Fields every exercise takes
Besides the fields and rows of its own type, every scored exercise takes the same handful of fields. This page describes them; the page of each family lists the rest.
| Field | What it holds | On which types |
|---|---|---|
prompt | the instruction or question above the activity | all (the form offers it on all but a flashcard); on a follow-up the text the steps are about |
explanation-correct | shown after the check | all but a flashcard; on a follow-up, after its last step, by the result of the whole chain |
explanation-incorrect | shown after a wrong answer | all but a flashcard |
image, image-answer | a picture with the question; one shown once it is answered | all but a flashcard |
audio, audio-answer | a recording with the question; one heard once it is answered | all but a flashcard |
content-direction | target, rtl or ltr: the direction the whole activity is laid out in | all (the form offers it on all but a flashcard) |
text | the sentence with its blanks | fill-blanks |
answer-direction | rtl or ltr: the way the answer’s row of words runs | construct-sentence |
direction | which side is shown first | matching, flashcards |
card-type and the card’s fields | the card’s kind and its text, pictures and recordings | flashcard |
A flashcard’s own pictures and recordings are its sides’ — front-image, back-image, front-audio, back-audio — and a card that is given image: or audio: says so rather than ignoring it.
1. The prompt#
prompt: is what the learner reads first: an instruction, a question, a passage to read. It is bold by default, since it is usually an instruction, and it takes the whole inline dialect.
- Regular weight.
- Wrap a stretch in
[…]{no-bold}to set it in regular weight, on the page and on paper alike — a reading passage after the instruction, say. The wrapper may hold a target-language mark, with its own line breaks inside it:[[دیروز دوشنبه بود.⏎امروز سهشنبه است.]{tl}]{no-bold}. Only a prompt reads{no-bold}: an explanation or an answer is not bold to begin with. - Lines.
⏎breaks the prompt’s line, andprompt: |with the lines indented under it keeps each line as a line, and a blank line as a blank line.- Right-to-left lines.
- In Persian or Arabic, a line of the prompt that is wholly in the target language is set as a block of its own, from the right — on paper too, down to its last line — while the instruction before it keeps its own alignment.
- What the form starts with.
- A new exercise in the form begins with a prompt of its type — Drag the blocks into the blanks., Decide whether each statement is True or False. — to keep or to change.
:::exercise true-falseprompt: Read the two sentences, then judge each statement.⏎[[دیروز دوشنبه بود.⏎امروز سهشنبه است.]{tl}]{no-bold}- [امروز سهشنبه است.]{tl} => true- [فردا دوشنبه است.]{tl} => falseexplanation-correct: *Yesterday was Monday, today is Tuesday* — so tomorrow is Wednesday, چهارشنبه.:::امروز سهشنبه است.
A flashcard takes a prompt: too, drawn above the card, although the form does not offer one.
2. Explanations#
An explanation appears when the exercise is checked. There are two fields, and how many you fill decides how they behave:
| You write | After a right answer | After a wrong answer |
|---|---|---|
explanation-correct only | it | it — one neutral explanation, shown either way |
explanation-correct and explanation-incorrect | the first, framed green | the second, framed red |
explanation-incorrect only | nothing | it |
So either result-specific text may be left empty: write only explanation-incorrect when nothing needs saying after a success. The older single field explanation: is still read, as a neutral explanation. Explanations are hidden until the check and hidden again when the answer is changed. The editor’s preview, which draws every exercise solved, shows the neutral or right-answer explanation from the start, and never the one for a wrong answer — so an exercise with only explanation-incorrect shows none there. And explanations are never printed: paper is the unsolved exercise. In the form they are Shown when the answer is correct and Shown when the answer is incorrect, under Explanation after checking (optional).
target: es:::exercise single-choiceprompt: Choose the right form: *Yesterday I __ to the cinema.*- [ ] [voy]{tl}- [x] [fui]{tl}- [ ] [iré]{tl}explanation-correct: [Ayer]{tl}, *yesterday*, asks for the past: [fui]{tl}, from [ir]{tl}.explanation-incorrect: Look at *yesterday*: the verb must be in the past, [fui]{tl}. [Voy]{tl} is *I go*, [iré]{tl} *I will go*.:::3. A picture with the question, and one with the answer#
image: images/map.pngimage-answer: images/map-answered.png {width=45 align=center}image- is shown between the prompt and the activity, and printed there in the PDF.
image-answer- is kept back until the exercise has been answered — right or wrong — and then appears above the explanations: on the page, on a deck’s study page, and from the start in the editor’s preview. Changing the answer hides it again with the rest of the result. It is never printed.
Each names a file under images/ — .png, .jpg, .svg, or .pdf, which is drawn through the picture the studio makes of it — and any other value is an error. Each may carry a figure’s layout in braces: width= is a share of the text column, from 5 to 100 per cent, and align= is left, center or right. Said nothing, a picture takes 60 per cent of the column, on the left, as a figure does; screen and paper place it alike.
In the form, Pictures (optional) has the two fields, each with Upload…, which stores the file in the document’s own images/ and fills in its path, and Size and position (Width (% of the column) and Where it sits). A document must have been saved once before anything can be uploaded into it.
target: tr:::exercise single-choiceprompt: Which word means *house*?image-answer: images/starter-house.svg {width=30 align=center}- [x] [ev]{tl}- [ ] [elma]{tl}- [ ] [kitap]{tl}explanation-correct: [ev]{tl} = *house*; [elma]{tl} is an apple, [kitap]{tl} a book.:::
4. A recording with the question, and one with the answer#
The same pair over again, for sound: audio: plays with the question, audio-answer: once the exercise has been answered, shown in the same two places and held back on the same rule.
audio: audio/cafe.mp3 {start=1:05.2 end=1:09}audio-answer: audio/cafe-slow.mp3 {width=45 align=center}Each names a file under audio/ — MP3, M4A, AAC, Ogg, Opus, WAV, FLAC or WebM — and takes a picture’s width= and align=, and one thing more: a clip, start= and end=, in clock time (1:05.2, 1:02:03) or in seconds (65.2). A player given a clip plays that stretch and no more; either end may be left out.
The recording is a player with its controls, not a card’s 🔊: an exercise’s recording is listened to again, wound back and stopped. Nothing plays by itself — a recording is there to press, as a picture is there to look at. The answer’s recording, hidden again when the answer is changed, stops as it goes, and whatever is playing stops when a deck’s study page moves on. On paper, which cannot play it, the question’s recording is a small card saying ♪ audio, the file’s name and its stretch (1:05–1:09, or dal 1:05 / fino a 1:09 when only one end is given); the answer’s is not printed.
In the form, Recordings (optional) has the two fields, each with Upload… and Size, position and clip: the width and the side, and Play from and Play to.
target: tr:::exercise single-choiceprompt: Listen. Which word names this sound?audio: audio/starter-chime.mp3 {width=50 align=center}- [x] [zil]{tl}- [ ] [elma]{tl}- [ ] [ev]{tl}explanation-correct: [zil]{tl} is a bell, and the sound of one.:::5. Pictures inside the text#
A picture may also sit inside a prompt, an answer, a pair, a sentence, an explanation or a card: write  in the text. The description is what a screen reader says. On the page such a picture is at most 10 em wide and 8 em tall, in line with the words; on paper it takes the {width=…} written after it as its share of the line (60 per cent when nothing is said), and at most an eighth or so of the page’s height. Only pictures go inline: a recording’s line inside a row is shown as the text it is.
target: ar:::exercise single-choiceprompt: Which picture shows a [بيت]{tl}?- [ ] - [x] explanation-correct: [بيت]{tl} is a house; an apple is [تفاحة]{tl}.:::The picture travels with the exercise when it is copied into a deck.
6. The writing direction: content-direction#
The activity — its answers, its blanks, its blocks — is laid out in the direction of the document’s prose, unless you say otherwise:
| Value | The activity runs |
|---|---|
target | in the target language’s direction: right to left in Persian and Arabic, left to right elsewhere |
rtl | right to left |
ltr | left to right |
| (none) | as the prose runs — except a fill-in sentence written wholly in a right-to-left target, which follows its language by itself |
An explicit setting is always the author’s word: nothing overrides it. On paper it decides how a fill-in sentence is set (a right-to-left one flush right, its blanks where they are read), and ltr keeps a matching entry or a true/false statement flush left even when it is wholly Persian or Arabic. In the form it is Writing direction of the activity: Automatic, Use Arabic direction (the name of the document’s language), Right to left, Left to right.
target: ar:::exercise choose-allprompt: Choose every word that names something to eat.content-direction: target- [x] خبز- [ ] كتاب- [x] تفاحة- [ ] بيت- [x] جبنexplanation-correct: خبز *bread*, تفاحة *an apple* and جبن *cheese*; كتاب is a book, بيت a house.:::content-direction sets the direction of the activity as a whole. Two other fields are narrower: answer-direction sets only the way a construct-the-sentence answer’s words run (Placement), and direction which side of a pair or a card is shown first (Matching, Flashcards).
7. Formulas#
A formula is [a^2+b^2=c^2]{math} — LaTeX, anywhere prose goes: a prompt, a fill-in sentence, an answer, a pair, a card. Neither $ nor \[ is a marker in this dialect. The formula may hold brackets of its own ([x \in [0,1]]{math}), since it is read up to the ]{math} that closes it. A blank may not sit inside a formula — [[slot]] cuts the sentence in pieces, and half a formula is nothing — so put the blank beside it. In the form, ∑ Maths… opens a sheet that draws the formula as you type it and writes it into the field you were last in.
target: it:::exercise fill-blanksprompt: Complete the sentence.text: [La derivata di]{tl} [x^2]{math} [è [[d]].]{tl}- [d] [2x]{math}- [ ] [x]{math}- [ ] [x^3/3]{math}:::