New Feature: Private Messaging

We've added a simple messaging system that allows you to send private messages to any Easy Notecards member. Private messages will be displayed on your notifications page. To prevent abuse, you can turn off private messaging completely or block certain members.

Keep reading for more details about the new private messaging system.

How To Send A Private Message
There are 2 ways to send a private message:

Way 1: While viewing the locker of the member you want to send a message to, click the "Send Private Message" link.

Way 2: When viewing a private message another member sent you, click the "Reply" link.

A box will pop up to compose and send your message.

How To Read A Private Message
Private messages are really just notifications. To view notifications click the "Notifications" button on the top right of each page. There will be a red number within the button if you have any new notifications.

How To Block A Member
To block a member, simply click the "Block member name" under the message he sent you. Keep in mind that when you block a member he will no longer be able to send you private messages and all messages he sent you will be deleted. This action cannot be undone.

How To Turn Off Private Messaging
Private messaging is turned on by default but can easily be turned off. To turn off private messaging go to "Settings", deselect "I receive a private message" under Notifications and click Save. You can change this setting anytime.

That's pretty much all there is to the private messaging system. It's super easy to use. We get a lot of questions about how to get the password for certain password-protected notecard sets. With the messaging system you can now simply message the creator of the set and ask him/her if you can have the password.

Good Luck With Your Studies!
http://www.easynotecards.com

New Feature: Subjects

Subjects help categorize notecard sets and books making it much easier to find material to study. They are available for both notecard sets and books. Examples of subjects are math, a&p, us history etc.

To view Notecard Subjects click the Notecards tab and then click the Browse Notecard Subjects link located to the right of the search box.

Similarly, to view Book Subjects click the Books tab and then click the Browse Book Subjects link located to the right of the search box.

When viewing subjects you may of noticed the number to the right of each subject. This represents the number of items that belong to that particular subject. The more items that belong to a subject the more popular it is considered. Subjects can be sorted by Popularity or Name. The default is Popularity.

Subjects can also be filtered by letter or searched. When searching subjects the results will automatically update as you type. Below is a screenshot of a notecard subject search:

Viewing Items that Belong to a Subject

Click a subject to view all items that belong to it. The result will be displayed on the search results page. This allows you to search within a particular subject or subjects. This example searches the history subject for notecards that contain the phrase "civil war".

You can also look in more than 1 subject at a time. This example displays all books that belong to biology OR anatomy & physiology. When there is more than 1 subject they are connected with the keyword OR. This means if you have the subjects math and science results will include items that belong to either math or science or both.

To add a subject when already viewing results simple enter a subject in the "add subject filter" input box and hit ENTER. As you type suggestions will be provided. Below is a screenshot of adding an additional subject:

Adding Your Own Notecard Subjects

Notecard subjects have been around for a while but they were originally called tags. We felt that subjects was a more descriptive word so we have converted all tags to subjects.

When creating or editing a notecard set you can add as many subjects as you'd like as long as the length of all subjects is 256 characters or less. As you type in the input box suggestions will be provided. Although subjects are optional we recommend you add at least 1 subject to help categorize your notecard set.

When you link your notecards to a book it will automatically be added to all of the book's subjects. For example, if link your notecards to a book that has the subject science your notecards will be added to the science subject even if you did not enter any subjects.

Creative Subject Usage

Feel free to use subjects in any way that makes your notecards easier to find. Here are a couple scenarios.

Scenario #1.
You and your classmates want to create and share notecards for a particular class. To make it easy to find these notecards have everyone add their notecards to the same unique subject such as "mrs. robinson's class" or "trinity hs science 2012".

Scenario #2
You want to share a few of your many notecard sets with Tommy Harris. Simple add a unique subject such as "for tommy_h" to the ones you want to share with him so he can easily find them.

I'm sure you can think of other scenarios where subjects can be used in a creative and effective way.

Good Luck With Your Studies!
http://www.easynotecards.com

Single Player BINGO Is Now Available

In addition to Multiplayer BINGO, Single Player BINGO is now available!

For those of you not familiar with the new BINGO game, BINGO cards are created using one side of the notecards and BINGO calls are created using the other. It's a great way to learn new material while having fun.

Single Player BINGO puts you up against 4 computer opponents with different skill levels. Below is an In-Game screenshot. Notice the Players List directly below your BINGO card.

To play Single Player BINGO

Step 1: While viewing a notecard set, click the blue "BINGO" button

Step 2: Click the " Play against computer opponents " link under Single Player

Step 3: Select the number of cards, the card data and click "Start Game"

Here are some examples of Single Player BINGO Games:

Times Tables

50 US States and Capitals

Periodic Table

NFL Teams

Countries: Flags and Captials

Alphabet for Kids

Difficult SAT/ACT words

Don't forget about the Multiplayer BINGO Rooms! Join an existing room or create your own.

We hope you are enjoying your Summer!

http://www.easynotecards.com

BINGO Update: Multiplayer and Single Player

You may of noticed that you can create a Multiplayer BINGO Room for any notecard set on Easy Notecards that has at least 10 full (front and back) notecards.

To create a Multiplayer BINGO Room

Step 1: While viewing a notecard set, click the blue "BINGO" button

Step 2: Click the "Create a new Game Room" link under Multiplayer

Step 3: Enter the "Room Name", select options and click the green "Create Room" button

Multiplayer BINGO Rooms can hold up to 25 players and must have at least 2 players for the game to begin. An account is not required to play.

View available Multiplayer BINGO Rooms

Single Player Mode is in the works and will be available sometime in mid July. In Single Player Mode you play against computer opponents.

Hope you are having a great Summer!

http://www.easynotecards.com

New Multiplayer Bingo Game Ready For Final Testing!

We're very excited to announce that our 1st multiplayer game, Bingo, is ready for final testing.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 26th from Noon EST to 11:59PM EST.
WHERE: http://www.easynotecards.com/bingo_rooms

There will be many Bingo Rooms open for testing. Use our Contact Form (subject "Bingo") to provide feedback (suggestions, comments or problems) about the game. You can also provide feedback by posting a comment to this blog post.

More About the Game
Once Bingo is officially released in a week or so users will be able to create a Bingo Room for any notecard set available on Easy Notecards! Also, we are working on a Single Player Mode that will be available sometime in July.

There are 2 Game Types:

• Cover All - A valid BINGO is when all items are selected. Uses a 3 x 3 card for notecard sets with less than 30 notecards.
• 5 In A Row - A valid BINGO is when 5 items in a row are correctly selected to form a horizontal, vertical or diaganol line. Uses a 5 x 5 card for notecard sets with 30 or more notecards.

Features:

• Chat - Talk with other players in the room. You can send a private message to a player by using the @ sign. For example: "@player_name Good Luck!" will only be seen by player_name.
• Multiple Cards - Play up to 3 cards at once.
• Select Bingo Card Data to Use - When creating a Bingo Room you can select to use either the front or back of notecards to be used for the Bingo Card Data.
• Password Protect - You can enter a password to restrict access to the Bingo Room you create.
• Player Stats - When the game is over view selections you got correct, incorrect and missed.
• Speed Up Intermission - By default there is a 1 minute intermission between games. If more than half of the room is ready the intermission will be set to 5 seconds.
• Cumulative Bingo Points - Your overall Bingo Points will be tracked and displayed in Your Locker.

We hope you enjoy the new game that is both educational and fun!

http://www.easynotecards.com

Linking Notecards to a Specific Book

Easy Notecards is the only website of its kind that lets you link your notecards/flashcards to a specific book. We take this one step further by allowing you to also enter the chapters of the book the notecards are for. Since notecards are organized by chapters within a book everything remains well organized and easy to find.

How to link to a book and chapters
When creating or editing notecards you'll notice the Book section. This is where you can link your notecards to a book. The 2 fields are ISBN and Chapter(s). If you don't have access to your book's ISBN simply click the "Find my book" link to search for your book by title, author, subject, etc. For Chapter(s) enter 1 or more chapters the notecards pertain to. If the notecards are not for a specific chapter, you can leave Chapter(s) blank. This will result in your notecards being listed under "No Chapter".

Searching for books
Easy Notecards lets you search for books by ISBN, title, author, subject , publisher and more. It's important to know that when you search for a book only books that have at least 1 notecard set are searched, which at the time of this post is around 150. You can, however, create notecards for any of the more than 15 million books on Google Books. So, if you can't find your book it usually means that no one has created notecards for it yet. You can be the first!


Viewing all notecard sets for a book
Here's where the power of book linking shines through. Check out the Medical Terminology in a Flash! book (image below). Notice how the notecard sets are organized by the chapters of the book. Notecard sets are sorted within chapters by Helpfulness. You have the option to change the sort order to Views or Newest.

Viewing the book a notecard set is linked to
When viewing a notecard set take a look to the right to see the book and chapters the notecard set is for. If the notecard set is not linked to a book then there will be no data for book. The image below shows that the notecard set The Hematologic System is for Chapter 4 of the Practice Questions for NCLEX-PN book.

Locker organization
Your locker organizes Created Sets, Marked Sets and Fav Sets by books. If a notecard set is not linked to a book it will be listed under "No Book". Here's an example of a member's Favorite Notecard Sets:

Linking notecards to a specific book and chapters is not only helpful for the creator of the notecards but also those searching for notecards. We hope you take advantage of this feature and link your notecards to the book and chapter(s) they are based on if applicable.

Development Update:
We're excited to announce that we are currently developing a new game that will be both fun to play and educational. There is no official release date but it should be up and running before the end of this Spring Semester. We'll keep you posted!

http://www.easynotecards.com

New Overview Tab for Your Locker

Before we get started, if you are not familiar with your Easy Notecards Locker check out the blog post Your Easy Notecards Locker.

The new Locker Overview Tab provides a simple yet powerful summary of your locker's content. It's easy to use and saves you time by not having to click on each individual locker tab.  The Overview Tab is the first tab shown when viewing your locker or someone else's. When viewing someone else's locker certain data is not displayed such as recently viewed sets and marked sets. More on that below.

Content on the Overview Tab is broken down into 3 sections: Recently Viewed Sets, Locker Lists and Recent Activity. Let's take a quick look at each of these sections.

Recently Viewed Sets
15 of your most recently viewed notecard sets are displayed 3 at a time. Use the blue arrows to view more notecard sets. Click on the notecard set to continue studying. This feature is only show when viewing your own locker.

Locker Lists
The 4 most recent Created Sets, Marked Sets, Fav Sets, Fav Books and Fav Members are displayed as lists. The Marked Sets list is only shown when viewing your own locker.

Recent Activity
The 4 most Recent Activity Items are shown.

We think the Overview Tab will be a super helpful feature that you will use often.

Other News:
In the past, the matching game did not work correctly on touch-screen devices. We fixed that. Now you can play the matching game on your smartphone or tablet by tapping the cards to select them. Also, when editing a notecard set you now have the option to save it as a new set. When you use this option the original will remain unchanged and a new set will be created.

http://www.easynotecards.com

Study Only The Notecards You Don't Know

Before getting to the exciting news about the new Marking System, we'd like to wish you and yours a Happy & Healthy 2012!

Over the holiday break we were hard at work improving the Marking System for Easy Notecards. For those of you not familiar with the Marking System, here's a quick explanation of how it works:

Each notecard set has 3 piles: All Cards, Marked and Un-Marked . These piles are pretty easy to understand. The All Cards pile will always contain all notecards that belong to the set. The Marked pile contains your marked notecards and the Un-Marked pile contains your un-marked notecards. When you mark a card it will be moved from the Un-Marked pile to the Marked pile and vice versa. Our suggestion for using the Marking System is to mark the notecards you don't know and un-mark them as you learn them. This is only a suggestion. Feel free to use the Marking System in any way that helps you study.

Here's what we did to improve the Marking System:

Marked Cards Remembered
Your Marked cards will be remembered from study session to study session as long as you are signed in. No need to re-mark cards you marked during a previous study session. If you are not signed in only the most recent notecard set you marked cards for will be remembered. Another reason to register for a FREE Easy Notecards account.

Marked Notecards Tab in Your Locker
When you view your own Locker you will notice that we added a Marked Notecards tab (image below). This tab keeps track of all notecard sets you have marked cards for. It displays how many marked notecards the set has and the date you last marked a card for it.

Mark Cards in List View
In the past, you could only mark/un-mark cards in Notecard View. Now you can do it in List View. In List View simply click the card's number (#) to mark/un-mark it. Directly above the list, there is also an option to mark or un-mark all cards. Don't know how to get to List View? When viewing a notecard set click the List View link (image below) located below the Quiz and Matching Game buttons.

Marking System Tabs
We've added tabs (image below) for each of the 3 piles (ALL Cards, MARKED and UN-MARKED) to make it super easy to switch between them. Want to view only your marked cards? Click the MARKED tab. Tabs are available for both Notecard View and List View.

Take the Quiz or Play the Matching Game with Marked or Un-Marked Cards
In the past, all notecards were used for the quiz and matching game. Now you have the option to perform these activities with only Marked or Un-Marked cards. Let's say you marked 20 notecards you don't know for a particular set. Now you can take the quiz or play the matching game using only those 20 cards you don't know. Also, this option will be available for future activities we add to Easy Notecards.

Here's what it looks like when you want to take the quiz for a notecard set that has marked cards (notice you can also select to use random cards):

Print Only Marked or Un-Marked Cards
When printing a notecard set that has marked cards as notecards or as a list you now have the option to print ALL Cards, MARKED Cards or UN-MARKED Cards. Again, this is helpful when you only want to print certain notecards.

This is what it looks like when you want to print a notecard set that has marked cards:

The new Marking System saves you time by letting you study only the notecards you don't know. Questions/Comments about the new Marking System? Feel free to post a comment or contact us.

http://www.easynotecards.com