Support

Something not working?

Email support@bonadonna.net. It's one person, so give it a day or two — and if you're reporting something that looks wrong, the details further down save a lot of back and forth.

Why the app arrives with a sample card

The official card is the National Mah Jongg League's, and MAHJ isn't allowed to hand it to you. So the app opens on a sample card of its own — a complete, made-up card that works exactly like a real one, so you can look around and try a practice game before you enter anything.

When you want to play for real, add the card you own. Open Settings at the bottom of the sidebar, then New card. The same section has Edit card and Delete card for whichever card is chosen in Cards. You can:

• Photograph it. One photo per panel reads better than one wide shot. Then check what it read — every hand is shown next to the piece of photo it came from, and you fix anything it got wrong before saving. Tips for a good photo
• Build it by tapping. Pick a group size and colour, tap tiles. No typing, and it shows you real example hands as you go so you can see the line is right.
• Type it, if you'd rather. The text editor is one switch away and edits the same card. How the text works

You can keep more than one card — this year's and last year's, say — and switch which one you're playing from.

Photographing the card

Tap the camera at the top of the card editor and pick up to three photos, one for each panel of the card.

• Keep the other panels out of the frame. The reader can't tell which panel a line belongs to, so text from the panel beside the one you're photographing gets read as part of it and mixes hands together. Fold the card, or cover the neighbouring panels, and fill the frame with just the one.
• Shoot straight on, with the card lying flat, rather than at an angle.
• Avoid glare. A shine across a line of the card can lose the whole line.

If a hand still reads wrong, the review screen says what's wrong with it underneath the hand. Fix the line there, skip it, or retake that panel.

Typing a card in

In the card editor, switch from Build to Text and type into the white space below the status box. The status box checks the card as you type and names the line with a problem, so you can fix it before saving. Switch back to Build at any time — both edit the same card.

A card is section headings, each followed by its hands, one per line. Here is a short piece of the app's own sample card (these are made-up hands, not the League's):

# 2468 (2)
2222a 4444a 666b 888b     | 2 suits | X | 25 | Any 2 Suits
FF 2222a + 4444a = 6666b  | 2 suits | X | 30 | Any 2 Suits

# WINDS - DRAGONS (1)
NNNN EEEE WWWW SS         | 0 suits | X | 25

Headings

A line starting with # starts a section: # 2468 (2). The number in brackets is how many hands the section has. It's optional, but if you give it the app checks you haven't missed a line.

A hand

Each hand is written as parts separated by |:

pattern | suits | X or C | points | note

• Pattern — the tiles, with a space between groups, as the card prints them.
• Suits — how many suits the hand uses: 1 suit, 3 suits, or 1 or 2 suits. Winds and flowers alone are 0 suits.
• X or C — X for exposed, C for concealed.
• Points — the value.
• Note — optional. The words the card prints in brackets, like Any 2 Suits.

Writing the pattern

• 1–9 are numbers, F is a flower, D a dragon, 0 a soap (White Dragon), and N E W S the winds.
• Repeat a tile for the size of the group: FF is a pair of flowers, 666 a pung of sixes, NNNN a kong of North.
• End a group of numbers or dragons with a suit letter, a, b or c. The letters stand for the colours on the card: groups with the same letter are in the same suit, and different letters are different suits. Start with a. Flowers and winds don't take a letter.
• Tiles that aren't all the same can share one group and one letter: 2468a is a 2, 4, 6 and 8 in one suit.
• +, x and = are shown as printed but aren't tiles.
• If the card prints two versions of a hand with "or" between them, write both patterns with -or- between them.

Hands where the numbers can change

Add one more part after the points when the numbers on the card are only an example:

• run — the numbers can move up or down together, like "Any 4 Consec. Nos." on the card. Write the numbers the card prints: 1111a 2222a 333b 444b | 2 suits | X | 25 | run.
• run:2 — the same, but moving in steps of two, so odd numbers stay odd and even stay even.
• free — each different number printed can be any number, like "Any Like Nos." on the card. Numbers printed differently still have to be different from each other.

Checks

Every hand has to come to 14 tiles, use the number of suits it says, and use suit letters in order from a. Lines starting with // are notes to yourself and are ignored.

Common things

A hand shows as dead and I don't think it should

Tap the reason on the badge. You exposed means the hand is a concealed one and something is on the table — that ends a concealed hand for the rest of the game, even if the tiles you exposed were the right ones. Won't fit means the meld you called can't belong to that line. No 5 Crak left and the like mean the tiles are simply gone. If none of those matches what you're seeing, that's worth an email.

The photo import got hands wrong

Reading a card is hard: the colours carry meaning the text doesn't, and glare or a fold across a panel loses whole lines. The most common cause is text from a neighbouring panel creeping into the edge of the photo, so try retaking it with just the one panel in frame (more tips). The review screen exists for exactly this — fix what's wrong there before saving. If a particular photo defeats it, send the photo along and it helps make the reader better.

I edited the sample card and want the original back

Once you edit a card it's yours, and the app stops overwriting it — which is what keeps your work safe, but also means the original is no longer in the list. Settings → Restore built-in cards puts it back. Your edited copy isn't touched, and both appear in Cards marked "(Yours)" and "(Built-in)".

Where did suggestions and the Charleston guide go?

They moved out of Settings and onto the screens they change. On the Rack, tap the lightbulb in the top bar. In Practice, they're on the start screen before you deal, and behind the lightbulb during a game. The two keep separate switches, so turning the guide off for practice leaves it on at the table.

How do I clear my favorites?

Open Favorites in the sidebar and tap the crossed-out star at the top. It asks before unstarring anything.

My set has ten jokers, or blanks

The joker count is in Settings. It changes the tile census the suggestions are calculated against, so it's worth setting to match the set you actually play with.

Blank tiles are a house rule for practice games. Turn them on from the Practice start screen, where you also set how many your set has and when a blank can be traded.

Reporting something that looks wrong

The most useful report says what was on screen. For anything involving hands or suggestions:

• A screenshot, which carries your rack, the discards and any exposures all at once.
• Which card you were playing from — the sample, or one you entered.
• What you expected instead.

"The closest hand went dead after I called a tile" plus a screenshot is a fixable report. Without the screenshot it usually isn't.

Privacy

Nothing you enter leaves your device, and there's nothing to sign in to. The details are in the privacy policy.

Rules questions

The app has a Rules section in the sidebar covering the Charleston, jokers, calling and dead hands. For anything about the official card itself — what a line means, or what's legal at your table — the League is the authority, not this app.