A few questions about usability features/settings

[moonlitturtle]

Hi, I've been using Pleco for several months now and it's amazing! I was wondering if the following features are available - I looked through the settings but I couldn't find them, but perhaps I've missed them (let me know if the iOS version has these features).

- When I've clicked through many pages and the screen history is nested (e.g., by clicking words from the "words" and "chars" tabs several times in a row), how do you quickly get back to the top of the interface / back to the search bar or brush input? The only way I can see is to keep pressing the "back arrow" but this can get tedious if I have to do it 9-10 times.
- When I have opened the pop-up dictionary, is there a way to go to the full dictionary screen for that word so I can see the strokes/chars breakdown, etc.?
- The dict slider is a nice idea but the font is too small to easily change dictionaries, is it possible to increase the size of the text?
- Relatedly is it possible to remove dictionaries from the dictionary screen? This might make the slider easier to use. I see the option to remove dictionaries from the search but not the dictionary screen
- In the clip reader is it possible to add automatic pinyin annotations above the text, or even a list of 1-line definitions for the words on the current "line"?

 

[mikelove]

- When I've clicked through many pages and the screen history is nested (e.g., by clicking words from the "words" and "chars" tabs several times in a row), how do you quickly get back to the top of the interface / back to the search bar or brush input? The only way I can see is to keep pressing the "back arrow" but this can get tedious if I have to do it 9-10 times.

Swipe the left of the screen to bring out the section menu, then tap on 'search' again and it should pop to the top of that section if you're already in it.

- When I have opened the pop-up dictionary, is there a way to go to the full dictionary screen for that word so I can see the strokes/chars breakdown, etc.?

Yes, tap on the 'expand' button.

- The dict slider is a nice idea but the font is too small to easily change dictionaries, is it possible to increase the size of the text?

Not at the moment, no - it's a tricky balance between readability and "fitting enough dictionaries."

- Relatedly is it possible to remove dictionaries from the dictionary screen? This might make the slider easier to use. I see the option to remove dictionaries from the search but not the dictionary screen

Disabling them from search should remove them from there too - is it not doing that?

- In the clip reader is it possible to add automatic pinyin annotations above the text, or even a list of 1-line definitions for the words on the current "line"?

Not at the moment but that's in the works (already supported in our current beta version on iOS).

 

[moonlitturtle]

Thank you, this is very helpful.

For the dictionaries, I go to Settings -> Manage Dictionaries -> (e.g.) Unihan -> Uncheck "Use in dictionary". But it still shows up in the list of dictionary entries.

 

[mikelove]

Have you noticed this with any others besides Unihan? (it's kind of a weird case)

 

[moonlitturtle]

Yeah, it's the same with any of them. Does it hide for you on Android? Although strictly speaking what would be nice is if they were hidden only if there are other dictionary entries available but not if they're the only entry...but I think what I really want is just a easier way to switch between dictionaries, since if the first entry is very long with multiple parts-of-speech entries I have to scroll down manually to the second one. The dict slider is there, it's just too small for me to click on it easily. Maybe I could hide the dictionaries from the slider but leave them in search/dictionary? Not sure.

I had one more question too. I understand Simplified->Traditional conversion is difficult but is it possible to have the clip reader convert from traditional to simplified? Thanks.

 

[mikelove]

It's hiding for me with everything except Unihan, yes. Very odd. Have you tried simply tapping on the dictionary abbreviations in the definition screen to collapse / hide their entries? That setting is sticky so you could hide the dictionaries you don't normally consult. You can also long press those icons to hide examples (making them easier to scroll through). Also, if you prefer a dictionary with shorter definitions first you can simply drag it to the top in Manage Dictionaries and then it'll come up first.

We're working on adding support for converting both directions SC/TC in the reader, but nothing more concrete to share than that.

 

[moonlitturtle]

>Also, if you prefer a dictionary with shorter definitions first you can simply drag it to the top in Manage Dictionaries and then it'll come up first.

My usecase is I generally only look at the "PLC" dictionary and the outlier character etymology, so they're serving different purposes. So generally I want the definition so I have PLC first but when I want the etymology I sometimes have to scroll down quite a bit. Anyway, it's not a big deal, I was just wondering.

Thank you for your help and your work on Pleco!

 

[mikelove]

Understood - thanks. Maybe just tap on the PLC in those cases to hide it so you can get to Outlier right away?