FrenchBuddy — Help & User Guide

Welcome

FrenchBuddy is a small floating window that helps you learn conversational French while you work. It shows one sentence at a time with its English translation and the Speaker (who is speaking), and plays a native-speaker recording on a timer.

The Floating Window

• The window stays on top of your other apps so you can glance at a new sentence anytime.
• Drag the window anywhere by clicking and holding the background.
• Double-click the window to toggle Mini Mode (compact view).
• Move the window to the top edge of the screen to dock it as a slim bar.
• Right-click the window for the full menu.

Controls

Buttons

• ◀ Prev — previous sentence
• ▐▐ Pause / ▶ Play — pause or resume auto-cycling
• Next ▶ — next sentence
• 🔊 Repeat — play the current recording again

Keyboard

• ← previous sentence
• → next sentence
• Space pause / resume
• R play the current recording again
• Ctrl+Alt+W show / hide the window

Settings

Open Settings from the window menu or the tray menu. You can change:

• Always on Top — keep the window above other apps.
• Show Speaker — show or hide the line that says who is speaking.
• Auto Play Voice — automatically play the recording of each sentence.
• Play Times — how many times the recording is repeated (1–5).
• Switch Interval — seconds between sentences (1–10).
• Volume — playback volume.
• Opacity — window transparency.

Tray Menu

Right-click the tray icon to access: Show/Hide, Pause/Resume, Always on Top, Show Speaker, Auto Play Voice, Mini Mode, Category, Shuffle, Submit Feedback, Settings, Help, and Exit.

Categories & Shuffle

• Use Category to focus on a topic (e.g. Everyday Socializing, Travel, Business).
• Enable Shuffle to study sentences in random order.

No Sound?

Every line is played from a real human recording (MP3) made by a native speaker — no text-to-speech (TTS) is used, so nothing needs to be installed for correct pronunciation.

• Check that your system volume is up and the correct output device is selected.
• Make sure Auto Play Voice is enabled in Settings, or press the R key to play the current recording again.
• A few lines may not have a recording yet — those cards stay silent by design and the app keeps cycling.

Still no sound? Contact myhama@hotmail.com.

Need Help?

Contact support at myhama@hotmail.com.