N.B. I haven't touched this program since 2005! But as far as I know it still works well for many people. Some of the text below is out of date since computer systems have evolved substantially over the past decade, but the basic instructions are still correct. Note the JAR version works on both Mac and Windows (and Linux) -- useful to know since probably no one has Stuffit anymore. (The text of this page was last updated on January 4, 2017).

Here is a simple Flashcard program for learning German words which should run on most Mac OSX computers and Windows (and Linux) computers. You do need to have a java runtime environment which most computers will already have. If you don't, search "java run time environment" in google and it should point you to the current version.

Download the appropriate file (from below) to your desktop. If you have a smart web browser, the program will download ready to go. If not and you are on a Mac, double click it to unstuff-it (you can download a free unstuffer if you don't have one), then the application should appear on your desktop ready to run. On a Windows machine it should download ready to run. The JAR version works on both Windows and Mac (and Linux).

To use the program, you need to first create a text (.txt) file of flashcard entries with the following format (per line):

German Word or Phrase ; English Word or Phrase

The delimiter between the sides of the flashcards is a semi-colon. The phrases can be anything but may not contain semi-colons. Special characters like umlauts and ss-sets should work if saved properly. One way to create such a file is to use Microsoft Word and then save your entries using Save As: Text with Line Breaks. One flashcard per line.

Word lists can be loaded from the Word List pulldown menu. It is possible to select multiple files using the file browser and thus load multiple lists at once.

To change whether the program shows you the German side or the English side or a random selection of sides use the Card Display Options pulldown menu.

Note that the program randomizes the cards before showing them to you. Clicking Flip turns the card over. Clicking Wrong puts the card back into the deck in a random location. Clicking Right removes the card from the deck.

If your German side starts with der/Der, die/Die, or das/Das, then the program will color the German side text blue, red, or green respectively to help you remember the gender. All other entries are shown in black.

Stuffit Archive of Flashcard Program (100K) Mac OS X

StuffitX Archive of Flashcard Program (900K) Mac OS X

Don't ask me what the difference is between Stuffit and StuffitX. I don't know! Both files contain the same program.

Flashcard Program [jar file](10K) Windows

The windows version was built with version 1.5 of the JavaRunTime Environment, which is countless version old but it should still work. If you know what you are doing, you can use the windows jar version on any computer (mac, linux, windows, etc).

Here are some random wordlists to get you started: WordLists.zip