A New Version of inContext: The Fundamental Release

The next edition of inContext is live! And we’re calling it the fundamental release.

The fundamental release contains all the baseline features that Miguel and I wanted in inContext to empower our own personal language learning journeys, and we’re hoping that it can be helpful for you as well.

More Languages

We got requests for more languages, so we’re delivering. inContext now supports 10 languages:

• English
• Spanish
• Japanese
• French
• Catalan
• German (new!)
• Italian (new!)
• Korean (new!)
• Norwegian (new!)
• Portuguese (new!)

Is there a language you want to see on inContext? Let us know!

Improved Definitions

We’ve worked hard and tested hundreds of prompts to produce simpler and more accurate definitions.

Custom Key Commands

One of the biggest pieces of feedback we received from users was more customizability around key combinations to trigger inContext lookups.

Now, inContext lets you type in any key combination you want.

Quick Shortcuts

Added two quick shortcuts:

• Cmd + Shift + P opens the popup (Ctrl + Shift + P on Windows), and
• Cmd + Shift + S opens the side panel (Ctrl + Shift + S).

Multiple Profiles

It’s now easier to switch between both languages and language levels with our support for multiple profiles. You can set up custom key combinations for each language and language level, and inContext will look up the word that’s highlighted based on the provided settings.

I use inContext primarily for beginner Spanish and native English. So I have:

• Opt/Alt + S for beginner Spanish lookups
• Opt/Alt + E for native English lookups

Learning from Netflix, Youtube, and More with asbplayer

Asbplayer is an awesome tool for language learning that displays subtitles on videos on Netflix, YouTube, and most other streaming services. inContext now supports looking up definitions of words in asbplayer subtitles.

For example, let’s say you’re watching Terrace House and studying Japanese. Enable asbplayer to get Japanese subtitles, and then when there’s a word or phrase you don’t know, pause the video and use your inContext key commands to look up the word right there.

Japanese Links to jpdb.io

When looking up words in Japanese, click the “jpdb.io” link in the side panel to open the jpdb.io page of each word. jpdb.io is a relatively new online dictionary that has clear definitions, pitch accent, and other very useful information.

Easy Flashcards with Anki Connect

The fundamental release of inContext contains a substantial enhancement to our flashcard integration with Anki. Now, users can simply click “Sync with Anki” on a looked-up definition, and inContext will automatically create a flashcard in Anki. You just need to head over to Anki and study it!

For those unfamiliar, Anki is one of the best flashcard apps on the market. It uses spaced-repetition systems to show you flashcards at the optimal times for memorization. We also love Anki because it’s open and extensible, so you can download others’ decks, install plugins, and (as we’ve done with inContext) seamlessly integrate Anki with other learning applications.

How to set up Anki Connect with inContext

1. Install Anki and sign in.
2. Enable the Anki Connect plugin.
3. In the inContext extension, click the gear to open settings and then click advanced settings.
4. Edit the “enableExperimentalFeatures” to be true.

How to use Anki Connect with inContext

1. After following those steps, the bottom of each definition card should have a button “Sync with Anki”.
2. Click the button “Sync with Anki”. This will create an Anki card in the default deck.

How to configure Anki Connect with inContext

1. Go to advanced settings.
2. Add the following to your advanced settings, if it doesn’t exist:

"ankiSettings": {
 "ankiConnectUrl": "http://localhost:8765",
 "deckName": "Default",
 "modelName": "Basic",
 "front": "What is the definition of {word}?",
 "back": "{definition}",
 "tags": ["imported", "incontext"]
}

3. Configure the values as you desire.
4. The Front and Back of the card support the following templated values (case sensitive):
   1. definition
   2. word
   3. displayWord
   4. context
   5. language
   6. languageLevel