The main screen
When you open the app you land on the main screen. On iPhone and iPad it is the screen titled LinguaMorpha; on the Mac it is a window with a sidebar on the left and the chosen area on the right. From here you choose how to study and reach the global tools.
On iPhone and iPad, while the Open the app on this page switch on the Getting started page is on, the app opens on Getting started first. Switch it off when you no longer need it; the page stays on the main screen. On the Mac the same page is Home, and the app always opens there.
On iPhone and iPad
At the top is the trial banner (see The platform shape) and, when there is one, the update line (see Updates and ratings below), then a Getting started row, then large cards. Which cards you see depends on the course you are studying:
- Grammar lessons — step-by-step lessons in a fixed order.
- Theory — the grammar of the course in one place, by word type. See Theory.
- Practice Sets — ready-made sessions you run as a unit. The card says how many sets the course has and what kinds of practice they cover. You can build your own, and share sets with another learner.
- Self Study — you decide which verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, numerals, phrases and other vocabulary are in play, and which drill to run. See Self Study.
- Tests — every test for your level, by word type, each with the theory one tap away. See Tests.
- Linguistic analysis — explore the catalogue's structure and export it.
If the course is locked (the trial is over and you have not bought it), the cards open the store instead.
Toolbar, left side
- The chip — the flag of the course you are studying, the scheme in use and your level in it, such as A1; with more than one learner, the learner's name comes first. Tap it for Scheme and level, where you choose the learner, the course and its scheme, and the level; see Levels.
- The chart icon — opens My Progress.
Toolbar, right side
- Unlock — opens the store: each course with its price (or Owned), Unlock all languages, Restore Previous Purchase, and Redeem Code for an offer code you have received.
- The ⋯ menu — Getting started, Help (with This screen, the User Guide and the guide for the course you are studying), Settings and About.
The Look up button
The round magnifying glass at the bottom right is on every screen, not only this one. It opens Look up over the screen you are on; swipe it away and you are back where you were. On an iPad with a keyboard, ⇧⌘F does the same. It is hidden while a drill is running: a drill that asks for a form while the answer is one lookup away measures nothing.
On the Mac
The sidebar replaces the cards and the toolbar icons. From top to bottom:
- Look up a form — a search field: type any form and the right-hand pane shows what it is (see Look up). Clear the field and you are back where you were.
- The chip — the course's flag, the scheme in use and your level, with the learner's name when there are several. Click it for the Scheme and level window; see Levels. Everything below follows it.
- Home — the start page, where the app opens: a card for each way to study. ⇧⌘H brings you back to it from anywhere, and so does the back chevron at the top of every section: Back, Back, … always ends on Home.
- Study — Grammar lessons, Theory, Practice Sets, Self Study and Tests; Grammar lessons and Practice Sets where the course has them.
- Tools — Linguistic analysis, Traps (Spanish) and My Progress.
- Help — User Guide and the guide for the course you are studying. The guides open in the right-hand pane.
- At the foot, the update line when there is one (see Updates and ratings below), the trial countdown while the trial runs, and the Unlock button (Purchases once you own everything).
From any screen, Edit ▸ Look up… (⇧⌘F) opens Look up in a window of its own beside the main window, starting on an empty field — handy for looking up while you read. ⌘F goes to the search field of the screen you are on, or to the sidebar's Look up field on a screen without one. Look up is not offered while a drill is running.
Settings and About are in the LinguaMorpha menu rather than the sidebar; see On the Mac.
Updates and ratings
A newer version. About once a day the app asks the App Store which version it has. When that is newer than the one you are running, a line says so — Version 1.1.0 is in the App Store — with Update, which opens the App Store page, and ✕, which hides it until an even newer version appears. The App Store usually updates apps by itself; the line is for when that is switched off. Only the version number counts, so a line appears once per release, not for every build.
A rating. Now and then, at the end of a round that went well, the app may ask you to rate it, in Apple's own window. It asks only after you have used it for a while — at least a week, several sessions on different days and of different kinds, and a good look around the app — at most once per version and not more than about three times a year. Apple decides whether the window actually appears, and you can simply close it.
Conventions used throughout the app
Help on every screen. Screens explain themselves: tap the labelled Help button at the top of a hub, or the ? in the toolbar, for a short help sheet about that screen. Many menu rows offer a second way in: press and hold a row (about half a second) and you get a help sheet about that single row instead of the whole screen. A quick tap always does the row's normal thing.
Reporting a problem. Press and hold a Help button or ? to start an email about that screen, with the app version and the screen's name already in the subject. Add a screenshot if you can.
Detail views. Many screens show words in a list. Tapping a word opens its detail view — translation, forms, level, topics and example sentences, where the course has them.
Going back. The ‹ arrow at the top left takes you back one step, to the screen you came from. On the Mac, choosing a sidebar row jumps straight to that area.