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Keep Your Word Review

Being a geeking computer user meant when I needed to learn a few phrases in a new language, I would search for software to help me. Since I own an iPod Touch and a Mac, I wanted something that I could take with me. In steps ‘Keep Your Word’ from Bambooapps.

From the website:

“Freestyle vocabulary cataloger and flashcards trainer for Mac OS X.
Do you want to learn a new language? Do you want to memorize a long list of medical terms? Do you need to review your collection of flash cards while going to the office?”

Pros of Keep Your Word vocabulary trainer

Installation was of course nice and straight forward, and downloading and installing on the iPod Touch was equally simple. The sign of an intuitive app to me, is one that does not require a manual to learn. KYW is one of those apps. Right from the get go it was simple and intuitive to use and learn. Within 2 minutes I had entered in a handful of words and their Japanese phonetic equivalents, and, did a couple of flash card quizzes.

KYW also works seemlessly with the new Words Parade website. WordsParade is a repository where users of Keep Your Word can share their dictionaries. This is pretty cool, as you can already download and start learning from such cool categories as Law Enforcement terms, Derm Pathology terms, to the more mundane languages of our world. If you create a wicked dictionary and want to share your creation, Wordsparade is free and easy to use.

KYW supports importing of csv files which makes getting going really easy with lots of words. I had a list of about 100 words and their Japanese phonetic equivalents in an Excel file, which I dumped out in CSV format, and imported into KYW. Your words can be grouped easily into Adjectives, verbs or substantives, you can add images to your words, and using smart groups, key your words just how you want them.

Cons of Keep Your Word vocabulary trainer

About the only thing I can say, and it is not a bad thing, is that KYW is still young on features. After my first couple of rounds with KYW I fired off an email to the developer with my short wish list:

• The ability to pick out duplicate entries and offer a solution Not a big deal for my little dictionaries, but larger dictionaries could benefit from this feature.
• Make adding tags more like adding keywords in iPhoto. Currently adding tags is a bit confusing, mostly because adding a tag to a group of words, the old tags disappear.
• Be able to randomize the printing of the flash cards and print by tag/category. Shuffle it up a bit so you can use the printouts to quiz yourself when no computer is around.
• Stats make a good incentive, there should be some, showing my progress in learning the words. I love stats. No more needs to be said.

That’s it. Nothing that is a show stopper and just my personal wish list.

Final thoughts

I love this little app, and having it sync on both m mac and my iPod touch, means I can quiz myself on my words anytime and anywhere. For the price I would recommend this to anyone with a desire to learn.