Release Note for 1.2.2.16

I have just submitted a new release to Windows Store. it will take a few days to go through the certification process. I have tested the package locally, so I am confident that it will pass and be shipped to the store shortly after that.

The following are the highlights of this release:

1.  fixed a bug on initial loading, when you installed the app for the first time, you should have a module loaded to the app, but in the previous release, a bug was introduced. with the bug, when you first installed the app, there is no module loaded for you. However, you can download many modules including the module that supposed to ne loaded for you by default. with the fix in place, not only you  get the default module back when you first install the app, it also load the default module for you if you do not have any module in your app.

2. Notification Hub setting is now configurable. with this effort, I completed the migration from the hub created under MSDN subscription to a paid subscription in Microsoft Azure.

3. I made a few architecture changes by converting some components from Windows Store components to Portable Class Library ( PCL) components. this is part of the effort of providing the app in Windows Phone store.   

Release Note for 1.2.2.11 and Back to School promotion

I have a announcement to make, Spelling Champion 1.2.2.11 has passed the store's verification and released to the market now.

the only feature of  this release is Supporting French as native language. with this new feature, I am able to list Spelling Champion to French speaking markets.  the goal is to make this app available to many more students.

In conjunction with the 1.2.2.11 release, I also created a promotion for Back to School, the app will be sold at $2.09 during the promotion period.


Enjoy 

news update on new semester

Most students are back to school and have started new semester by now.

Spelling Champion has prepared some goodies for you .The first one is a short module titled with Frequently Misspelled Words". it was taken from a spelling bee class my daughter is attending. I did it to facilitate her practice, I made it available for download with the hope you also can be benefited from it.
The second one is a preview announcement on French support as native language. I have made effort to let Spelling Champion support French support as native language. it is in about to be submitted pending final language approval from a French teacher.
The last but not the least. I have started effort in porting Spelling Champion to Windows Phone 8.1 and iPad, Stay in tune, once the app is made available in these platform, I will let you know.


From Spelling Champion

        

News letter on 3 month mark since Spelling Champion was first released

Since Spelling Champion was first release on Jan 29th, I have made 4 more releases. The app is now loaded with more features and is a very user friendly app.

up to today, the app  have received downloads from the following countries:

United States
China
Singapore
India
Mexico
United Kingdom
Australia
Canada

 with the majority of the downloads from the US market. 

the app received 5 stars or 4 stars rating from the market. the general feedback is if this app were in iOS platform, it will be adopted much more in the market.

I have decided to jump in to iOS development and made investment in the development plan in iOS platform after the 2 months of un-success attempt of looking for business partner to port the app to iPad.

Right now, I have been spending late nights and weekends on my Mac book Pro and X Code learning iOS app development. Hopefully, I will be able to release Spelling Champion in iPad soon..

Thank you all for your support! your adoption is the best motivation keeping me going.

Spelling Champion 1.2.2.10 is in store now

Last weekend, I was pleased to present Spelling Champion to a group of loving mothers in Dublin area. During the presentation, I discovered a bug in the app.  With this bug in place, when there is no internet connection, the app will offer an exception message and then function as pre-normal.
This does not affect the usage of the app, but it does negatively impact the overall experience with the app.

Upon returning home, I rushed to my computer. After a few hours of working, I figured out the root cause of the problem and fixed it. Before went to bed on Saturday night, I made an submission for a new release.

This submission also update the server name to the new server address, with this change, I have completed Azure migration for the server.

Besides, I also updated the promotional images I got from my graphic designer, Chris Wang.

This morning, I realized that the submission is certified my the store and it is. Now in the store. The new version number is 1.2.2.10.

Enjoy it.

Spelling Champion 1..2.2.7 is in store now

This morning, I found that my submission has passed Microsoft certification and it is in store now. (1.2.2.7). In this release, I incorporated a new set of logos designed by the talented Graphics Designer from Singapore, Chris Wang. The new set of logo is much beautiful and works well with Windows Tiles design.

The second change is Windows 8 "Share". First of all, you can share the screenshot or the app list URL to any app that was designed to be the target of the Windrows Share. Microsoft Mail is one of them. to list a few, FaceBook, Twitter, Fresh Paint, OneNote are some other share targets you can choose. In this Release, I add a sharing feature in Modules page, for you to share your Spelling Champion experience with your friends. On the Lesson page, upon completion of your lesson, you can share your practices report with other apps. the common usage of that could be sending your practice result to your parents or your teacher.

The is a small change on the lesson page as well, based on the feedback, I enlarged the font size of the hint text.

Finally, I discovered and fixed a bug related to app license. the bug only surfaces in debug mode, when it is in release mode, the app works as it should. Since it is a bug, I just fix it.

This release also establish a good foundation for orientation changes of the app. With this release, I will be able to work on all pages to make them response to the orientation changes of your device to have better user experience with the app when the app is installed on a tablet device like Surface.

As always, if you have some suggestions comments on the app, please feel free to drop me a note, I will look into it whenever my schedule allows.


thank you for your support, let's keep Spelling Champion move on...

 Click here to Install Spelling Champion  from Microsoft Store

  

  

Spelling Champion received "Editor's pick" award from BestWindows8Apps.net

Hi, All,


I am pleased to announce that Spelling Champion received  "Editor's pick" award from  BestWindows8Apps.net.

The following is the email I received from BestWindows8Apps.net:

Congratulations!

Your app "Spelling Champion" has been tested and rated by the BestWindows8Apps.net. Feel free to use Editor's pick award on your web page to show your visitors how highly we value your app.

Award:

http://bestwindows8apps.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/editors_pick.png

Your app:

http://bestwindows8apps.net/spelling-champion

Best Regards,

Eric Manco

BestWindows8Apps.net

Coincidentally, Spelling Champion is also listed in Great Windows Apps

click on here for detail.

Thank you for your support!

Spelling Champion 1.2.0 is released

I just submitted another release to the store, this release is a accumulative on top of 1.2.1.2. The new version number is 1.2.2.1. I am going to list down these new features starting from 1.2.1.2

These are the new features / fix included in this release:

1) Migrated Champion Service and its databases to Azure for better  reliability and availability.
2) Pin/Uppin Modules to/from Start on Module Page
3) In App Upgrade from trial version on Modules Page ( starting page)
4) Fix for a memory related bug in Lesson Page
5) Changes related to MS Ads control for better appearance.
6) Toast Notification using Azure Notification Hub
7) Drag and drop in Edit Lesson Page for better touch experience
8) Search a specific word on Edit Module Page for trouble-shooting purpose
9) Read all words and sentences in Edit Module page for review purpose
10) Live tile for better Windows 8 user experience
11) Improved logo images for better Windows 8 visual experience
12) From kindergarten to 5th Grade, total 10 modules about 3,000 words are available for free download.
13) Provide current app version number on About page for better production support
14) Provide logic to handle all unhandle exceptions to provide exception detail for better production support
15) Improved visual effect of About page and Preference page by adding theme color to the page header

Click here give it a try.

http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/spelling-champion/7ddd99ae-fd09-492f-9fd3-3e78639d7fae

Champion Service is in the cloud

I am pleased to announce that Champion Service has been migrated to Microsoft Azure (the cloud computing solution from Microsoft).  With this migration, the performance, readability, availability and scalability are all improved greatly.

The URL address for the service is now http://championservice.azurewebsites.net/


Thank you Mike Wood from Cerebrata and Samidip Basu, the organizer of Columbus Windows app developer Interest group.

There was a wise man 2000 years ago in Chinese History, named Xuin, (荀子，Chinese Master Zen). he once said " Moments of learning is far beyond days of thinking."    Indeed, I spent days try to figure what I need to migrate Champion Service to Azure with no luck. When last Saturday I went to Microsoft office to attend DevUnleashed Kackthon, I met Mike Wood, an expert in Microsoft Azure and Samidip, another expert in microsoft platform. I subscribed to Azure with Mike sat with me side by side. And today I spent about 2 hours to migrate the web site and 2 databases used by the site to Azure with no incidence.

Azure, I love you!


Peter Lu

Spelling Champion is Released to Market

I just got off from an online chat with Microsoft Windows Store Help desk. I was told Spelling Champion has passed Windows Store certification process and be released to the markets. The app will be available in English markets like US, UK, Canada, and Chinese markets like China, Taiwan, HK and Singapore.

I was told it will take 1-2 days for the app to reach out to all its targeted markets. If you have school age children and wanting to help them improve their English spelling. please install the app and give it a try.

Spelling Champion

You valuable feedback is deeply appreciated...


Thanks

Peter Lu

Privacy Policy In Chinese

隐私政策

本隐私政策公开拼写冠军的隐私惯例。本隐私政策仅适用于由该应用程序，它会通知你如下收集的信息：

该应用程序没有收集任何你的个人身份信息。

因此，我不可能与任何其他第三方公开你的个人身份信息。

信息的收集，使用和共享

作为该应用程序的所有者，我是通过这个程序收集的信息的唯一拥有者。在这个版本的应用程序，我什么也没有收集，存储任何你的信息。在技术上允许的情况下，我会尽量保持这种做法。然而，在未来版本中，当我实施大型目录产品应用程序内购功能时，我可能需要保持大型目录的程序内购交易记录。这是因为微软商店不提供大型目录程序内购交易记录。存储应用程序内购买交易的目的是为了能够在你安装/卸载应用程序或安装/卸载特定于您所购买产品重新提供您的应用程序内购产品。在您在其他设备上安装该应用时能提供提供您的应用程序内购产品。我不会与任何第三方分享您在应用程序内购信息。如果微软在应用程序内购买系统中大型目录的程序内购交易记录的话，我将尽快修改该应用程序让它与微软在应用程序内购买系统交互，并不再存储应用程序内购买交易。

因为我没有您的电子邮件地址，我无法发送任何促销电子邮件给您，我也不会这么做。如果您收到以拼写冠军的名义发出任何邮件，那不是我。

不过，我确实有计划地实施推送通知给您新的产品或服务，或改变在未来相关的应用程序本隐私政策。

您的访问和控制信息

当实现推送通知时，我会确保您在任何时间有办法在个性设置页上退出/选择我的推送通知。

安全

我采取预防措施来保护您的信息。您在购买信息不论是在线还是离线都将被保护。

我不收集您的敏感信息（如信用卡资料），您应用程序内购买交易是与微软商店中购买应用系统交互进行的。

更新

我的隐私政策可能不时更改，所有更新将被张贴在这个页面上。

如果你觉得我不遵守本隐私政策，你应该通过在PeterLuZC@Gmail.com发送电子邮件至我马上与我联系

Privacy Policy

This privacy policy discloses the privacy practices for Spelling Champion. This privacy policy applies solely to information collected by the app It will notify you of the following:

1. There is no personally identifiable information collected from you through the app.
2. Hence there is no possibility that I share it with any other third parties. 

Information Collection, Use, and Sharing 

As the app owner, I am the sole owner of the information collected through this app. With this version of the app, I collect nothing and store nothing about you. I will try to keep it this way as much as it is technically feasible to do so.  However, In future releases, when I implement in-app purchase for large catalog in-app purchase products, I might need to keep records of your in-app purchase transactions for large catalog in-app offers. This is necessary because Microsoft Store does not maintain detailed purchase transactions for large catalog in-app offers. The purposes of keeping records of  in-app purchase transactions are 1) to be able to re-fulfill your in app purchase when you install/ uninstall the app 2) to be able to re-fulfill your in-app purchase when you want to re-install a specific in-app offer of a product your have purchased after you removed it form the app. 3) to be able to provide fulfillment when you install the app to other devices you own. I will not share your in-app purchase information with any third party. Should Microsoft in-app purchase system change to maintain records of your in-app purchase transactions for large catalog in-app offers, the app will interact with Microsoft in-app purchase system and cease keeping records of in-app purchase transactions as soon as my schedule allows.

Since I do not have your email address, it is impossible for me to send any promotional emails to you and I will not do so. Should you receive any email in the name of Spelling Champion, please take note that these emails are not from me and I take no responsibility of them.

However, I do have plans to implement push notification within the app to you for new products or services, or changes to this privacy policy related to the app in the future. 

Your Access to and Control Over Information 

When the push notification is implemented, I will ensure you have ways to opt out / opt in of any future notifications from the system at any time in  The Preference page of the app. 

Security


I take precautions to protect your information. Your in-app purchase information will be protected both online and offline.

I do not collect your sensitive information (such as credit card data), you conduct in-app purchase transaction by interacting with the Microsoft Store in app purchase system directly. 

Updates

This Privacy Policy may change from time to time and all updates will be posted on this page and /or be notified to you through in-app notification.

If you feel that I am not abiding by this privacy policy, you should contact me immediately via emailing me at PeterLuZC@Gmail.com

Spelling Champion FAQ

Q0: my computer / device is running windows 8/ window RT. Microsoft windows store stated Spelling Champion only runs under windows 8.1 / windows RT 8.1. how do I upgrade from windows 8 / windows RT to windows 8.1 / windows RT 8.1?

A0: Microsoft provides free upgrade from 8.0 to 8.1. Upgrade your computer / device to 8.1, then install the app from the store. Click here for upgrade process.


Q1: when I install Spelling Champion, I got a message similar to the following:

"This package depends on another package that could not be found,. this package requires minimum 12.0.21005.1 of framework Microsoft.VCLibs.120.00.Debug published by any publisher to install. Provide the framework along with this package. "

what do I do?

A1:  This is because your device or computer is not current with Microsoft updates. Please follow the following steps to check and install updates:

1. show windows charm and then touch on <Change PC settings>
2. on the left side of the screen, touch on <Update and Recovery>
3. Under <Windows Update> check and install updates

when you are done with all critical updates, try to install the app again. Should you continue experience difficulties, Please contact Technical Support for help.

Q2: when I go to the lesson page and click on <Listen> I got this message, what do I do?

The speech system is experiencing difficulties, this could be caused by a window 8.1 bug, please refer to the resource below for solution. http://spellingchampionapp.blogspot.com/2014/01/faq.html

语音系统不能正常工作，这可能是Windows 8.1 的一个错误引起的，请参照我的博客文章修改系统后再试。如果继续遇到这个问题请联系技术服务寻找帮助。 http://spellingchampionapp.blogspot.com/2014/01/faq.html

A2: This is confirmed by Microsoft Technical Support Professional that there is a bug in Windows 8.1 and RT 8.1 related to Speech framework when your 8.1 OS is a fresh installation instead of upgraded from 8.0. The root cause seems to be related to the permissions on CurrentUserLexicon key under  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Speech.

If you run following powershell command on your device, you will get the result similar to the following:

Get-Acl -Path HKCU:"Software\Microsoft\Speech\CurrentUserLexicon" |Format-List

The problem is with the extra entry of “ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES”. This extra entry only exists in fresh installed Window 8.1 or RT 8.1 . All it takes is removing this permission entry from Software\Microsoft\Speech\CurrentUserLexicon

If you run regedit.exe , you will be able to see the extra permission of the key as following:

All you need to do is to remove the permission entry "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES" from the registry key. When that is done, under Regedit you will get following screenshot:

If you run the same powershell script again, you will get result similar to the following.

Once this is done, your Spelling Champion should work. Should you continue experience difficulties, Please contact Technical Support for help.

Q3: I want to download some more modules, but I see the Download button as disabled, what do I do?
A3: Download button is disabled only when your device or computer is not connected to internet. make sure your device is connected to internet and try again. Should you continue experience difficulties, please contact Technical Support for help.

Q4: When I go to Download Page, I got the screen below:

Service is not available, please try again later. If you continue experience difficulties, please contact Technical Support for help.

下载服务器不在线，请等一会儿再试。如果一直是这样，请联系技术服务寻求帮助

what do I do to fix it?

A4: Spelling Champion goes to Champion server to download product catalog and products. when the address for Champion Server is not correct one or the service is not online, you will get this message. at the time of writing, the Service address is http://championservice.azurewebsites.net/ . please go to the Preference Page to ensure the address is  "http://championservice.azurewebsites.net//". If you continue experience difficulties,  please contact Technical Support for help.

Q5: When I try to download modules, I got this message. what do I do to fix it?

Service Address is invalid or not accessible. Please contact Technical Support for help.
下载服务器地址不正确或者不能访问，请联系技术服务寻求帮助

or 
Service error, Please contact Technical Support for help.


A5: Spelling Champion goes to Champion Server to download product catalog and products. when the address for Champion Server is not valid or not accessible by your device, you will get this problem.
the first step is to go to Preference Page of Spelling Champion and copy down the server address.

 and then open the address in your browser, (The correct value is http://championservices.azurewebsite.net/)  to make sure you can access the site in your browser. If you are unable to access the site, contact your network administrator for help. Once you are able to access the site from your browser, you will see the server in your browser similar to what I have below:

Preference page

Champion Service Site

 you can try again with Spelling Champion. When you first try Download Page,  it might take a few seconds longer before you get to see the catalog shown on the screen. after that, the app is expected to have normal performance. Should you continue experience difficulties, or you network administrator tells you there is nothing in the networking blocking the site, please contact Technical Support for help.

Q6: How do I disable/enable Toast Notification?

A6: on your windows 8.1 computer or device, sweep in from right edge of the screen ( point your mouse to the lower right corner, or Win+C ) to get Windows Charms. Then click on <Search> to search for "Notification", you will get a list of result including "Notification Settings>. Click on <Notification Settings> you will be able to change all kind of settings including <Show app notifications> <play notification sounds>

Q7: How do I turn on / off live tile of the app?

A7: live tile is a way for the app publisher to communicate with app users. with live tile switched on, the app users can get fresh content for the tile. It is configurable, user can switched it on or off at any point of time.

Turn on / off live tile

right mouse click on the app or swipe from the bottom of the screen, you will be able to see one of the screen on the left.  If your app's live tile is off, you can turn it off by click or touch on the logo with the caption of "Turn live tile on". If your app's live tile is on, you can click or touch on the logo with the text read as "Turn live tile off" to turn it off.


 Q8: when I start Spelling Champion, it shows up for a minute and then went off. what do I do?

A8: This is likely caused by some environmental issues of your device or computer and from the fact that you get this behavior from the app I can tell that you are not running the latest version of the app. you can go to the app store to update the app to its latest version and try to use the app again. However, as it could be some environmental issues of your device or computer, the latest version of the app will still not able to function. but the latest version of the app tells us what's problem by showing you a screen similar to the following:

System Error

Please take a screen shot of the screen and email to the technical support with the screen shot for help. It is likely that you might need make some changes to your device or computer before you can use the app. But Do't worry, we are here to help.

Q9: How do you capture the screen shot and send an email to the technical support resource?
A9: The easiest way to do that is through Microsoft Windows 8.1 Share.  This is the detail procedure on how to do it:
 on any page of the app, show charms by sweep from right to left from the right edge or Windows+C.
on Charms view, select "Share".
On flyout screen, Select <Screenshot> and select Mail as your share target. then send the email out after you provide the subject and the receiver's email address. the technical support email address is champion.app.service@gmail.com, you also can send it to my personal email address, PeterLuZC@gmail.com.

Q10: how do I share my spelling practice result to my parents or my teacher?
A10: it is very similar to how you send screen shot. ( please refer to Q9 for detail), the only difference is instead of choosing >Screenshot" as your share object, you choose  the subject spelled as the lesson title  as your share object..

  

Using my app is the best compliment I can wish for.

Last night, I worked till 1:00 AM, and got Spelling Champion loaded to the Surface I just got in the afternoon. and this morning, at the breakfast table, I told my Olivia, my youngest daughter, "Hi, Olivia, I have something to show you." and I passed the surface with Spelling Champion on the screen to her. "you got a new iPad?  and you load the app to this iPad?" I said "No, this is not an iPad, it call Microsoft Surface and I loaded Spelling Champion on it." I replied. "Can I try?" asked Olivia. I said "sure." After spending a few minutes on it, Olivia said  to me: " this is great! much better. I like it." "how much better?" I asked, "100% better, I can do it anywhere. Can I bring to school to show my friends?".  "sure, just make sure you do not break it."
...
" Dad, can I do spelling now?"   From that response, I knew I did not waste my time last night, and I did not waste my time in last 6 months building Spelling Champion! my daughter likes it, I am sure your children will like it too.

Update on Spelling Champion

I have been wanting to buy  Microsoft Surface 2, since the first time I laid eye on it when I attended Microsoft "Dog Food Conference" in Columbus.

I thought I would get it during Thanksgiving shopping time. To my surprise, it was out of stock! It will be Christmas eve tomorrow. I went to Best Buy and Micro Center today to try my luck. Nop, it is still out of stock.
But according to Windows Store Apps Dev Center,  "You must install Windows App Certification Kit version 3.1" and test your app before submitting it for certification and listing in the Windows Store."
same as many store apps, Spelling Champion is targeted to be marketed in X86, X64 and ARM device markets. That meas I have to test my app in Window RT device.

Out of desperation, I got a Surface 64G from Micro Center today, From the time I got the device from the store, till now, I was glued to a few sets of screen, keyboard and mouse till now.
the good news is that I managed to upgrade the Surface form window 8 to window 8.1 and I was able to complete Windows App Certification process in surface using  Windows App Certification Kit for RT.

Spelling Champion runs fine in Surface ! and passed Windows App Certification test!

I am just one step away from submitting the app for certification and for being listed. just make the package and click the button submit!

I decided to have another day or 2 to have final UAT before submitting it. I have worked on it for 6 months, I do not mind to wait for 2 more days.  Because I believe in "Software craftsmanship" and high quality software product!

here is the link to  manifesto softwarecraftsmanship

User Manual for Spelling Champion

Spelling Champion Version 1.2.2.1 User Manual

Welcome to Spelling Champion. I hope it will help you or your children as it helped my daughter. After you successfully installed Spelling Champion, you will see an app with the logo like one of them.

1. Starting

When you launch the app, you will see a splash screen shown below. If this is the firsts time you lunch the app, you will stay at splash longer as it needs to create database. As a start, the app build a few sample modules for you, you can download ( purchase) additional modules or create your own modules at later time.

Splash Screen

2. Modules Page

After Splash screen, you will be presented with a page with all modules you have in the app. 

Modules ( Starting Page)

On this page, you can:

1) Touch on ( click on) the lesson shown on the screen to go to Lesson Page to start spelling practices. 

2)Touch  on (click on) the module title shown on the top of the page to go to the Module Detail Page

2) Swipe from bottom ( right click) to show the bottom app bar buttons. On this page there are 3 bottom app bar buttons. One is for creating new module and the other is for downloading modules from the server. The last let you directly upgrade from trial to official version with full functionality. If you are running the official version of the app, that button will be disabled.    

3. Module Detail Page

Let's say you touch on the module title on the Modules Page, you will be presented Module Detail Page. On Module Detail Page, on the left you will see a list of words that are included in this module, besides you will see a host of lessons in the module.  For each lesson, you can see what are the words in the lesson.

Module

On Module Detail Page, you can :

1) Touch on a specific lesson to start your spelling practice, or 

2) Edit Module under bottom app bar or,

3) Add new Lesson from bottom app bar.
4) Pin/Unpin current module to/from "Start Screen"

4. Edit Module Page

Either select Add New Module on Modules Page or you select Edit Module on Module page, you will come to Edit Module Page. On this page, you can work on module title, module description and words in the module.  there are 2 favorite switches. One is for the module,  when it is switched on, the module will be listed ahead of modules that does not have it switched on.. this is the way to ensue a specific module show up on Modules page.  The Other switch is for words, when a specific word has this switch on, the word will be listed ahead of words that do not have it switched on in Module and in all lessons.

For each word, there is a sample sentence, if the word is not used in the sample sentence, it will be considered as invalid. The word in the list will get red background color, otherwise, the background is green. 

you only can save the module when the  title and description are both provided and at lest there is one word in the module, and there is no invalid word in the word list. You can touch on the speaker icon to listen the pronunciation of the word and the sample sentence. It is important you ensue the word and the word in the sample sentence are of the same form. example of mismatch could be : "fish" and "fishes"; "take" and "taking"; "come" and "came"
On Edit Module Page, you also can delete a word from the module, add a word to the module and you also can delete the module in its entirety. However, it is important to know that once a module is deleted there no way to recovery it back, that's why I hide the delete button to Edit Module Page. Besides delete module case, when you are done, please touch on <Done> button to commit your changes and go back to where you came from.
on the bottom of the window, on the right there is a search box, you can use it to local the words in the module quickly. on the left, there is a speaker icon after <Add word> button, you can click on this speaker to ask the app to read all words and respective sample sentence in the module for you.

5. Lesson Page

whether you touch on the lesson on Modules Page or you touch on the lesson in Module Detail Page, you come to Lesson Page, where you do your spelling practice.

when the lesson got started, you will hear word and the sample sentence of the word. you then type your answer and touch on <Submit> button. if your answer is right, the app will read the next word for you. if your answer is not right, the app will ask you  "Do you want to try again?". if you missed the reading of the word or the sample sentence, you can touch on <Listen> button to listen again. if you really do not know how to spell the work, you can touch on <Show Hint> button to get the correct spelling of the word. if you decide to skip the word, you can touch on <Skip> button to move on to the next word.  at any point of time, you can restart the lesson by touch on <Start Over> button.

Besides, spelling practice, you also can go to Edit Lesson page through bottom app bar button. Unless you are in Modules Page, you always can go to previous page by touch the left arrow button on the top left of the page.

6. Edit Lesson Page

you can come to Edit Lesson Page either from Module Detail Page by Add New Lesson, or from Lesson Page by Edit Lesson. When you are in Edit Lesson Page, you can:

Add words to the lesson, all available words are listed on the right, all selected words are listed on the left. You can add word, Remove Word by either select the word and click on the respective button or just drag-drop the word between two word group. You also can add all word or remove all words by click on respective buttons. When Lesson is invalid, the <Done> button is disabled. to protect the data from been deleted by mistake, the delete button is hidden here. in order to delete a lesson, you need to edit lesson and then click on the delete button here.

Edit Lesson

7. Download Page

On Modules Page, one of the bottom app bar buttons is <Download>. by touch on <Download> button, you will come to Download Page. on this page, you will be able to see the Modules installed on you device, and the modules available for downloading.

At this release, there are 10 modules around 3000 words available for free download. You can select the available modules to download. when you have downloaded all available modules, you will be led to Modules Page.

8. Preference Setting page

At any page of the app, you can go to preference page by showing charm and touch on <Settings> and then <Preference Setting>    

Under preference setting, you can

select  voice for learning language
select voice for native language
select lesson size when downing modules
specific number of lesson per module on Modules Page
specific whether the app offers encourage message when you spell a word correctly.

There are 2 other switches for technical support purpose. you will only make changes under advice of technical support. do not touch them by your own.

9. At any page of the app, you can go to preference page by showing charm and touch on <Settings> and then <About Spelling Champion>.

On About page, you can click or touch on the link for Privacy Policy information on the web and check for the current app version number.

10. Rating and Comment

On the Starting Page, you can provide your rating on the app by showing charm and touch on <Settings> and then <Rate And Review>. once you do that you will get to the rating screen similar to the following:

   
when you are on the screen, you can provide your rate on the app and your comments on the app and then click / touch on Submit button to submit your rating and comment on the app.

Acknowledgement of contribution on Spelling Champion 1.0

Throughout the past six months, my wife and daughters gave me the help and encouragement I needed to develop this app.

My youngest daughter, who just turned seven, has been a loyal “guinea pig” and professional tester  for the app; my eldest daughter, who is now twenty-seven, provided lots of help in language and content development. My wife came up with the original idea and offered lots of suggestions along the way; furthermore, she relieved me from much of my household work so that I could devote myself to developing Spelling Champion. 


My long-time friend Chris Wang, a professional graphics designer from Singapore, provided graphic design for the app. Without Chris's help the app would not be as aesthetically pleasing as it is now.

Mark Smith from Julmar.com, an expert in XAML technology and MVVM pattern, offered important technical help when I desperately needed them. Spelling Champion uses both the source code offered by Mark and a component published by Julmar. Many thanks to you, Mark and Julmar!  Chris made Spelling Champion a better app from outside, your help made Spelling Champion a better app from inside. your help is much appreciated and I look forward to establishing long term collaboration with both Julmar and Mark Smith. 

During the final stage of the publishing process, I encountered some technical difficulties in certification processes. Ashish Sahu, Senior Support Escalation Engineer from Windows Store Developer Solutions Support Team, offered tremendous help.  I admire his professionalism and commitment to excellent customer service. Thank you, Ashish!   

Thank you all for your continuous support; if this app does help people a bit here and there, you are all part of the effort in making it possible.


Thank you and love you all!

Announcement on Spelling Champion 1.0

Hi, there.

If you are coming across this blog for the first time, don’t be surprised, because I just created it a while ago. But I promise you it will benefit you if you stop by more often from now on.

My name is Peter Lu, a father of three daughters. My youngest one, Olivia is a first grade student; Wendy is heading off to college next year; and Fan is working on her PhD in politics science in UC Davis .  Almost as long as I have been a father, I have been working in the software development business.

Taking on these two 2 roles offered me opportunities to become both a better software application professional and a better parent. When Fan was born, I got her a wet diaper notification device; and when she was in elementary school, I got her a PC Ten/Ten Tutor as her extra homework; When Wendy was old enough to learn math, I wrote her a web based math flash card app for her to practice math; when Olivia was born, I wrote her an app to record her daily milk intake and discharges.

About a year ago, I wrote Olivia two window desktop apps.  One is for spelling practice and the other one for math practice. She likes them and I would venture to say that she  would not do as well as she is doing now in her study without these apps. One day at dinner table, my wife said to me “Peter, these apps do help our daughter a lot in her study. I think it would be great if you can make these apps available to other children in the U.S. and maybe even around the global.” I thought that was a great idea. 

Inspired by her idea, I started writing these apps in Window store app and plan to make them available at a very low price. Well, after many late nights and weekends, my first window store app, Spelling Champion is about to be released. The second one is still under construction. Of cause, it would be called  Math Champion!

Spelling Champion is an app that runs in both Intel base OS and ARM base OS. As long as you have a window 8 device, you are set. ( windows 8.1 is a free upgrade to Windows 8.0)

Spelling Champion provides spelling practice for all alphabetic languages and provides multilingual support for native language.  If your native language is Japanese, France or Chinese, and you want to practice spelling for English or German, you will be able to do so with Spelling Champion. 

Thanks to offline Text To Speech (TTS) technology offered by Microsoft Window 8.1, Spelling Champion is able to let you choose words you want to practice with, and do your spelling practice even when the device is not connected to internet. To the best of my knowledge at the time of writing, this is only possible with Window 8.1, not in Android or in iOS. You can create / modify the modules or lessons you want. To save you the trouble of creating modules, Spelling Champion also allows you to download modules from the service I provided at no cost to you.  At its launch, High Frequency Words and complete spelling words for Kindergarten, first grade, second grade are available as free download,   And English and Chinese are supported as native language.  As I said, all alphabetic languages are supported as practicing language.

Depending on response, I will continue developing modules for elementary and middle school students and make these available for downloading at very low price or free.  The High Frequency Words serials with be provided for free.  Complete Spelling  serials will be provided at very low price. I also have plans to develop vocabulary modules in other languages, and make them available for purchase at very low price.

Again, depends on response, I will make app support additional languages as native language.  You also can participate in the process by offering help in translation.

You also can participate in this effort by providing modules in other languages and for other purpose. You can submit your module to me, and decide the price you want to sell or for free download. After reviewing, approved modules will be available for download or for purchase. 

At the same time, I will continue enhance the app by adding more useful features and making it more user friendly to you and become your companion in your language study.   

If you are a parent like me and want to help your child in language study, go to windows app store and search for Spelling Champion. If you are preparing to take the TOEFL, SAT or GRE exam and wanting to improve your verbal scores, go to the window app store and search for Spelling Champion.

If you have any suggestions, feedbacks on the Spelling Champion, please feel free to drop me a note in my blog. I will try my best to make your experience with the app an enjoyable one and incorporate your suggestions into the future release of the product.

Keep tuning in, once the Spelling Champion passed Microsoft App store review and is available in the app store, I will let you know as soon as I am notified by Microsoft.

Enjoy it and hope to hear from you soon.