Flashcards Deluxe Forum

As for Dropbox backup, you can 1) backup all "base" decks at once as .txt files (using the select all button when exporting a deck) and 2) export the complete database (.sql file) using the "Backup / Restore" button at the bottom after tapping "Edit". This is new. This full backup holds combo deck settings and folders. The only thing it does not backup is global settings, which I should add one of these days.

No its fine now, I think I understand it now sufficiently.
My little problems have arisen out different ways of using decks over the life of your product which is now much more advanced.
Originally I had two copies of some decks, one for German to English and another for the reverse.
Easy common word decks may have had English (Side 2) to German set only, on basis that if I know the Deutsch for an English meaning, the reverse is likely to be not difficult (became Stats set 1).
Difficult word decks , I may have studied only Deutsch to English initially, but now may want to study the reverse. So inconsistencies between whether Side 1 was aligned with Stats 1, or Side 2.
Later created Combinded decks, to study instead of base decks, but not wanting to wipe all previous stats, so in combo decks I need consistency of which card side belongs to which stats set.
I can see now that in order to make everything consistent, I can export, paste into a spreadsheet, then manipulate which set of stats will be Stats set 1 and which will be Stats 2. I can even use a spreadsheet to recombine stats (one set each) from two copies of a base deck (Ger-Eng, Eng-Ger) back into the one deck with two sets of Stats. Concentrating on my Thai studies right now, which is going just fine with Thai script.
Its a pity that at least settings/config for combo decks are not exportable. Perhaps a future measure?
Also would be nice to have "Export all decks to Drop Box" so can easily backup everything regularly. Perhaps itunes Sync will backup these application files soon (as an alternative).

98% of the time, a user should pick the stat set that corresponds with the show side first setting. (The exception could be if the user wants to view side 3 first using a custom card layout.)

Combo decks do not have their own set of stats. A card has 4 sets of stats. Each deck has an option to specify which set of stats to use when studying with that deck (don't matter if base or combo deck).

If you don't study with your base decks, then the show side first and stat set settings are unimportant for these.

C1: side 1 first; stats set 1
C2: side 2 first; stats set 2

Why the paradox?

The by deck shows all decks, yes. This "full" listing is independent of the current deck you are currently in. Sorry if I'm not explaining well. Let me know if not.

O.K. I see the problem now. I was using two combo decks, one commencing side 1 of 3 base decks, and one commencing side 2 of same 3 base decks. I saw I couldn't export the combo decks, only the base decks. So which side the base decks was set to was unknown and irrelevant to me and potentially inconsistent, as I don't use the base decks for study at all. So I need to have some convention in the future to make sure side 1 first uses stats set 1 to keep it simple. I will try the drop box approach from now on.

Suppose I have 2 base decks:
Deck A side 1 first; stats set 1
Deck B side 2 first; stats set 1
now I create two combo decks: C1 and C2 each containing both A and B
C1: side 1 first; stats set ?
C2: side 2 first; stats set ?
I seem to have a reached a paradox ?
There is a set by deck option but it seems to list all decks rather than just A and B which confused me.
Or do combo decks keep their own separate set of stats ?

One weakness is that combo decks are not exported, and their settings are not saved. Now that you can backup your complete database easily if you have dropbox, you might consider doing that. As for non-combo decks, the show side first setting and this statistic set setting is exported to the text file. If you see a "statistics-dir 2" at the top, then it uses set 2. (It won't exporting anything if set 1, as that's the default) It will load and you can look in the app to see if your base deck is stat set 1 or 2, and which side first. I think this is what you are wondering. You can then set the combo deck to the opposites.

I have lost an iphone and therefore reloaded from export with two statistics sets onto a different iphone. It seems when creating a new deck and importing this previously exported file, you need to remember which card side is displayed first for each statistics set and set these yourself. Is that the case? If so it seems to be a weakness, in that the statistics set should ideally have an indication on which card text side is to be viewed first. I can see it would be have been simple if Statistics set 1 was tied to display Text 1 first and Statistics set 2 was tied to display Text 2 first, but this was not necessarily the case with my decks, and didn't have a record of what Statistics belonged to which Text side.