3.2.50 Beta (Android Oreo + enhanced TTS)

Bvo

探花
@mikelove ,
I don't know how to include or exclude a dictionary from a group - the item "Choose Dictionaries" in group settings is grayed out (and I didn't create my own groups).
But if you're talking about "full-text search only" in full-text search groups settings - yes, it's checked (by default) in all groups (where it exists).

Btw, I sent you my settings backup and you can check it. I just added one (C?) missed "Integrate full-text search" and excluded an user dict from mmanual dict switching.
In my opinion the app doesn't work as expected.
And is absolutely unpredictable, except 2 cases:
a) search Chinese words in C-E dicts, typing letter-by-letter (with auto switching turned off)
b) search English words in E-C dicts, typing letter-by-letter (with auto switching turned off)

In other cases only God knows what result will it return - may by 90%, may be 50%, may by 10% of the information it declares to have.

PS: understanding of you last question comes to me :)
You asked if groups themselves enabled or not, not about there options - sure, all groups enabled!
 
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Bvo

探花
Actually now I get how to find that 'Cirillo' - I did full-text searches while it was in C-search mode before, so no results.
After reading the manual I understand how you're thinking and why you think the case above is correct behavior.
But you know...
You should start some "Pleco user" courses :), as even reading the manual will not always help and users still cannot be sure they will get result they're expecting to.
Sure, two (always correct) cases I mentioned above are main use-cases for most users, but for another cases it's still a fortune's wheel.
Only many years of using the app and master Yoda lead to understanding could :)
 
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mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Disabling automatic language switching is a very very specialized setting, only a handful of customers use it.

You can disable the built-in dictionary groups and add new groups of the same kinds with only the dictionaries you want; the built-in groups include everything because otherwise you'd have to go in and manually edit them whenever you added a new dictionary.

If you delete letters from the end of a word (e.g. due to a misspelling) we actually do detect that and reverse any automatic language switch, but in your case you're changing letters at the beginning of a word, which is pretty unusual + not something we've designed around.
 

Bvo

探花
@mikelove ,
that specific case is not so important itself, the problem was I didn't understand how the app works and how to get all results I expect to.
Now I do understand more, thank you, and I think that manual switching mode is much more predictable for users, who understand how to use the Force :) and it can return ALL results the dicts have (though, of course, it requires more tapping and understanding how the search engine works. But it's easy to understand once you get it). Auto switching is easier to use and is best for beginners, but sometimes it will not show entries, a user is searching for...
 
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mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
@Bvo - no worries! We actually are going to simplify this a bit in 4.0 - will reduce everything to just dictionary groups (can create a 1-dictionary group to search one dictionary) and that will let us eliminate some other options like “include e-c full” since you’ll now be fully able to express them with groups.

@HW60 - sorry, forgot to respond on that one. The flashcard + just means that there’s a flashcard with those characters and pinyin, not necessarily that definition - since both entries are identical in that respect they both get a +.
 

Bvo

探花
It would be nice if a recorded audio will play for example phrases that have the audio.
For ex.

TCE example
老天爷
has recorded audio, but pressing the speaker icon will play TTS.
To play the audio one has to select the phrase and press speaker icon in popup window.
It's not a big problem, but as there's no indication if an audio record exists it's very inconvenient.
 
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Bvo

探花
Btw, in the recorded audio (not for example above but for many others) male and female pronunciations sometimes are very different - is it some kind of dialect difference or one of them is not a native speaker?
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Sensible suggestion, thanks.

Dialect difference - both native speakers. (one a TV and one a radio announcer, actually)
 

Bvo

探花
It seems there's a bug in adding the same zi, having 5th tone, to a flashcard category if it already contains that zi with a "normal" tone.
For ex. try to add 不4 and 不5.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
That's actually deliberate (since so many words can be written with a neutral tone replacing their last tone) - you should be able to allow the duplicate card anyway if you tap on the appropriate button.

However, it should only be working for multi-character words, not single-character ones - we'll investigate why it would be doing this for single-character too.
 
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Bvo

探花
That's actually deliberate (since so many words can be written with a neutral tone replacing their last tone) - you should be able to allow the duplicate card anyway if you tap on the appropriate button.
One more question about the issue.
Once I added a multi-char word containing neutral tone the same word with non-neutral tone marked as added also.
Currently I'm adding second word as separate item in a category by long-pressing "+" sign (in dict search screen), selecting the category and pressing "new card" button when asked.
As I understand there's no way to treat words with neutral and non-neutral chars as separate ones, but may be there is more simple way to add a separate item, not requiring to long-press with selects (a category and a button)? Something with single-click? :)
 

Bvo

探花
Btw, dict order for tone-only different words is abnormal on dict search screen.
For ex.
知道5
PLC
ABC
CC

知道4
TCE
CC
ABC
ADS
PLC

Both are wrong.
My normal dict order is:
TCE
PLC
CC
ABS
ADS

PS:
AND! If I add two words above to flashcards I see different result - one word with correct order and other is almost correct but with TCE and PLC order intetchanged.
Both words in flashcards have 5 dicts, though 1st word on the dict search screen have only 3.

PPS: I added to FC two 不 from a post above and it has no such dict issues. Both FC items are really separate words with correct dict order.
Tried the same with 得 - everything's correct.
So the issue happens with multi-char words only.
 
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Bvo

探花
PPPS: Just want to put an emphasis on dict interfluence in flashcards for the multi-word case.
With
老娘
it's even more obvious as on main search screen they're very different entries (check PLC) but in FC the're cards with the same mixed content.
 
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mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
You shouldn't have to long-press - that's only to select a category; if you just tap the + it'll add to whatever your last choice of category was, and you can tap on the duplicate button in that alert to create a duplicate.

TBH this may be less than perfect but the alternative is even worse; there are a *lot* of cases where one dictionary thinks something is neutral and another doesn't.

Order of dictionaries in cases like this can vary because we generally try to group those with the same pronunciation together in case this is one of the rare cases where there are in fact two different meanings based on neutral/not-neutral.

Flashcards are only tied to a single dictionary entry - if it's filling in with other entries because you're pulling it up on a definition screen those other entries aren't coming from flashcards, it's basically just doing a mini-search and filling it in.
 

Bvo

探花
About long-press - yeah, just don't know why I didn't try so obvious action :)
"Already added" picture somehow stopped me.

About different dict orders - I don't think it's correct as dict order set up explicitly, but if you think it's OK - it's Ok.

About flashcard entries - I don't understand how it's related to 老娘 example.
老娘2 and 老娘5 are different dict entries, but in flashcards the're mixed together. It's impossible to add only one entry - a card will contain both definitions.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Sorry, where are you viewing these flashcards? Cards can only be linked to a single definition at a time, at least on a test.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
With the option to view them as dictionary entries rather than flashcards? That is as I said actually just a search - it starts with whatever definition is linked from the flashcard but after that it's not trying to strictly adhere to your dictionary order.
 
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