Flash cards: write them once, practice on the screen, print them to cut out

Writing the cards

• One card, one line. The front, an equals sign, the back: la casa = the house. The line is split at the first equals sign.
• From a spreadsheet: copy two columns and paste them into the box. A line with a tab in it is split at the tab, so the front can then hold an equals sign.
• How much fits: up to 120 cards, and up to 120 characters on a side. Short sides are printed in larger letters.
• Lines the page cannot read are left out, and the page lists their numbers under the box.
• Times tables: the page can write the 12 lines of any table from 1 to 12 for you. Those are the only cards it writes itself.

Practice on the screen

• You are the judge. The page shows one side. You answer in your head or out loud, turn the card over, and press I knew it or Not yet. The page does not check anything you say.
• Not yet comes back. A card marked Not yet is shown again 3 cards later, or sooner when fewer than 3 others are left.
• The round ends when every card has been marked I knew it. Then you can go again with all of them, or only with the ones that were marked Not yet.
• Either direction: tick Show the back first to see the answer side and say the question side.
• No score is kept. When you close the page, the round is gone.

Printing

• Cut and fold needs paper printed on one side only. Each card has its front and back side by side: cut on the solid lines, fold on the dotted line, glue or tape. 4 cards a sheet.
• Both sides of the paper gives 8 cards a sheet and no folding, but the printer has to turn the paper over on its long edge and line the two sides up. Print one sheet and check it before printing the rest.
• Each card has a small number on both sides, so a front and a back that got separated can be matched.
• The name of the set, if you type one, is printed small on the front.

What this page does not do

• It keeps nothing. To use the same cards another day, copy the lines out of the box and keep them somewhere of your own.
• It does not check your cards. If a line says 7 × 8 = 54, the card says 54.
• It does not check your answers, does not time you and does not decide when to study.
• It has no pictures and no sound, and it does not read the cards aloud.
• It has been tried in one browser’s print preview (Chromium, saved as PDF), not on paper from a real printer. Whether the two sides line up depends on the printer.

Every time the page is built, a program checks 40 examples worked by hand and all 144 lines of the times tables, worked out a second way. Then it writes 2,000 made-up sets of cards, lets the page read them, and a second reader takes every card back off the printed sheets: each front beside its own back on the fold sheets, and each back in the mirrored place for two-sided printing. It also plays 2,000 made-up practice rounds to the end. That checks the page’s own work, not what is written on your cards.