can be very handy and there you need the proper separator to elaborate data afterwards or to be able to read the data you got from somewhere else. Parley allows you to choose among various separators to make sure you can re-use your data.

#### Editing section

Here you can determine whether Parley automatically appends new rows while you are editing your vocabulary collection. This can be useful if you want to add many entries, before then splitting them up into various units. On the other hand, it can be good to have this option off if you want to work by creating units with a set maximum number of entries.

General settings page

### View page

The View page allows you to change font and size for the pronunciation symbols, and you can choose the Base color for displaying grades: you like best.

View settings page
Chapter 6. Notes For Advanced Users
Notes For Advanced Users

# Chapter 6. Notes For Advanced Users

## Upload and Share Collections

You can upload your files and share them with others.

Use the File → Upload Vocabulary Document menu item in the Editor within Parley.

If that does not work, you can also visit store.kde.org.

In either case the files will show up in the Download New Stuff dialog by pressing the Download New Collections... button on the Dashboard.

File format
File format

## File format

If you are interested in the file formats that Parley can read and stores the vocabulary collections in, visit:

Parley File Formats on userbase.kde.org

Chapter 7. Credits and License
Credits and License

# Chapter 7. Credits and License

## Thanks

I'd like to thank the following people personally for their contribution to Parley:

- Peter Hedlund who kept KVocTrain alive and started the KDE 4 port which eventually would become Parley

- David Capel

- Avgoustinos Kadis

- Daniel Laidig

- Johannes Simon

I also want to thank all the other unnamed persons, especially the whole KDE team, for their help, constructive criticism, suggestions or bug-reports.

Copyright
Copyright

## Copyright

Parley copyright 2007-2010 Frederik Gladhorn `(frederik.gladhorn AT kdemail.net)`

Documentation copyright 2010 Frederik Gladhorn `(frederik.gladhorn AT kdemail.net)`, Sabine Eller `(s.eller AT voxhumanitatis.org)`, Daniel Laidig `(d.laidig AT gmx.de)`; 2014 Amarvir Singh `(amarvir.ammu.93 AT gmail.com)`

This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

This program is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.