Tutorial: Your own personalized spelltest using an efficient approach.

This is posted here, as a service, to those on the Windows ngs.
(It came over from the microsoft.windows.10 newsgroup today)

As always, please improve where you have skills to help everyone.

On Thu, 10 Feb 2022 20:32:17 +0100, Herbert Kleebauer wrote:

> Based on that, here a version which speaks a word and you
> have to type the word (if it is wrong, you have one retry).
> It's up to you, to add code for statistics and to prefer
> words which have been spelled wrong in the past.

OMG! Thank you! On behalf of me, and for all people who wish to
_efficiently_ remember how to spell words they themselves misspelled!
<https://i.postimg.cc/hPcwgMnB/spell06.jpg> Fantastic spelltest GUI!
<https://i.postimg.cc/5NPBCrqm/spell05.jpg> Windows TTS visual basic script
<https://i.postimg.cc/159RQD9C/spell04.jpg> TinySpell free spellchecker
<https://i.postimg.cc/T2j2FtX5/spell03.jpg> Gvim spellchecker in use
<https://i.postimg.cc/T1xdhDnP/spell02.jpg> Espeak/TTSapp GUI in use
<https://i.postimg.cc/Pf6k82q2/spell01.jpg> Balabolka GUI in use

[EDIT] This post is written to be used as its own tutorial which anyone
should be able to follow step by step, to have this running in minutes.

This thread is a perfect example of all that is good with Usenet today!
a. Kind-hearted purposefully helpful knowledgeable people
b. Solving a problem that everyone has so it's of general use to all
c. Each person pitching in as a team mate when and where they add value

The strategic goal has been achieved!
a. Learn using audio cues while typing the answers to the quiz
b. Seeing both what is typed and, if typed wrong, what the correct answer is
c. Without _looking_ first (i.e., you hear it, type it, & then you see it)!

Perfect!
It's a perfect learning tool now.

Efficient.
(Very clearly please note if it's not efficient, it's not going to be done.)
It's just not.

At this point, it's two commands:
1. Run > spell
2. Run > spelltest

That's it.
Nothing else is needed to be done by the user!

It's that efficient!
Kewl!

I have to admit the previous "narrator" tests were troublesome because
the narrator would speak, at least on my system, whatever Windows wanted
it to speak, but that was filled with background notifications too. :(

So, if, for example, I was downloading a file in the background,
the narrator spoke that even as I was in the middle of it speaking
a list.

Especially since I'm not a coder (although I use what people create).

Herbert started with this audio challenge from JJ earlier today:
<https://i.postimg.cc/5NPBCrqm/spell05.jpg> Windows TTS visual basic script
Turning it into this audio/visual test/response script that is perfect!
<https://i.postimg.cc/hPcwgMnB/spell06.jpg> Fantastic spelltest GUI!

This helpful modification of yours, on the other hand, is _perfect_.
No longer do we need a pause between letters in the spell.txt file.
No longer do we need to have _both_ spellings in the spell.txt file.
No longer do we need to manually type separate letters into the file.
No longer do we need to fish around for the pause button.
No longer do we need to write it down on a separate piece of paper.

If desired, one can even find a list of commonly misspelled words.
They can use _that_ as their "spell.txt" (instead of what I use,
which is a list of only the words that I have personally misspelled
(which is already long enough, mind you).
The use model is _fantastic_ for _exactly_ what we're asking for here!
I believe it will be of general use to _everyone_ who cares about spelling!

Setup:
A. Modify the attached batch script to point to the full path to spell.txt.
B. Save the batch script anywhere under any name that makes sense to you.
INSTALL: c:\apps\databases\tts\spelltest.bat
USRMENU: Taskbar > menus > databases > tts > spelltest (rarely used)
COMMAND: Win+R > spelltest <== Note the "Run" icon is pinned to taskbar
DATFILE: c:\data\databases\tts\spell.txt
ARCHIVE: c:\archives\databases\tts\spelltest.bat.7z {includes a readme}
Note: Consider encrypting archives to keep them away from a-virus scans.
Note: Every archive _always_ gets a readme (often it's a Usenet thread).
B. Add any keyword to create a personal command in the Windows registry.
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\spelltest.exe
@Default = c:\apps\databases\tts\spelltest.bat
D. Separately populate the spell.txt file with a log of your redsquiggles.
Win+R > spell <== Note this can be any keyword not already employed
Where that keyword has been previously defined in your Windows registry.
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\spell.exe
@Default = c:\data\databases\tts\spell.txt

USEMODEL:
1. When you want to add a redsquiggled word to the spell.txt file, run:
RUN > spell
2. When you want to test yourself to improve your word memory, run:
RUN > spelltest
3. That will run the spelltest.bat script pointing to the spell.txt file.
a. A grey command window pops up
b. You will hear the first line spoken (which should be one word)
c. You _type_ the presumed spelling into that grey command box
d. You will have _two_ chances to get the correct spelling right
e. And you can _see_ what you are typing (which reinforces visual memory)
f. When you get both tries wrong - the results are pushed aside
g. So that the _correct_ answer stands out in your visual memory!
h. Later on you can copy the whole log using control+A control+C
i. And you can paste the results using Control+P to edit results
j. Leaving the results file of only the incorrect words for re-testing

This is great!
Thank you Herbert Kleebauer for adding the testing stuff to JJ's script!

That matters because it's all about the strategy of _visual_ reinforcement!
a. You hear the word - but see nothing.
b. You type the word - and you see _only_ what you typed.
c. If you get it right - you move on to the next word.
d. If you get it wrong - you get a second chance to type it.
e. If you _still_ get it wrong - it will _show_ you where you were wrong!

Woo hoo!
This is fantastic.

The goal, always, is a tool that _everyone_ can use, that is general purpose
(so that it can be customized by the user, if desired) and which does the
job as efficiently as is humanly possible! <== efficiency is critical!
A. It has to be non visual (aka audio) for the test
B. But the test should be as visual as possible (which it is!).

Voila!
Great thanks to everyone, especially JJ & Herbert Kleebauer today alone,
but there were _many_ kind-hearted good natured people who pitched in!
--
Usenet is supposed to be a pleasant learning experience for all of us.

--- --- cut here for spelltest.bat --- ---
@echo off
MODE CON: COLS=50 LINES=10
color f0
cls
echo createobject("sapi.spvoice").speak wsh.arguments(0)>speak.vbs
REM Please modify the next line for your spell.txt filespec
for /f "delims=" %%i in (c:\data\databases\tts\spellcheck\spell.txt) do call :sub %%i
del speak.vbs
echo.
goto :eof
REM
:sub
echo.
set /a n=0
:sub1
set /a n=n+1
if %n%==3 echo ---------- %*&goto :eof
cscript //nologo speak.vbs "%*"
set a=
set /p a=
if /i not "%*"=="%a%" goto :sub1
--- --- cut here for spelltest.bat --- ---

--- --- cut here for a sample spell.txt --- ---
Afghani
abscissa
accommodations
anomaly
annihilate
appalled
assessments
bureaucracy
clientele
colloquial
commingled
concomittent
credulity
debuted
de rigueur
discretion
disparage
disastrous
duplicitous
egregious
imbue
eminently
echelon
extol
foresee
foreseeable
gaffe
hors d'oeuvres
immiscible
inherited
masquerading
mayonnaise
medieval
methodically
paraplegic
phenomenal
pliers
preceded
programmatically
semblance
shish kebab
symmetric
tragedy
ubiquitous
Vallejo
viscous
--- --- cut here for a sample spell.txt --- ---