Slide Shows
Each result screen has an option to show a slide show of each individual words in the list. Most of your study time may be spent on this screen. This is populated by searches. You can navigate the list one word at a time. The list can be sorted by length, first letter, raw value, or probability. Raw value is not necessarily true value since in reality only one Z would be worth 10 points. When played, the others are blanks with no value.
Probability is calculated using statistical combinational probability and ranked 1 to 100 for a relative probability number. Each length of word is ranked separately. The least probable word would given a value of 1, while the most probably word would be given a value of 100.
Note: This is not the same as used by Lexpert. Lexpert had AEON at 25% probability, although you do not have a 1 in 4 chance of selecting those letters from the bag. In this case, AEON would be 100.
In slide show you can navigate to next, previous, first, or last word in the list. You can also Select the item in the list that you want to go to. Select opens up a window with all of the words and you can click on the word you want to go to.
Display Modes
The slide show has three different "modes" available, word, subsearch, and hooks. It opens in the standard word mode, where words are displayed along with navigation. In order to display subsearches or hooks, use the Search Type menu at the bottom. When selected, the screen is expanded to accomodate the additional lists. The screen can be expanded further to show longer lists of anagrams if necessary.
In Hooks mode, the slide show is accompanied by boxes displaying front hooks on the left and back hooks on the right. For other search types, there is a single subsearch box displaying the appropriate subsearch. Subsearches include Anagrams, Subanagrams, Superanagrams, Hooks, Anagram Hooks, Extensions, Subwords, Blank Anagrams, Transpositions, Misspells, and French Conjugation. As you navigate through the primary list, the subsearch boxes are updated automatically. There is also an option to see subsearch Word results in multiple columns. For word displays you can select the Multi column checkbox and use the width spinner to control the spacing. Generally, set the control based on the number of letters in the word. Hook displays will use the single column display.
There are First, Previous, Next, and Last buttons, but you can also use the Select button to go to a specific word in the primary list. The Hooks button enable you to show only the word, or the word and the hooks for each word in the subsearch. The alphagrams button will toggle the display of word or alphagram for the primary word. The alternate will be shown above the tile display. The normal display will show the word with the alphagram above it. The stats show will correspond to the selected word in the subsearch list, or to the primary word if no word is selected.
The standard slide show screen is bound by the program window like other screens. If you want to be able to show only the slide show while hiding the program window, select Floating Slide show from the ribbon.
Tiny
Tiny is simply a smaller version of the slide show that also floats. I often put it in the top left corner of the screen and let it run. It has the timer, sorting options, and selector that is in the basic show. Not only does it display smaller, you can squeeze and expand it until it shows only the words in the slide show. You can also check the "Top" box to keep the window on top of any other windows.
Sorting
A drop down window in each slide show allows you to sort the words in the list. The selection is a toggle so selecting one sort type twice will reverse the direction of the sort. This is for the main words, not the subsearches.
Stem Study
The slide show is a particularly useful tool for studying Bingo Stems. There is a shortcut button on the Stems search that starts the slide show in blank anagram mode. This slide show will display that list of stems one at a time with the blank anagrams as the results for each stem.
The list may include, for example, the 6-letter word PRAISE as one item in the list of Top 6-letter stems. It will display the stem and the blank anagrams for that word. In the current lexicon PRAISE has 31 7-letter words that can be formed by adding a letter. This slide show also has a hook display mode, showing the hooks for the 7-letter words. Not only can you navigate within the anagram list, you can expand the window to show a wider or longer list of words.
The stats show will correspond to the selected word, or to the stem if no word is selected. If the stats show a value of 0 for probability then the stem is not a valid word in the selected lexicon. The one feature not available in the slide show for stems is the ability to mark words as known.
Known Word Manager
One of the problems with studying lists of words is that often you know many of the words in the list. In Hoot, the main slide shows allow users to flag a word as being known. When the word is being displayed, you can click the box next to "I know this word", and Hoot will remember that. That memory applies to the word, not just the word in that lexicon.
The check box next to "Hide Known Words" will then hide words that you have flagged as being known. If you check a word as being known while "Hide Known Words" is active, Hoot will immediately hide that word and go to the next word not marked as being known. This is similar to other programs that allow you to delete a word in a custom list, except that you realize the word isn't actually being deleted, just hidden.
Known words are saved in Hoot for the selected Hoot user and apply to all lexicons in that database. If you want to track known words in different lexicons, you can start over on your word studies by using a different user name, or create a new database. Create new user names in Tools. The User Editor also has a tool that list all known words and enables you to clear all known words for the current user.
Timer
All slide shows have an optional timer that you can use to display one word at a time. When set, There is also a timer you can set to rotate through the word automatically. Simple set the interval and press Start. The button will then change to a stop button. The progress bar is now only visible when the timer is active.
While the timer is active you can still use Select to go to a different place in the list. The timer will pause while you are in the select screen. It will also pause when selecting a new subsearch option.I know this word and Hide Known Words buttons are also still functional when the timer is active. The timer will stop when you get to the end of the list. If you want the timer to start over after the end of list check the Loop checkbox.
Note: For anagram and hook displays, the timer currently only rotates between each word or stem, rather than after each anagram is shown as is done in programs like Lexpert.